IELTS Foundation Study Skills Review

Review for MET magazine
IELTS Foundation Study Skills (Macmillan)
Alex Case

“Foundation” must be the ELT publishers’ marketing word of the moment, because this book is only one of two recent IELTS titles (the other being Focus on IELTS Foundation -Pearson Longman) with that word in. In the chain of schools I work for the word “foundation” means a short course that gets students up to the level to be able to use the Elementary textbook, and I think many teachers elsewhere would also associate this word with the idea of “lower level” (although thankfully no publishers are aiming at the beginner level IELTS student yet!) Indeed this book is aimed at students from a fairly low starting level of IELTS 4, up to those who already have the usual standard for immigration or vocational college purposes (IELTS 5.5 or 6). The other idea that “foundation” brings to my mind is to provide a thorough grounding, in this case in the exam. I therefore started using this book with the aim of finding out whether it was indeed suitable for lower level students and also covered the whole exam well.

As well as which level of students it is suitable for, the introduction to the book explains that it is for self-study but can also be used in class, and it is for the General Module IELTS rather than the more common Academic Module. The fact that it is for self-study no doubt explains the rather plain cover and black and white interior. This is rather unusual in even workbooks nowadays, and it looks more like a teachers’ book when you first open it. However, the use of black and white photos, grey shading and boxes means that it is easy to use and find your way around.

The introduction goes onto explain the purpose of each section of the book and gives a summary of the marks available and skills tested in each section of the exam. As well as this (fairly standard) information, brief information on how each paper is assessed and tips on how to approach it are included. The main part of the book then deals with each part of the exam in the order they are likely to be taken.

Taking the first part (Listening) as an example, the book starts with a quiz on the details of this paper (number of questions etc.). It then moves onto to Skills Development for Section 1 of the exam (trying to predict what will be said; avoiding distracters; completing notes, numbers and letters) and one practice section (9 exam-style questions). The same structure continues for all four sections of the Listening test, with little “Remember” boxes (telling you to include capital letters for countries etc.) scattered throughout. The same format is then used for the Reading, Writing and Speaking papers.

Most of the language given for students to use in this book is stuff that I would teach in class as very useful or even vital for the exam, e.g. covering “It depends” for the Speaking paper Part Three, which is something students could find useful in the exam and their future studies in English even if they have a quite low level. The hints and tips for the exam are written in very easy language that lower level students could cope with, and some of the texts near the beginning of each section are a bit shorter and easier than real exam tasks.

All these points mean the writers have obviously done their best to provide an accessible book for different levels of students. However, as a book that wishes to give a full overview of the exam it inevitably finishes with a full test of more or less the same level of difficulty as the exam. As good a job as the book does in preparing students for the exam, in the maybe 40 hours of material it offers it is impossible for a course to improve the all round language skills of an IELTS 4 student enough to turn them into an IELTS 5.5 student- in fact, the points that are best tackled for short term gain in exam marks are often not the same as you would tackle if you wanted to raise their general level. Therefore, a student who is still basically band 4 (but who could maybe expect an extra half band in the exam due to the exam practice) will struggle with the final test paper. In fact, they are likely to struggle so much that most of the tips and language they have been studying will fly out of their head as they try to cope with panic and an almost complete lack of comprehension. But then again, such as student probably will be planning on taking the exam soon and will have to cope with exactly that situation as best they can- and there is at least some useful language here to help them if they manage to keep their panic down. Indeed, it is hardly the fault of the publishers that students of such widely differing levels (sometimes even below band 4 starting level or up to band 7 or above) are demanding to take IELTS courses rather than general English courses that could give them a different “foundation” in the language they need. It should also be pointed out that Macmillan offer a course book and teachers’ book in the same series which presumably offers more general language development, although this book does not mention that one and is clearly designed also to stand alone.

At the back of the book is a full Practice Test, the Answer Key (including model answers and marking scripts based on them), Recording Scripts and the CD.

I would most recommend this book to a student who already had a level of IELTS 5 or above and wanted to know everything about the exam in a fairly short time, for example one who was taking a general English course that did not provide exam practice. Students of that level who were already using an IELTS textbook might benefit more from a workbook with more grammar and vocabulary development rather than one that is mainly exam practice like this, but it could work as a “refresher course” nearer to the time of the exam.

In a perfect world student starting at a level of IELTS 4 or even lower would wait until their general English level was higher before attempting an exam preparation book like this, but the publishers’ marketing men are certainly right that there are plenty of students who will not. Such students could benefit from a longer book that ratcheted up the level a bit slower before hitting them with the realistic exam practice at the end, but until such a book appears this one does a good enough job. Such students will need some teacher help, though, as I found when I used it in class that some parts benefited from further explanation. Although it is designed for self-study, I would also consider using it in class again- maybe even as a textbook in a very short exam preparation course. It does indeed provide a foundation in terms of fully preparing the students for the exam and being accessible for lower level students. It is not, however, a foundation in the sense of something to build further on top of, as with any level of student it is best used close to the exam after more general language development has been completed. A lower level IELTS textbook like the accompanying one in this series might do a better job in laying the groundwork, but I would still recommend using this book after such a course rather than as an accompaniment.

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