What can be learned from memorizing model IELTS essays?
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:14 pm
Many IELTS candidates fail to achieve the writing mark they need because of poor grammar. But how should you go about improving grammar? And are there strategies to train for grammatical patterns that maximize IELTS performance?
The truth of the matter is that a strategy used by one candidate may not prove effective for another. So keeping that in mind, today I’d like to present one strategy that you may wish to experiment with and test whether effective for you or not. This strategy is one I regularly recommend for my in-class students, particularly those with weak grammar, and it does get results. As you've probably guessed from the title of this post, the strategy is to take model essays and memorize them word for word.
Of course, I don’t mean to regurgitate model essays on your actual IELTS exam. This would result in your writing attempt being labeled invalid and you would have to take the IELTS again. My suggestion is more the idea that through repeatedly reproducing model essays word for word (i.e. every comma, every capital letter, every line skip, ... ), you train your eyes and ears to recognize accurate grammatical patterns.
What ends up happening when you exercise yourself enough using this strategy is that you will start to naturally adapt sentence structures to your own writing.
Below is a video I've pulled together that goes into more detail than the above. Tune in for examples of how to use the reproducing of IELTS model tasks to your advantage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ncHAQsdWW8
The truth of the matter is that a strategy used by one candidate may not prove effective for another. So keeping that in mind, today I’d like to present one strategy that you may wish to experiment with and test whether effective for you or not. This strategy is one I regularly recommend for my in-class students, particularly those with weak grammar, and it does get results. As you've probably guessed from the title of this post, the strategy is to take model essays and memorize them word for word.
Of course, I don’t mean to regurgitate model essays on your actual IELTS exam. This would result in your writing attempt being labeled invalid and you would have to take the IELTS again. My suggestion is more the idea that through repeatedly reproducing model essays word for word (i.e. every comma, every capital letter, every line skip, ... ), you train your eyes and ears to recognize accurate grammatical patterns.
What ends up happening when you exercise yourself enough using this strategy is that you will start to naturally adapt sentence structures to your own writing.
Below is a video I've pulled together that goes into more detail than the above. Tune in for examples of how to use the reproducing of IELTS model tasks to your advantage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ncHAQsdWW8