ExamSpeak Blog

Though I’ve been teaching for quite a few years in Europe I’ve never really taken advantage of any of the strong circles of fellow teachers working around the continent. The Annual IATEFL Conference is a place where they all get together to exchange ideas and learn about what’s happening in the English Language Teaching world.  This year it’s being held in Glasgow (which has been surprisingly warm and sunny).

There’s much more to it than I had thought and if you are an English language teacher you should absolutely go to your boss’s office and start asking about how you can go next year to represent your school.

Lots of cool, curious teachers and teacher support have come over to be curious and show support for what we are doing at ExamSpeak.  For Paul and I who are representing, it’s been amazing getting face-to-face feedback.

It was wonderful seeing the people spread far beyond our expectations.  Absolutely brilliant PhDs languishing, clever recruiters, weary, bleary, cheery stand manners, teachers who have become everything to stay away from classroom teacher wages all wishing to be back, people who see it as a lifestyle, people aspiring to better posts, people trying to write better blog posts, friends, rivals, great friends, name droppers, show stoppers for fanboys.  There are writers.  And guys like our excellent neighbours helping each other help teachers and schools all over.

And we feel quite pleased indeed with how ExamSpeak’s features have been received by IATEFL members.  So here’s our little emotional tribute to IATEFLers everywhere:

IATEFL is… just what it says.

International. Turkey. China. England. Ireland. Dubai. Well over 150 rejected stereotypes even Nepal.

Association. Being here it’s easy to see how we all depend on each other for everything from students to tools to theory.

Teachers. Everything facilitates or directs the teaching of learners.

English. The exquisitely respected way of thinking which hope everyone will be happier knowing.

Foreign.  In spite of how we may want to be able to understand everything there is nothing more everyone seems to treasure than being foreign, unique or indescribable without a story.

Language.  The great mystery we all get around to talking about after ticking the boxes: Life described.

I recently came across an interesting info-graphic showing the most commonly spoken English words based on frequency.

Did you know that 360 words make up 75% of spoken English ?

http://officialandreascy.tumblr.com/post/18898298074/infographic-how-many-words-do-you-need-to-understand

¿Sabía usted que ExamSpeak está disponible en español?

ExamSpeak lo prepara para su prueba de Inglés oral permitiéndole experimentar el examen – antes de hacerlo

Sapevate che ExamSpeak è ora disponibile in italiano?

ExamSpeak vi prepara per la prova di inglese dandovi l’opportunità d’ esercitare l’esame prima di sostenerlo.

Chris Brown (Teacher Support Coordinator) had an interesting poll result in his Cambridge ESOL Teacher Support Ezine recently. When asked ‘What is the most difficult area to teach?’ The answer was…speaking. Speaking came in at 25%, compared to Reading (the ‘easiest’) at 6% and Vocabulary at 11%.

Speaking seems to ‘scare’ teachers in a way that speaking tests, such as IELTS Speaking, scare learners. In my experience, when helping learners with exam preparation for IELTS, regardless of their nationality or gender, they always found IELTS speaking the most daunting. Now a poll suggests that teachers find teaching speaking the most difficult. My own theory is that teachers are a lot better at teaching speaking than they think. Perhaps it seems more difficult because they feel more exposed; perhaps they question their own clarity of speech and their own accents. In the same way students feel exposed during a speaking test. They are face to face with the examiner; they have to say something…

As ever, my solution for learners taking the IELTS speaking test or other speaking components of EFL exams, is to put all your effort into preparation and mock tests, then on the day, relax, be yourself, and speak freely!

Did you know that you can gain marks in your English speaking test by asking for help?

When you have a conversation in your native language, you don’t always understand everything or hear everything correctly first time. When this happens, you simply ask for help.

Sorry could you repeat that please?

I’m sorry,I don’t understand.

The same is true when you are learning English. If you don’t understand, ask for help – this shows you can communicate in English.

See the quotation below from the CUP Key English Test handbook for teachers

‘Candidates are given credit for being able to ask for repetition or clarification where necessary’.