vijaya srinivas
Vijaya leads on Assessment Services functions at Cambridge English Language Assessment for the Central region (South Asia, Middle East, Russia, Africa and Central Asia).
Activity
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vijaya srinivas replied to Bich Nguyen
Try recording yourself. Hearing yourself speak will help you improve your speaking skills. You could also show this recording to your peers/teachers to get their feedback.
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You are right. Time management is one of the most important test-taking skills.
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Time yourself carefully when doing practice tests. It will help you understand how best to manage your time.
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Nice idea! Also make sure you understand the meaning once you script it. And slowly try to move onto to noting key points rather than scripting the whole thing.
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True perhaps but if you want a change movies are a good option too. Listening to as much of the language as you can always help.
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Great! Try it out and let me know how it goes:)
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When watching movies with subtitles, first watch a scene without subtitles. Listen and try to guess what they are saying. Then watch again with the subtitles and check whether what you understood/guessed was correct.
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That's a great idea. The more you listen, the more familiar you will be with the intonations, accents, tones etc of the way English is spoken.
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Try listening to different topics as well as different kinds of people speaking. The more variety you listen to, the better!
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Do you think this is connected with the purpose for listening? When you only need to understand the 'gist' of the what you hear, you will listen differently to when you need to understand the 'details' of what you hear.
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You are absolutely correct!
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Very good observation!
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Also think about the purpose for reading in both situations- In the first instance, you are reading with a specific purpose of trying to find information about a particular type of phone whereas in the second instance, you are reading for enjoyment/pleasure. Do you think the purpose for reading also impacts how you read?
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vijaya srinivas made a comment
When practicing for the speaking test, record yourself or get a friend to record you. Watching a video of yourself will help you to understand what you need to improve.
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vijaya srinivas made a comment
Practice talking about the kind of topics that appear in Part 1 (i.e. hobbies, likes and dislikes etc) with your friend. You could possibly also try to find a study buddy on this course and practice through Skype etc.
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Well yes, but looking beyond the exam, speaking well also means that you are able to communicate in your place of work/study as well as socially.
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That's a really good point!
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It is also important to try to engage in actual conversations with people either in person or through digital means.
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Hi Natasha. 'Delivering the message across' is a really good point.
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Perhaps you could also find a study buddy on this course to practice with.
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Yes, practicing in this way will help familiarise yourself with the format of the paper and the types of questions you can expect.
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It may not be the 'perfect' way but it's definitely a good opportunity to expose yourself to a variety of words, intonation, and accents.
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Try listening to English music with your friends. You can discuss what the song was about after you finish listening. It will help in improving your listening skills and it's also a lot of fun!
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You are right. Listen to as much English as you can.
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You can also watch English movies. Watch each scene twice. The first time without subtitles. Write down what you hear and the second time around watch it with subtitles so that you can check whether what you wrote is correct.
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Great ideas! The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it.
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That's fantastic!
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We may not realise it but we skim and scan when we read, depending on what we are reading. Think about instances when you had a quick look though a long piece of reading just to get a basic idea what its about... that's skimming. Now think about instances when you were looking for specific words (names, numbers etc) when reading...that's scanning. In real-life...
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vijaya srinivas replied to Jabez Malickal
It's really nice that you can reflect on what worked and what didn't ...this kind of self-awareness really helps in any kind of learning.
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True. Good luck with your test!
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You are most welcome. Good luck with your test!
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It is probably easier to listen to lectures and news related to your field of study as it is familiar but it is useful to expose yourself to general interest topics with which you may not be so familiar.
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Hi Astri. Why don't you try watching a part of the movie with no subtitles first and write down a few of the dialogues. You can then watch it with subtitles the second time around and check whether what you wrote was correct .
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Songs are also a fun way to get familiar with a language.
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You are right...it is more challenging to listen over the phone than in person. However, you can learn to understand various tones, pauses and intonation which will help in comprehension.
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That's a great idea Johana! Why don't you write down a few of the dialogues when you watch it the first time and check whether what you wrote was correct when you watch it the second time?
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There is only one examiner . The test is recorded for quality control/evaluation.
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Hi Lois! Candidates should not hesitate in asking the examiner to repeat questions. This will not be held against the candidate, infact it is better for candidates to understand the questions clearly before they attempt answering.
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That's true Oxana but remember not to get to caught up with accents. It's OK to 'sound' strange as long as your language usage is correct.
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True but sounding 'natural' or 'unnatural' is based on the speaking practice one gets...the more you speak, the more natural you will sound.
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While I agree with you that speaking comfortably with confidence is really important, I believe that grammar supports you in communicating the message effectively.
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That's a simple and direct explanation if we look at it in terms of the function of communication.
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You are most welcome. Happy reading !
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In the second situation, would you read faster or would you read with less focus than in the first situation?
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That's right Marina!
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You are absolutely right Raffaella.
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That's a great observation Sally!
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Hi Diana. Perhaps you could find a 'reading buddy' on this course. You could both read the same book and then discuss the key concepts you learnt or what you found most interesting in the book. This will help develop your comprehension and understanding , which will in turn help in your test.
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That's one of my favourite topics too! I guess it's my love for culture that drives me to travel as much as I can.
Any particular book you enjoyed reading? -
Listen to English songs with a group of friends. You can then talk with your friends :
- what was the song about?
- how did the song make you feel? -
Glad to hear that. Good luck!
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Hi. It might be useful to have a look at the sample papers available on https://www.ielts.org/about-the-test/sample-test-questions. It will help you understand the level of the IELTS writing tests.
