IELTS Writing (Part 2) with Sample answer.

IELTS Writing Sample

Advantages and Disadvantages of Working Abroad

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Working abroad can help employees earn a great deal of money and gain more benefits. However, some people think this trend has many negative impacts. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

Advantages:

• Ongoing growth of the number or people working abroad
• Will get invaluable work experience
• Knowledge of a new culture
• Professionalism from the workplace
• Enrich your expertise
• Learn how to adapt into a new culture, and different environments
• Have a new picture of what is happening outside your country
• Increase responsibility
• Work in a hi-tech facilities
• Work with talented and experience colleagues
• Multicultural experience

Disadvantage:

• On the other had negative impact also exist along with the positive points mentioned.
• Would result in the explosion of immigration in immigrated countries.
• Leaving the country to increase of brain drain
• Countries without skilled workers, will not be able to develop
• Language barrier, limit the communication and your understanding
• Culture clash/culture shock people find it difficult to adjust to the new customs and habits
• Feel homesick
• Hard decision to uproot yourself and move to a different country.

Sample answer: 

There are many advantages of living and working in a foreign country. However, with the ongoing growth of the number of people working abroad, there have been some negative impacts on cultural lives. In this essay, I'm going to cover both the up side and down side of this matter.

Firstly, invaluable work experience and the knowledge about the new culture where you live are two of the many advantages you will get from working abroad. With the professionalism from the workplace, you can enrich your expertise. For example, Asian software developers who work in Australia have the opportunities to improve their English level and their software related knowledge as well. Next, the new culture that you have to adapt yourself into will help you have a new picture of what is happening outside your country.

On the other hand, negative impacts also exist along with the positive points mentioned. Employees who work abroad tend not to go back to their home countries, thereby leading to the increase of brain drain in those countries. Without skilled workers, the countries which are normally developing countries will not be able to develop at the same pace as they could have. Moreover, if this trend happens so quickly, it would result in the explosion of immigration in immigrant countries.

In summary, working abroad seems to have both positive and negative impacts. The positive side is that skilled employees have opportunities to improve their expertise and study new cultures. The down side is that the countries where the workers come from will have less chance to develop quickly. Based on the discussion, I personally think working abroad should be encouraged but it should be strictly moderated and controlled by the government.

TedTalk: How great leaders inspire action

TED Talks: How great leaders inspire action

Homework 1

In this post we are:
1. Take a quiz
2. Watch a Ted Video
3. Complete the questions.
4. Complete some vocabulary activities.

Hi everyone. Our topic today it's on leadership. Firstly,let's take this Quiz to find out whether we have a leader here or a follower :). Click here

Excellent! Now we are going to watch the video and complete the following questions.


 
1. What's Simon's opinion? Do you agree or disagree?

2. What's significant about 'Apple', 'Martin Luther King' and the 'Wright Brothers'? Briefly outline their stories.  


Vocabulary activities: Download the worksheet and complete the vocabulary activities. Click here

IELTS Vocabulary/ Essay vocabulary

USEFUL VOCABULARY FOR ESSAY (PART 2)

This post will give you useful vocabulary that can be used in any essay, no matter the topic. You shall find linking words, words to express contract, certainty, condition and so on.  

vocabulary for Essay writing from Hina Honey


Download and study:  In IELTS essay you are almost always going to need to write about a problem. To do this well, you need to be able to use a variety of words to describe problems. Download this useful document to get an idea.
Press here to download 
 

What makes a great leader?

What makes a great leader? 

Lesson plan: 

Description: This lesson plan is organised around the theme of leadership through the use of Simon's Sinek TEDvideo 'How great leaders inspire action', It also includes a short quiz, quotes, vocabulary building activities and discussions around the topic of 'inspiring leaders'.

Level:Upper-Intermediate/ IELTS preparation classes

Learners: Teenagers, Adults

Theme: Leadership

Skills: Speaking, watching a video, reading , creative expression, deep thinking.

Materials: short video, quiz, quote slides.

Step one: Write on the whiteboard few leadership quotes. Tell students to guess what's our topic for today and give them 5 minutes to discuss the quotes and the meaning behind each quote. Ask learners again to discuss the quote and write down 3 reasons why they agree or disagree with the quote. Give time to students to share their ideas with their partner.

