Learning Resources

IELTS Reading tips

Here are some tips to help you achieve the best score possible in the IELTS Reading test.

Read the questions first, underline the keywords and predict some possible answers. You need to know what information you are reading for when you start reading the text.

If you can’t find an answer, skip it and move on. However, save time at the end of the test to go back and guess an answer for those questions. This is particularly important to multiple choice questions.

Never leave an answer blank. If you leave it blank, it will be wrong. If you write something, you have a chance of being correct.

Learn the difference between No/False, and Not Given. If the answer is No/False there is information in the test that contradicts the statement in the question, so you must be able to find that information. If it’s Not Given, there is no information in the text that relates to that question.

Practise doing the test! Read over sample materials and do practice tests so you feel confident with the test structure.

Don’t be worried if you find the last section difficult, the test gets harder.

Good luck!

Student studying techniques – listening to a homemade audio recording

This week, Manuel, an FCE Preparation student from Chile, writes about his work as a sound engineer and his study technique of recording important information and then listening to it as he walks home

In Chile I studied to be a sound engineer and after finish studying I have worked for 10 years as a Sound Engineer in a television channel called Chilevision. I have also completed a business course.  

As a sound engineer, I worked in audio post-production. This position involves putting sound effects and music to movies, soap operas, entertainment programs and a lot more.

My first reason for coming to Australia was to study English but the second one, and no less important, was travelling because I love doing it, meeting people and learning about other cultures. My reason for improving my English is a personal goal that always I have wanted to achieve and it’s possible to get a better job in my country if I have a better English level.

I chose to study the FCE course after being counselled by Roxy who told me that it could be the faster way to improve and now I think that she was right. I certainly know that I need to continue studying but FCE is a good opportunity to learn a lot in a short time period. I need to say that Kerry is a great teacher and I appreciate having her as a teacher.

My reason for making the recording was mainly because I find it very difficult read something and learn it by memory, so I decided to make a recording to study on the way home. I walk about one hour every day. It’s impossible to walk and read so I thought why not  walk and listen too? It’s not something magical but if you’re focused on learning, it really works!

I have made the recording using my portable audio equipment. The software is called ProTools. Nowadays, this software is used in every professional recording studio in USA and I have used it at least for 6 years.

In the future I would like to travel to Asia and to have some deserved holidays.

Manuel

English Tips – the fine art of the indirect question

Has this ever happened to you? You go up to a native English speaker and ask them a question or say something in perfectly correct English, perhaps a phrase you may have taken straight out of your textbook and your English lessons. The grammar is correct and you spoke very clearly, but the person looks a little uncomfortable or seems unsure of how to answer you.
Before you check your grammar and pronunciation again, it’s worth asking yourself “was I being too direct?”

Why indirect questions?

In English, it is often considered more polite and non-confrontational to ask indirect questions, especially when talking with strangers. They are also sometimes a useful way for seeking out information that someone might be a bit uncomfortable or asking someone to do something that is a bit of an inconvenience – if you deliver it in the right way!

Consider these scenarios:

• You’re in the supermarket and you’re not sure which brand of detergent is better. You turn to a lady beside you and ask “Which one is better?”
• You’re studying in a study room and someone has their music on very loud. You go over to them and say, “Could you turn down your music?”
• It’s your first day of class and you need to find Liverpool Street. You go to a stranger and ask her “Where is Liverpool Street?”

The examples above all use direct questions. While your intentions and meaning are clear and you’ll usually get the answer or the result you’re after, if you’re looking to “up the ante” and improve your English, you can experiment with using indirect questions instead.

How do you form an indirect question?

An indirect question is a question that seeks out more information – it is indirect because the question you’re asking is not actually the information you’re looking for.

Formulating an indirect question means including an introductory phrase.

Some common introductory phrases for indirect questions include:

• Would you mind…?
• Is there some chance…?
• Are you able to…?
• Do you know…?
• I was hoping…
• I was wondering…
• Do you think…?
• Would it be possible…?
• Could you tell me…?

Examples of how indirect questions can work

Here are some great indirect questions in action – and remember it’s always effective to include a “please”, “excuse me” and “thank you” when appropriate.

• You’re in the supermarket and you’re not sure which brand of detergent is better. You turn to a woman next to you and ask, “Do you know which one is better?”
• You’re studying in a study room and someone has their music on very loud. You go over to them and say, “Would you mind turning down your music?”
• It’s your first day of class and you need to find Liverpool Street. You go to a stranger and ask her “Excuse me, could you tell me where Liverpool Street is?”

The art of subtlety

Sometimes, indirect questions are a great way to ask for something or to find out information that someone might not be very willing to share! Consider these scenarios:

• You’re in an electronics store buying a new camera. You think the price is a little too expensive so you ask “Is there anything you can do about the price?”
• Your teacher has finished marking the exams but the grades won’t be released for another week. You see him in his office and after a bit chit chat, you say “I was wondering if you could tell me how I did on my test .”

