As mentioned in my previous blog post concerning the Speaking component of the IELTS, the first part of the oral exam consists of general questions about you, your work or studies, your free time activities, family, home and neighborhood, and the like. This post lists a number of typical questions that could land at your feet on the day you present yourself before the examiner.  Don't panic, don't mumble, don't have prepared answers memorized. Just reply honestly having thought about what your answer should include (so memorize key words if you like, but not complete sentences) and also answer at length. Remember, the more you make the examiner work, the lower your grade. Show you can speak fluently and can express your thoughts clearly. Here is a first list of different questions you could be faced with:

In my 20 or so years of teaching, I've come to the conclusion that the IELTS Speaking component is the most innocuous part of the test. Other English-language examinations last longer, have more complicated tasks which need to be fulfilled, include two candidates who are assessed simultaneously and involve other factors that could create more stressful conditions for candidates. The IELTS is straightforward -- which means there's a catch.  The proof lies in the following case: I had one particular student whose parents (one of them, to be more precise) was a native speaker of English. This student, a girl, had been brought up in a foreign country where English was taught as a secondary language in schools, but who spoke English at home with her native English-speaking parent. She was, in effect, bilingual even though there were sporadic errors in more advanced grammatical structures and, as is natural, gaps in more advanced vocabulary. However, her pronunciation was impec

You hear "Joyce" and something in you cringes or ruptures or you sense retroperistalsis in its inception. You've had a hor rendous e xperience reading Ul ysses and would rather not pick up another Joyce novel in your life.  Well, "Eveline", thank God, is not U lysses. It is a short story, to begin with, meaning that whatever torture Joyce would have us experience, it wa s intended to be a short one. It is a 'normal' short story , to continue, meani ng that it follows in the vein of the other outstanding stories found in Dubliners .  Cr itics have demoted th is collection of short stories in that the y have chara cterized it as simplistic , ignoring the fact that simplicity is not always as simple as it seems. Spelling the wo rd "cat" for instance is simple if we are to comp are it to the word "gneissoid", but the cognitive processes involved in spelling "cat" are no less complicated than those employed by the bra

Ever wondered what the word 'halcyon' meant? Read on and discover the ancient myth that gave birth to this word.

Please read the first two paragraphs from Grammar: The Subjunctive by way of introduction to this series of blog posts regarding grammar. Isn't it nice when a language has a grammatical unit that's easy and straightforward to understand? This is the case with these three commonly confused phrases (making one wonder why they are commonly confused among ESL learners to start with).

Please read the first two paragraphs from Grammar: The Subjunctive by way of introduction to this series of blog posts regarding grammar. I nversion is yet another grammatical construction that shows a more advanced knowledge of the English language. It usually appears in grammar textbooks the year before and during which a candidate is set to sit a B2-level examination (IELTS 5.5-6.5, FCE, ECCE, MSU-CELC, ESB, LRN) but mo re often than not is not very well grasped by students, making it a rarely tested item at th is level.  If candidates are likely to encounter a single question whi ch tests inversion on a B2 test , meaning that they are not expected to have mastered it, they are most certainly expected to have learnt it well enough at C2 level to not only recognize it in a sentence, but use it as well in both the oral component of the test and as part of any writing task they are required to produce.

Relationships between parents and their children are never easy. All families have their ups and downs, their moments of crisis, periods of serenity, intervals of strife and discord. Children's development sees to it that nothing remains static for too long. In My Oedipus Complex , O'Connor portrays precisely such a moment in a child's life when awareness grows and the canvas of life begins to acquire dabs of disappointment . P oor Larry realizes he has a father and a baby brother to contend with.  Unlike what one might expect from a coming-of-age tale, t he maturity of the story is not found in its characters but in O'Connor's ability to leave aside his traumatic childhood and focus on a constructive message. He could have easily depicted the father as the drunk in his life who couldn't keep a job but was supported by a wife who cleaned houses so the family would not starve. He could have idolized the mother or fashioned her after his own, suffering in

