Speaking Unit 1 Education

Focus on Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking Test

WARM-UP

1. Listen to these sentences and repeat them.

a. I’m an English student.

b. I’m studying at New Oriental Foreign Language School.

c. I need to improve my English.

d. I want to take the IELTS exam.

e. It’s a lot of fun! Or: It’s an important language to learn.

f. I come from Beijing.

2. Now, listen and repeat these questions.

a. What’s your first name?

b. What’s your family name?

c. Where do you come from?

d. Are you a student or do you have a job?

e. Why are you studying English?

f. Where are you studying English?

g. What do you enjoy about studying English?

3. Work with a partner. Ask and answer the questions above.

VOCABULARY

4. Check the meaning of the following words in your dictionary.

5. Look at the questions below and decide which words above could be used to answer these questions. Some words could be used for many questions. The first one has been done for you.

Let’s talk about education:

6. Listen to the words in the Vocabulary Bank and repeat them.

7. Some words have one sound or syllable and some have two or more.Write the words from the Vocabulary Bank in the correct column below.

PRONUNCIATION

Sentence stress.In English, words that carry the main meaning, i.e. important words, are stressed, i.e. they are said louder or stronger.

8. Listen to the audio and underline the stressed words in each sentence below. The first one has been done for you.

a. What subjects are compulsory in your school?

In my school we have to take language and maths but we can choose history or chemistry.

b. What are your favourite subjects?

I really like English because it’s so interesting and the teacher is funny!

c. What subjects do you not like?

I hate maths because it’s boring and it’s too hard.

d. Tell me about discipline in your school.

Our school is very strict. There are lots of rules. You have to wear a uniform and you can’t talk in class.

e. What exams do you take?

At the end of Senior High everyone takes the University Entrance exam. It’s really difficult and we have to do a lot of work.

f. How much homework do you have?

Lots! I have to work every night and I get so tired!

GRAMMAR

Like / love / hate / don’t like +ing

9. Think about your typical school day and all the activities and things you have to do. Make a list with your partner.

A school day in the life of …

a. maths lesson with Mr Brown

b. ……………………………

c. ……………………………

d. ……………………………

e. ……………………………

f. ……………………………

g. ……………………………

h. ……………………………

i. ……………………………

j. ……………………………

Words to express liking or not liking:

10. Work by yourself and write activities from your school day into the boxes below to show how you feel about doing these activities.

When expressing how you feel about doing activities, you canuse the following language:

hate, like, don’t mind, love +v-ing

I love studying maths

I like/don’t like learning English

I don’t mind doing chemistry

I hate studying history

In English we don’t say: I very like studying…

We say: I really like studying…

11. Your teacher will put you into groups of three. Tell your group how you feel about the activities you do during your school day. Give a reason or an example for each activity.

a. I am come from a small town in Hunan Province, China.

I come from a small town in Hunan Province, China.

b. I don’t like learn history because it is not useful to me.

___________________________________________

c. I not like studying biology as it is so difficult for me to understand science. ____________________________________________________________

d. I like study English because it’s an important language to learn.

_________________________________________________________

e. I very like studying maths because I want to be a maths teacher.

_________________________________________________________

Put it all together

12. With your partner, ask and answer the following questions about your school. There are some ideas given to help you with the answers.

Focus on Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking Test

In Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test, the candidate has to speak for 1-2 minutes on a topic that the examiner gives them. This is called ‘the long turn’.

The examiner will give you a prompt card and tell you that you have one minute to read the card and prepare your answer. The examiner will give you a piece of paper and a pencil to make notes. You should write only short notes. Long sentences are not possible as there is only one minute to prepare.

13. Read the following Part Two prompt card:

Describe a teacher you remember well.

You should say:

What the teacher was like

Which subject(s) he or she taught

What you enjoyed about his or her classes

and explain why you remember this teacher in particular.

14. Now listen to a student talking about this topic and answer the following questions:

a. Did the student like the teacher?

b. Why?

FLUENCY AND COHERENCE

15. Read the Part 2 answer below and write short notes in the boxes on the right about the three different parts of the talk.

Only write main, important words in your short notes, e.g.: nouns, adjectives and verbs. The first one has been done for you.

Part 2 Answer:

§ “I remember a teacher I had at primary school who was wonderful. From the first day she was friendly and kind towards the students, who were eight years old. But she was also strict. I mean, on the first day, she took out this old fashioned strap and banged it on the desk and we all got such a fright, but she was just trying to show us she was in control. She wasn’t really that scary although she was quite short and she spoke in a loud voice. Everybody called her Mrs T.

§ “She taught us for every subject, so she taught us English, maths, writing, and actually I can’t remember what else!

§ “I guess what I used to enjoy most about her classes was her personality and the fact that she cared about all of her students, even the naughty ones. I remember her daughter lived in America and she used to send over American sweets and chewing gum for Mrs T to give to the good students. All the students tried to be really good to get that reward!

§ “I particularly remember my teacher, Mrs T, because she was so kind, helpful and patient.I was very young and she was like a mother to me, gentle but strict at the same time.”

Note the structure the speaker uses to talk about a past habit that no longer happens:

used to + base verb.

I used to enjoy…

she used to send over American sweets…

16. Read the examples below and answer the questions.

a. I used to smoke cigarettes. Do I smoke cigarettes now? __________

b. I didn’t use to speak English. Do I speak English now? __________

c. I used to live in Australia. Do I live in Australia now? __________

17. Now write some examples of what you used to do when you were younger.

Remember they must be past habits or states.

a. _____________________________________________

b. _____________________________________________

c. _____________________________________________

d. _____________________________________________

e. _____________________________________________

One of the best ways to become more fluent in English is to practise doing ‘long turns’.Here is some practice for you.

18. Take some time to prepare short notes on the following topic:

Describe your first school.

You should say:

The name of the school and where it was

Activities you liked at school

Activities you didn’t like

And whether it was a good school or not.

19. With a partner take turns to speak for at least half a minute. Remember to use examples and give reasons. If you have a watch, time each other.