Listening Confidently

By Chanpichdanita Chhim, ACE GEP 12 Student

I presented a GILC Talk titled “Listening Confidently”. The session covered some personal tips that may help IELTS examinees to do better on their listening tests. The tips are concise and to the point for ease of use. Moreover, I find remembering keywords much easier than whole sentences. Hopefully, this will make it easier for people to remember the tips. The tips are the following:

Be familiar with the making scheme
Listen, not hear
Predict the answers
Be wary of multiple choice questions
Listen for repeated information
Never leave blank answers
Double check numbers and names
Focus on each question
Prioritise

After explaining the tips, I spoke very briefly about my IELTS experience, however, I didn’t have time to get to the part where I got lost and couldn’t find the examination hall until the very last minute. After revising the tips one more time, I gave listeners a quick practice on multiple choice questions to test their abilities. The talk ended with me going through the correct answers.

I chose this topic because, amongst all the skills, I felt most confident about listening. Although I am not too bad with the others, I have the most tips to share about this skill. Not only have I thought about this skill for some time, I have also completed a fair amount of research on this before my qualification exams. I believe this gives me a more in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of the listening skill. Moreover, it is an easy topic to talk about. As odd as this may sound, certain topics just flow easier for certain people depending on their interests and past experiences. Having studied with and been mentored by a great teacher who spoke with a lisp, who was very passionate about English, gave me leverage.

I believe the session benefited the attendees in a variety of ways, but this will depend on how they apply my advice. With practice, they will improve their listening skill significantly.

Activities, Techniques to Improve Your Pronunciation

Devona

By Devona Jackson, Ed.D, Tuol Tom Poung Teacher

Have you ever wondered why speaking in English is so difficult? Being a native English speaker from America, this is a skill that is so natural to me. From experience, learning a second language is quite difficult and can empathise with others.

In February, I had the opportunity to present a GILC Talk at ACE Tuol Tom Poung Campus. My workshop focused on improving pronunciation in English. Active participation was asked by all participants and to make my presentation a little bit more enjoyable. I also shared ten tips with the participants in ways they can improve their pronunciation skills.

Learn to listen. Before you learn how to speak, you need to learn how to listen. Listen to the various sounds in the language you are trying to learn. When you hear the differences in sounds and use them correctly, you will be able to express yourself more freely.

Pay attention to how your mouth and lips move. Something that I suggest to the participants: talk in front of a mirror or create a video of you speaking and watch it. Notice how your mouth moves in order to produce different sounds.

Pay attention to your tongue. Notice where the sounds are coming from. When you do that, the sounds will come out correctly, with practice of course. Watching YouTube videos are a great way to hear a native speaker teach you where the tongue should be placed while speaking various sounds.

Break down words into syllable patterns. Learn how each syllable sounds when breaking words down. A website that I used to learn this is http://www.howmanysyllables.com.

Add stress to needed syllables. Learn the tricks of syllable patterns. Most two-syllable nouns will have the stress on the first syllable where in two-syllable verbs; the stress is on the second syllable.

Use pronunciation podcasts and videos with assistance to practicing. A couple of good resources that I found useful are: http://www.podcastsinEnglish.com or http://www.pronuncian.com.

Practice with a friend. One thing that I told the participants that I found helpful when I was learning another language is to videotape the person speaking for a couple of minutes, and then have them watch themselves to see if others noticed a difference in how their partner spoke.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes. In learning any language, you will make mistakes. You are not going to get proficient at it unless you get over that fear of making mistakes.

Try to picture the word before speaking it, especially if the word is a noun. From experience, I have taught younger learners to try to get a mental picture of the word before speaking it.

Sing a song. The best thing you can do is listen to music that you enjoy and try to practice rhythm and innovation. Karaoke is a great way to practice this skill. A website that I shared with the participants is http://www.karasongs.com. There are thousands of popular songs that students can choose from.

Through my experiences of learning Spanish as a second language, I have learned that these tips can carry over into any other language that you are learning. These tips will help you become more confident in pronunciation and will help you grow your English language learning abilities. In closing, I know that from experience that the more you practice a language and get over the fear of making mistakes, the more confident you will be in speaking.

Higher Band Score! Besides Practicing, What Else?

By Diana Mony, ACE Santhor Mok Teacher

The topic for my first GILC Talk was “What else can you do in order to score higher in IELTS besides practicing?” This talk was mainly about advice for taking the IELTS test. In this presentation, I demonstrated a number of simple but effective exam techniques for all of the four skills in the IELTS exam. However, before I discussed those main points, I discussed the two most common kinds of students: those who study hard and those who study smart. The candidate who studies hard, dedicates all of his or her time to practicing in a traditional way, while the smart learner would use tips and tricks to get the same result (sometimes better) with less time and less effort. At the end of the presentation, I gave my audience a few useful tips for each skill, which could help them to improve their English not just for the exam but for long-term results.

The reason I chose this unconventional topic is because of my first-hand experience as an IELTS orientation course teacher as well as a candidate who has taken the IELTS test.

As an IELTS teacher, I have noticed that most students conform to the traditional belief that they can only improve by practicing. They focus hard on practicing, but they still get poor, undesirable results, which do not match the time and effort they have put into it. Some students might even become de-motivated by the belief that they achieved this particular IELTS score as a result of their limited abilities. A majority of students misunderstand what practicing IELTS exercises means. Practicing is not a means to magically become an IELTS master. It is only intended to get the candidates familiar with the IELTS test and question types. Once you no longer see improvement in your overall performance from practicing, this is a sign to find new ways to improve yourself: don’t just keep practicing. The advice I presented might seem simple, but they are frequently overlooked by many candidates. However, from the experiment I did with myself as well as my students, by following these techniques, you can get a phenomenal IELTS band score. That is why I want to highlight them to everyone so they can increase their score and their overall IELTS performance.

