How to teach IELTS: Everything you need to know

By Martin Curtis

Category: Teacher Resources

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

Teaching IELTS can be an incredibly rewarding experience. As teachers, we have the opportunity to help our students achieve life-changing goals, whether that’s securing a university place, advancing their career or moving to a new country. Many classrooms are filled with highly motivated learners driven by ambition, yet their progress is often overshadowed by the anxiety and pressure of passing the exam.

So, what’s the best way to support your students on IELTS exam courses? In this blog, we’ll explore how to teach IELTS effectively, offering key strategies, advice and pointers to some excellent resources to make your lessons both engaging and successful.

What is IELTS?

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is one of the most widely recognized English language proficiency tests globally. The exam is designed to assess the four key skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking. It’s very often a high-stakes exam for students who are aiming to study, work or live in an English-speaking environment. So, it comes with a lot of pressure on both students and teachers to be at the very top of their game.

There are two versions of the examination: IELTS Academic, mostly for university admission, and IELTS General Training, typically required for migration or professional purposes. Each module is scored on a nine-band scale, with the all-important target score depending on the institution or authority involved. For example, this could be a 5.0 for undergraduate students entering university in the UAE, 7.5 for entry into Ivy League universities in the USA or a 5.0 to be a care worker in the UK.

The main challenges faced by students taking IELTS

Many students approach IELTS feeling anxious and overwhelmed, even those who are proficient in English, and it’s easy to see why. To help your learners succeed, it’s best to be aware of some of the main challenges they might face during the process of preparing for the IELTS exam. Here are a few:

  • Unfamiliarity with the exam format: The variety of tasks and strict timing can be quite scary, especially for first-time candidates. This can present a challenge to even the most advanced of learners.
  • Imbalanced skills: Students often excel in one area, such as listening, while struggling with others, like writing or speaking. This is identified as a ‘jagged profile’ in exam results and is particularly prevalent in the Middle East, for example, where students are often more proficient in speaking and listening than reading and writing.
  • Time pressure: Managing time effectively during the exam, especially in reading and writing sections, is a frequent challenge for most learners.
  • Cultural and linguistic barriers: Students from non-English speaking backgrounds may struggle to grasp certain aspects of idiomatic language and cultural references.
  • Intellectual and critical thinking barriers: This can be a challenge in the writing section, where candidates are expected to analyze data or read between the lines. It might well be something some candidates, particularly younger ones, struggle with in their first language.

Your role is crucial in helping students to overcome these challenges. With that in mind, you’ll wear two hats in the IELTS classroom: one as an IELTS teacher and the other as an exam trainer. Your mission is simple – you need to help build students’ confidence and refine their skills. Explain your part in this process to students, and they’ll soon trust your insider knowledge of the exam, as well as your language teaching skills.

Effective teaching tips and strategies for IELTS

Teaching IELTS successfully requires a course plan with a clear and structured approach, and it’s especially important to manage the students’ expectations from the start of their preparation course. Let’s look at some strategies to help you support your students in achieving their best results.

Setting realistic expectations

When I taught IELTS in the UAE, students all too often had unrealistic target scores, which were expected to be reached within an unrealistic timeframe. To overcome this, and to manage expectations, it’s always useful for them to sit two pre-course tests:

  1. Firstly, a diagnostic or CEFR-aligned placement test to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Try the Dynamic Placement Test from Clarity – it’s adaptive, and the instructions are available in many languages, including Arabic.
  2. Secondly, it’s a good idea to have them complete a past paper in the student’s chosen IELTS paper (Academic or General) under strict exam conditions. This is vital as students often struggle with time management, particularly when they’re unfamiliar with the exam, and this will be one of the key elements in preparing students for it.

Doing both a CEFR-aligned placement test and an IELTS past paper gives the student and their teacher an idea of the correct blend of language development and exam preparation necessary for their preparation course.

Get students familiar with the exam format

Start your course by introducing students to the structure and timing of each section of the IELTS exam. Familiarity with the format and timings of each paper can really help to reduce exam anxiety and enable you to plan your lessons to cater to the students’ specific needs.

Teach specific exam strategies

Each section of the IELTS exam poses different challenges. It is important to train your students to apply the right strategies to tackle them effectively. Here are a few example strategies for each of the four sections they’ll have to do:

  1. Listening
    • Train students to predict answers by analyzing questions before listening to the audio.
    • Highlight the importance of synonyms, as IELTS listening questions often paraphrase the audio.
  2. Reading
    • Focus on skimming and scanning techniques to quickly locate key information within a text.
    • Help students understand question types, such as matching headings or true/false/not given tasks.
  3. Writing
    • Break down the two tasks so students know exactly what they have to do: Task 1 (describing graphs for Academic or writing letters for General Training) and Task 2 (essay writing).
    • Provide clear templates for common essay structures, but encourage students to personalize their responses.
  4. Speaking
    • Conduct mock interviews to simulate exam conditions. There are plenty of these available online, but make sure the material is from a trusted source.
    • Teach students to expand their answers and display a range of vocabulary and grammar in a natural manner.

Make the most of practice papers

Practice papers are an essential tool for IELTS exam preparation. They familiarize students with question types and allow them to track their progress.

When using practice papers, create exam-like conditions to refine time management skills. Afterwards, review the results in detail to identify areas for improvement. If a student attains a poor score in a practice paper, help them to understand the shortcomings that were based on gaps in language proficiency versus other factors, such as lack of planning, misunderstanding the rubric, time management and checking answers.

You can then create a strategy to help them either improve their language or think more carefully about their methods and processes when approaching an exam task. 

Use published IELTS materials

While practice papers are invaluable, published learning materials allow students to engage with real-world tasks. For instance, Garnet Education’s Pathway to IELTS and IELTS Target series offer comprehensive courses tailored to different student levels, so the student can work towards the score they need with the efficacy of extended learning and practice rather than banging their heads against the wall with past papers. These resources not only prepare students for the exam, but also focus on building essential language skills for long-term success.

Moving forward with IELTS

Supporting students to succeed in IELTS is about more than just exam strategies. It’s about helping them develop their ability to communicate effectively in English – both in the test and beyond. By introducing them to the exam format, focusing on key skills and using materials written by experts, you can make a significant difference to their long-term retention of the language and not just getting the result they need.

For teachers looking for IELTS course materials, Garnet’s Pathway to IELTS and IELTS Target series provide structured support for various levels of readiness. These resources offer practical tools to guide students to success, equipping them to face the challenges of IELTS with confidence.

Whether you’re an experienced IELTS instructor or new to the field, always remember that your guidance can transform lives with these high-stakes exams. No pressure, then!

About the author

Martin Curtis, the Academic Director of Garnet Education, is an experienced ELT teacher trainer and a former IELTS examiner with over 20 years’ experience in diverse educational settings. His career includes teaching English at primary, secondary and professional levels in Greece, Russia and Germany, as well as delivering IELTS preparation and Business English courses in the UAE.

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