TEACHING IELTS READING TO YOUNG LEARNERS:

SOME TEACHING IDEAS

Luu Nguyen Quoc Hung

Can Tho University
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
The recent IELTS statistics show that more than three million International English Language
Testing System (IELTS) tests were taken in 2017 a dramatic increase from the 43,000 IELTS
tests taken in 1995. In Vietnam for the past decades, IELTS has gained increasing popularity and
it is widely accepted as a reliable evaluation of English language proficiency in the Vietnamese
Education sector. Another trend in Vietnam is a growing number of young learners have prepared
for IELTS and taken the tests. Teaching IELTS reading to young learners can be challenging
because guiding the learners toward achieving a high IELTS band score can be a long process
involving the introduction, development and mastery of various techniques including skimming
and scanning, recognizing paraphrases, text analysis, techniques for dealing with the various
question types and time management. Teaching IELTS reading lessons to young learners can be
communicative and rewarding with some suggested teaching ideas and practical activities,
currently applied in a center for foreign languages.
Key words: communicative, IELTS reading, young learners

1 INTRODUCTION
The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as
communication (Maryslessor, Barasa & Omulando, 2014). This approach aims to put into
practice procedures for the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) that
recognize the interrelation of language and communication. Of different principles of this
approach, diversifying skills and activities in the classrooms is very fundamental and practical
(Desai, 2015). It means language should be taught by integrating all language skills and not by
only one skill. With communicative approach, teaching is not limited to only speaking skill, but
such receptive skills as reading should be developed. Teachers should design and carry out
communicative activities, or engaging activities to encourage teacher-learner and learner-learner
interaction in the target language (Albate, 2014).

2 CHALLENGES OF APPLYING COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)

FOR YOUNG LEARNERS
For teaching young learners, there have been debates about whether approaches to CLT originally
used for adult English education in Western countries where groups are small and classrooms
well-equipped are still suitable (Copland, Garton & Burns, 2014). In many Vietnamese EFL

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classes, it is challenging to effectively apply learner-centered teaching (Li, 1998), or carry out
class activities in pairs and in groups (Hoque, 2009). Another challenge for teaching young
learners is the problem of control and discipline because young learners generally have short
attention span (Musthafa, 2010). Unlike adult learners who can concentrate hours and hours on
the topic they are working on, many children can hold their attention for about 15 to 20 minutes
on one activity. It can also be difficult to motivate young lea

level to learn English (Asmali, 2017). In addition, in many EFL contexts, children may struggle
to understand the relevance of learning English (Ho, 2003, Li, 1998).

should provide plenty of comprehensible input, that is, children should clearly understand what is
being communicated; teachers should organize more interactive tasks, focusing on pairwork and
groupwork; teachers should choose teaching materials or subject matters which are appropriate
for age and grade levels; teachers should ensure low anxiety for the young learners and
importantly, teachers should maximize the use of English (Kersten & Rohde, 2013).

3 IELTS READING
The IELTS Reading test lasts for 60 minutes, including the time to read, comprehend the
passages and answer the questions. Candidates take either the Academic or General Training
Reading module. Both modules consist of three sections, with different question types, which are
used to assess comprehension. In both tests the sections or passages are in order of increasing
difficulty. Each reading passage has several questions of different types, which may appear
before or after a passage. A variety of questions are chosen from the following typical question
types: multiple choice, short answer questions, sentence completion, notes/summary/diagram/
flow chart/tab

(true/false/not given), classification, matching lists/phrases. With these kinds of questions,

different reading skills are tested including identifying the gist of a passage; finding detailed
factual information in a passage; identifying relationship between ideas or information items,
such as cause and effect order of events, comparison; making inferences; distinguishing between
facts, assumption or opinion; understanding text organization; and summarizing information
(British Council, 2017).

