How to get ready for Writing Tasks: IELTS/TOEFL

So many times I’ve heard from students: I can’t write, I don’t know where to start, I don’t have imagination, I am short of time and can’t cope with time-management. It’s necessary to define the nature of your students’ fears before you start exam preparation. To understand the Writing tasks in IELTS and TOEFL better, read these articles: IELTS and TOEFL.

Here are some tips on how to assist your students to get ready for IELTS/TOEFL Writing section:

1. Discuss the FORMAT with your students in terms of time, size, parts of the Writing section. I do it almost every lesson to remind this important information.

2. Prepare Writing through Reading, Listening & Speaking as only a complex approach can help your students improve writing skills. For example, when you get ready for Writing about My native city, provide students with the text about cities, listening part about accommodation and facilities, vocabulary tasks, and follow-up discussions to increase overall knowledge on the topic.

3. Set the schedule of your students’ essay so they could practice regularly. Give the first essay as a trial to see how they can do the task on their own and it’ll serve you as a starting point afterwards.

4. Create the list of topics tailored according to 1) your vision (2-3 which you find important); 2) your students’ desire (they can pick up the topics they consider as “hard”); 3) your study strategy (try to stick to the topics you learn so the essay would be the final chord).

5. Give constructive feedback on the essay you check. I provide my students with various feedback types to generate their critical thinking:

— Check & Give grammar links:

— Underline the mistakes & Give your student time to understand them

In both ways, it’s important to work with students’ ‘bugs’ during the next lessons, give some extra self-study exercises, and come back to the hot questions from time to time.

6. Remind students about time-management and format size:

Your student and you should be aware of which type of the exam you’re preparing for so to tailor the format and practice exact Writing Part tasks.

7. Go through challenging topics together: I recommend preparing the homework essay writing in advance. You can discuss and answer the questions during the lesson. Provide your students with patterns and structures to make it successful and relief students’ effort.

8. Boost IELTS AWL! When you get ready for exams with Skyeng, our SkyengAPP provides students and teachers with various vocab lists. Students can add extra words via SkyengApp.

9. Inspire students to read and practice more. The more you read and listen to authentic texts, the better ideas you acquire for your future essays.

10. Write together: play such a creative collective author and write some passages together with your students (your line+ your student’s line+ etc.) generating ideas for their future work. Such collaboration will give your students confidence.

11. Learn about IELTS essay types and practice writing them all. Pay attention to the variety of TOEFL essay types here.

12. Follow fresh users’ comments on various websites devoted to IELTS/TOEFL exams where you can get up-to-date information about topics dated to 2019 and earlier.

Here you can find a lot of tips on IELTS Writing Part 1 & IELTS Part 2 and which methods to use to do your best.

To keep your finger on the pulse, try to monitor fresh IELTS essay topics and IELTS Videos to understand which way to move with your students.

Ultimate Writing TOEFL list can be found here and serve you as ideas for current lessons.

In conclusion, your students have to practice as much as possible so here the intensity of study matters because they need to gain experience in writing various kinds of tasks, coping with time management, and dealing with butterflies in the stomach. For above-mentioned, time is needed and your students should be aware of it.