You'l l find all types of explanations of the subjunctive in books and on websites that have probably more erudite scholars working on grammatical issues than I , however, I tend to sim plify grammar to its lowe st common denominator so that stude nts don't decide to power off the minute they hear me say the word "grammar " during a lesson.  So if i t's scholarly, linguistic, super duper comprehensive explanations you're after, please refer to other sites that champion top-notch academics who will tackle gramma tical structures the way they're meant to be tackled. A s for me, I 'm here to teach the basics so that if you're trying to learn grammar to pass an English examination or basically to understand what a grammatical phenom enon is, how it's used and when it's used, you can do so without too many gaps in understanding. The subjunctive is a grammatical structure (to be m ore precise it is a mood, not a tense) which denotes mor

This is the second part of the plot summary of Victoria Hislop's novel The Thread . For a brief introduction and the first 10 chapters of the book, please read Victoria Hislop - The Thread (Plot Summary) Part 1

Victoria Hislop's novel The Thread is a book that combines fiction with early, mid and late 20th century Balkan history in a fast-paced narrative that tells the story of a changing city through the experiences of its protagonists.  By User:MWD - english wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6885987 It is the story of Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, a pivotal harbor that has experienced war, migrant influx, grandeur during the Byzantine era, sacking and slavery for 482 years under Ottoman occupation. All this is not mentioned in the novel which touches upon modern times, from the Great Fire that raged for 32 hours and ravaged 32% of the city in 1917 to the great earthquake of 1978, the magnitude of which was felt in nearby Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.  It is also the story of Dimitris Komninos and Katerina Sarafoglou, how fate brought them together, to grow up on the same street though their backgrounds demanded they sta

Writing at C2 level (Proficient User) on English language examinations is the same no matter the awarding body when it comes to writing essays. If you are a candidate giving an exam in English, make sure you read my earlier post What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? to get the most out of the sample essays provided on this blog.  If you are not taking an exam but need ideas on whether the internet is dumbing students down or enriching their learning experience, then read on and note down what you deem useful. If you intend on using this essay as part of an assignment, remember to paraphrase so as not to plagiarize.

The short story An Intruder was incorporated in Nadine Gordimer's short story collection Livingston's Companions, published in 1970. As such, it must be read and viewed through the prism of her somewhat earlier works which dealt with South African society's inequality and the problems arising from the diseased status quo of the times. An Intruder focuses on relationships between characters and how perceptions of a situation differ in the eyes of each individual based on a combination of nature and nurture, or at the very least that is what Gordimer would have the reader gauge. What made James Seago what he is? Why is Mrs Clegg, Marie's mother, such a typical depthless wishful socialite with an exaggerated respect for higher social status? Couldn't Marie judge the merit of the man who treats her like a child or is she turning a blind eye to his behavior because it suits her? Whatever the answers to these questions, the one certainty we have is that the noti

I find it's only fitting that the first word that must be explained is the one used in the blog's name. Argute has two meanings:

Before you work on these questions, read Job Interview Questions: How to Prepare  This is the fifth set of questions. Work through each question carefully. The space provided between questions is there so you can note down what you think you should include in your answer.

Before you work on these questions, read Job Interview Questions: How to Prepare  This is the fourth set of questions. Work through each question carefully. The space provided between questions is there so you can note down what you think you should include in your answer.

Before you work on these questions, read Job Interview Questions: How to Prepare  This is the third set of questions. Work through each question carefully. The space provided between questions is there so you can note down what you think you should include in your answer.

Before you work on these questions, read Job Interview Questions: How to Prepare  This is the second set of questions. Work through each question carefully. The space provided between questions is there so you can note down what you think you should include in your answer.

Before you work on these questions, read Job Interview Questions: How to Prepare  This is the first set of questions. Work through each question carefully. The space provided between questions is there so you can note down what you think you should include in your answer.  Once you go over the whole list on this page, practice answering once more after you have studied your notes.  If you are satisfied with your answers, move on to the next set of questions here .  

Applying for a job in any field either for the first time or the umpteenth time is always nerve-wracking. Stepping inside that office, with that assessor sitting across a desk or waiting comfortably in an armchair while you've been on tenterhooks since the call was made to appear for the interview, is a crucial moment for any applicant and like any other crucial moment, preparation is required to make those tenterhooks seem less painful. Preparing Getting ready for a job interview means four things: