TEFLtastic

The Cambridge official IELTS practice exam books are from the organisation that writes the real tests and so are the most important source of information about what could be in the actual test, particularly about how it is changing from year to year. Conversely, the tests are not actual past papers, so it is also important to analyse them for things which are unrepresentative and so candidates shouldn’t expect to be in their real test. This list analyses a recent book for both purposes, based on comparisons with my detailed analyses of the previous 18 books. It goes through the test paper by paper, with the most important things to notice underlined.

Analysis of IELTS 19 Listening

IELTS 19 Listening Part 1

Typical aspects

• Like every Listening Part 1 task since 2019, all tasks are gapfill tasks asking for “one word and/ or a number” or “one word only”
• Almost all of the tests have both numbers and spelling (usually of names), with the one example with no spelling being not so untypical
• There are a mix of face-to-face and phone conversations
• All recordings are split into two parts with a pause in between
• The splits in the recordings are always at an obvious place like when the task and/ or page changes (which is typical but not universal)

Peculiarities

• Three of the four situations are ones in which neither person is taking notes such as two chats between friends, which is very untypical, makes the whole listening task much less natural, and takes away the reason for writing answers in note form. Previous tests have (almost?) always been service situations such as visiting a housing officer in which one party is naturally taking notes.
• Three of the four tests switch from “one word and/ or a number” to “one word only” about halfway through, which is a untypical combination of two common task types

IELTS 19 Listening Part 2

Typical aspects

• Three of the tests are monologues (which is very typical, though not universal)
• All of the tests split the Part 2 tasks over two pages
• All of the tests have at least two different tasks
• All of the recordings are split into two parts with a pause in between
• The splits in the recordings are always at a change of page and change of task (which is typical but not universal)
• One of the tests has a map task as the second task (which on average appears once per book)
• All of the tests have matching tasks such as choosing two options
• Three of the tests have multiple choice tasks
• None of the tests have other kinds of tasks (so no gapfill tasks, etc)
• Some of the topics are fairly typical (visits to historic homes, future events, etc)

Peculiarities

• One of the tests is not quite a monologue as it has a radio interviewer asking a couple of questions to get the other person to speak (which is rare but no unique)
• One of the tests has a podcast, which means it is not a situation where listeners will need the information and be listening carefully, so is less realistic as a listening task than the vast majority of Part Two situations

IELTS 19 Listening Part 3

Typical aspects

• Like all tests recently and most tests before that, all tasks are matching tasks (“Choose… options”) and multiple choice (so there are no gapfill tasks)
• There are three examples with two tasks (= with one change of task), and one example with three tasks/ two changes of task
• All recordings are split into two parts, always at an obvious place when the task and page changes
• The recordings have two speakers (but never three speakers, as happens occasionally)
• There is one example of the typical topic of two students planning their joint presentation together
• The common topics of health and the environment both come up
• Some of the tests have the typical functional language in this part of giving opinions and giving advice

Peculiarities

• There is no example of a professor/ teacher talking to a student
• The example of the typical topic of projects is not two students planning their joint project or a professor giving advice on a student’s project (as has almost always been the case)
• One of the tests is two teachers talking to each other about their lessons (which has never happened before in the official practice tests, and is difficult for students studying for IELTS to relate to)
• Three of the four examples are just people who happen to be chatting about something (not having an arranged discussion to sort something out)
• Topics include the unusual one of fashion and the strange one of books

IELTS 19 Listening Part 4

Typical aspects

• The recordings are all monologues
• Most recordings are clearly in an academic setting (showing the usual contrast with Listening Part 2)
• Like all recent and almost all fairly recent tests, all of the questions are “one word only” gapfill tasks
• Like all tests since 2017 and most test before that, the recordings are split, always at an obvious point where there is a change of topic and a new subheading above it
• Typical topics of history, nature and science are included

Peculiarities

• One test is split into three parts (for possibly the first time in Part Four in official exam practice books, and something that has very rarely happened in any part)
• Half of the recordings are not the usual format of a university lecture
• One recording is a student presentation instead of an expert’s lecture (again, possibly for the very first time)
• One of the recordings seems a bit too opinionated and starts too suddenly to be the usual university lecture

Analysis of IELTS 19 Reading

Coming soon(ish).

Analysis of IELTS 19 Academic Writing

IELTS 19 Academic Writing Task 1

Typical aspects

• There is a good mix of typical task types (maps, bar chart and pie chart, flowchart, line graph)
• There are a mix of times (past, past and present, and present)
• Most tasks have only one kind of data, but one has two (both a pie chart and a bar chart)
• The map task is two maps showing changes over time
• North is given on the map (which is generally true about 50% of the time)
• The line graph shows past data (which is the most common time for line graphs)
• The flowchart shows a process which is always that way so needs Present Simple (including Present Simple passive)
• Comparisons are relevant in all tasks apart from the flowchart (which sometimes has things that can be compared, but sometimes is like this one with no figures to compare)
• No tables of data (which are not so uncommon, but appear is fewer than 50% of official practice exam books, e.g. not in IELTS 18 but in IELTS 17)
• The topics are fairly typical for IELTS (environment, travel, etc)