And remember – a great big smile never hurts!

We were wondering about when you’ve used indirect questions – leave a comment below!

Diary of a Certificate IV in TESOL student – Week 8

Week 8 of TESOL for me began with a Tuesday morning quiz. The quiz tested our knowledge of timetabling, principles of testing, and lesson planning. I received the coveted ‘C’ for competent which was great! I returned to Greenwich in the afternoon to observe Olga’s Intermediate class. It was my last observation class of the TESOL course. After our Tuesday lecture, Ian allowed us to concentrate on finishing our lesson plans for that week. Alejandra and I were coincidently scheduled to teach the same level and target language. We decided to join forces and work together in devising a lesson plan. We agreed that our topic would be ‘Stereotypes.’

On Thursday I had my penultimate teaching lesson. It was an Elementary class, and the objective of the lesson was to use adjective and adverbs while describing stereotypes relating to different nationalities. For example: all Brazilians are good footballer players or all Brazilians play football well. One of the successes in the lesson was the warmer, I think the students enjoyed it and caught on quickly with the clues I gave. The main issue with the lesson was my inability to explain what a stereotype meant. Apart from that, the students and I forged on with the lesson. I was very happy that they correctly used the adjectives and adverbs for the activities I had designed. In hindsight, using ‘Stereotypes’ as a theme for an Elementary class, probably wasn’t the best idea (for me at least). Megan supervised me and gave me some useful feedback on how I could have better introduced the theme. Having experienced teachers observe us during our teaching lessons has been invaluable in our learning experience and I always look forward to hearing their comments. For our Thursday lecture, Ian showed us how to do a ‘song lesson’. He used Jack Johnson’s Better Together as the song we used during the lesson. I enjoyed this lecture so much so that I’m intending to use some of the things I learnt in this week’s teaching lesson. The lesson concluded with a joint class effort in singing the song aloud!

Rod

Former Greenwich College teacher writes ESL/EFL textbook series

Congratulations to Sue Jones, who worked at Greenwich College between 2006 and 2009 . Sue has recently launched a fantastic new series of textbook  series.

Sue was one of our most popular teachers at Greenwich, and taught on a variety of program, including General English, IELTS preparation and the Certificate IV in TESOL.

She has written a new series of textbooks called “All Ways “. We know that teachers and students from all over the world will enjoy using these textbooks. Sue always delivered dynamic and engaging lessons at Greenwich and her books will be very popular.

Sue joins the list of Greenwich teachers who have published ESL/EFL materials. Our Director of Studies, Sasha Wajnryb, co-wrote/co-edited the IELTS in Context textbook series which are used in our IELTS Preparation classes. One of our English for Business teachers, Nadia Bentuoa, has written a textbook/e-book called “Learn How the Locals Speak“.

IELTS Writing

Writing a 250 word essay in such a short space of time can be very difficult, especially because we have to impress the examiner with our argument, structure, vocabulary and grammar. Below is an excellent student sample. There are a few mistakes but this candidate would score very highly. Read the text below and comment why you think this essay would score well? For example, I think the structure of this essay is excellent. It has 5 paragraphs – introduction, body & conclusion.

Statistics show that Australians are getting fatter. To prevent this national health problem from getting worse, the Australian government should put a tax on fatty fast foods to fund our health care system.

To what extent to do you agree?

Obesity causes several diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes and stroke, that represent a serious economical burden for the society. Some people believe that taxing fatty fast foods will provide money that can be destinated to the health system. This solution, however, is to bring more disadvantages than benefits.

To start with, just putting a tax on unhealthy food does not eradicate the issue of obesity. On the contrary, it will lead to a disperception of this problem. In fact, people will keep on following a potentially dangerous lifestyle feeling not only free of doing such a thing, but also justified because of the tax they are paying. This carefree point of view will possibly be seen as an easy and responsibility-free solution by countless people and the money gathered with the tax on fatty food will probably not be enough to cover all the consequences.

On the other hand, people are well aware that eating too much sugar and fat is bad for their health and can predispose them to obesity. In this point of view, a person with unhealthy alimentation is forced to pre-pay the consequences in a financial way. So when these people are suffering from obesity-related pathologies, they will have already paid for their health care costs.

Nevertheless, a fat-rich diet does not guarantee obesity. If people eat unhealthy food in moderation and they associate it with regular physical exercise, most of them will not be affected by overweight issues. Thus, it is ethically unfair to make them pay in advance for something that is only a potential future problem.

