In exam preparation, there is this eternal, invisible fight going on: students want templates and I don't want to give templates.

By templates, I mean ready-to-use structures and clichés for speaking and writing answers. Those sound so good, don't they? A list of phrases you can memorize and use without thinking that will guarantee a high score. If only international exams worked that way.

Sadly, examiners don't want templates. Templates are noticeable. They stick out like a sore thumb. They make a bad impression. They show lack of fluency and flexibility. They are a sign of poor language, not the other way round. At best, examiners will disregard them. At worst, they will mark your response as memorized. Having your language marked as "inappropriate, inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant, ineffective, unnatural, etc" will fall somewhere between those two extremes.

Some examples of templates that turn my stomach every time I hear them:

1️⃣ IELTS Speaking Part 2 : "There are many cities I have visited, but if I had to choose one to talk about, I would choose Barcelona."

Omg! Just start your talk "I am going to talk about Barcelona" and move on to describing the city because that's what I want to hear.

2️⃣ Writing: "Taking into account all written above, I am firmly convinced that ... ."

Please, pretty please, just write "I believe... " and elaborate on your belief.

Nothing beats good language and solid ideas. Don't scour the internet for templates, cliches, and magic phrases. Don't demand them from your teacher. Don't waste your time on something that won't really reap the benefit. Focus on the language and the ideas that are topic-specific. Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats those. 💜

I think it's a good idea to treat exams like any other human interaction. When you communicate in real life, do you want templates or ideas? 🟪

PS: Templates do save time and they can serve a useful function. What you can do is create your own unique one that will be in perfect harmony with everything you say and that will therefore not look like one. Someone else's templates will do more harm than good.

One of the assessment scales for C2 Proficiency writing has one mysterious word that always makes me and every test taker smile: "Text is organized impressively..." (Organisation band 5). Impressively - how is that?

In this post, I am sharing a Writing Task 1 essay I was impressed with and what I think is the key to that impressiveness. The essay was written by the amazing Yulia Dmitrieva. 🌹

What do you think is the key to impressiveness?❓

#proficiency #cpewriting #c2proficiency #c2proficiencywriting

https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/02/if-this-is-not-impressive-i-dont-know.html

Many people see success in #writing as the following dichotomy:
🙁 I didn't write an essay. I'm a bad student. I will fail.
🙂 I wrote an essay. I'm a good student. I will succeed.

But writing an essay doesn't guarantee success. Writing an essay is only an opportunity to succeed, the proverbial first step on a thousand mile journey.

So, you've written, you've given yourself a chance to succeed. What's next?

Next you scrutinize, analyze, and memorize your teacher's feedback. You don't question it, you don't get hurt, you don't give up. Then you edit or rewrite your essay, taking into account all the recommendations you've carefully scrutinized, analyzed, and memorized. And then you write and rewrite again. And again. And again. Continue until you and/or your teacher are satisfied.

Embracing your feedback and rewriting your work are the steps that will keep you moving forward on your writing journey. Without them, you'll be treading water. Without them, every next piece you write will amount to giving yourself another opportunity but never seizing it.

I sometimes say that writing is a test of character - you have to have perseverance and a thick skin to succeed. 👣

Do you agree? Do you have a thick skin when it comes to writing? How often do you rewrite your essays after getting your teacher's feedback?❓

https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/03/at-risk-of-incurring-curse-from.html
Have you ever tried learning three languages at the same time? Do you think it's doable?❓

At the risk of incurring the curse from polyglots and other magicians, Ekaterina Kachalova shares her experience in this amazing post written in my "Write for Real" course. I can relate. Can you? 🇺🇸🇬🇧 🇪🇸🇩🇪🇳🇱

What languages did you evict? In my case, Dutch left first. German followed. American English is now the main tenant, who allows British English to quietly exist nearby and doesn't give it the recognition it deserves.

