IELTS

1. IELTS Gayl Kim Chonnam National University Language Education Center

2. Overview • IELTS • Learner Autonomy • Critical Thinking • Reflective Learning • Self-Assessment • What is the connection?

3. IELTS • What is it? • Test Requirements • Preparing Students

4. IELTS: What is it? • International English Language Testing System. • The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is an internationally owned and globally recognised direct English language assessment of the highest quality and integrity readily available throughout the world. • IELTS is a highly dependable, practical and valid English language assessment primarily used by those seeking international education, professional recognition, bench-marking to international standards and global mobility. • IELTS is owned, developed and delivered through the partnership of • British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. • http://www.ielts.org

5. IELTS: What are the test requirements? • IELTS requires the test taker to be able to: • Produce and understand natural language for a range of purposes commensurate with the real world. • Write in a manner required by academic institutions. • Understand protracted dialogues of authentic spoken English within a natural context. • Use English in an appropriate manner in real life situations.

6. IELTS:How can teachers prepare students for the IELTS test? • Enable students to: • Produce real language in relation to authentic materials and contexts. • Be creative in the acquisition and production process. • Engage in tasks and activities that require the learner to organize and produce language from their existing knowledge base. • Engage in ‘Reflective Learning’ procedures. • Develop Learner Autonomy. • Monitor their own progress.

7. Learner Autonomy • What is it? • Why is necessary? • What does it look like? • What else does it involve?

8. Learner Autonomy • What is it? • The ability of a learner to control one’s own learning in a manner most suitable and productive for that individual. • Why is it necessary? • In order to achieve communicative proficiency learners in formal contexts must be required not simply to practice prefabricated dialogues and role plays, but to use the target language to articulate their own meanings in the fulfillment of communicative purposes that arise naturally in the course of the learning dialogue. The foreign language must be the medium as well as the content of learning. – Little, 1994: p.438

9. Learn AutonomyWhat does it look like?

10. Learner AutonomyWhat else does it involve? • Critical Thinking • Reflective Learning • Self Assessment

11. Critical Thinking • What is it? • What does it involve? • 6 Cognitive Skills • Targeting Skills to the Classroom

12. Critical Thinking • What is it? • Becoming aware that assumptions exist. • Making assumptions explicit. • Assessing their accuracy. • Do these assumptions make sense? • Do these assumptions fit reality as we understandit? • Under what conditions do these assumptions seem to hold true?

13. Critical Thinking:What does it involve? • The six cognitive skills: • Interpretation • Analysis • Evaluation • Inference • Explanation • Self-regulation

14. Critical Thinking:How can these skills be targeted in the classroom? • Using the vocabulary of critical thinkers. • Involving students in role plays where people holdconflicting views. • Encourage students to use qualifiers and recognize contradictions. • Supplement textbooks with additional authentic materials. • Have students attempt to solve real life problems. • Explore methods used to develop knowledge in a particular discipline or field. • Askstudents questions with multiple answers or several equally correct answers. • Have students analyze the content of popular media. • Increase students' will or motivation to behave reflectively.

15. Reflective Learning • What is it? • What is a reflective learner? • Why should it be taught? • Student benefits • How can teachers implement it? • Classroom activities

16. Reflective Learning • What is it? • Reflection is the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder, carefully and persistently, its meaning to the self through the development of inferences. • Learning is the creation of meaning from past or current events that serves as a guide for future behaviour.

17. Reflective Learning:What is a Reflective Learner? A person who reflects on: • What they are learning. • How they are learning it. • How they are using what they learn. • What their strengths and weaknesses are. • How they can actively improve their learning.

18. Reflective Learning:Why should it be taught? • Benefits to the student are: • Raise the awareness of the learner’s own language learning behaviours. • Analyse which of these behaviours are most productive. • Be aware of the changes in learning procedures over time and promote a process of discovery. • Create an environment conducive to self assessment. • Learn about language, through language.

19. Reflective Learning:How can teachers implement it? • Classroom activities include: • Journal writing • Prescribed writing sessions at the end of exercises. • Learner contracts. • Diary and autobiographical writing. • Learning partners (peer-assisted learning).

20. Self-Assessment • What is it? • What form does it take? • What are the benefits?

21. Self-Assessment • What is it? • The ability of a student to observe, analyze, and judge performance on the basis of criteria and determine how it can be improved. • What form does it take? It can take many forms, including: • writing conferences • discussion (whole-class or small-group) • reflection logs • weekly self-evaluations • self-assessment checklists and inventories • teacher-student interviews

22. Self-Assessment:What are the benefits? When students are collaborators in assessment, they: • Develop the habit of self-reflection. • Learn the qualities of good work. • How to judge their work against these qualities. • How to step back from their work to assess their own efforts and feelings of accomplishment. • How to set personal goals.

23. Overview • IELTS • Learner Autonomy • Critical Thinking • Reflective Learning • Self-Assessment • What is the connection?

24. What is the connection to IELTS? • As the IELTS test endevours to test real or everyday language within authentic contexts, the practice of ‘teaching to the test’ becomes far more problematic. Authentic reading passages, authentic listening situations - including a range of accents, academic writing and face to face conversation demand a more thorough general knowledge of not only linguistic features but also pragmatics (not to mention general knowledge). In order to achieve this standard (as required by overseas universities), the learner must be aware of the subtleties of language exchange and paralinguistic forms of communication. Such awareness is achieved through the learner’s commitment to their own learning and being an active participant in the learning process.

25. Thank you. • Created and researched by Gayl Kim