Step two: Elicit students' thoughts and ideas around the sayings. For higher levels students it's important to 'stretch' Ss in order to make the most of their abilities. Write down on the whiteboard any interesting words or phrases that can students learn. It's better for students to be given a time limit, so that they can pace themselves

Step three: (if students' have smart phones). Ask learners to take the Quiz and find out whether they are Leaders or Followers. This is my result :)

Certificate: Test results Are You a Leader or a Follower?

For 40 % you are: You are EQUAL. Sometimes you are a leader and sometimes you are a follower. You aren't afraid to lead others but you also aren't afraid to follow. You give people chances to take the lead or follow behind. Either way, you go with the flow and you aren't just one or the other. Good job.
33.2760 % of 20348 Quiz participants had this profile! Profile A
 
Take this quiz: Are You a Leader or a Follower?

Step three: Tell students that they are going to watch a short video around the topic of 'leadership'. Ask learners to read the following questions before watching the video? *You can divide the video into two parts (0:00-11:00, 11:00- the end)

1. What's Simon's opinion? Do you agree or disagree?

2. What's significant about 'Apple', 'Martin Luther King' and the 'Wright Brothers'? Briefly outline their stories.  







 Step four: Monitor and help students to express their ideas. You can write down any mistakes and provide error-correction at the end of the lesson.

Step five: Tell students that they are going to work in pairs to complete the 'vocabulary building' activities.  

Click here to download the activities
 

Vocabulary Building: Lesson plan 1

What makes a great leader?

ACADEMIC WORD LIST:

This academic word list, can helps you to express your ideas and thoughts and work your way for high scores. A must have resource for IELTS test takers.

Watching TED videos for IELTS? Why not?

Vocabulary learned from this video:

Activity 1: Match the meaning of the words in bold.

Table 1

Example	Meaning
1. Writers who are viewed as innovative have new ideas and are creative in thinking	A. A person who provides expert advice professionally
2. It took me many years to be now here. To reach this stage is a great achievement.	B. Officially recognised as being trained to perform a particular job.
3. He acted as campaign consultant to the president.	C. In a profound extent; extremely; profound way; greatly
4. This advertising agency offers really good prices. You should go there.	E. (of a person) introducing new ideas; original and creative thinking.
5. He had set up a fund to support exporters.	F. Difficult to perceive; indistinct or vague.
6. Only qualified candidates will contacted for this position	G. A business or organization providing particular service.
7. This would codify existing intergovernmental cooperation on drugs	H.A thing done successfully with effort, skill or courage.
8. He profoundly changed the whole course of my life. I feel confident now.	I. To sum up money saved or made available for a particular purpose
9. The picture is very fuzzy.	J. Arrange according to a plan or system.

Table 2:

1. I’m sure there’s a perfectly rational explanation	A. A person or organization that is slow to do something or slow to make a progress
2. The emphasis is now on tangible results	B. Clear and definite; real:
3. Staff were under enormous pressure and there was no time for laggards	C. A disagreement or argument
8.His intuitive understanding of the readers' real needs	D. A public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled
9. A territorial dispute between the two countries.	E. Based on or in accordance with reason or logic:
10. Who hardly find politicians that are great orators	F. Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning
11. Those whose business is the pursuit of knowledge,	G. The action of pursuing someone or something

Activity 2: Tick the 5 top qualities that make a Great Leader and check with your partner if you agree.

• Honesty
• Ability to Delegate
• Communication
• Sense of humour
• Confidence
• Commitment
• Positive attitude
• Creativity
• Intuition
• Ability to inspire
• Risk taker
• Organised

Step seven: close up the lesson by gathering some ideas on 'what makes a great leader' and provide learners with error-correction. 

IELTS Vocabulary/Part 1

Speaking

 

IELTS vocabulary:

Your hometown:

• A hometown by the beach: attracts thousand of tourists every year, stunning place, lovely scenery, beautiful clear water, breathless view of golden beaches, sandy beaches, romantic sunsets.

• General information: small town with a population of about '…' people, a transformation is taking place and (name of city) is growing in population, is becoming easier and easier to be explored by foreigners, live in the suburds, live near by the city centre.

