How to find a good IELTS teacher
There are so many teachers and schools out there that it can be hard to know what’s good and what’s not – and there’s a lot of ‘not’!
Over the last 15 years that IELTS has been in China, the scores for Reading and Listening have increased at a rate almost DOUBLE that for Speaking and Writing. Currently, the average scores for Chinese test takers is about 5.3 for Writing, and 5.4 for Speaking. So, on average, Chinese students are slightly better at speaking than at writing English (SBF can explain why – and how to fix this problem!) What these scores tell me is that the ‘tricks’ that teachers are using don’t work (and, they don’t!)
Many students in China seem to think that just being famous is a good indicator of a ‘good’ school. This is not true! As an example, I applied to teach at one of the most famous English language schools in China, to teach IELTS, telling them “I am an IELTS examiner”. I was asked only one question – “Can we use that (IELTS examiner) in our marketing?” Because they couldn’t, they weren’t interested in hiring me. What that says is – this ‘famous’ school wasn’t interested in real teaching – only in making pretty posters designed to take your money!
So, how can you find a good teacher?
Well, you need to ask a few questions of the school or teacher you’re considering giving your money to…
- Who taught you IELTS?
This is a pretty basic question, but you’d be surprised just how many teachers out there haven’t actually been ‘taught’ IELTS, and certainly not by anyone who actually knows IELTS – not the marking criteria, and certainly not what IELTS examiners are actually looking for.
At best, you’re likely to get one of two answers. Either, “a teacher who was here longer than I”, or “I learned from the IELTS book”. Well, if you are told the first, then you again need to ask “who taught them?” If they learned IELTS from a book, then they don’t really know IELTS, do they?
To have a GOOD teacher of IELTS, they need to know what IELTS is about. And that can ONLY come from someone personally experienced with the IELTS marking criteria, and what it all means!
- Do you know and teach the marking criteria?
Let me ask you something – how can you get the score that you want, if you don’t know how to get it?
The answer is – you can’t – unless you get very very lucky!
British Council, Cambridge ESOL and IDP Australia – the three partners for IELTS – have published a ‘Public Version’ of the (confidential) marking criteria. They can be used as a guide to determine (approximately) what band scores you can get for your writing and speaking tests. These public versions are FREE on the IELTS.org website. And, of course, if you are familiar with these criteria, then you can be confident of the score you can get – because you’ll know you’ve done enough to reach the band you’re after (or, you’ll know why you didn’t).
I’ve taught students who had been ‘studying’ IELTS for more than a year at an ‘IELTS training centre’, who had never seen the marking criteria…!!!
Your teachers should be teaching you these public version band descriptors, and using them in EVERY class. You need to understand concepts such as ‘flexibility’ for Lexical Resource & GRA. You need to know what ‘pronunciation features’ are for speaking. You need to be able to point to a paper and show how it has ‘progression’.
(here’s a simple question to ask them – what’s the difference between ‘coherence’ and ‘cohesion’? Remember, the C&C criteria is worth 25% of your score in the Writing tasks)
If your teachers are not teaching you the public version of the band descriptors (marking criteria), then you NEED TO FIND A NEW TEACHER! If your school doesn’t use them – FIND A NEW SCHOOL!
(you should also look at this link to really get an idea of what I’m talking about)
- How much do you get paid?
This might seem like a strange question, but think about it like this. If you’re in a class of 10 students, and your teacher is only getting paid 100RMB per hour (when you are paying 100RMB each), then it means the school is taking 90% of the money.
For what?
Pretty posters. Catchy TV and internet ads. Wechat group subscriptions and posts. The boss’ new BMW?
What I’m getting at is – if the teachers aren’t making a lot of money, it usually means they aren’t worth a lot of money! And they’re the ones who are teaching you!!!! Pretty posters and catchy ads won’t get you the 6.5 you need! Only the teacher can do that!
Either that, or the school doesn’t truly value education… and do you really want to go to a school that is LESS interested in you and your dreams? They think that just taking your money is more important than teaching you what you need to know.
A GOOD school values its teachers, and it pays GOOD teachers well to keep them.
Remember – the ONLY thing that matters is – can they get you the score you want in the shortest time possible?
- What’s their IELTS score?
A very important question – especially for the Speaking and Writing tests!! Do you want a teacher who only got 7.0 in writing (once) teaching you? Or do you want someone who can get 9.0?
