VOCABULARY related to Christmas

As we are approaching the holiday season we thought the topic should be something to do with Christmas. Have a great Christmas holiday wherever you are in the world.  

Let 2014 bring peace, health and happiness to you, your families and the world.

The Istanbul IELTS Team

VOCABULARY	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
DONATION	money or goods that are given to help a person or organization, or the act of giving them	On special occasions such as Christmas and Eid people tend to be generous and give gifts or food to neighbours, friends and the poor.
EVE	the period or day before an important event	24 December, the day before Christmas Day / the last day of the year 31 December.
GATHER	a party or a meeting when many people come together as a group	On Christmas Day in many countries around the world, families and relatives gather together to enjoy and celebrate Christmas together.
TRADITIONAL	a belief, principle, or way of acting that people in a particular society have      continued to follow for a long time	A traditional Christmas dinner especially in the UK is usually a turkey, with cranberries and roast potatoes followed by a Christmas pudding.
RESOLUTIONS	a promise to yourself to do or to not do something	Every year I make a resolution that I will lead a healthier lifestyle and start going to the gym. For 2014, one of my resolutions is that I am definitely going to start looking after myself.

Christmas is celebrated by billions of people around the world by Christians and non-Christians.  People start getting ready for their Christmas holidays on Christmas EVE (24^th December) when families and friends start GATHERING in anticipation of Christmas Day. The TRADITIONAL food on Christmas Day is turkey with lots of side dishes and followed by Christmas pudding.  The followıng day, on Boxing Day (26^th December) people and especially the Church make DONATIONS to those who need it the most.   Then on New Year’s EVE    (31^st December) everyone starts getting prepared for the arrival of the New Year and when people start making RESOLUTIONS of things they will do and thing they will not do for the following year.

IELTS Topic based vocabulary CHILDREN & FAMILY

CHILDREN & FAMILY is a topic that usually comes up in the IELTS speaking test and in Task 2 writing.  Here are just a few words to help you along on the topic of FAMILY.

VOCABULARY	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
bring up	to take care of and educate a child until he/she is an adult.	Some parents need to bring up their children more strictly in order to instil some discipline.
overprotective	being too worried about someone's safety, especially a child.	Some parents tend to be too overprotective of their children.
nuclear family	a family consisting of two parents and their children, but not including aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.	In some parts of the world the nuclear family remains at the heart of modern society.
extended family	a family unit which includes grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles, etc. in addition to parents and children who live together or live close to each other.	In many cultures, such as in those of many  Southern European countries, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans and Latin Americans extended families are the basic family unit.
birth rate	The total ration of live births in a specified population in a community over a particular period of time and is usually defined as live births out of 1000.	The lowest birth rates tend to be in developed countries.  The government showed record-low birth rates 63.2 per 1000 women, was the lowest ever recorded.

It is commonly believed that the BIRTH RATES in Europe and Japan are decreasing whilst in other parts of the world the birth rates are increasing. This also reflects on the culture and how the family structure is constructed.

The way children are BROUGHT UP  varies from culture to culture with many cultures believe that living with the EXTENDED FAMILY will give the parents the support to those who need it.  In contrast, families in the US and UK tend to be more of the NUCLEAR FAMILY.  Personally, I believe the extended family network is great but at the same time I think children from extended families are OVERPROTECTED.

IELTS Test dates Istanbul 2014

IELTS Vocabulary - Festivals and Culture

IELTS Vocabulary on the topic of Festivals and Culture:

VOCABULARY	DEFINITON	EXAMPLE
Pageant	A show that happens outside in which people dress and act as if they are from a time in history.	The school organized pageants in the village to raise funds in order to start a museum.
Feast	A large meal, especially to celebrate something special.	The family made a festive meal during for Thanksgiving.
Rituals	An activity or a set of actions that are always done in the same way or at the same time, sometimes as part of a religion.	Coffee and the newspaper are generally part of many people’s morning rituals.
Tradition	a way of behaving that has continued for a long time in a group of people or a society.	There is a strong tradition of local folk dances in various parts of Turkey.
Celebration	To do something enjoyable because it is a special day such as birthdays, religious festivities, New Year’s or because something good has happened.	Do you celebrate New Year’s Day in your country?

