Are your students struggling to write or getting stuck when it comes to coming up with ideas? Are they showing enough of a range of language when it comes to their IELTS essays? Greg talked to us at IATEFL 2019 about some ideas he has been developing to help students write better for their essays.
In particular Greg focuses on Mindset (Level 3) a Cambridge University Press title to help expand on his ideas.
Some time ago, Greg was advised – wrongly – that his IELTS students should aim to produce merely functional, serviceable texts that do not aim very high in terms of the language used, and only ever convey the writer’s viewpoint in the conclusion. In this talk, he explains how this is not the case, and sets out how candidates can aim to move from the band descriptor: student presents a relevant position (band 6) to presents a clear position throughout the response (band 7), while also ensuring that students are not stuck on a certain score (the ‘Stuckon Phenomenon‘) and are progressing with their language in a way which is engaging and appropriate.
Greg focuses on how to present, extend and support ideas (band 7) and offers up a planning process to help students figure out what you want to say functionally and then see what language will work for it.
- Brainstorm ideas
- Select ideas
- Plan structure
- Plan Language
- Write
The important stage is planning language. Flag up the analytical stages of the grammatical change. Look at the language they are using and offer up alternative sentence structures to help it fit within the bands.
In summary, Greg highlights that IELTS is still teaching language to the students and should be treated in that way. You can adapt anything Greg mentions to any level in the classroom. The key is; “to identify the function then use appropriate language to ‘piggyback’ on top of that function.”
Watch the full video below:
If you’re interested in hearing more from our IATEFL experts, check out Ceri Jone’s talk on Exploring the importance of peers in language learning.