English Lesson
IELTS - Speaking, Writing and Reading
Key features
- Viewpoint: travel writing often documents the personal experiences of someone exploring a new place or country so is often first person.
- Perspective: an outsider’s perspective is common when reading travel writing, particularly if the destination is new, exotic or remote. Alternatively, the piece might be written from an insider’s perspective and is inviting you to visit or share an experience in a different part of the world.
- Structure: look out for chronological timelines, past – present structures or a linear journey of discovery. Guidebooks will have clear headings and subheadings and will probably include box-outs and the like.
- Information: travel writing often seeks to be informative and can present you with facts and figures, names and dates, historical or architectural or geographical information and more.
- Description: if the writer is trying to make the destination tantalising, or to help transport the reader, you might find examples of visual imagery, vivid description, even figurative comparisons, helping you visualise a far-off place.
- Visuals: photographs, maps, or floor plans of famous locations are all visual features that you might encounter in travel writing, particularly guidebooks.
Taken from: https://dougslangandlit.blog/2020/11/13/travel-and-tourism/
Blog time!
You are going to write a blog about traveling around Colombia. You will use a voice to create a sense of immediacy with the reader.
Describe a crowded place you’ve been to. You should say:
- when you went there
- where the place is (or, was)
- who you went therewith
and explain how you felt about the place
Urban vs. Rural life
Do you think it it better to live in the countryside or in a city?
Countryside
City
| COUNTRYSIDE | CITY |
|---|---|
| A slower pace of life (life moves slowly-less stressful) | More amenities (facilities-transports, roads, sports) |
| Less pollution and noise (less industry and traffic? | Better prospects (opportunities/employment) |
| Stronger communities (people know each other-close-support network) | Better public transport (more buses, bigger means of transport) |
| Larger houses | Better education (standard) |
Taken from: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-speaking-part-3-urban-vs-rural-life/
Life in England. What about Colombia?
What do you need to answer?
Make a choice: state your opinion about it.
You will need to compare both points of view and support your choice.
Comparative sentences will improve your results! That's why we use words like less, more or better.
Fillers
Are words that we can use to fill gaps while we are answering our test questions.
It will fill gaps while you are thinking in how to answer the question the examiner is asking.
- Well, let me see...
- It isn't something I thought about before...
- I haven't actually consider
- I'm not exactly sure what I would...
- If I had to choose
If you need time to think you can ask the examiner to repeat or explain the question.
Do you think there are more advantages than disadvantages of tourism for our country?
Writing time!
Taken from: https://ieltsliz.com/tourism-and-the-local-community/
What's your opinion?
A lot of places in the world rely on tourism as a main source of income. Unfortunately, tourism can also be a source of problems if it is not well-managed.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in the modern world? Do you think that the benefits of tourism outweigh its drawbacks?
Which advantages or disadvantages rely behind these examples?
IELTS. Speaking, Writing and Reading. Lesson 21.
By Valentina Rodríguez Ramírez
