How to become an IELTS Expert

What to do to become an IELTS Expert

If you want to become confident in teaching IELTS, here is your action plan:

• Know the test well
• Know how to assess writing/speaking
• Know how to prepare students for IELTS listening/reading/writing/speaking

So, being an effective IELTS teacher includes the knowledge of the test itself, of the assessment and methodology.

What to do to master all these 3 areas?

What to do to know the test well?

- Do IELTS Listening and Reading from Cambridge Tests 16 book (the book with official tests) and check with the keys. You’ll get to know the format and would feel the level of challenge.

- Know how to do typical IELTS Listening and Reading tasks by reading about the strategies. Use these books:

This one has good listening strategies and task types. It's a bit old, but useful especially if you're new to IELTS or have lower level students.

This book has all kinds of listening task types/topics and loads of exam strategies. A great one to use as there are all sorts of strategies there.

- Take a mock IELTS

You can take the test online from Cambridge or ask your local test centre for mock IELTS tests.

How to learn to assess writing/speaking?

- Take Cambridge IELTS Tests 10-16 and read the samples at the back of the book. You’ll see sample answers with the examiner’s comments and the scores. This could help you understand the standards.

Here’s what you can find in these books:

- Go to YouTube and watch official speaking videos with scores from Cambridge: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcZJFoCjX0S9N4Gcn5tD3SA

How to prepare students for IELTS listening/reading/writing/speaking?

When you start teaching IELTS, it’s better to choose an IELTS coursebook and follow the tasks there. Then, little by little you’ll get to know various books and lesson procedures and you can supplement your main coursebook with other tasks/activities.

- Read these useful articles on what to do in your classes:

What to do in Your First IELTS Class?: https://yourielts.net/teachers/what-to-do-in-your-first-ielts-class

IELTS Writing Graphs Lesson Stages: https://yourielts.net/teachers/ielts-writing-graphs-lesson-stages

IELTS Listening and Reading Teaching Tips: https://yourielts.net/teachers/ielts-listening-and-reading-teaching-tips

- Take a Teacher Training programme

How to Teach IELTS: https://yourielts.net/teachers/ielts-for-teachers-course

Experienced IELTS teachers and teachers new to IELTS benefit from this training.
You'll get detailed information about how to grade IELTS writing/speaking and will become more confident with marking.
You'll learn what to do in your IELTS classes to help students with IELTS listening, reading, writing and speaking, what books to use and how to spice up your classes.

During this training we cover all the exam parts and discuss what to do in classes.

Also, if you have CELTA, what you learnt there is true for IELTS classes..
If you don’t have these qualifications, it’s ok, just remember that we should introduce students to all the exam task types + teach them HOW to do these tasks, so teach then exam strategies.
IELTS Tasks + Strategies to do these tasks.

What else should I do?

- Listen to podcasts about IELTS:
IELTS Speaking Podcast: http://fanlink.to/ieltssfs
Writing Podcast: https://fanlink.to/ieltswfs

- Invest in your Professional Development and go to conferences, watch webinars, read articles to upgrade your own teaching.

Check out these ones for professional development:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-events/iatefl-online
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-events/webinars