[IELTS ET] Quick guide

👋 Description
This is a quick teaching guide on how to teaching IELTS ET class, including
class flow, teaching steps and teacher's script(will be noted as color blue).

1. Teaching procedure overview

2. Teaching procedure

Section 1 Warm up (5 mins)( ❌Don’t share screen)

1. Small talk about students and exams
“getting-to-know-you” conversation

Questions to ask:
• Could you tell me something about yourself?

(or Choose 1 or 2 topics to ask) Work/study/Current event/weekend

[Work]
What do you do? / What's your job?
Why did you choose this job?
How long have you been working in this field?
What do you like most about your job?
Do you like the people you work with? / Do you like your colleagues?
[Study]
What subject are you studying?
Why did you choose to study this major?
Is it a popular major in your country?
What is the best thing about your university/school?
What is your career plan after you graduate?
[Current event]
Has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your job/studies?
Have you had to work/attend classes from home?
Do people in your country travel less due to the pandemic?
Where would you like to travel after the pandemic?
Would you choose to travel to a country with a significant outbreak?
[Weekend]
How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun this past weekend?
What's your plan for this weekend?
What's your favorite thing to do on the weekends?

• Exam

(Use topics) Why/taken before/score you want/when

- Why do you need to take the IELTS exam? or Why are you taking the IELTS
exam?
- Have you taken the IELTS exam before?
- What IELTS score are you aiming for this time? or What's your target for speaking
score?
- When are you planning to take the test (again)? or When is your next exam date?
2. IELTS Speaking test procedure (if needed)

For students who are not familiar with IELTS speaking test.

Sample Script:
T: Ok, so let's review the format of the test a bit. In part 1 of the real IELTS exam,
the examiner will ask you for your ID and your name, and then ask you about either
work and study, or a topic related to accommodation such as where you’re living
at the moment, your accommodation, your hometown, or your home. Then the
examiner will ask you simple questions about one or two more topics, to which you
will need to give short answers.
In part 2, the examiner will give you a topic. You have 1 minute to prepare and
make some notes, and then you have to speak for one to two minutes about it. This
means that you need to speak at length, and it's better if you structure your answer
well, so that the examiner can understand what you mean better.
 After that, in part 3, you will need to answer some more difficult questions about
the same topic. This will usually include complex questions where you will need to
talk about what you think might happen, or things which should change in society.
Although there is no set length for answers in this section, you should try to give
slightly longer and more detailed answers than in part 1. 5-6 sentences are usually
appropriate.
In all the parts of the test, the examiner will focus on assessing your language
ability and how well you can express information and opinions. Therefore, it's
important to make the English you use not just as accurate as possible, but also
interesting.

Section 2 Full mock test (11-14 mins) ( ❌Don’t share

screen)

1. Give student a kind reminder

"We'll be doing a full mock test like the real exam,

I need to make sure time spent on each part is appropriate
so don't worry if I stop you, it's normal in the real exam as well."

2. Start full mock exam (No need to ask for ID and name)

Part 1
Sequence of questions to ask

Topic1 2 questions

Topic2 2 questions 4 minutes

Topic3 3 questions

I'd like to start by asking you some questions about yourself.

So, … (ask the first question)
 Let's move on to … (the second topic)

Part 2 (3 minutes)

1 minute to prepare

2 minutes to answer

Now, I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for 1 to 2 minutes.
You have one minute to think about what you're going to say and you can make
some notes if you wish.

Send topic in Chat box

I'd like you to describe …

one minute note-taking

(go to finish scoring)

You have two minutes for this so don't worry if I stop you. I'll tell you when the two
minutes is
up.
Can you start speaking now, please?

Part 3
Ask all 4 questions (4 minutes)

We've been talking about a…and now I'd like to ask you some more general
questions
related to this.

To finish:

Thank you. That is the end of your speaking test.

Note:
1. How to Stop the Student
 OK, thank you.
That's fine, thank you.
Sorry, I'm afraid we've run out of time for this section.

2. Avoid using opinion phrases such as 'great' 'cool' 'well

done' during the mock test

Section 3 Answer correction (20-25 mins)( ✅Start to share

screen)

1. Ask about student's feelings

Well done on completing your mock test!

So, how do you feel about the test?

