Sources For Course Development

[midasthailand]

Hi guys,

I may find myself in a situation in the near future where I will be expected to teach for successful completion of IELTS tests. As the college has never before attempted to do this, I was wondering if anybody on this forum might have suggestions on suitable materials to reference for course development?

Thank you,

Dave

[Loaded]

Insight into IELTS is the standard student book for many schools.

[midasthailand]

Insight into IELTS is the standard student book for many schools.

Thanks Loaded, I can't believe yours is the only response but "Is there anything wrong with this sentence" has 56 responses and counting!

[otherstuff1957]

OK, I don't want to recommend any particular book, but if you want to browse a good TESL book store, click here:

http://www.dktoday.net/onlineshop/content/view/12/28/

scroll down for the English addresses. IMHO this is the best bookstore for English teachers in Thailand. Head over to the nearest store some afternoon and check the books out yourself.

[haltes]

What do they mean by successful completion of the IELTS test?

Band 5?

Band 6?

Band 7?

Overall on in which skills?

Try to clarify the goals (score required) before you choose texts and so forth.

Teaching IELTS to Pre Intermediate students is mostly a waste of time in any case.

[BambinA]

As a student who has taken IELTS test, academic modules. I like

1) Cambridge IELTS 1-6 (they look similar as the real IELTS test)

2) 101 Helpful Hints for IELTS (this one is good, especailly the writing part task1/2)

3) IELTS Preparation and Practice: Reading and Writing ( This one is good for writing task1)

I used this chart for checking my band score.

[Ijustwannateach]

What do they mean by successful completion of the IELTS test?

Band 5?

Band 6?

Band 7?

Overall on in which skills?

Try to clarify the goals (score required) before you choose texts and so forth.

Teaching IELTS to Pre Intermediate students is mostly a waste of time in any case.

I agree, though it's surprising how many optimistic lower level types wind up in those courses!

[midasthailand]

For those of you that responded to my initial post, I thank you. I recognise that perhaps the post was not specific enough in that I did not mention which band I would like the students to achieve, that is because I am, as yet, not in a position to know.

I decided to utilise another source of information in the form of Dave Hopkins and he provided me with the following titles:

Series Quest - McGraw Hill

Interaction/Mosaic - McGraw Hill and,

Cutting Edge - Lonmans

The students I will be teaching are adult merchant navy cadets and the insurance industry has just raised the standard required in order to help in avoiding collisions at sea.

[Loaded]

For those of you that responded to my initial post, I thank you. I recognise that perhaps the post was not specific enough in that I did not mention which band I would like the students to achieve, that is because I am, as yet, not in a position to know.

I decided to utilise another source of information in the form of Dave Hopkins and he provided me with the following titles:

Series Quest - McGraw Hill

Interaction/Mosaic - McGraw Hill and,

Cutting Edge - Lonmans

The students I will be teaching are adult merchant navy cadets and the insurance industry has just raised the standard required in order to help in avoiding collisions at sea.

I think those books are general English books and may not be specific to IELTS

Are they taking General or Academic IELTS? Because writing tasks differ considerably

[midasthailand]

Hi all,

I am interested in the methodology used to determine the IELTS band level (without having to actually do the IELTS test at a test center) of vocational students. I will shortly be required to assess various Thai/Indian/Singaporean students interested in taking up 457 visas to work in Australia. The concept is to map the differences in vocational training (eg nurses) between the country of origin and Australia and come up with a gap training course in the vocation. My problem is that all training will be delivered in English and the required IELTS band for nurses in Australia is 7, how do I determine the IELTS level of the student? Once the IELTS level is ascertained, how do I develop a course to train for the difference between the level ascertained and the band 7 required?

I used nurses as an example as I already know the required band is 7 but we will be training several vocations such as; commercial cookery, IT, front line management, fire fighting and Occupational health and safety.

Whilst I don't expect chapter and verse on how to do it, it would be nice if somebody could point me in the right direction.

Much obliged for your help.

[haltes]

The band descriptors for public consumption are online, just search for them.

Task 2 writing are here : http://www.ielts.org/pdf/UOBDs_WritingT2.pdf

The rest you can find at http://www.ielts.org/

Band 7 is quite high for nurses but I would imagine they would do the general training module and not the academic one.

You can determine the level of the student by either having them take another standardised test and then put together a degree or corrolation between the two e.g. TOEIC/TOEFL OR you can design your own test and make it equivelent to the IELTS test scores.

There are many ways to approach this and I hope you are charging a lot of money for this because it's a lot of work!

Edited May 2, 2008 by haltes

[Ijustwannateach]

Hi, Midas. I've merged your two recent IELTS threads.

[midasthailand]

Hi, Midas. I've merged your two recent IELTS threads.

Thanks for that IJWT, as you can see the goalposts have shifted since my OP on the subject. I am in touch with the IELTS coordinator at UNSW and he is being most helpful, however, I am still monitoring TV for any interesting replies. One can never have too much information.