Quite a number of tips for each skill in IELTS were presented to my audience. A few tips might already be known. But they are the basic techniques for the IELTS exam. Because of their simplicity, those tips are always overlooked by most candidates. In reading and listening tests, everyone knows that it is a common sense to read the questions before finding the answers. However, a lot of candidates fail to do this. Most barely finish reading the questions before the recording starts for the listening test. As for reading, people tend to waste time trying to understand the whole context before they read the questions and answer them. Those tiny and careless mistakes can greatly affect their performance. It is vital to clearly understand what you are looking for before going into the text to find the answers. In addition to these basic but essential techniques, my talk also cleared up the biggest misunderstanding about IELTS Speaking and Writing. The myth is “There is only one right answer”, which is not true at all. Everyone has a different opinion. If ten people were asked the same question, there would be at least five different answers. Most candidates care too much about whether their answers are right or wrong. They are afraid that the answers in their writing or speaking tests would be different from the examiner. But, if we look at the four marking criteria, there is no assessment on right or wrong ideas. It is only about how you respond and express your ideas into words with accuracy in terms of grammar and vocabulary. By understanding those kind of tips and tricks, candidates can bring out their best performances during the exam.

At the end of the day, all I want is for my audience to know how to maximise their own potential by finding a balance between studying hard and studying smart. By following these guidelines, students or candidates should be able to spend less time and effort preparing for the IELTS exam, feel relaxed without any pressure from the exam, and gain more in their overall performance as those tips can facilitate their preparation for the exam and increase their band scores all at once.

IELTS Listening: Problems and Solutions in Section 4

Douna Lim

By Douna Lim, ACE Santhor Mok Teacher

I began my presentation with an introduction to the format of the IELTS Listening test, including the number of sections, questions, and approximate duration. Then I focused on the last section, Listening Section 4. I covered four main points: format and topic, question types, root problems, and keys and tips. I wanted students to be familiar with the format and topic type in that section.

Only three of the most common question types were discussed followed by a small warm-up on identifying question types. Afterwards, I had students recall the problems they encountered with the test. After all of the obstacles in Listening Part 4 had been raised, the audience was asked to offer solutions. I revealed my tips and other advice. With the addition of these keys and tips, they were ready to apply them in activities. I concluded my talk with some recommended resources which students can work with to boost their confidence in listening. The final phase of the talk was a Q&A.

The most important reason for choosing this topic is that there is a vital point about listening that I wanted to reveal: There is nothing among the four macro skills easier to practice than listening. Of course some people claim that it is the most difficult skill to master; on the other hand, it is the most accessible skill to practice. You need a listener to practice speaking and a work space to write, whereas reading is somehow less controlled. You can read while travelling, sunbathing or having breakfast. In contrast, it is impossible for the above skills to be done while you are driving, working out at the gym, jogging or when you are lying on a bed with the light off. What about listening? It is a yes on all accounts. You just put on your headphones or turn the car radio on, and tune into the English-speaking channel. Students certainly have more chances to work on listening than any of the other skills.

Workarounds for Difficult Reading Questions

Sowann Khy

By Sowann Khy, ACE Santhor Mok Teacher

This GIL Centre Talk was about “How to Work Around Difficult Reading Questions”. In the session, I picked three types of questions. I then gave the audience examples and ideas as well as my strategies to answer the questions. The session also covered other topics such as changing their mindset and how they should practice. This topic is intended to provide examples for students who are taking the IELTS test to give them some idea of what they should be looking for and how they should prepare themselves beforehand.

Most people believe strongly that endless practice will result in a good band score, but they always find themselves getting a score that they are not satisfied with. The problem does not lie in the practice; it is about how they practice. Practicing should be used to indicate their strong skills and their weak ones, so they can focus on the subjects that need more help. By joining my presentation, the listener saw what methods I used to achieve a good band score in IELTS Reading. They can then use these ideas to improve their own score.

In addition, this should be a wake-up call for those who are not taking the test seriously and hopefully will encourage people to apply themselves in the IELTS test. The reason I chose this topic was that I used to have problems with reading. I used to spend most of the time reading blindly. I tried to read a whole newspaper every spare moment that I had, but that didn’t pay off because once I finished reading all the articles I couldn’t understand a thing about the news I had read. I started looking on the internet and questioning previous IELTS takers and teachers. After asking about a dozen people, it dawned upon me what I should focus on to reach a high score in IELTS Reading. An aim of the GILC Talk was to share what I’ve learned so the listeners would not have to spend as much time as me searching for solutions and asking for tips from a lot of people.

The talk was beneficial for students because learning in class is not enough. They also have to learn from other people’s experiences in order to avoid making mistakes and wasting time. The GILC Talks are useful because the audience wants to see speakers talking about their experience in not only reading but also speaking and writing. They want to know how other people find solutions to the IELTS challenge.

GILC Talk Feedback, Term 4, 2016

Presenter: Masonita Por

Topic: A Collection of Strategies in IELTS Speaking

“What I like the most about the talk is about the useful tips that can help me in the real IELTS exam.”

— Chhay Lyheang, GEP 12

“This talk will improve my speaking skills by using correct grammar.”

— Kuoch Sovandara, GEP 12

“This talk is very interactive with the audience, and there is practice at the end.”

— Khan Mouyleng, IELTS candidate

“The presenter’s tips will help me to be prepared for the test.”

— Kor Silminh, GEP 9B

Presenter: Chanpichdanita Chhim