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TEACHING EXAM STRATEGIES TO IELTS STUDENTS Teacher: Stephen Cloak

Teaching exam strategies to ielts students

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Page 1: Teaching exam strategies to ielts students

TEACHING EXAM STRATEGIES TO IELTS STUDENTSTeacher: Stephen Cloak

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INTRODUCTION• In this presentation I will review my pedagogical practice with

two IELTS classes. These classes use the communicative method but are driven by a clear focus on exam language. These classes are given in the morning and evening and last for two hours.

• The IELTS exam has been designed for non-native English speakers who wish to study courses at Third Level institutions through English.

• The Exam’s focus on Academic English can cause difficulties to non-native speakers as the change of register and use of more complex grammatical structures may be unfamiliar to English language learners. While the focus in these classes is on IELTS the skills that are taught are profound because they are transferrable to other language exams and analytical situations that the students will face in the future.

• The focus in this presentation will be my pedagogical practice when preparing students for exam readings.

• I will also review what factors influence my pedagogical approach. I will briefly review the make up of the students who attend these IELTS classes, then I will review other factors such as the influence of first languages, previous education and disciplines.

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FOCUS OF PRESENTATION

• The focus in this presentation will be my pedagogical practice when preparing students for exam readings.

• The areas of my pedagogy that I will review are the factors which influence my pedagogical approach. I will also briefly review the make up of the students who attend these IELTS classes, then I will review other factors such as the influence of first languages, previous education and disciplines.

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ESL LESSON PLANNING

In a ESL language class, lesson plans can not be linear. A simple A to B to C plan will not suffice.

Rather the teacher enters the classroom with a map of activities that must be visited. Scrivener 2005 proposed a jungle path lesson which was purely emergent from class discussion.

In a Exam preparation class a pure form of this structure would not be suitable, as the goals for exam preparation, are more specific.

However elements would be incorporated as the lexical issues raised by students have to be addressed as they arise and they may not be directly related to the lexical language presented in this class.

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EXAM READING • In my IELTS classes I present my students with suitable

reading strategies.

• The two most important reading skills in this context are skimming and scanning. In a pressurised exam situation without an effective reading strategy, students may waste time as they inefficiently look for relevant information.

• The first thing that they must do is Skim the whole passage before you start working on any of the tasks and work out what the text is about.

• I would then remind them to think about both Meaning and Grammar. This will be help them understand the text fully and help when they are scanning later for specific information.

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BRICKS AND MORTAR These instructions highlight the importance of

the Dutro and Moran 2003 bricks and mortar model which breaks Academic Language into two main components .

The bricks are the content specific vocabulary which is perceived by the learner to be essential to understanding, while Mortar the general academic language is more important if students are to understand the argument of the text.

Successfully teaching the Mortar will lead to more profound learning as topics may change but the use of academic language to create logical sentences and paragraphs will not.

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DON’T FEAR SILENCE • Once the students are reminded of the relevant

strategies I would clearly instruct them to start reading silently to themselves.

• Silence is something that many teachers fear as if they are relinquishing their power over their audience. However for exam preparation effective reading of academic texts are often more effective when done alone and in silence.

• After the students have completed the reading. I would instruct them to complete the questions. The IELTS questions often use paraphrasing and alternative vocabulary. I would remind students at this point of this fact and let them once again work alone.

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STEPS OF CORRECTION• Keeping visual contact with the class as attentive silence

and respectful space for students is essential for the creation of a proactive learning environment I would only instruct them to check with their peers when I saw that they were satisfied with their own answers.

• Peer correction is often more effective than that of the instructor, students won’t engage with learning if they simply hear the reading of a list of correct answers.

• Students working together in pairs will then critically analysis the reading for a second time often with a new perspective. Only when the peer review is complete would I start to review the answers eliciting from the students why and where they found the relevant answers. If a student can explain why the came to a conclusion the learning will be more profound and the understanding of how to effectively read academic texts clear in their own minds.

• Practice of a strategy is always better than copying instructions off the whiteboard.

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PRACTICE OF THE STRATEGY

Practice of a Exam Reading Strategy is always better than copying instructions off the whiteboard.

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GIVING THE ANSWERS

• Only when the peer review is complete would I start to review the answers eliciting from the students why and where they found the relevant answers. If a student can explain why the came to a conclusion the learning will be more profound and the understanding of how to effectively read academic texts clear in their own minds.

• Practice of a strategy is always better than copying instructions off the whiteboard.

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EFFECTIVE ERROR CORRECTION

• Effective language error correction is often closely correlated with the background of students.

• Often errors and students misunderstandings of meaning are caused by their own academic experience and first language interference.

• For this reason it is important to understand the background of students which I’m going to briefly do now.

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IELTS STUDENT PROFILE

There are currently six nationalities in my IELTS class who speak four languages.

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BREAKDOWN OF LANGUAGES

The majority of students in the IELTS classes speak Latin Languages. This is Important in the context of academic English as 60% of words we encounter in written texts are of Greek or Latin origin (Corson 1995) Students who speak languages which are part of

the Latin family with guidance will be able to draw the meaning of complex vocabulary from context and reference to their own languages. However the minority who speak Asian Languages

are at a disadvantage.As a teacher it is essential to offer these students

more assistance and help them to draw on their previousacademic experience as outlined before.

Languages

Latin Languages

Asian Languages

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SKILLS GAINED • All the students I teach in my IELTS class have completed

secondary education have the majority have already successfully completed a third level Degree. The breakdown is shown in the graph on the following slide. This academic experience provides them with many of the transferrable skills required to complete the IELTS exam. This was highlighted by Ruth Harris in her presentation at the International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy 2012

• Students who have already studied at third level through their mother tongue will have acquired the academic version of their first language along with higher order thinking skills, which may then be transferred to an English language context.

• For the minority that have not yet studied at third level greater personal attention needs to be given to ensure that these skills are built up and added to their personal learning skills set. This was also pointed out by Ruth Harris at the same conference; Students who are undertaking third level studies for the first time through English, will not necessary have these transferable skills. (Ruth Harris 2012)

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LEVEL OF ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

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SURVEY OF CLASS

I completed the informal survey with my students on the 24th of October 2013. I explained to my students what the purpose of the survey. The answers about their Language levels was based on their own perceptions.

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REFERENCES

Ruth Harris 2012 Scrivener 2005