IELTS Strategies

GENERAL TIPS

Success in the IELTS exam requires a candidate to know the test format and the specific techniques for answering questions. Make sure you are fully equipped with this knowledge. ( Please see Resources on the Internet and Books )

Don't believe people who tell you that IELTS needs no preparation if your English is good. Even if it is, you still need to learn the right skills for the test. I would suggest a period of two weeks as preparation time, though this would vary depending on your level of familiarity with English. The test fees are high and if you don't get the band score you need, you have to wait for three months before you can take the test again.

Like in all other exams, practice is the key to doing well in the IELTS. Make sure you have plenty of it before you appear for the test.

Answer all questions. There is no negative marking for incorrect answers.

TOEFL Strategies

Every year tens of thousands of students appear for the TOEFL. Most of these students study on their own, while a small percentage of them take coaching classes and tutorials. Here are some tips for studying for TOEFL.

Familiarize yourself with the three TOEFL formats
TOEFL has three formats: paper based, computer based and internet based. Make sure you find out which test you will be taking before you start studying for the TOEFL. If your country uses the iBT you have to take this test.
Research TOEFL score requirements
TOEFL is a source of anxiety for most international students who are not educated in English. But remember that it is almost unavoidable. Required TOEFL scores vary by institution, usually, the more prestigious the university, the higher the required TOEFL score.
So contact your selected university or college to determine their score requirements. On the TOEFL Web site at http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/codelists.html you'll find a list of 6,000 institutions that accept TOEFL scores. You can also view a list of score requirements for some representative universities.
Remember that the scores for the paper based test are different than the scores for the CBT and iBT. The average minimum score required is approximately 550 (paper test) or 215 (CBT) or 70 (iBT). Some schools will look at your scores from different sections. Many universities expect you to have better writing skills than speaking skills. TOEFL scores are only valid for two years.

Extensive reading

In general, students learning to read in English do not like reading and they rarely read. This is partly due to the way reading is approached in the language class. The reading skill is most often taught by close study of short passages followed by analysis of language.
The value of this intensive reading procedure, with its focus on the teaching of discrete reading skills has been questioned by some, who claim that teaching students reading strategies does not necessarily make them better readers. It is widely believed that people become good readers through reading, and that learning how to read should mean a focus of attention on the meaning rather than the language of the text.

Extensive reading: An alternative approach
Another model for teaching reading exists. This is an 'extensive reading approach' and involves students reading long texts or large quantities for general understanding, with the intention of enjoying the texts.
Students are allowed to choose the books they read depending on their interests, and there is not always a follow-up discussion or work in class. In this way students are encouraged to read for pleasure and should become better readers.

Writing Effective Comparison or Contrast Essays

A Comparison or Contrast essay is an essay in which you either compare something or contrast something.  A comparison essay is an essay in which you emphasize the similarities, and a contrast essay is an essay in which you emphasize the differences.  We use comparison and contrast thinking when deciding which university to attend, which car to buy, or whether to drive a car or take a bus or an airplane to a vacation site.

Debate Tips

"I think debating in high school and college is most valuable training whether for politics, the law, business, or for service on community committees such as the PTA and the League of Women Voters. A good debater must not only study material in support of his own case, but he must also, of course, thoroughly analyze the expected argument of his opponent. The give and take of debating, the testing of ideas, is essential to democracy. I wish we had a good deal more debating in our educational institutions than we do now." John F. Kennedy, August 22, 1960

Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension. The seven strategies here appear to have a firm scientific basis for improving text comprehension

1. Monitoring comprehension

Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.

More Public Speaking Tips

Public speaking is an important topic in everyday life. And it's become more and more important each day.

Every one of us has spoken in public at least once. And most of the feel anxious when they need to speak in front of other people. So how do you get rid of that anxiety?

In this article I want to teach you how you can become a better speaker through managing your anxiety.

Practice is Everything
To get rid of your anxiety you need to practice. Practice is what ultimately makes you a lot more comfortable while speaking in public.

To begin with you should start slow and just try to speak as often as possible in front of friends or people you are familiar with. Once you feel comfortable holding a speech in front of your friends you then move on to speaking in an unfamiliar environment. Once you have managed to master that you move on to a more difficult setting.

That way you will improve each time you speak in front of people because you challenge yourself.

How to Be a Good Speaker

Being a good speaker requires planning, clarity of thought and a well constructed beginning, middle and end to your speech. It is important to avoid creating confusion or leaving your listeners feeling that you have wasted their time. Follow these steps and people will appreciate what you have to say.

Steps

1. Have a point and stick to it.

In some settings you must speak on a certain subject. Even in casual conversation, though, it is important to focus on a limited set of related ideas. If you drift from one tangentially related idea to the next your speech becomes a sort of bad poetry or misplaced filibuster that may quickly bore the listener.

Public Speaking Sklills

Public speaking skills are valuable both in your personal life and career. Even if you don't regularly engage in public speaking, developing skills in this area will increase your confidence and reduce anxiety about situations in which you may be called upon to speak in public. Below are some key skills held by good public speakers.

Public speaking skill #1: Stage Presence

Good public speakers appear confident, friendly, enthusiastic and energetic. Confidence comes from choosing a topic you like and researching it well. Friendliness can be conveyed simply by smiling at your audience. Enthusiasm and energy will naturally follow when you enjoy your topic

3 Styles of reading

There are three styles of reading which we use in different situations:

Scanning: for a specific focus

The technique you use when you're looking up a name in the phone book: you move your eye quickly over the page to find particular words or phrases that are relevant to the task you're doing.

It's useful to scan parts of texts to see if they're going to be useful to you:

• the introduction or preface of a book
• the first or last paragraphs of chapters
• the concluding chapter of a book.

Skimming: for getting the gist of something

The technique you use when you're going through a newspaper or magazine: you read quickly to get the main points, and skip over the detail. It's useful to skim:

Tips for Learning Grammar

Lots of people even those who love learning foreign languages claim they hate studying grammar. They associate grammar study with tedious gap-fill exercises, boring rote memorization and the frustration of getting it “wrong” again and again.

While you will, at some point need focused work on grammar, there’s no reason grammar drills should take up the bulk of your study time. To get communicative fast and save your sanity, focus on what you need for communication and then learn the rules of why you’re supposed to say something a certain way.

How to Write a Process Essay

Process essays are essays that explain to the audience how to do something or how to complete a task. This may involve explaining how to put items or ingredients together to make a finished product, such as in a recipe. These essays can also explain how to accomplish a goal. For example, a process essay could detail the steps that must be taken in order to graduate from a particular college. Regardless of the subject, all process essays must clearly explain in detail how to complete or perform a task.

Instructions

1.      Plan the essay. It is helpful to use an outline format in order to map out the necessary background information about the chosen topic, to compile a list of needed supplies, to determine the steps that should be followed,

Guide to Basic English Punctuation Rules

Period

Use a period to end a complete sentence. A sentence is a group of words containing a subject and predicate. In British English a period is called a 'full stop'.

Examples:

He went to Detroit last week.
They are going to visit.

Comma

Ten Tips for Learning English as a Second Language

"What's the best way to learn a language?" Many students and teachers have asked this question, and the answers are as different as the people asking the question. Here I will give you several tips for learning English. They are based on my own experience in learning languages. These tips helped me when I learned a foreign language, and I hope that they will help you as you work on improving your English. Want to learn. First of all, you must want to learn. If you are not interested in