For the above-mentioned reasons, I would not agree with a tax on fast foods to ensure money for the health care system. Indeed, I do believe that it is an easy, responsibility-free and punishing way to solve the complex and severe issue of obesity and its financial and economical consequences.

 By Giulia Rinaldi

IELTS Writing Tips

Here are some tips to help you achieve the best score possible in the IELTS Writing exam.

Learn the required structures. IELTS writing question styles are very predictable. Be prepared! 

Read the question carefully! Some question topics have small but significant differences.

Plan your answer before you start writing! This is very important. Don’t just start writing! The first few minutes must be spent planning. A good plan will mean that your writing is logically structured and easy to read.

Practise topics you are unfamiliar with. You can’t choose your writing topics in the exam, so you need to be ready to answer any IELTS topic.

Be careful with your timing! You only have one hour. Most candidates prefer to start with Task 2 (it should take 40 minutes), leave 20 minutes for Task 1.

IELTS Listening Tips

Here are some tips to help you achieve the best score possible in the IELTS Listening exam.

Read the questions first, underline the keywords and predict the possible answers. Reviewing the questions first will help you listen for the relevant information.

Don’t worry if you miss a few questions, ignore them and keep on going! You can review them, and make some good guesses, during the 10 minute transfer time.

Use the 10 minute transfer time carefully. If you have finished transferring, check your answers. If you still have time, check them again! Use the time to remove silly errors such as spelling mistakes and using the right symbol ($, m, cm, kg).

Make sure you write an answer for every question. If you are not sure of the answer, choose the most likely answer! You must write something! If you write nothing, it will be wrong, but if you write something, there’s a chance you may be correct!

Don’t be too worried if you find the last section difficult, the test is designed to get harder!

Some common English Idioms

We use them every day, but first time or even long time learners of English may find many of the most common English expressions a bit confusing and no dictionary or translator seems to help. These are called idioms expressions and phrases that when grouped together, have a social meaning that is different from the literal definition of the words by themselves.

When you first hear the phrase “hanging out” you might be thinking of laundry when it really means spending time with your friends. Or if anyone’s ever told you something is “top shelf”, you might have made the mistake of straining your neck looking for the item in question instead of realising that they meant the item was very high quality.

Here are some other common English idioms and their definitions – which other ones do you know?

Common English Idioms

• Hang out – a common way to talk about spending time with your friends, especially for younger people.
  John and I enjoy hanging out at Bondi Beach.
• Take it easy – a way to talk about being more relaxed in how you do something.
  This year, I’m going to take it easy and only work part time.
• To be up for the challenge – a way to express that you are willing to attempt something that seems difficult or hard.
  I’ve never run the City to Surf before, but this year I’m up for the challenge. 
•  I’m easy – this usually means that you don’t have a strong opinion or preference.
  You can pick the restaurant to we go to for lunch, I’m easy.
• To be under the weather – this is a way to say that you’re feeling a little sick or unwell.
  I don’t think I can go surfing with you today because I’m feeling a bit under the weather.
• True blue – this very Australian idiom talks about someone being very patriotic and exhibiting qualities that Australians value such as honesty, loyalty and mateship.
  A famous song by John Williamson describes the qualities of a true blue Australian.
• Piece of cake – this describes something as being very easy and not hard to do.

For the Greenwich College soccer team, winning the next game will be a piece of cake!

• to bug someone – this means to bother someone or to be bothered by something.
  Sorry to bug you, but can you remind me what the homework assignment was?
  It really bugs me that it’s been raining so much in December in Sydney.

What other English idioms do you know?

How to improve your English outside the classroom

Hello everyone!
Do you need some ideas on how you can practice English outside the classroom? Here are some tips from our Greenwich College teachers:

- Listen to the radio and watch TV regularly
- Listen to English songs, get the lyrics and try to sing along
- Watch English and American movies with subtitles
- Read the free Sydney newspaper (MX) on the train or bus on the way home and buy a newspaper on Sundays
- Buy a book or a magazine about a topic you are interested in
- Most suburbs have a community newspaper – read that one too! Check out the “What’s On” section and join some of the free (or really cheap) events organized by your council
- Write a diary regularly – 20 minutes every day is better than 2 hours once a week!
- Socialise in English – every evening and on weekends try to spend time with people who don’t speak your first language
- Review what you learnt last week or last month – it will help you understand grammar better and remember new words more easily
- Live and work with people from different countries
- Listen to podcasts
- Update your Facebook page in English, and join Greenwich College’s facebook page http://www.facebook.com/GreenwichCollege
- Practise your hobbies in Australia too! If you don’t have one, find one! Join a club.
- Practise your English skills online on websites like freerice.com
- Join social groups like meetup.com and couchsurfing.com
- Throw a party!
- Attend festivals
Do you have any other tips? Let us know by leaving a comment below!