The exercises are useful for:
Go to the Topics section for more practice in language used in discussing issues.
The daily reading exercises are the best way to build accurate language – use them every day.
Giving your opinion – expressing your attitiude: any topic
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(1) Make a sentence using the phrase and a releative clause to give your opinion.
(2) Make your own example.
(1) If you want to express yourself well you must learn chunks of language: groups of words that naturally go together – collocations.
(2) To do this you should try to use the collocation in several real sentences/paragraphs.
(3) You can practise saying it in your head.
(4) You must use real examples to help you remember – things you actually believe. Students often give stupid examples and then say “it’s just for example” – this will not help you to remember. Use real ideas / facts / beliefs – keep doing it – and you will remember (some!).
(5) Don’t try to learn a lot: choose a phrase you think you can use and practise it.
Listen to my introduction below:
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Meaning: “in some circles” means “within some groups of people.” This is a useful phrase by itself.
Adverb: the adverb “highly” collocates naturally with “fashionable“
Use: this is used when I do not have that view.
Example: It is highly fashionable in some circles to argue that footballers like Beckham are overpaid. However, I completely disagree with this view because..
Or: It is highly fashionable in some circles to argue that footballers like Beckham are overpaid because they make very little contribution to society compared with a doctor, for example.
Here is is still clear that I do not agree with that view – I am writing about somebody else’s opinion.
Listen to me below:
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Click here to open the tourism text.
Search “TB8″ for other exercises on th etext.
Make at least 3 reasonable sentences (that you believe are true) using the phrase and also think how you would continue it – link it to the next idea – in two ways: (1) explaining why you do not think that and (2) explaining why others do.
If you learn 1 good collocation / phrase a day you will soon have a great range of natural language!
“to be able to” or “for the purpose of..”
“I am learning English in order to read English novels in the original language.”
“I would like more money in order to buy a flat in central London.”
“People used to get married in order to live together – now they do not need to.”
“Companies spend a lot of money on advertising in order to build awareness of their brand.”
Why are you learning English?
Why do businesses try to grow?
Why do people want to be promoted at work?
Why did you get married? (if you are married) Why would you ever get married? (if you are not)
I am learning English in order to read English novels in the original language. I have read a lot of books by English writers in my language but I think it is far more interesting and satisfying to read them in the original. When I was at school I loved the novels of Jane Austen and read Pride and Prejudice several times – but in Spanish not English. Now I am reading it in the orginal: it is still difficult for me but if I go slowly I can understand, and it gives me a huge amount of pleasure to be able to do this.
Note: topic – expand – example
This phrase is taken from the topic “single sex education”
I am not convinced by the argument that advertising is very powerful.
Then expand and example:
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change is always a good thing
visitors to other countries should follow local customs
Pick one of the above and make a paragraph – check your organisation carefully. Ask me if you want.
Some simple phrases are very useful because they are both natural and help with your thinking and organisation.
This is one of them:
(a) use of adverb intensifier: extremely – this is natural.
(b) synonyms for extremely: hugely, very, enormously
(c) used in speaking and writing to give yourself time / at the beginning of an answer to a question that requires thought.
(d) If you use it you MUST then go on to explain it.
e.g. How have attitudes to divorce changed in your country?
“I think it is an extremely complicated question because it varies from group to group: for some people attitudes have changed a lot but for others not very much. It seems to me that…”
Listen:
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Not only a way of speaking or writing – it shows a way of thinking about a question – it helps you to organise your answer.
You can give a simple direct answer to some questions – to others the answer is more complicated. You choose – and this is a good way to introduce the more complicated ones.
Listen:
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Read the 3 IELTS questions from Part 3 of the Speaking test:
(1) What kind of possessions show status in your country?
(2) Do you think consumerism is a positive or negative development?
(3) How do you think the Internet will affect buying patterns in the future?
Listen to my answer to question 2:
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Answer the questions: speaking or writing. Practise them.
(1) Think about the topic – use the language.
In different families /countries etc different people play different roles. In your family what were different people primarily responsible for? How has it changed? What is your opinion about gender roles?
