IELTS Ideas and Vocabulary

TO THE STUDENTS

This book can be used for self-study on your own, or in a class with other students.

The exercises in the book will help you prepare for the topics and ideas that you may be asked to talk about in the speaking test or to write about in task 2 of the writing test. The sample topics and ideas may also occur in the listening test and in the academic module reading test.

The main aims of the book are

- to help you to form your own opinions about a range of topics

- to increase your understanding of topics that you may read or hear about in the IELTS examnination

- to develop your vocabulary so that you can understand and express ideas on a rnage of topics.

TO THE TEACHER

IELTS Ideas and Vocabulary can be used in self-study model by learners working alone, or in the classroom by teachers working with groups of learners. The Teacher’s Notes section provides suggestions on tasks and classroom management techniques to provide opportunities for communicative and collaborative work in the classroom.

When preparing for the IELTS test, many students encounter difficulties in their expression and comprehension of ideas on frequently encountered IELTS topics because

- they have little knowledge about those topics

- they have insufficient language relating to those topics

This lack of information and also of topic-specific langague can cause them problem in both their productive skills (speaking and writing) and also in the receptive skills (listening and reading.)

IELTS Ideas and Vocabulary was written to address these difficulties. The material present learners with ideas relevant to common IELTS topics; they also support learners in the development and expression of their own ideas and opinions. The units include texts and task that

- introduce useful vocabulary

- personlaise the topic for the learners

- focus on the learners’ own cultures

- provide both speaking and writing practice

- present information or ideas on the topic

- encourage the learners to formulate their own ideas and opinions

- support the learners’ own research of the topc.

The units generally become progressively more demanding from unit 1 to unit 13 and there is some recycling of language betwen the units. Teachers may, nevertheless, prefer to work through the units in a different order and will find that there is no real problem in adopting this approach.