Teaching & Learning English
One of the main things students have to do in academic writing is to make comparisons between different theories, methods and sources of data. In task 1 of the IELTS writing test, students need to compare the significant features of the visual provided. In both cases, it is clearly a big problem if students cannot … Read more
This page is set up to help students explore the use of the BAWE corpus as a tool for informing vocabulary choices in academic writing. The examples below come from either common errors in student writing or questions my students have asked about specific lexicogrammar features of English. If you search for words or phrases … Read more
Hello! 🙂 Many students learning English as a foreign language find it difficult to learn enough vocabulary to read and write effectively. So, here are some ideas to help you improve your vocabulary in an efficient way. READ A LOT: Reading English is by far the best way to improve your vocabulary range. Read whatever … Read more
The exercises below are intended to help students learn the words from the first four sublists of the AWL Select the correct form of the word from the choices given to complete the passage The gaps are all words from the AWL sublists 1-4; the words in bold are also from the AWL These exercises focus … Read more
This article provides important advice for IELTS Writing Task 2. Task Response Many candidates introduce their topic by writing something pointless like this: This essay will discuss both sides and present my own opinion. Such a statement is at best superfluous because it is probably what the essay question asked you to do anyway and … Read more
This article provides some important advice for IELTS Writing Task 1. Task Achievement IELTS Writing Task 1 is assessed using the criterion Task Achievement. This basically means the extent to which the writer fulfilled the task (i.e. did you manage to adequately describe the main features of the visual provided?). There is one major requirement … Read more
The phrase ‘with the development of the society’ is often used in the essays of Chinese writers. The problem is that this really doesn’t intuitively mean very much in English. What does it mean? Does it mean that society is getting bigger or more complicated? If so, in what ways? Does it simply mean that … Read more
This page simply lists links to the material we have covered in class since October. Your Spring Festival mission is to review the material and engage in online discussion with your classmates according to the following rules: If nobody has yet left a comment expressing your opinion, then write your opinion. Reply to another student’s … Read more
This is my criticism of what I call the “formulaic template approach”. This is the approach typically used in IELTS training centres across China where the student is taught to memorise a template consisting of numerous generic sentences or partial sentences so that all they need to do is paraphrase the prompt a few times … Read more
One very common problem that students (below band 6) encounter is a limited range of vocabulary. Even if the vocabulary is used relatively effectively and accurately, the limitations become obvious due to repetition. Here are some examples from student writing: Sample 1 In this first sample, the word country is used repetitively. There are two … Read more
During the summer of 2018, students in my IELTS 2 class were asked to read articles on topics in the English language news and recommend ones that they found interesting to other students for class discussion. The results of that homework informed us that US politics and the environment are the most popular choices so … Read more