Recently, an article that spread rapidly in the circle of friends was called "How did you improve your vocabulary to more than 20,000 in a short time? Although the title of the article is still the Party, the content is really scientific, and a large number of analytical data are cited, and the opinions fall to the ground. After reading the whole article, you will find that the author's conclusion is not "short-term improvement". How to improve English ability has always been a difficult problem, but many students don't want to link improving English ability with language test. But if they don't link, it's really useless.
Just like a large number of exam books, "Learn XXX in 7 days" and "Get XXX in one month" will be the best-selling list; The lectures of some training institutions should also be written as "1 hour to teach you XXX" to detonate the attendance rate. But when you really set foot on the road of going abroad for the exam, try to ask the avengers who have successfully passed the customs clearance by fighting monsters all the way. Are they really "improving their scores quickly"? What's the mystery in this?
IELTS comes from life and is applied to life.
In the introductory part of the IELTS Cambridge test, the reading part of the Class A test is like this:
[Three texts, taken from periodicals, books, magazines and newspapers. These texts involve topics of general interest to people. ]
IELTS reading articles are based on such a wide range of sources and topics. This is the most lacking compulsory course in high school life-extensive reading. Class G even includes "notices, advertisements, leaves and instructions". Because the IELTS test tells you what basic skills you need to master if you want to live abroad. There is also "at least one text contains detailed logical arguments." In addition to all kinds of articles, there must be at least one argumentative paper, which is detailed and logical. This fully meets the English requirements of international students from English-speaking countries. When you can easily understand these articles, it means that there will be no major language problems in your study abroad life.
About the great event of memorizing words
Another big problem is the problem that almost all English learners will encounter: memorizing words. Almost everyone who learns a second foreign language complains that he can't remember words. If there is an exam, it will be more difficult to recite a large number of words in a short time. And even if I really memorized it, I woke up and everything went back to before liberation. Even if you use all kinds of word cards, learn root affixes, make up stories and copy formulas, you can say "words are words, I am me" in minutes. Should you understand this sentence or not?
Faced with the gap between such a plump ideal and the reality of backbone, only by knowing ourselves and ourselves can we break it one by one. Take the latest Cambridge Zhenti 10 as an example, and list all the topics in the reading section.
TEST 1
The value of a college diploma
P2 Less TV, less violence and aggression.
P3 problem affecting killer whales in southern China.
Test 2
P 1 glacier
P2 Irish potato famine
P3 anesthesiology
Test 3
P 1 the history of bicycles
P2 Segway to the future
P3 The Significance of Volunteer Service
Test 4
Looking for lost freedom
P2 Ascending Sea
New rules of P3 paper game
Look at the title of the article and you will know that these academic articles from life are actually testing whether you can understand the school materials during your study abroad. Since we know that these articles come from newspapers, magazines, academic journals and books, and the topics are wide, but the target categories are clear, why not find one such article every week as extracurricular reading? You can also choose the source, such as articles on BBC news, national geography and economics, which are written by real native speakers in authentic English. What language test are you afraid of after all this? You can even argue with native English speakers.
Of course reading is only the first step. Whether you are a high school student or a college student, you will inevitably encounter new words when reading. According to the statistics of Collins Dictionary, if you master 6,500 core words, you can read 90% of English materials, and if you master14,600 common words, you can read 95% of any English materials. That is to say, in theory, any article with 100 words has about 5 new words. If you want to read foreign publications or original novels, your vocabulary should be above 14600. And if you can master so many words imperceptibly through the usual accumulation, or to say the least, master 6500 core words. Moreover, these words are naturally absorbed in the context and story, without any test pressure and happy mood, and driven by interest, the impression will be relatively deep. Otherwise, according to the original method of memorizing words, you will only remember one word in the upper left corner of a page in the word book, and you can't remember its meaning whatever you say.
Second, the words are done and the sentences can be understood. Many students know every word in the sentence, but the first reaction after reading the sentence together is "what the hell". Understanding sentences requires a certain grammatical foundation, but no Chinese-speaking China people rely on Chinese grammar. There is indeed such a classmate around, let him translate English into Chinese, there is no words to express at all; But if you let him directly output English, every sentence can be beautiful, without grammatical mistakes, and authentic and convincing. This is what we often call "language sense". Language sense is to transform the brain circuit invisibly through accumulated reading. It naturally trains us to think and speak in English. We no longer need to deliberately apply the same template, but we can use the so-called "sentence patterns" that we already know by heart like a duck to water.
Hearing is not the devil!
Listening is the biggest problem for an international student in the early stage of studying abroad, because he can't understand where to speak and write well. Most students said that they didn't understand it at the beginning of going abroad.
BBC News is a listening material with high click-through rate, because you can not only watch it, but also listen to it. It only takes 5-8 minutes to write a composition every day, which is all for your study abroad life, and of course you can also take into account the English exam.
If you really want to take the IELTS test, you can concentrate on learning about the test for two to three months at this time, and do several sets of questions carefully, so that you can get your target results easily and calmly. You may find it incredible, but as an exam that only tests language ability, if your English is really good, where do you need to prepare for the exam? Aren't those so-called "inevitable words" and "core sentence patterns" already accumulated in the notebook? !
In fact, whether it is IELTS or other language tests, there is only one purpose, that is, to test whether your language ability can adapt to school study and life. When you are working hard for your future every day, the dream school is not an unattainable goal. Just like we all know the difference between the 365th power of 0.98 and the 365th power of 1.02. Only when you practice English as a part of your life and really develop your language skills, can your language be greatly improved with a series of scientific learning methods. And it all started when you took the IELTS test. So, let's start today! Maybe you will find your true love and interest because of the exam and see a wider world!