IELTS: Scoring high in GT Task 1
Many students have the impression that they’ll score higher in GT writing than in Academic writing. Some score even lower in the former though. The reasons? They don’t know what kind of letter they should write. Here are things to know:
Depending on who the audience is, e.g. writing to your friend, teacher or neighbor or an organisation, you need to go through these steps:
- Decide on what register to use.
Informal, semi formal or formal?
2. Decide on how to use for salutation.
Hi Mike, Dear Mike, Dear Mr. Tyson, or Dear Sir or Madam?
3. Decide on the degree of formality.
Contractions? Conversational? Politeness? Directness? Respect?
4. Decide on how to organise the content.
Para 1: Introduction/Greeting + Purpose.
Para 2 & 3: Discuss Questions 1, 2 and 3 in sequence.
Para 4: Goodwill (remember degree of formality).
5. Decide on how to sign off.
This must be relevant to Step 2.
Informal: Best wishes / Cheers? Kind regards? Yours sincerely? Yours faithfully?
Lastly, remember to check your punctuation so you don’t end up losing marks! Good Luck!
24 June 2017
Telaga
PTE: Five Things (probably) Nobody Tells you about PTE!
While PTE:
- Problem: Low pronunciation marks.
Positioning the microphone too close to your mouth may adversely affect your pronunciation marks in speaking.
Solution: make sure your breathing ‘noise’ is not recorded. Test it properly before the test commences. You still need to speak enthusiastically throughout the test though.
2. Problem: My pronunciation is ‘hopeless’!
Solution: Improve your speaking speed, continuity and flow, and you’ll eventually pass as Fluency can prop up the Speaking score – a lot!
3. Problem: Never seem to pass the Speaking test because my Fluency and Pronunciation marks never go through the threshold.
Solution: Never ever give up on any question (such as stopping in the middle of a sentence in Repeat Sentence). Some students do score 10 points higher or even more above their Fluency and Pronunciation marks.
4. Problem: Insufficient time in reading.
Solution: Pace yourself for every question. You have between 1.5 to 2.5 minutes for each question, depending on the item type.
5. Problem: Inadequate time in listening.
Solution: Since there are approximately 20 questions and 30 minutes, after discounting the listening time and pauses, you will have about 30 seconds to decide / complete each question.
Good Luck!
24 June 2017
Telaga
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは。
My Japanese lessons includes practices to develop skills of speaking, reading, listening, writing, interacting and constructing and performing students’ own dialogues by pairs/groups or by oneself. The learning included the language and cultural skills to be used in travelling or living/working in Japan and general understanding upon Japanese culture. Speaking practice sometimes used the pictures, information, concepts/ideas or topics from the brochures of Japanese newspapers, the ads, Nichigo Press and other Japanese monthly magazines.
Regarding my class teaching, my Beginners 2 finished in the middle of this month. As for the main textbook, they studied up part of Unit 3 of Genki Book 1. In addition, they practised Katakana script esp. with words written in that script and with use of flash cards, Japanese magazines and worksheets for writing and reading. As homework (taking 2 weeks), they made beautiful, delightful flash cards in Katakana (or Katakana and Hiragana), words based or sentence based writing. Also, there were students who made such cards with the context (phrases) of travellers’ Japanese. We used the cards in class and they practiced those cards in pairs too.
In the last 2 lessons, I taught them phrases, vocab and many dialogues. Books and cd were used, such as “Real Life Japanese: Taikenteki-Nihongo-kaiwa” (by Craig Dibble & Setsuko Matsumoto, 2001, UNICOM Inc, Tokyo) and “Real Life – Japanese Food: Taikenteki-Nihongo-kaiwa”, vol. 2 (by Craig Dibble & Setsuko Matsumoto, 2002, UNICOM Inc, Tokyo). I used those materials for teaching many times in the past. Each time students seemed interested and sort of excited in some way. This time too, I think the materials were quite helpful for the course. Also, I gave the handouts of many phrases and words that are well used in living in Japan and travelling based experiences.
In relation to news about Japan, this is related to the continuous rise of the number of foreigners who climb Mt Fuji every year. This year too as recent, past years, since the start of July (the start of the mountain climbing), the above increase is evident. It is reported that about 30% of ones, who climb Mt Fuji, are foreigners nowadays. The major reasons of the foreigners’ fascination of climbing the mountain are because of the beauty of the mountain (rather than the height of the mountain) and easiness to climb.
( http://style.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO18499930V00C17A7000000?channel=DF260120166502&style=1 )
The NHK TV recently reported the following (on SBS TV). Business groups (including big corporations) of different industries that are not travel or hospitality industries began actively investing for making or refurbishing buildings and houses, which were not hotels or inns before, to inns and properties for accommodating travellers.
It is due to great shortages of hotels and Japanese styled inns to accommodate big increase of travellers, especially those from overseas. The Japanese government is expected to materialize some new laws that are for such a new business area that can have new issues for management, business operation and security control. It is reported that the number of foreign visitors to Japan exceeded 24 million.
Also, the NHK TV and The Japan Times reported the sharp rise of the price of land in Ginza, Tokyo apart from other big cities in Japan, i.e. the price of land in Ginza reached one before its bubble economy.
( http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/03/business/economy-business/japans-property-prices-rise-second-year-gap-cities-rural-areas-widen/#.WWXssoSGOUk, “As Japan land prices continue gains, Ginza remains most expensive for 32 years in a row” )
The Japan Times states in the above article that the highest land price in Japan was ¥40.32 million (i.e. approximately AUS$445,475) per sq. meter for land which is in front of highly known Kyukyodo stationery store in Ginza shopping district. That price was up 26% from last year.
Toshiko Jackson (Japanese teacher)
12.7.17
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