IELTS and TOEFL band score comparisons

TOEFL Score	IELTS Band
0–31	0–4
32–34	4.5
35–45	5
46–59*	5.5
60–78*	6
79–93*	6.5
94–101*	7
102–109*	7.5
110–114	8
115–117	8.5
118–120	9

* Indicates score comparison ranges with the highest degree of confidence

Source: http://www.ets.org/toefl/institutions/scores/compare/ 

IELTS VOCABULARY - Holidays / Travel

HOLIDAYS / TRAVEL

VOCABULARY	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Mass tourism	Mass tourism is the act of visiting a destination with large amounts of people at one time, such as Antalya and the effect that large amounts of people can have on a particular destination in terms of local economy, environment etc.	Mass tourism is a problem which needs urgent attention in particular to the environment.
Ecotourism	Holidays for people who would like to help local people and not damage the environment.  Also known as ecological tourism is responsible travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and usually small scale. It educates travellers; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.	Ecotourism is a form of tourism that involves visiting natural areas.
Adjectival tourism	Adjectival tourism refers to the specialty forms of tourism that has emerged over the years, each with its own adjective. Many of these have come into common use by the tourism industry and academics examples include: medical tourism, cultural tourism, wildlife tourism and so on.	Turkey attracts medical tourists from countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Culture shock	The feeling of shock and confusion someone has when they go to a new and very different place that is very different to the way they are accustomed to.	The first few days in China was a bit of a culture shock.
Youth hostel	A cheap, simple hotel, especially for young people who are travelling. The traditional hostel format involves dormitory style accommodation.	Gap-year students and rail-trippers tend to stay at hostels as it is cheaper and a perfect place to meet other travellers.

MASS TOURISM is definitely increasing and 2012 saw a record break with 1 billion tourists travelling globally for the first time in history, most of these tourists went to European countries. MASS TOURISM is definitely getting cheaper every year and more destinations are opening.  Other forms of tourism are also increasing and what is known as ADJECTIVAL TOURISM which means each form of tourism has its own adjective such as winter tourism, pro-poor tourism, educational tourism (e.g. Erasmus), sports tourism, dark tourism, doom tourism and many more. 

For few people travelling to places outside their comfort zone could suffer from CULTURE SHOCK, but they could recover after a few days or weeks.

IELTS VOCABULARY - TOPIC BASED - EDUCATION

For the first of many topics to be posted is EDUCATION

VOCABULARY	DEFINTION	EXAMPLE
Tuition	Teaching, especially when given to a small group or one person, such as in a college or university	Free language tuition in French, German or Spanish is offered to students enrolled on the course.
Tuition fees	Tuition fees - the money paid to an educational institution for teaching.	Few can afford the tuition fee of $30,000 a year at that school.
Qualification	You receive this when you pass an exam or a course.	What qualifications do you need to be a pilot?
Degree	a qualification given for completing a university course	I have a degree in economics from the University of Cambridge.
Enrol	to become an official member of a course, college or university	I've enrolled on an IELTS preparation course at Istanbul IELTS.

In some countries the education system is great where families and students do not need to worry about the quality of education and the financing of their education, but in other countries this is a different story.  I think there are a lot of schools where the tuition fees are very high and the education is not that great.  So families have to pay for private tuition for their child who may need further support with their learning. After students finish high school they may not able to enrol at one of the best universities and this may affect what type of qualification they receive when they graduate.  A good degree from a good university does not always guarantee a good career but I believe it helps.

...IELTS GENERAL WRITING TASK 2 continued

After a little bit of a break...

 

The first thing to do is to understand what the topic is before you start writing. You must answer all parts of the question. What do we mean by “all parts of the question”?  Some writing tasks ask you to maybe give opinions or discuss views or advantages and disadvantages. You need to look at the question/task carefully and answer all parts of the question.

 

You need to be able to make your position clear, provide main ideas, followed by supporting ideas as well as examples. Do NOT forget to write an introduction and a conclusion.

 

What if I don’t know how to start the writing?

 

As I mentioned above you must understand the question first, analyse the question. You should spend no more than TWO minutes on this.

 

Brainstorm as many ideas as you can, it does not matter at this stage if the ideas are not related/silly etc. at this stage all ideas are good ideas. You should spend about 2-3 minutes. Brainstorming helps to bring all your ideas together, so during the writing task you will not be erasing all the time.

 

Plan your answer. Which idea are you going to use in which paragraph, how can you support your ideas. The examiner will be looking at how your essay is planned.  (The examiner will not be looking at your plan, but will be able to see from your writing how you planned your essay). Spend around TWO minutes planning your essay.

