A free video lesson on an IELTS writing task 1 bar chart.
Describing a Bar Chart Step by Step
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- Bar Chart Model from this lesson
IELTS Preparation with Liz: Free IELTS Tips and Lessons, 2024
Hi, I'm Liz. Welcome! Enjoy your IELTS journey to success!
A free video lesson on an IELTS writing task 1 bar chart.
Describing a Bar Chart Step by Step
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Get my free lessons by email
Learn some useful tips for improving and developing your answer to one of the most common questions in IELTS speaking part 1.
In this lesson you will find out what mistake many students make when they answer this question as well as how to create a higher band score answer by adding more information to your answer.
Ideas and vocabulary for a common type of question in IELTS speaking part 3 – How to compare urban and rural life. The ideas and language can also be used in your IELTS writing task 2 essay.
Recommended IELTS Speaking Video Lessons:
How to improve your speaking at home
What’s your favourite…? Part 1 question tips
hello welcome to another IELTS
lesson in this lesson we’re going
to look at a very common topic
for IELTS for the speaking test and that is
the topic of
can you guess it’s the topic of homes and
today I’m standing outside a beautiful
old English country home it’s
really lovely here
now my question for you is from speaking
part 3
so that means it’s going to be more
difficult are you ready for your
question
do you think it is better to live
in the countryside or in
a city I would like you to answer that
question
I want you to take your telephone record
your answer and then
check your answer and see how you
can improve that and please do this
before you continue with the video
because now I’m gonna go to the white
board
and I’m gonna give you some vocabulary
and ideas to improve your
answer so record your answer and I’ll see
you
in a minute here is your question
do you think it’s better to live
in the countryside or in a city
have you recorded your answer I hope so
now let me give you some
ideas for the countryside and
for the city and you need to think of
advantages
to living in one up those places let’s
look
at the countryside and see what
advantages
there are the first one is
of lower pace of life
and this means that life
in the countryside often moves more
slowly
than in the city it’s often
more relaxed less stressful
and some people believe pleasanter
so that’s one benefit to country
life
another advantage is less
pollution and also less noise
the pollution is generally air pollution
now less air pollution and less noise in the
countryside
is because there is less industry
there’s less traffic less building work
than in a city and therefore
it is considered healthier to live
in the countryside so that really is a
a big positive point another
plus point to life in the countryside
and that is stronger communities
now what does that mean exactly
well in the countryside people often
live in a town for their whole life
and families live
in the town generation after generation
and that means that they know each other
very well
and therefore the community is quite
close
and neighbours have a good relationship
with each other
this means that the countryside
often gives people a good support
network
because the community is so close
so that is definitely a plus point
the next advantage now that depends
on which country you live in but
in England for example in the
countryside
houses are cheaper than in a city
so that means that they can have bigger
houses
bigger gardens there’s more space you
remember the beautiful house
from the beginning of the video that was
an English
country house over 150 years old
so the owner of that house couldn’t
have the same building if they lived
in a city so those are four
plus points four advantages to
country life now let’s look at cities
maybe you prefer living in the city
now one
definite advantage about that the city has
over country life is
there are more amenities
in a city what are amentities
well another word for amenities is
facility now the facilities and
amenities
that we’re talking about are things like
better restaurants
better sports facilities more leisure
centres for example
also the transport is better a
the roads are better there are so many
more things that you can do
their cinemas shopping malls opera houses
many many more amenities and
facilities
in a city than living in the countryside
in a small town or village
now let’s check the pronunciation of these
words
the first word is amenity
so that four syllables
A Men I Ty
this is ah ah
sound amenity
here is the stress amenity:
amenities so
singular amenity and plural
amenities the next one
facilities Fa
Cil I Ties
this also is ah fa
and the stress of is here
in the second syllable facilities
so the city has more facilities
and amenities to offer than the
countryside
the next positive point
to city life and that is in the city there
are often
better prospects do you know that word
well prospects often mean opportunities
there are more opportunities for people
in the city
the word prospects we often use with
employment and this means that when
there
are better prospects it means
that it’s easier to get a good job
so there are more jobs available in the
city
more prospects and more opportunities
to do what you want to do
and advance get promotion
and improve your life
the next advantage is very clear
better public transport there are more buses
and
trains and undergrounds in
cities and of course in the countryside
there’s often very little public