This is a piece I wrote for the "Good Night, Moscow" creative writing contest by American Center in Moscow. Before doing so, I told Timur Khamzin, "I don't care about winning. I can always publish my piece in my community." The time has come to publish my piece "Good Night, St Petersburg" in my community. 🌃

A million thanks to Timur for inadvertently inspiring it and to all my students who wrote for this contest - that's at least seven people off the top of my head! Thank you all for your support! 💛

https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/03/good-night-st-petersburg.html

Today is St Patrick's Day. 🍀
Could I have chosen a better time to publish my my second piece for the creative writing contest "Good night, Moscow"? In this piece, I wanted to sing my love to Dublin, but also let my imagination run wild. The result is this fairy tale. 🍀🧚‍♂️🇮🇪
I've written three pieces for the contest, two of which were about Dublin. So stay tuned, I'll publish one more tomorrow. 😃
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/03/good-night-dublin.html

A perfect day in Dublin...
This is my second piece about Dublin (third overall) written for the creative writing contest by American Center in Moscow. What can I say, I love this city. 🍀🍀🍀
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/03/good-night-dublin-thank-you-for-your.html

https://totaldict.ru/news/news/el-totalnyy-diktant-na-angliyskom-yazyke/

I'm in. Who's with me? 😍

📅 The registration opens on 31 March.

I'll have a prep squad. Start collecting words that are hard to spell and stay tuned! 🎸

Sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes when I read students' exam answers, I achieve the state "I don't have any questions or comments." I want to share an example of a C2 Proficiency Writing Task 2 answer that I like so much I don't know what to correct or comment on. The answer is written by my student, the amazing Anastasia Glebova.🌹

This is an answer to a very tricky prompt - a report on a comedy programme. It's tricky because you might get sidetracked and slide into writing a review.

After reading this report, did you achieve the same state as I did, that of "no questions or comments"? What programme would you write about?❓

#c2proficiency #cpewriting
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/03/c2-proficiency-perfect-report-on-comedy.html

I want to share a great essay written by my student Svetlana in my #IELTS Academic Writing Target 7.5-8 group. 📝

The essay was already great when I received it, but I made three suggestions, which Svetlana implemented, so it became even greater. Click the link below to read both the essay and the suggestions. 📝

The topic is good too. Do you think we should spend money now researching planets, such as Mars, that could be our possible home? Why or why not? 🚀

#ieltswriting #ieltswritingtask2
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/04/ielts-writing-task-2-researching.html

https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/04/do-international-exams-in-english-have.html

New post out! Inspired by endless criticism of tests like IELTS or C2 Proficiency I hear on a regular basis. Where do you stand on this?

Sometimes introduction to exam preparation can (and arguably should) be integrated seamlessly into General English classes. 🤓

In this post, I am sharing an essay written by my wonderful student Olga who is in my wonderful General English C1+ group. We watched and discussed two TED talks, so I thought, "Why don't we turn our discussions into writing something similar to C2 Proficiency Writing Task 1?" 📝

The talks are great too: one speaker argues we should follow our passion when we pursue a career and the other one argues we shouldn't. Which opinion do you agree with and why?❓😋

The links to the talks are in the post. Which speaker makes a more compelling case? Feel free to write your own essay. 😋
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/05/introduction-to-c2-proficiency-writing.html

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" has come to an end. I am not participating, but I have written a story too because I love the prompt. Click the link below to read the story, the reasons why I love the prompt, and the reasons for choosing the word "mayonnaise." Enjoy! 🌻
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/07/i-have-always-wanted-to-write-book-that.html

Did you know that every year I create my own collections of #IELTS Speaking Part 2 topics? I do. By “my,” I mean the topics I have collected from sites with recent exam topics and from my students. I have also carefully edited the topics so that they sound nice and are ready to use. Here are the links:

- 2020 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vjuYggMcKjg8bSbUxfJLVuu3cCTEPQHUju4IQ9KxTKU/edit?usp=sharing
- 2019 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TmOxeGWwImvW7lEvj8lMcxf8WVgqeJOEXt8Wg2mQU9c/edit?usp=sharing
- 2018 https://docs.google.com/document/d/11gdxkm20v0FX3uHp9YaFwRQfYx1zzPBXdFNTca6jFfw/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy and/or put them to good use! 🌷🌷🌷

I discovered and fell in love with Jerry Seinfeld. 💜
Note how he doesn't let Jimmy Fallon get away with the vague answer "It depends," which becomes a joke that extends over the whole interview. Enjoy! 🦋
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsFItXMCKJk

"Word sneak" - a game celebrities play for fun and a valid lexis recycling exercise for us! 🐱

Here is what we can do with it:
- we can play it the exact same way in class or in a chat;
- we can give the students a list of words beforehand, the same one to all of them or a unique set to each student;
- we can ask the students to guess the words their partner is trying to sneak in;
- we can also ask students to bring their own words to sneak in;
- we can ask students to play it doing an exam speaking activity.