(2) Listen to me talking about my situation.
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(3) These are some of the phrases from the text that I used:
gender roles
roles played by men and women
things they are primarily responsible for (doing something)
do the cooking / look after the children
in these circumstances
in recent years
to be able to adapt to changes
(4) Notice the structure:
(a) My general point is that gender roles have changed.
(b) I talk about the three generations in my family.
(c) I use examples to show the change.
(5) Now you try: speaking or writing
Try to use some of the language from the text. You can send it to me for comment!
Click here to open the text in a new window.
This phrase is taken from the advertising topic but can be used in many areas – because people are always trying to persuade others to do what they want – this is human nature!
(2) Think of some examples:
(1) Teachers try to persuade their students to do their homework.
(2) Governments try to persuade their citizens to pay their taxes.
(3) Doctors try to persuade people to do more exericse.
(3) Then – ask yourself questions to build your idea:
Why? How? Is it successful? Example?
You can then express a written or spoken idea:
Listen to me discuss this process:
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(4) Written:
Doctors often try to persuade their patients to take more exercise (why?) because exercise is very good for preventing heart disease and heart disease kills many people in this country. (how?) They often put posters about this in their surgery (is it successful?) but it is not often very successful. (example?) Last week I went to the doctor’s and their were many posters about exercise, sports and heart disease, but nearly everyone in the room was fat and I am absolutely convinced that none of them had been jogging for a very long time!
(5) Spoken:
Listen to the audio: note that the words are different – I’m speaking as I think – but the structure is the same – because I have the plan in my head immediately. This happens with practice.
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(6) Practice:
In your country what does your government try to persuage people to do? (make a paragraph)
What did your parents try to persuage you to do? (choose an example where they were unsuccessful)
Share you ideas with me!!
(1) “It depends what you mean by..” is a very useful phrase that can be used in writing and speaking.
It is used when you need to make an idea or word clear – before you can give a reasonable answer to the question.
It is useful because:
(1) Usually words or ideas can have more than one meaning.
(2) It gives you time to organise your ideas – and then talk about what you want.
It is a method that we used a lot in discussion when I was at Oxford University – where it is very important to think clearly and precisely.
Listen to me discussing how to use it:
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(2) Do you think advertising is very powerful?
Well, it depends what you mean by “powerful” because I think that it has two meanings in this context – one good and one bad. The bad meaning is that it can make us do things that we do not want to to do. In this case I do not think advertising is powerful. The other meaning, and I think it is good, is that by giving us information to make choices - and this can include choices about image - it can influence our action if it offers us something we want. For example, I want to know information about the latest computer. In this situation I think it can be powerful – that’s why companies spend a lot of money on it.
(3) Do you think “consumerism” is good or bad?
Express yourself!
(1) A useful way to intrroduce support for your ideas.
(This is taken from the “Alternative medicine” text)
Listen to me use it on the audio below:
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(2) Variations:
My main reason for arguing this is that..
My main reason for believing this is that..
My main reason for disagreeing with them is that..
Lots of possibilities. A useful phrase.
(2) Read the example:
Do you think that nuclear power is dangerous?
No, not in a stable country with sophisticated technology. My main reason for saying this is that, apart from Chernobyl in Russia, there has never been a serious accident involving a nuclear power station, and safety standards are now even higher than they were 20 years ago.
(3) Express yourself (choose 1 – or more – but think carefully about the content and structure of your answer – the perfect answer!
Do you think nuclear power is dangerous?
What do you think is the best number of children to have?
Do you think a postgraduate degree is good value for money?
Yesterday in my IELTS intensive course in Manchester we were talking about topic language – good language for topics that occur in IELTS writing and speaking questions.
I think that topic ideas is probably a better way of thinking about it – and then the language is used to express those ideas.
This is connected to my general view that content (here ideas) is way to a good mark!
You do not need to learn technical language about particular topics.
What does this mean for you?
Look at this example:
In the passage about English as an international language (see Topic Language below) I said:
Look at this phrase from the same passage:
For example:
Notice:
You try:
