Girlie .E, Material Trainer and Online English Teacher at Acadsoc.
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Many teachers here may hear my name because I am a material trainer at Acadsoc for EP (Exam Preparation), including IELTS and TOEFL training. Though Acadsoc offers full-scale courses to Chinese students covering IELTS reading, speaking, writing and listening, most students would only prefer to take the speaking training online. Practising with native English speakers is always the quickest way to progressing their speaking performance and hit a higher score.
I am glad to turn more online English teachers into professional English advisors, requiring they can provide students with constructive, practical and easily-comprehensive suggestions for IELTS and TOEFL.
Let’s begin with IELTS speaking preparation, seemingly the easiest part in IELTS preparation. But indeed, it is the hardest part for ESL teachers to engage. Why? Isn’t it just the same as daily English exercise? I know many online ESL teachers treat IELTS speaking classes similarly to their daily oral classes. IELTS speaking preparation is developed from common vocal English practice, but more systematic, academic and exam-oriented.
Systematic: Draw a blueprint for your students
For example, if a student wants to increase his/her IELTS speaking score from 5.0 to 5.5, what should be a standard procedure of preparation? To make an accurate and practical plan for your student, you need to collect many kinds of information before creating your plan.
The first indicator is time allowance before student’s next test, fewer than 30 days, 1-3 months, 3-6 months or more than 6 months.
If the preparation has to finish within a month, the plan must be tight-no time to waste for general English practices. I only advise such kind of students to focus on ‘point booster’, where they may easiest gain the additional 0.5. 1-3 months’ duration is a bit longer, but still insufficient for full preparation. Besides ‘point booster’, they need to adjust themselves to the best, both mental and physical. 3-6 months’ allowance is usually the best option for IELTS preparation, neither too short-the student may not be ready yet for the test, nor too long-the student may forget what they have learned in the class. Teachers will have more time to further guarantee what a student has learned from your class by mock exams and be capable of finding more problems buried deeper.
In some cases students may not be in a hurry to take IELTS, indicating they still have plenty of time or not yet decide when to take the test. The principle for this occasion is ’50+50′, using first 50% of the time for general English practice, aiming at improving student’s English level, vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar and logic as much as possible. The second 50% of duration, or if only 3 months left ahead of student’s IELTS test, teachers should turn their class into an exam-oriented mode, like the plan for 3-6 months’ preparation, targeting on student’s weaknesses and solve them.
Student’s original English level matters a lot to your planning, too. It is hard to do a quantitive analysis for student’s English level, but don’t forget, IELTS is a perfect opportunity to examine what they have learned and captured. If your student tried IELTS/TOEFL before, you can ask him/her about the score last time. Previous performance in official language tests is doubtlessly a key reference for professional IELTS advisors. If the student’s speaking scores wandered around 5.0-5.5 in the past few times, it implies he/she is very close to the goal. Tiny fluctuation in scores mostly reveals the student was not yet at the high-point, could be nervous, anxious, forgot some words or failed to manage time correctly in former tests. Hereby, ESL teachers should help them stabilised by a massive amount of practices and mock exams to send out a message in their mind-the real IELTS exam is just the same or even less strict as what we have tried in the class, you can make it!
Some teachers may face a dilemma if the student never hit 5.5 in the past tries, probably illustrating their English level has not reached such requirement. Clam down and carefully analyses your student’s case. If from your observation, the student already reaches the English level of 5.5 in speaking, his/her situation could be the same–fail to adjust themselves to the test. Then the solution is the same–practice, practice and practice. What if they are really below such English level? Find the ‘point booster’ as discussed above, there must be somewhere, vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, reasoning, logic or anything significantly dragging them back. The gap of 0.5 is smaller than you can imagine, particularly if you had been an IELTS speaking test examiner before. IELTS doesn’t officially tell the difference between 5.0 and 5.5 because they all belong to Band 5 of Band Descriptors.
Making a weakness-target study plan for your students seem to be an over-requirement on online English teachers. But as I persist, try it for once and your student will find the difference in the efficiency of IELTS preparation. With a scientific and systematic planning, one’s learning efficiency can increase by at least 50%. And being able to prepare learning plan for your student will lead you one step closer to a qualified ESL teacher.
It seems many online English teachers here are interested in knowing more about teaching IELTS speaking prep. I am glad to see so many views on my previous suggestions for IELTS speaking test training!
I mentioned ‘systematic’ in my previous blog but many readers are still confused-Is it compulsory for online English teachers at Acadsoc to create study plans for our students? No, it is just my personal suggestion. So far, it is not directly related to teachers’ assessment, to your salary and bonus. The choice is yours: if you want to be a professional English teacher and earn more in China or just want to keep this job as a source of income.
Furthermore, teachers can make a plan in their mind without writing it down. You don’t have to act as students’ nanny, regulating when to wake up, when to take breakfast, when to recite words…Instead, I will show you an example of what a study plan looks like:
Just like a simple layout before you write an article, which lights out the direction both for you and your student. Even if the student books another teacher’s class later, your peer will be able to follow up your blueprint. The key is, considering students’ time allowance, English level and weaknesses to customise your plans-there should not be any prep plan 100% same as others. It won’t take long to create a new prep plan (usually 10-20 minutes) but will spare you tons of time in the future. And tell you a secret: If it is a trial student for IELTS prep, a clear and systematic study plan will urge him/her to study with you!
Let’s continue from where we ended last time, how to make your IELTS Speaking training academic.
Academic: Opinion-Reasoning-Evidence
Not only speaking, it is a good habit to keep such habit in IELTS writing as well. Unlike daily English, IELTS speaking test follows the criteria of academic English, which requires attendees’ words strict, logical and objective. Strict-once you express your opinions orally, the examine cannot easily find an impetus to question any of your viewpoints. Logical-your subtopics must tightly related to the main topic and to each other. Objective-your speech is a completed and full-scale research of the case, taking both sides of the coin and others’ work into account and subsequently draw your conclusion.
Being rigorous is the requirement for every of your sentence, particularly your arguments.
I.e.
Regardless of what is the main topic, at least students have to assure they express and interpret any viewpoint clearly with an O-R-E structure (Opinion-Reason-Evidence). Any opinion is a collection, which can be redivided into Argument-the sentence frankly speaks out your view, yes or no, good or bad, should or shouldn’t; Reason-the reason why you hold such view or in what logic did you draw such a conclusion; Evidence-facts that further support your opinion and show your audience there are real-world cases backing your points.
Logic is the chain connected different subtopics in your speech. The rule is, when your subtopics are tightly chained to each other and closely surrounded the main topic, they are most powerful.
I.e. 
You can take it as ‘reason beneath reason’-Why I use Subtopic A, B, C and why in such subsequence? The answer should be found in your transmission sentence between subtopics. AI is good for disabled individuals…However, our focus should be broader, concerning more vulnerable groups such as kids…AI is possibly a revolution for K12 education, too. Your logic is a guidepost, leading your guest deeper into your mind.
Objectiveness is the soul of an academic essay. It is an art on how to combine your logic with your thinking. Usually, there are two ways to convince examiners with your words: logical deduction-just like doing the math, 1+1=2 or critical thinking-try to research a case from both negative and positive perspectives.
I.e.
For beginners or students whose speaking score is not above 6.0 yet, I would only suggest critical thinking. It doesn’t matter if you fail to ‘Drill In’ deep enough under a topic, please make sure you have covered both sides of the matter. For mid-advanced level students, I would encourage them to try more ‘Drill In’ when considering a problem. These two methods are not mutex, but complementary to each other. Find the best balance between them remains a big issue for advanced learners, which requires a massive amount of tries, self-revision and comparison with others’ work.
I truly hope my sharing will make you one step closer to a professional IELTS advisor. If you have any questions or feedback, welcome to leave a comment or drop me a message. Or you may read my previous sharing on IELTS Speaking prep!