Peculiarities

• The line graph has more lines than usual, with few similarities between those lines
• The flowchart is drawn as quite a stylistic picture, which is unusual and makes it more difficult to analyse and summarise
• The description of the flowchart doesn’t quite match the actual flowchart (as it says production but it is more of a cycle)
• The process is a circle/ cycle (which is unusual, though not unique), making it difficult to know where to split into two paragraphs
• There is no future data (which is in IELTS 18, 17 and 16, but before then only appears once every couple of books)
• Two locations are switched on the map (which is unusual, so students might not have seen useful language for)

IELTS 19 Academic Writing Task 2

Typical aspects

• The two most common question types (“To what extent…?” and “Discuss both these views and…”) are both included, plus the reasonably common “positive or negative development” question type
• No new question types or unique combinations of questions/ All fairly typical and traditional Writing Task 2 question types with just one exception (one exception per book being fairly average, see below for details).
• The most common topics of society, work and business, psychology and education are included, along with the reasonably common topic of the environment.

Peculiarities

• No cause, effect and/ or solutions questions (which are not in all books but come up on average about once per book, and are very common in IELTS preparation materials)
• One “Do you agree or disagree?” question, which has only been in one other book and would be better/ easier as “To what extent…?”
• The rare topics of finance and food are included.

Analysis of IELTS 19 Speaking

IELTS 19 Speaking Part 1

Typical aspects

• Most tests have a mix of at least two of present, past and future/ theoretical questions
• A couple of questions are more general questions about the world like Part Three (which is strangely quite common in Part 1)
• The topics are mostly quite specific examples of common topics (e.g. “international food” as a more specific topic on the generally popular topic of “food”)
• One topic is quite specific, strange and different to previous tests (which tends to happen and be mixed up with the more familiar topics just mentioned)

Peculiarities

• One test only has present questions (which is very rare and makes it too easy, and too difficult to show a range of language in their answers)

IELTS 19 Speaking Part 2

Typical aspects

• Candidates have to describe a single thing
• The tasks have a mixture of things, places and people
• All four tasks are about the past, like the vast majority of previous tasks
• The specific questions/ subtopics are fairly common (“how”, etc)

Peculiarities

• Two of the four tasks are about topics that have no personal connection apart from being in the same country (whereas almost all previous tasks have been about “you” or “your”), meaning that general knowledge is necessary to answer the questions
• Part Two is usually on a personal topic of the kind that could well appear in Speaking Part 1 in another test, which is then made more general in Speaking Part 3. However, in this book the topic of law in one task means opinions language is needed from Speaking Part 2
• All four tasks will be difficult to think of suitable topics for many candidates, which is a fairly common difficulty but never in 100% of tasks in one book
• Two tasks have two questions on one line and so five things to talk about instead of the usual four (which happens sometimes, but rarely twice in one book)
• There are none of the tricky specific questions that fairly often appear like “what… like” and “how + adjective”
• If candidates can quickly think of a suitable topic, these more general and more difficult tasks should produce higher-level language than is usual in Speaking Part Two

IELTS 19 Speaking Part 3

Typical aspects

• Fairly typical question stems
• Specific topics that are part of generally common topics, as in the topic “laws and rules”, which is part of the common topic of society
• Fairly common possible difficulties such as questions that could produce simple lists if candidates aren’t careful, unfamiliar vocabulary in one or two questions, abstract topics, and less than obvious links to the Speaking Part Two task that Part Three is supposed to follow on from

Peculiarities

• None (both because I have no complaints about this part of IELTS 19, and because Speaking Part Three has a lot of variation normally so it’s difficult to generalise)

As it says above, these points are all based on my detailed analyses of official Listening papers, etc. Those analyses by topic are available on my Teaching IELTS Articles page, and I’ll make a list of just those in the next post.

I’m thinking about applying for the IELTS Morgan Terry Memorial IATEFL Scholarship*, as it’s for innovation in IELTS and I’m sure I must have managed an innovation or two in over 1000 pages of photocopiables and 29 articles on IELTS. However, not having read a teacher’s book since halfway through my CELTA 30 years ago, I have no idea how anyone else is teaching IELTS and so not sure how the way I have come up with for my students might be different. Possible candidates:

– extremely detailed analyses of official practice tests and materials based on those analyses, so students get representative preparation and practice

– games which are intensive practice of vital language and/ or tactics for IELTS, not just warmers

– pronunciation practice which is closely tied to how students really need it to understand the listening and speaking questions, but which also give them an introduction to what they could cover in their pronunciation and listening practice more generally

– pairwork for IELTS prep that is usually done alone, as much as possible in ways which are both more motivating and more useful

Any idea which of those might be innovative and/ or impressive? Or any other possibilities? Or perhaps an innovation I can make in the next two weeks??

*Thanks to the person who shared a link to the scholarship on LinkedIn – sorry forgot to make a note of who it was