Page 37 - ELG1909 Sep Issue 466

St Edmund’s College Summer School

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A recognised Centre of Excellence for international children aged 9-17

Set your mind

to the test

Teaching IELTS is a long way from the idealised
world of CELTA. It needs a different approach,
Greg Archer tells Melanie Butler

he communicative approach just boost a student’s results by half a band score “We have this wonderful EFL idea of a
doesn’t work in IELTS classes,” without learning any new language at all.” language level,” says Greg, “but students don’t
says Greg Archer. “It’s wonderful, it’s Exam prep on its own is seldom enough, fit neatly into our boxes.”
The answer? “Differentiation. It’s the real
Tthe ideal, but the pure, real goal of however. If they need a higher score, then art of IELTS teaching.
they need more language.
communicative methodology is interaction
• 30 miles North of London and there’s very little interaction in IELTS.” “I call it language teaching by stealth. the performance of each player, tell them to
“Just as the football coach must monitor
Except for the oral?
“For example, take a common exam topic
• Free transfers from LHR, LTN or STN and the role of the examiner isn’t really to like ‘overcrowding in cities’, get students to practice a little more at this skill, do some
“That’s just 25 per cent of the marks,
exercises to improve that, so the IELTS
predict the language and put it on the board –
• IELTS & Cambridge Exam Courses interact, it is to ask questions.” all very CELTA style so far. teacher must track the progress of each
“But then, take that language and hook it
Greg, who co-authored the new Mindset
individual student, giving them different
2020 Prices: for IELTS series from Cambridge, is not to the exam. tasks, different homework.
“EFL teachers aren’t trained to do this, it’s
“For example, students come up with
known for pulling punches. Others in EFL
3 weeks - July £3,600 or August £3,400 talk idealistically about student needs. But in something like ‘the traffic is bad’ and I might not in CELTA, barely mentioned in DELTA,”
an exam class the teach them ‘the Greg points out. “Mindset can help by offering
student’s main …these students traffic is murder.’ differentiated on-line resources, but teachers still
need is to get “Then, I link need to guide the students to the right ones.”
through the need this exam, and it’s it to the exam: I It sounds, I say, a lot like the life of a UK
test and come make it clear they state-school teacher.
out with the the teacher’s responsibility can only use it in “Teaching IELTS has the same kind of
right mark. the spoken exam pressure as a lot of mainstream education,”
“We can to get them through. because examiners he says. “Pressure on the students, the
discuss the value will give extra marks management, the teacher. Pressure to get
of assessment. We can talk about language for idiomatic language. But never in the those test results.
acquisition and emergent language. But this is writing paper.” “You can say assessment shouldn’t be
the real world.” Getting inside an examiner’s head is hard like this. You can say it shouldn’t be all
It’s the mindset of a sports coach. This is for students and for newbie teachers. Like all about exams,” Greg continues. “But these
not fantasy football. It’s about getting the members of the Mindset authors team, Greg students need this exam, and it’s the teacher’s
team through. used to be an examiner. responsibility to get them through.
An IELTS course is high stakes: students’
“You are the coach. You need tactical know-
Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire SG11 1DS futures often depend on getting the right “We have included hundreds of tips on this.” how. You need to show your team of students
Indeed, one of his reasons for getting
Telephone: +44 (0)1920 824301 / 824348 grade. They are focused on the exam, not the involved in the Mindset project was “to help a number of approaches that might help them
language. They want to know what they are other teachers avoid the mistakes I made in overcome what is put in front of them.
doing, why they are doing it and how it links my early IELTS classes.”
back to the test. Teachers used to general English "Mindset for IELTS is a kind of scaffolding.
It’s a lesson Greg learned when a Chinese classes may also struggle with the mixed The units ...are structured in a way that helps
student came up to him after her exam. language level common in IELTS groups. students approach each task step-by-step."
“Now I understand what you have been “I was given a class with four East Asians - Tony, teacher at Rose of York school.
doing on our own course,” she said, “but I at a low B2, a C1 Bulgarian and a Finn,
wish you had just told us.” at C2…”
Students expect test preparation: task Even students who test at the same level ■ Greg Archer is an IELTS
types, exam techniques, what the examiners have strengths and weaknesses: Chinese are teacher and examiner. He is one
are looking for. usually stronger in reading, Arabs in speaking, of the authors of Mindset for
Some may say this is coaching, not teaching. and dyslexics may struggle with discriminating IELTs, a four level course from
Greg is unapologetic: “Good preparation can phonemes. Cambridge University Press.
editorial@elgazette.com 37
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