transport
people need their own transport to get
around
but in the cities if you don’t have
your own transportation
you can still get around and you can
travel using
public transport and the last
advantage again this depends on which
country you live in
but in many countries there is better
education
in the cities than in the countryside
nearly all universities are in
cities often the facilities
at school in the city
they are better than in the countryside
so for example city schools have better
technology
more laptops and computers and high
technology for their students
and the standard of education is often
higher
better teachers so
there are 4 clear positive points to
city life now before we finish
there’s something I want to tell you about
this question
obviously you need to choose
living in the country or living in
city and when you choose one
you really need to compare it with
the other because when you use
a language of comparison when you give a
comparative
sentence it will help your IELTS
speaking results the examiner does need to
hear
a range up different grammar
so we say less and
more well better
say for example there is less pollution
and noise
in the countryside than in
a city there are often better
prospects for work in a city
compared to the countryside
so remember when you give some ideas that
you need to compare them
now these are only 4 ideas for each one
maybe you’ve got some more ideas if you
have
let me know it’s always good to share
ideas
for IELTS well that’s all for this lesson
I hope that was useful and I will see
you again
in another IELTS lesson
here are some more useful IELTS lessons
to help you prepare for your IELTS test
or connect with me through Facebook
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Grammar is 25% of your marks in IELTS writing task 2 and to get band score 6 and above, you must have complex sentences. Watch this video to learn how to connect two sentences together to make one complex sentence.
A new topic in IELTS speaking part 1 this year. Learn some useful vocabulary and ideas for the topic of Dictionaries by watching this lesson.
Watch this lesson to learn more about how the examiner assesses your ideas.
Do your ideas need to be interesting?
Will you get a high band score and better results with interesting ideas?
This lesson gives useful advice on how to develop and improve your IELTS speaking at home for free. The tips run through what the examiner will assess you on in your test and what you can do to improve on your own without a teacher. Learn to analyse your answers for IELTS speaking, find your weaknesses and build your strengths.
Transcripthello in this lesson I’m gonna show you
how to improve
and develop your IELTS speaking at home so many
students
tell me that they cannot improved their
English
because they don’t have a foreigner to
talk to so I want to show you that
it is possible
to improve your speaking at home
on your own for free now the first thing
I want you to do
is to get a list of topics the common topics
for
speaking part 1 speaking part 2
and speaking part 3 if you cannot find a
list
please go to my IELTS blog www.ieltsliz.com
and you will find a
list
of common topics difficult topics and
the questions as well so you need to get
a list of these topics and develop
ideas I don’t want you to write down
your answers I want you
only to develop the ideas so for
example
if the topic is the topic weather
you can develop ideas about the kind of
weather you like
what you do when the weather is like
that
also how the weather makes you feel
different kinds of weather or maybe the
transportation problems
that come because of that weather so just
develop ideas that you can use
for that topic the next thing number two
is a word list so vocabulary if you have
the topic of
weather you need to have arrange a
vocabulary
for that topic so for example
hot weather hot is a very low band
score
but you could use boiling
scorching sweltering
there’s a whole range a vocabulary
you can build to impress the examiner
for that topic so you need to get that
list of vocabulary
and learn it number three
your next step to developing your
speaking
get the topic weather
choose probably about let’s say 6
questions for that topic take
your telephone and answered the
questions
recording your voice it’s very important
that you
do the recording rather than writing the
answer
when you write answers usually
you think more about the grammar you
think more about the vocabulary
and often you make less mistakes when
you speak
it’s direct so when you record your
answer this gives you a chance to find
your weaknesses finding your weaknesses
very important so that you can improve
so you need to
record your answers to those questions
on your phone
after that I want you to listen to
to your answers listen and
check now there are four things that I
want you to check for
I want you to check for fluency
vocabulary
grammar and pronunciation this is what
the examiner
will check you on now each one
in the exam the is 25 percent
of your marks with so their
all equal they are all very important
and the examiner is going to check your
answer
for each one now let’s have a look at
what you need to check
for each one fluency what does that
mean
well the first thing that you need to
check
is the length
of your answer did you give a very short
answer
or could you develop it a little bit
more
when you develop your answer a little bit
more
that is a higher band score you’re
offering
the examiner more language but you’re
showing the ability
to speak fluently so
develop your answer more higher band score
another thing that you can check for