 

Now, begin writing your essay. Make sure you follow your plan as you write as this will save you time and energy as you have all your ideas written down. As you are writing, make sure you use reference words (e.g. these, those, this, there etc.).  Approximately 28 minutes to write your essay.

 

After you have written each paragraph, count the number of words you have written in each paragraph and make a note for yourself.  As you need to write 250 words, if your word count is less.  then you will lose points and you may only get a maximum band score of 5 in Task Achievement.

 

Once you have finished writing make sure you check your writing. Check for spelling mistakes, word formation, grammar etc. Trust me, when you check your writing you will find mistakes in your writing and this could possibly gain at least a half band score. Save around 5 minutes to check your writing.

 

Good luck with your essay writing!

 

 

IELTS General WRITING TASK 2

GENERAL WRITING TASK 2

Task 2 is a topic on which you have to write a discursive (discussion) essay. The topic may be in the form of a statement or a question. Sometimes different or opposing views are expressed; sometimes there is one view to discuss.

In Writing Task 2 you will receive a topic and you will have to write an essay of 250 words.
This task has more weight than the Writing task 1. It also takes longer – 40 minutes.

Any essay you write on any topic must have structure – you will earn more points. Structure means having at least 4-5 paragraphs. The first paragraph is introductory, the next two or three are the actual essay body, and the final paragraph is the conclusion.

I'll post more at a later date...

General Writing IELTS Task 1 - Letter writing - Introduction

As the General IELTS is becoming more common among employees working for organisations and for immigration purposes, here is some information especially for them.

TASK 1 LETTER WRITING.

You will always get a letter to write in Task 1 of the General IELTS examination.  The letter could be formal or informal and you need to be able to adjust your writing style and tone accordingly.

You have to write at least 150 words, if you write less than 150 words you will start losing marks.  On the other hand, if you write too much you may lose marks as you will probably make more mistakes.  Try to keep to a maximum of 175 words.

The instructions will tell you who to write your letter to and there are THREE bulleted points that you must fully address.

There are generally two types of letter that you will come across in Task 1, either an informal letter to a friend or a formal letter asking for assistance from an organisation, writing to a magazine or newspaper, applying for a job, letter giving advice etc. 

How do you start a informal letter?

In an  informal letter the language is friendly and shows a clear relationship between the writer and reader such as: "Hi Bob, how are you? We haven't been in contact for such a long time!  How is your family? etc.

On the other hand,  a formal letter would be direct and to the point.  Expect to start with something like "I am writing in reference to...."; "Could you please...."

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 - getting started

IELTS ACADEMIC WRITING TASK 2

Before we start, let’s review what was mentioned in the introduction for IELTS Academic Writing Task2:

1)      You must write at least 250 words

2)      Approximately 40 minutes to write the essay

3)      Understand the question asked

4)      Understand all parts of the question/statement

5)      Brainstorm ideas

6)      Plan your essay
7)   Four to five paragraph essay

8)      Write essay

9)      CHECK your essay!!

Ok, let’s have a look at a question.  Analyse the question first of all and think what you have been asked to do.

Some people say that governments need to do more to prevent damage to the environment. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

1. Understand the question: This question specifically asks for your view on whether governments need to do more to protect the environment.  DO NOT talk about climate change, global warming etc as the question is asking what governments need to do.
2. Plan: What is your position in this essay? Have a look at the following approaches and decide which is most appropriate for you:

•     Agree: governments need to do more and give reasons to explain your ideas
•     Disagree: governments do not need to do more and give reasons to explain your ideas
•    Both sides: discuss that governments are doing things which is not enough and that they could  do more

The following is an essay structure for the first argument (agree with the statement).

INTRODUCTION

•   A lot of damage done to the environment by manufacturing industries.
•   Terrible consequences on the planet. 
•   In my opinion, governments must do more to prevent this.

BODY PARAGRAPH 1

•   Governments should force pollution taxes on polluting companies.
•   Encourage companies to change their polluting practices.

BODY PARAGRAPH 2

•   Tough penalties for polluting companies.
•   Hold companies responsible for the damage they cause.

BODY PARAGRAPH 3

•  Governments should educate about harmful effects to the environment.
•  Increase awareness and people will respond and take action to prevent damaging effects.

CONCLUSION

•  Highlight previous points already stated.
•  Climate change a result of damage.
•  Serious effects for everyone around the globe. 

 Now you have a plan on how to write this essay.  Why don't you try writing this essay and posting it on the blog. Let's try some peer-to-peer checking for this essay.

Good luck!