How to teach IELTS Reading online?

We have discussed how to teach IELTS Writing online. In this article, we’ll discuss how to teach IELTS Reading online. But again, let’s firstly review the structure.

Read out How to teach IELTS Writing online and How to teach IELTS Listening online

The texts are different in the Academic and General Module of the exam.

In the Academic Module of IELTS, there are 3 texts, 40 questions that students have to answer for 60 minutes. The texts are popular science. There are certain terms and complex lexical and grammar structures as students who take the IELTS Academic test are going to study abroad where they have to understand different lectures and texts for a certain period of time.

In the General Module of IELTS, there can be more texts in the Reading section (up to 5). However, the texts are shorter and simpler. The topics are about typical life situations (travelling, newspaper adverts, letters to a friend, offers), entertainment, everyday things, job descriptions, etc. The texts are much easier, but they can be represented in the form of a table, list or advert.

The typical questions are:

• Multiple choice questions.
• Fill in the table.
• Match the titles with the paragraphs.
• Which part of the text includes certain information?
• Labelling pictures.
• Matching features.
• Identifying writers’ views.

So, how do we teach IELTS Reading online?

Let’s have a look at the General Module.

Again, we start with the necessary vocabulary.  Let’s say the topic is “Friendship”. We can brainstorm in the chat about things we can do with friends. I give the example to show what verb form I want them to use (e.g., having fun). Then, I elicit or pre-teach the target vocabulary. Then, we do a gap-filling exercise to practise the vocabulary.

Then, I write three verbs (play, go, do) and play the audio with different nouns. Students have to type the nouns in the correct group.

Then,

we can read short texts in Google Form and in turns underline the phrases that refer to activities. We can then practise the vocabulary again, playing Bingo. I open the sheet with different cards with the phrases on them. I assign different cards to different students, send them in chat. I read definitions at random and if students have this word, they cross it out. The first to cross all the phrases is the winner.

Then, we move to the Reading task.

Let’s have a look at the multiple-choice types of questions.

I ask students to read the text quickly (for gist) and give them a general question with four answers. Students have to skim the text and type their ideas in the chat. We do Open Class Feedback and find the explanation in the text. Then, I show 5 questions on the interactive board, split students into 2 groups (breakout rooms in Zoom) and ask them to discuss possible answers and ideas.

Then, we discussed it all together, but I didn’t say the correct answer yet. I open a worksheet with the multiple-choice questions and have students read the text again intensively and answer them. Then, they discuss answers in pairs and we do open class feedback. In the article Boring multiple-choice? Upgrade it! you can have a look at how you can upgrade multiple-choice questions and make it more fun. For all the tasks I set the timer.

While developing students’ reading skills,

the teacher has to develop students’ both reading sub skills and strategies. For example:

• decide which are the keywords in a question, underline them;  
• don’t spend time on the question they don’t know the answer to.

They can get back to it later. In this type of task, the questions are in the same order as the information in the text;

• read only the parts they need; 
• base the answers on the text, not their opinion.

As you can see, it’s quite convenient to teach IELTS Reading online. Do you approach it the same way? What things are the same and different? What tools do you use?