your fluency
is how many times you say um
ah these are hesitations
and we don’t want hesitations in our
answer
so you need to check how many um how
many
ah that you have if
you have a lot that’s a problem I’m afraid
and you need to find a way to practice
more
so that you get rid of the ums and ahs
so we’ve got the length
of answer and the ums and ahs
another thing that you can check for
fluency how many times
you are silent
often when students start speaking
they can’t remember what they want to say
and suddenly they stopped
it is not good to stop and be silent
in the middle of your answer you need
to fill it
you need to keep speaking naturally with
a good flow
and that will give you a good band score
so those are
three things that you can check in your
answer
for your fluency now the next thing
is vocabulary
what do we need to check in the
vocabulary
for your answer well obviously the first
thing is
the range and the range means how many
different words are you using I’ll give
you an example
so paraphrasing
are you repeating the same word again
and again
or are you using different words
to describe same thing so again we use
the example of
hot you could say boiling scorching
sweltering those a three different words
that we can use
for the meaning of hot so you need to show
a good range
vocabulary that’s from your word list
and you need to paraphrase and show the
ability to use
different words for the same meaning
when you paraphrase as well you are
looking
at band score 7and band score 8
another thing you can look at with
vocabulary
of course are
mistakes
now one way that you can check your
mistakes
is by when you listen to to you answer
listen and write down the words that you
say
that way you can check more carefully
if you’re making any mistakes with words
are you using the wrong word are you using
the wrong
noun with the verb what problems do you
have
so check that in your answer
another thing to look at of course
grammar
and with grammar you need to check again
the range so for example the range
of tenses are you
giving only present simple
now I know maybe the six questions that
you have are
all present simple questions but that
doesn’t mean
that you can’t give another tense
so for example what kind of weather do
you like
I just love hot weather scorching
weather last week
it was perfect so it was a present
simple
question but I gave a little bit
of past simple in the answer
so you can practice doing that and
develop the technique
of putting different tenses into your
answer
another thing you can look at is
sentence structure
and that means how complex are your
sentences
are you using a lot of short sentences
so don’t forget listen to your answer write
down the words that you’re using
and then check how complex the sentences
are
you can perhaps start using some linkers
and start extending the sentences
and of course another thing for grammar
again are
mistakes this is very important
more mistakes you make lower your band score
will be so remember that the examiner
is listening for mistakes with
vocabulary and grammar
so please check what mistakes you’re
making and correct them
and practice and of course the last one
is pronunciation so what is
the examiner looking for
pronunciation
well the first one of course is word
pronunciation are you pronouncing
those words correctly
if you are not sure about that you can
go online
there are free dictionaries online so
that you can
lesson to the pronunciation of the word
so check that and make sure your words are
correct
another thing is individual
sounds so for example sh
s ch are you pronouncing these sounds
correctly
and again you can find practice
online for that
and one other thing for pronunciation
is intonation
intonation is if your voice is
going up and down or if you are speaking
like this if you’re speaking
very flat this is not good
for your band score you need to learn to use
intonation in your voice we often use
intonation
to make something more interesting or to
show when something is important
so you can practice that at home and try to
improve it
now the last part of the last thing once
you have
got your topics in your ideas you’ve got
your vocabulary for the topic
you have your questions and you record
them
you listen you check your answer
don’t forget you can write down the
answer to check
what you say write down the words you’re
using
check your fluency vocabulary grammar
and pronunciation
and then after that
practice practice and practice
find your weakness get rid of your
weakness
improve your strength so you practice
and record again don’t forget to keep
recording your voice keep recording your
answers
get used to that I know
it can feel uncomfortable to sit in a
room
alone and record but really
it’s good practice you need to do it
right well that’s all for this lesson
I really hope that you practice this at
home
honestly the more you practice the
better you IELTS will be
particularly if you check
your answers correctly well
keep practicing good luck and I’ll see you
in
another IELTS lesson
One key to success in the IELTS listening test is to be able to predict what kind of answer you must listen for. When you know what to listen for, you have a good chance of getting the answer right.
Learn how to predict the answers using prepositions.
Hi, my name is Elizabeth (Liz). I am your teacher and the author of this website. I am an experienced, qualified English teacher specialising in IELTS test preparation since 2008. Please enjoy the 300 plus pages of free lessons, tips, model answers, topics etc.
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