• People and lifestyle: friendly people, great nightlife and a variety of outgoing activities, it's not the most expensive place to live, but the living cost goes up every year and many people struggle, everyone knows each other.
• Favourite place: a place where I can think straight/think clearly, enjoy spending time there, relaxing, I can't think of a better place to spend my time.

University:

• Earned from University: get a gist of life, helped me to build my own identity, grow as a person, gain work experience, fulfil my dreams, helped me to achieve my goals, helped me to broaden my knowledge, helped me to gain confidence.

Vocabulary about my favourite subject at school:

• History: gives me a sense of belonging/sense of patriotism
• Sense of where we come from
• Inspiration of life long learning
• History can help you to know the past to connect to a better future
• History can help you avoid making the same mistakes
• Gain better appreciation of the contract between now and then.

Vocabulary about jobs (teaching)

• Working with kids: you can always cherish the funny things they say and do, questions they ask and stories they write
• The hugs, smiles and laughter keeps me going and reminds me why I became a teacher in the first place
• I love inspiring students
• Through teaching, I feel like I can make a difference in this world.

IELTS/ Useful links

Useful links for IELTS: For students and teachers:

1. British council: Mock-exam papers and interview skills.

2. IELTS-Exam.Net: Great set of links, sample answers and IELTS tips.

3. IELTS Podcast.com: One of the best IELTS sites about. Comprehensive set of links to IELTS practice material and plenty of useful tips. Updated regularly.

4. IELTS simon: Great Blog , with links and resources. 

5. IELTS academic. com: Activities, Ted-videos and great useful resources.

6. ESOLcourses.com:  Excellent site with a wide variety of English learning activities organised by topic, skill and level. IELTS section.

7. Ed.ted.com: Ted videos: amazing videos, and engaging topics. After watching you can press the 'Think' button on the right hand side for more practice. 

About me

About me:

Hi everyone. I'm Stella and I'm teaching English to kids and adults.When I've first started teaching, my goal was to make learning a more positive experience for people, and enjoy every moment of it. So far so good :)

My learning path first started back in 2008 when I was accepted by the Nottingham Trent University ( Bachelor in English). Back then to be accepted, I had to score GCE A, or IELTS 8.5 , 9 because of the nature of my studies. In the University I was mainly learning English and American literature. Graduated in 2011 I wasn't feeling prepared enough to go on teaching so I decided to study a Master's degree in Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL). Through my Masters I've learned some basic teaching methodologies and explored areas of teaching English. Meanwhile, I was teaching and putting into practice everything I was learning. 

  CELTA 2013

CELTA has been a stepping stone in my teaching career. First, let's see what's a CELTA. As quoted by the Cambridge University 'CELTA is one of the most widely taken qualifications of its kind. Thousands of people each year chose CELTA to open up a whole world of exciting English language teaching opportunities. In this course, you can get the skills, the knowledge and hands-on teaching practice you need to be a successful English language teacher. What do I think about CELTA? I truly think that every teacher around this world should go under a training of this kind. Unfortunately, in my country we are lacking in training. My opinion is that new teachers deserve training that will enable them to walk confidently into their own classroom on their first day ready to teach.

I've also met some wonderful people, who are now teaching around the world. Good luck guys :)

International House/ Clen College 2013-2014.

It's amazing how this year went by so fast. This year I was teaching 'Infantil 3-5 years old, 'Primaria 6-11', FCE for teenagers and adults. I was working for IH house, which is a World organisation with 158 private and independently owned schools spanning 52 countries. Every year they open up training and development courses for language teachers. This year I had the opportunity to attend the 'Cambridge Experience in Zaragoza' and a young learners workshop offered by IH Pamplona.

Here are some photos for the academic year 2013-2014.

My little ones: In this lesson we've learned fruits and vegetables, through singing and playing. No wonder why they are so happy. :)

Primary students (7 years old): This was our small presentation on our favourite animal.

All together: 

Carnival time:

Presentation on 'food chain' and the circle of life :)

These kids love to play 'Quess who' and so do I :)

Our great achievements and the certificates  :).

This year I'm setting off on new adventures in Cyprus. Wish me luck. Can't wait to start.