4 SOME IDEAS OF APPLYING CLT TO TEACH IELTS READING

Teaching IELTS reading can be an arduous task as it is often difficult to know how to improve

extracting meaning from written or printed language

meaning. Communication, as commonly perceived, suggests interaction of some sort, generally

between speaker and listener; and reading, therefore, often seems a solitary activity, or a non-

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communicative activity (Howarth, 2006). Reading is, of course, just as communicative as any
language skills if teachers can perform a constructive role and carry out communicative activities
in classrooms (Gao, 2008).
In order to make a communicative teaching situation to young learners, teachers should ensure
the reading tasks comprehensive and is in fact comprehended. In fact, the tasks need not be
complicated, especially in the early stages it is quite acceptable, and indeed very satisfying, for
learners to carry simple actions and tasks. When setting a task, always give very clear
instructions. For best results, the teacher must instruct most students directly, systematically, and
explicitly. It is also important to allow the learners reasonable time to prepare and complete the
assigned tasks or exercises.
New resources are constantly available in print or in electronic forms. As teachers, it is up to us to
seek out updated materials that optimally benefit the learners and try to make use of new
technology in teaching. As much as possible, teachers can bring in authentic materials that the
learners can connect with, and that matches their needs and interests. Choosing, adapting, and
supplementing teaching materials appropriately are important to involve the learners.
interest in reading must be stimulated through regular exposure to interesting topics and through
discussions in which the learners can respond to many kinds of texts. Young learners generally
are keen on technology and new things; therefore, teachers hardly expect the young learners to be
cooperative and motivated if the teachers do not change classroom routines.
ation and their engagement in class activities, it is desirable and
necessary for teachers to create a comfortable and harmonious atmosphere where learners can
enjoy communicating with others. Naturally, the learners may not be motivated if teachers do not

2017).
Feedback may come in different forms
as test results, appropriate error correction, or simply a smile on face. Teachers should take a

inevitable in the process of learning and practicing. Avoid over-

age particularly need recognition from teachers (Gao, 2008). Praising can enhance the lear
achievement. Positive things are always encouraging. Start with the positive thing, and then
tactfully move on to what needs to be improved.
A common situation in many IELTS reading classes is that young learners may have mixed levels
of English. To
individuals. Flipped learning can be beneficial when applied appropriately (Zainuddin& Halili,
2016). The aim of this instructional strategy is to give the learners time to assimilate the material
at their own pace and provide a more active learning experience. Learners are introduced to some
of the materials before class then practice, discuss, and activate the material during class time. In

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a flipped classroom, teachers can give specific preparation tasks to different learners, provide
specific support to individuals, and importantly can enable a more productive use of class time.
For young learners, it is necessary for teachers to organize communicative activities including
movement. Learners are encouraged to change seats from time to time in pairwork or groupwork
(Gao, 2008). Although these activities generally are limited in reading classes if compared with
speaking classes but they are rewarding to engage the learners. Most exercises in IELTS reading
can be done individually but teachers can assign the learners to check their work in pairs or small
groups. Pair and group work helps learners to reflect on and explain how they have approached
the task. This form of practice will help to develop a better understanding of exam strategies
(Geyte, 2012).
Time management is very crucial in IELTS reading tests. Some learners emphasize on this
difficulty because they fail to attend to all the questions within the time allotted. Young learners
generally are fast, but without practice, time management in the examination is almost
impossible. Learners are suggested to practice timed readings from mini-practice tests to
complete ones. The IELTS reading has 40 questions from 3 sections which have to be answered
in 60 minutes. The level of difficulty increases with each section, so learners need to allocate the
time appropriately. Through experiment and practice, learners can develop a time management
strategy for blocks of questions and individual question types.
Young learners generally love games and competitions, and teachers can keep their attention and
engagement by making learning fun. Language games are highly motivating to learners because
wards learning by providing them with a

and scanning questions can be adapted into communicative games, giving the learners a nice
opportunity to interact with each other, have fun and learn at the same time.