What are some other ways to modify this game to suit our learning or teaching needs?❓

Have you played it? I played it myself with a colleague and enjoyed it immensely. 💜

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSeY9WGYMs

A more challenging version of the previous activity is "Sentence Sneak," in which you need to work full sentences into a conversation. 👻
We can use it in two ways:
- If we come up with crazy sentences, like "I have a lot in common with Big Foot," the activity will be fun, but challenging;
- Alternatively, we can use fixed expressions that function as full sentences. Off the top of my head, "Practice makes perfect," "Better late than never," "I wouldn't have it any other way." This way it's a valid language learning activity.

Would you rather play word sneak or sentence sneak?❓

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2bJeRcyhlo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QAEhrTfFls

A highly controversial cover and a highly controversial podcast. Where do you stand on magazine covers featuring morbidly obese women? What about men?

🌻 Mayonnaise reflections: how to write a winning story 🌻

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" is over. As a contest judge, I've put together some tips, big and small, that can make your story more or less likely to win.

1️⃣ Punctuation: too much of it or lack thereof

Punctuation is readability. Excessive punctuation, especially unusual punctuation, like: {} <...> `, makes your story less readable. No punctuation, on the other hand, makes the reader read the sentence several times, which works against you in a contest.

2️⃣ Paragraphs

No one wants to read a huge wall of text. Ever. So seeing one huge paragraphless text reduces your chances immediately. Break your text into paragraphs. But not too many - many tiny paragraphs break the flow of the text.

3️⃣ Idioms for the sake of idioms

They stick out like a sore thumb. You don't want the reader to think, "OK, this author has just studied the book 'Vocabulary in Use' and needs an outlet." But creative writing is not an outlet for vocabulary. It's an outlet for your thoughts and feelings. Don't use your story as an exercise for your course book. The readers don't appreciate that.

4️⃣ Form

If you use an unexpected form, it definitely attracts attention the minute the reader sees your story. That said, form is not everything. There still has to be a story. So make sure form works to support your it, not substitute it.

5️⃣ Predictable ending

No one wants something so unpredictable that it is no longer logical or believable, but a surprise ending will make your story memorable.

6️⃣ Let their be a message

It's a good idea to make sure your story has a message, a lesson, a dilemma, a controversy, a big moral question. Leave your reader thinking, doubting, smiling, frowning, agreeing, disagreeing. Leave them engaged.

Big things, like the language and the plot, matter a lot. Small things, like punctuation or paragraphing, matter too. Finally, when you truly you enjoyed writing your story, the reader feels it. So pay attention to the big and the small, but, more importantly, love your story. And this is how you win a contest.🌻

Do you think these are universal and will work for all contests, not just mine? Do you have other tips? ❓

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" has come to its inevitable end, which is good because I can finally share the amazing stories by the amazing winners! The prompt for the contest was simple: Write a story that ends with the word "Mayonnaise."

I am beyond thrilled to present one of the winners Elizaveta Zanozina and share her story "Hypnotized." See her interpretation of the prompt and enjoy her story!
https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/07/hypnotized-by-elizaveta-zanozina.html

https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/07/to-hell-with-mayonnaise-by-evgenia.html
My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" has come to its inevitable end, which is good because I can finally share the amazing stories by the amazing winners! The prompt for the contest was simple: Write a story that ends with the word "Mayonnaise."

I am beyond thrilled to present another winner. Meet Evgenia Karabatova and her story "To hell with Mayonnaise." See her interpretation of the prompt and enjoy her story! 🦋