(Wait for answer)

What part did you find more difficult? Part1, part 2, or part 3?

(Wait for answer)

Ok, then let’s focus on how to improve your answer in Part x.

2. Start to teach Answer correction section

Answer correction involves TWO main elements.

1. Correct the errors
• Vocabulary/grammar/pronuncaition

2. Upgrade the content

• upgrade the vocabulary by paraphrasing
• focus on the content
◦ clear structure
◦ coherent ideas
◦ logical extensive ideas

If Part2
• ask why the student feel difficult for part2

Why do you feel part2 is difficult?

How do you prepare for Part2?

(1) Introduce the IMF method

• Briefly tell students why do they need to learn some strategies

A lot of students actually consider Part 2 to be the hardest part of the speaking test.
That's because this part is not a dialogue, you must be able to talk for 2 minutes all
by yourself. So having a strategy is really important!

• Show and Explain what is the IMF structure

The first part is to give an introduction. it's the opening sentence to introduce what
you will talk about. This usually takes up 20 seconds.
The second part is to include the main points. Get across all the important details
about the event, what happened. Try to spend at least 1.5 minutes on this part.
The last part is Feeling or Future.talk about how you feel or what you might do in
the future. It should help you add another 20 seconds.
With this structure, you can keep speaking for 2 full minutes.

(2) Improve the opening sentence

• Show some openning sentences and check the student's original first sentence

-I'd like to talk about...(which/who is...)

-I'm going to tell you about...(which/who is...)

-When thinking about this question, the first thing/place/person/activity that

comes to mind is...

• Teach student rephrase question

• Ask the student to make the introduction again
• Write down the improved opening sentence
• Summary this step is I-introduction in the I.M.F structure.
 So this is how we make introduction in I.M.F

If thes student's introduction is good enough, you can give positive comment

Your introduction is quite good. You were able to paraphrase the topic and use the
introductory phrase like...And there is no error in your sentenceWell done!

Note:
This is just the beginning part of the talk, do not spend too
much time, otherwise, you won't get enough time to teach the
main body of the talk, which is more significant.

(3) Develop the bullet points

• Highlight the question words

When you are given a question card, you’ll see there are bullet points provided.
Technically speaking, you don’t have to stick to them if you have something else
related to the question you want to talk about.
But, we recommend that you use them as much as possible to form your answer!
Because these bullet points can give you clues about what to talk about in your
answer.
So, how to develop the bullet points?
Think of several points for each prompt on the topic card.
Try to develop each point, even easy ones. This could help you to have more points
to talk
so that you can speak for two minutes.
Let's look at this topic...

• Check the student's original answer for the bullet points

• Guide your student to develop the bullet points

Ask students some questions related to the bullet point to help them come up with
more ideas.

T: Your laptop, Who bought it?

(Wait for student answer)
 T: What is the operating system?
(Wait for student answer)
T: Is it Window 10?
(Wait for student answer)
T: Does it have a good configuration?
(Wait for student answer)
T: How long is the warranty?
(Wait for student answer)

• Write down a few ideas for each bullet point

• Summary this step is M-main points in the I.M.F structure.

(4) Extend the speech

• Explain why learning to expand their speech is important

If up to this point, you still have not used all 2 minutes of your time. Extend your
answer by talking about how you feel overall and what you might like to do in the
future. Doing that should help you add another 20 seconds. This part is optional, the
purpose is to expand the speech and add more time to your answer.

• Teach students how to make a conclusion

You can always start with sentences like

Overall, I feel ...
In the future, I think I will ...
I'm ...
I hope ...

• Show the rounding off examples on the teaching page

• Ask students to make a conclusion of their own

Let's practice, speak it out, not just think in your mind.

• Summary this step is F-feelings or future in the I.M.F structure.

(5) Organize the speech

• Explain why to use linking words

Using linking words and phrases help to connect your ideas

and organize what you want to say.
They also help you to think about what to say next
using fillers correctly to sound natural in your delivery.

Try to avoid meaningless fillers

[um, er, ah, eh]
as they show that you cannot find the words or language needed to discuss the
topic.
Also, avoid repetitive use of fillers that we generally overuse
[yeah, like, you know].