5 COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING IELTS READING TO YOUNG

LEARNERS

absorption of knowledge (Gao, 2008). Classroom activities guided by the communicative

approach are characterized by trying to produce meaningful and real communication, at all levels.
Gao (2008) suggested several categories of communicative activities, including topics arising
from and relevant t
professionally significant, and communicative classroom exercises.
For classroom activities for IELTS reading, Case (2011) proposed various activities from easy to
challenging tasks (see Appendix). These activities can be modified and used as engaging
activities through which learners can learn to use their ideas, pass on their ideas and receive ideas,
and certainly to enlarge their vocabulary, broaden their knowledge and be more interested to read
more and read better.

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6 CONCLUSION
Teaching IELTS reading to young learners can be communicative, which helps to overcome
some typical challenges faced by young learners in reading class. Implementing communicative
activities in comfortable reading classroom will provide more opportunities for English language
exposure and can engage learners more effectively.

REFERENCES
[1] Albate, E. B. (2014). Prospects and challenges of communicative approach in EFL context.
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[7] Chowdhury, S. A. (2009). Gaining proficiency in the reading module in IELTS: A study on
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Publishers Ltd.
[12] Hoque, S. (2009). Teaching English in primary schools in Bangladesh: Competencies and
achievements. In J. Enever, J. Moon, & U. Raman (Eds), Young learner English language
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[14] Howarth, P, 2006. Making reading communicative. Retrieved July 30, 2018, from
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/making-reading-communicative
[15] Kersten, K. & Rohde, A. (2013). Teaching English to young learners. In A. Flyman
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difficulties in introducing the communicative approach in South Korea. TESOL Quarterly,
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[17] Maryslessor, A. O., Barasa, P., &Omulando, C. (2014). Challenges Teachers Face in the
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[18] Musthafa, B. (2010). Teaching English to young learners in Indonesia: Essential
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 APPENDIX

Classroom Activities for IELTS Reading

A) Easytasks
Give learners the right answers, and ask them to find the places in the text where the
information is and underline the important sentences or words.
Give the text with the important information underlined and ask learners to do the
tasks by only looking at those bits.
Give learners the text with the important information underlined and the questions
mixed up. Learners match the questions to the underlined sections in the text and
then answer them.
Give learners the text(s) but no questions. Allow them to go home and read it as
many times as they like with their dictionaries, but not write on the text. They then
do the questions when they come into class.
Give learners fewer options, or options in tasks where they usually only have a gap.
Give learners the task with the answers filled in. Their task is to find the two or three
questions that you have deliberately put the wrong answers in.

B) More fun tasks

Give learners matching tasks (e.g. adding headings to paragraphs) with the texts cut
up so they can shuffle them around on the table.
Give learners one question at a time and ask them to shout out whenever they think
they have found the right answer. Learners get one point for being first with the right
answer and lose two points if they are wrong.
Give learners one question and ask them to raise their hands when they think they
have underlined the right part of the text and answered the question. When they all
have their hands up, ask them the answer in the same order as they raised their
hands. The first person to ask correctly gets the point.
Put the text up the board, e.g. with a hugely blown up photocopy or by using an
OHP, and ask two students to race to underline the part of the text that has the
answer to the question you give them.
Do IELTS-style tasks with more interesting texts that learners can discuss before
and/ or after, e.g. a recent news story.

C) More useful tasks

Ask learners to predict which things in the questions will be easiest to scan for and
then time them as they look for and underline the answer to each one.

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 Give learners texts that you have written on the topic of IELTS exam tactics to
discuss before and after they do the exam tasks that you have written for them
Give the texts with the questions cut off and all question numbers removed. Students
match the questions to the texts before they try the tasks. This is good for skim
reading.
Give learners a text with all the answers wrong for different reasons, e.g. because

have looked at the wrong part of the text. They have to explain why those answers
are wrong and then choose the right answer. This is good for spotting trick questions
and avoiding common mistakes.

D) More challenging tasks

Learners write questions for each other in one of the exam formats. You can give
them some help with this, e.g. giving them a summary from which they can decide
which words they will take out to make a text completion task.
Learners do the question with less help than the actual task would give them, e.g.
text completion without the mixed up missing words or adding paragraph headings
just from their own ideas. You then give them the original questions.

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