Teaching IELTS classes?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Hello,

I went and did a demo at ELITE language school here in Kaohsiung on Monday afternoon and to my surprise I actually got offered a job. I haven’t decided if I’m going to take it yet as I don’t know how confident I would be teaching IELTS classes.

I know there’s a lot of info on the internet about teaching IELTS, as well as a post just below this one discussing book choices, however I’d like to get some more info on actually teaching an IELTS class here in Taiwan.

Part of the reason I think I got the job was because I incorporated a lot of techniques that I learned on the CELTA course during the demo. But I’ve found that these techniques tend to fall flat on their arse when I try and use them at GVO. It seems that the students there seem to believe that unless they’re talking to the teacher they’re just wasting their time interacting with the other students. Therefore a teacher-centred approach has worked wonders and made me one of the most popular teachers at the branch where I work.

I would love to be able to utilize everything that I learned doing the CELTA course. It would be the first time I could actually put it to some use in Taiwan, but of course I would have to review everything first. This wouldn’t be a problem as the teaching seems quite enjoyable, if not a little bit pressured.

I’m also unsure about marking the students work during the writing classes. Is this usually done in class while the other students wait? Is it best to use a marking key and get the other students to find and fix their own mistakes?

Can anyone offer any suggestions or advise?

Thanks

2

Doesn’t sound reasonable, given that they’re probably paying quite a bit per hour.

Doesn’t sound reasonable, given that they’re probably paying quite a bit per hour, but a good trick if you can make it work.

You sound like you’re a bit averse to giving/marking homework, which is perfectly understandable. If this is the case, perhaps don’t take a writing course.

I tend to be given writing courses. I’m up for the reading/writing half of our half-baked-in-house IELTS prep course at the moment. This is not because I’m good at writing (though of course I am) or because I’m good at teaching writing (because of course I’m not) but because teaching writing is a pain in the arse, and nobody wants to do it.

Depending on class size, you might have to pick example essays, (perhaps a bad one and a good one), shove them up on the screen/give handouts, and then run through your grading process (which for IELTS should of course relate to the published IELTS rubric) as an illustration.

I’ve done this, but there are anonymity/embarrassment issues if you use current class essays.

Unless class size makes it completely impractical, I’d say you really have to give them some individual feedback.

I don’t have much experience in an IELTS context because the full essay wasn’t a realistic objective for last years course. Even where it is, you can probably lighten the load and provide more of a progressive challenge by starting with introductory paragraphs and using essays with bits missing, to provide a skeleton to build on.

The IELTS texts I’ve seen are almost uniformly crap at this, mostly launching straight into a 250 word essay, with a different one for each unit.

Unbelievable, but perhaps part of the reason why IELTS writing band scores are consistently lower than any of the other skills.

3

Here’s some data on Academic IELTS scores in Asia, from an IELTS promotional pitch to employers.

The comparison between the countries and the different skills is quite interesting, especially the closeness of Taiwan and China (education +/or cultural similarity?).

Its not terribly surprising that Taiwanese writing is at the bottom of the pile.

It’s also not surprising, though it is quite ironic, that an organisation that tests people for the ability to describe graphs, should manage to display its own data in such a screwed up, invalid way.

4

I’ve been digging around on YouTube for example lessons. Here’s a demo that I found:

I’ll use this as a springboard for thoughts on what to do in my class:

  1. Go through the practice questions with the students and write down the errors that they make. Then give feedback using the WB. I’d probably do it differently to the teacher in the video by asking each student the same question. Then they wouldn’t be bored while waiting for the other students to give their reply. I’d also improve the feedback by doing some choral and individual drilling.

  2. I’ve got to make sure that my writing on the WB is neat. Also, don’t turn your back to the students when writing on the WB/ talking.

  3. Bring a sense of humour to the class. I actually found the teacher in the video quite amusing – even though his students didn’t seem to.

  4. There seemed to be a lot of teacher talking time in this lesson. I’d try and get the students to ask more of the questions to each other. I know it’s hard when students are shy or their level is towards the lower level of the IELTS spectrum.

On another video-based note, is ‘study IELTS’ correct English? Shouldn’t it be ‘study for the IELTS test/exam’?

That’s all for now.

5

Don’t think it matters, since you’re probably doing both.

On another video-based note, though, “A Edward Film” is certainly wrong. Jeez!

Geezer isn’t even American, so he’s got no excuse.