This is true especially if your teachers don’t know either the marking criteria, or haven’t been taught by a qualified or trained IELTS expert, because it means that they’re just guessing that what they did will work for you… and that’s rarely the case!
When you ask this question, don’t just accept their overall IELTS score. Find out what individual test scores they got. As most of you will be aware of, scores for Reading and Listening are almost always much higher than those for Speaking and Writing. I’m often disappointed to see advertised students who can get 8.0 or higher for reading and listening, but are unable to use that knowledge in the other tests, and end up with only 5.5 or 6.0 in Speaking and Writing.
Also, you need to ask how many times they’ve gotten this score.
Did they get it once, and once only? Or can they consistently attain a high IELTS score? Everyone can get lucky once (and there are some very logical reasons why you can get a score higher than you deserve!!)
This question doesn’t apply so much to the Reading and Listening tests, though it’s still important. There are many fine teachers who can teach Listening and Reading modules, who may never get 9.0 for Speaking or Writing – and that really doesn’t matter! And this has been proven many many times – but the vast number of students who also get 8.0 or higher in Reading and Listening tests… taught by teachers who only get 7.5 themselves.
- How often do they talk to IELTS examiners?
And, obviously, I don’t mean when they do an IELTS test.
This is like the question above about who taught them IELTS, but takes it more personal. There are a number of IELTS examiners in China, and they have their friends who they may talk to about IELTS. Even if your teacher hasn’t been formally taught by British Council, etc, they may still have had long conversations with examiners, and asked them questions. Certainly, many of my colleagues in the past have asked me questions about IELT, and (where I’ve been allowed to without breaking confidentiality) I’ve answered them.
This question is also important for those who say they have been formally trained in IELTS… but many years ago! There have been changes to the IELTS test, and without having contacts (friends) involved with IELTS, this knowledge may become outdated and useless.
Even if they don’t talk to examiners, do they at least look at the IELTS website regularly? The official IELTS website (both the global and the Chinese sites) have LOTS of information about IELTS. And, there are MANY academic reports and research studies that can be useful in preparing students for IELTS. These have been collected over more than a decade, and include a number of China IELTS specific reports. These are all free on their website!
- Where did they study English?
You do not need native speakers of English to teach you IELTS. In fact, I know many people who learned English as their second or third language, who would score very highly on the IELTS test, and who you would think are native speakers.
What IS important is how often and in what circumstances they use English!
Those non-native speakers I just mentioned used English in their daily lives, with many many people, for many many years! They’ve had to use English to communicate with people from all around the world (native and non-native English speakers).
I’ve tried to learn a number of languages. I’ve had native and non-native teachers of Russian and Spanish. BOTH groups have been great teachers… BUT, the non-native speakers have actually LIVED in the country where the language was spoken! They’ve studied there. They’ve had to know and use the language.
Many teachers in China have never left China. They rarely speak in English to native and high level English speakers. They rarely have to write English to a native-level English speaker.
(it’s this reason why non-native English speakers from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Nigeria, etc can come to China and still teach English… because they’ve actually used English as a form of communication! Not all are good… not all are bad!)
- What materials do they have and use?
Most IELTS training schools and teachers I know are using the official Cambridge IELTS books. Sometimes, they even use the CD that is supposed to come with the book.
However, did you also know that there are OTHER official IELTS books that you need to order directly from IELTS or the test centres? These books are much better designed for teachers (rather than students) and have a wealth of information in them.
Also, using just IELTS material isn’t as good as many resources that can be found elsewhere – particularly on the internet. For example, if you only use IELTS listening materials, then you will only be used to hearing English that is relatively slow and clearly pronounced. We don’t talk like that – and so you shouldn’t get used to it!
The same is true for reading. You need to get comfortable reading at speed, and only relying on IELTS official books will not get you that! You need to be reading other material – preferably material that you like to read.
And, how can you practice speaking? The IELTS books that I know of don’t have much for speaking (and, speaking is the most important of the four language skills!) Just copying the audio from the IELTS listening tests is a BAD way to improve your speaking.
If the school or teacher is only using official practice material designed for IELTS, then you’re missing out on a LOT of opportunities to get better!
There are a lot of teachers and schools out there, so you shouldn’t just take the first one you come to – especially if you only went there because of a pretty poster, a nice ad on TV or the internet, or because they hired some famous star to promote their school – NONE of those will get you a good score! It’s your future. It’s your education. It’s YOUR money – make sure you’re not just wasting it on a school that will only use it to buy more pretty posters, and the boss’ new BMW!
WRITE A COMMENT