• Show the useful linking words

Depending on what you are asked,

the following linking words and phrases can be used:

• Ask the student to make the whole speech again

Now can you try to answer the topic again based on we learned

• Take notes of the student's answer and polish it

Great. You did it very well. But please pay attention to ...(some language errors or
fluency and coherence)

Section 4 Band score feedback (4-5mins)

❗Things to remenber:
1. Be familiar with the Feedback table and Script template
before the class
2. Don't show feedback descriptor table to you students
3. There are three situations for bandscore feedback

Situation 1
Student's band score is: 7/6/6/5 or 6/6/5/5

1. Start from the Highest or higher criteria

Now that we’ve corrected some of your answers, let’s move on to your scores in
each area.

Your strongest area is clearly (criterion) . As you can see, I’ve given it a score of
(number) because __________________. Well done.

2. Talk about the middle criteria (if no middle one this can be
skipped)

For (criterion), I gave you a band (number). This was mainly because
_____________________, for example__________________.

For (criterion) I also gave you a band (number). On the one hand,
_______________On the other hand, _________________. For
example__________________.

3. Talk about the weakest criteria

Finally, your weakest area is (criterion). I gave you a (number) because

______________________, for example, you said __________________. You also
__________________. To improve in this area, you will need to ______________
and ______________. This is something we can look at during future lessons in
order to improve your score in this area.

Situation 2
Student's band score is: 6/6/6/6 7/7/7/7 8/8/8/8
 Now that we've corrected some of your answers, let's move on to your scores in
each area.
As you can see, you got a score of (number) overall on each of the 4 criteria.
Therefore, in order to improve, we need to work on raising your performance on the
weaker aspects of each criterion.
With regards to fluency, you have room to improve on (aspect of the criterion) by
_________________.
For lexical resource, we particularly need to focus on (aspect of the criterion) in
order to reach the next band score. This means that you need to
_________________.
For grammatical range and accuracy, we should spend most of our time looking at
(aspect of the criterion) because _________________, for example
_________________. To improve this, we need to _________________.
Finally, with regards to pronunciation, you can work on (aspect of the criterion) to
reach the next band score by _______________.

Situation 3
Student's band score is: 4/4/4/4.5 all lower than 6
Now that we’ve corrected some of your answers, let’s move on to your scores in
each area.
Unfortunately, as you can see, you got a score of (number) for all/most of the
criteria, which is much lower than your target. We therefore need to work on the
weaker aspects in each of the criteria in order to help you move up to the next
band score.

With regards to fluency, in order to reach the next band score, you particularly need
to improve on (aspect of the criterion) by ____________.

For lexical resource, we particularly need to focus on (aspect of the criterion)

because _______________, for example, you said _______________. This means
that we need to _________________.

For grammatical range and accuracy, we should spend most of our time looking at
 (aspect of the criterion) because_______________, for example, you said
_______________. To improve in this aspect, we need to _______________.

Finally, with regards to pronunciation, you can work on (aspect of the criterion) to
reach the next band score by _______________.

Section 5 Course plan & homework (2-3 mins)

1. Transition from the previous sections by asking

T: Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me about the exam or my
feedback?

(Wait for student answer)

2. Briefly review their study priorities. (what they need to work on)

T: Ok, then let’s talk a bit about the course plan. Your goal is to get a XX（eg.
6.5）, so you need to go up by half a band score. To do this, we would normally
recommend 10 lessons. During this time, we will work on the areas we talked about
above – so I will focus on your grammatical accuracy, particularly the past simple.
We will also improve your ability to extend your answers, practice speaking at
length, and use the correct intonation in English.

3. Outline what you plan to focus on during the lessons and the
recommended study suggestion.

T: In order to do this, I think we should focus on speaking parts 2 and 3, and

practice each part of the exam separately. For Part 2, I will teach you the strategy
of merging topics so as to help you prepare the topics with high efficiency.
S: Ok.
T: Do you have any further questions for me?

(Wait for student answer)

 S: No.
T: Great, then I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson together!

4. Remind student the homework

• Don't spend too much time here

T: By the way, don't forget your homework. Review and pratice are really important.
You can check all classnotes for this class
if you want to get band score feedback report you can contact TA after class.
Review the class report for this class
Preview the content for next class. See you in next class. Bye~