Hello everyone!

My name is Dobreanu Sorana and today I’m going to talk about

IELTS textbooks and the four traditional skills, especially about the writing skill
presentation and writing skill practice. The aim of the presentation is to show how the
writing skill is treated in comparison with the other skills, the types of writing
activities, the writing techniques used in Step up to IELTS and OBJECTIVE IELTS
textbooks. I chose this topic because I have always wondered why textbooks have so
much listening, reading practice and even speaking practice and they leave at the end
practice for writing. became home assignment. I found interesting that the techniques
used for stimulating learners. The tips and the starting points that are written before
the writing activities also caught my attention. I’ll start with presenting the IELTS
exam exactly how it is portrayed in the textbooks.
1. IELTS EXAM
 The goal of acquiring the language is to ”communicate effectively” through
speaking and writing not only to have knowledge ”about the language”
through listening and reading.
 The IELTS (International English Language Test) exam has two modules:
Academic and General Module. Each of them has four parts that includes the
four skills of English: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
 Therefore writing is one of the compulsory subjects.
 There is no such thing as a preferred skill, all of them are required for the
IELTS exam and must be practiced thoroughly.
 The writing part, which is our main focus here, is composed of two tasks
which lasts for 60 minutes. The first task is about ”describing graphic data/a
diagram” , or to write a letter and the task is assessed on the ability of the
candidate to write for real-life situations: complaints, personal/formal letter.
The second task is more complex and it takes 40 minutes and it assess the
ability of the learner to write an argumentative essay, the structure, its
organization, the content and the message.

1. TYPES OF WRITING ACTIVITIES

 there are, according to Raimes and Harmer, controlled and free writing activities
 there are plenty controlled writing activities that instruct learners to follow a
pattern and follow the same structure, organization to get acquainted with the
format: to proofread someone else s composition (controlled composition), to
continue a paragraph (guided composition), to answer questions in order to
construct a paragraph (question and answer), to write a letter having a model to
follow (parallel writing) or to link ideas using connectors (sentence combining
activity).
 the second type is free practice which is not completely omitted: describing
changes, give arguments for opinions, data from diagrams, tables, considering both
sides of an argument.

The writing activities correspond to the requirements of the IELTS writing test) but
they have too many activities for reinforcement and few writing activities for
opportunities to write original texts. Reinforcement is necessary but is not enough to
develop writing skills.
 TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING WRITING
- There are many tools that can be used as stimuli for engaging learners in the
learning-teaching environment, such as pictures, charts, diagrams, taking notes,
making lists.
- all of these are used in the IELTS textbooks
- For instance, in the first picture from OBJECTIVE IELTS textbook learners are
instructed to write comments about a comic book about Albert Einstein. The
second picture taken from Step up to IELTS is showing an activity where there are
picture sets and students have to describe the process of making chocolate. The
last picture shows how students can make use of the words to compose a piece of
writing.

2. TEXTBOOK EVALUATION
- According to Cunnigsworth there are three types of evaluation: pre-use evaluation
(”the potential performance of the coursebook”); in-use evaluation (conducted
while it is used); post-use evaluation (this is where the texbooks ”gets a mark”
based on his performance).
- Why do we need to conduct pre-use textbook evaluation?
- Well, because there are so many published IELTS textbooks that claim to prepare
learners to successfully take the IELTS exam. Teachers need to have a checklist to
evaluate this plethora of materials and should be aware that they don’t have to
overrely on the textbook and can bring extra materials.
- Allan Cunnigsworth’s summarizes in these two quotes what a good textbook
should have in its units: equal presentation and real-life practice for reading,
listening, speaking and writing.

3. PRE-USE EVALUATION OF THE TWO IELTS TEXTBOOKS

- The instrument used for the pre-use evaluation was Alan Cunnigsworth checklist
for skills.
- this checklist has eight questions that focus on the integration of the four skills and
the need for a balanced integration and authentic skill practice with real-life topics,
the need of grammar and vocabulary to be practiced together with the four skills
and on using topics that are accurate and connected with the real-world.
- The results of the pre-use evaluation show the deficiencies of the textbooks.
- both textbooks include the four traditional skills in their units and also provide
further practice at the end of each unit.
- one of the main characteristics that makes a textbook a reliable teaching material is
a balance proportion in presenting the four basic skills.
- However, in the first textbook, there is a clear focus on receptive skills practice
(listening, reading) and on language focus (grammar, spelling), used to develop the
four skills. Skill practice exercises have these grammar and vocabulary boxes offer
advice for expressing opinions/disagreements that help creating the piece of paper.
- To learn to communicate in authentic and real contexts means to be able to use the
second language inside and outside the classroom.
- In the textbook, there are tasks that require to write a letter of complaint, a letter to
the local council, a letter to the manager to apply for a part-time job, to describe
changes.
 - about climate change, expecially about global warming. Speaking instructions ask
learners to answer some questions, for example ” What kind of things can you do
personally to reduce global warming?” to encourage learners to share their
opinions on the subject. The next step is to listen on the radio to someone speaking
about saving the planet. The practice focuses on environment vocabulary and
continues with the writing box that indicated to write about the greenhouse effect
using data from the diagram.

- real-life tasks have instructions on authentic material: articles conversations, film

reviews, pictures (the process of making chocolate, charts, tables, diagrams (for
instance, ”The Traditional Healthy Asian Diet Pyramd.”)

After analyzing both it can be said that they need small improvements in order to
cover the deficiencies. That is why I created a list of strengths and weaknesses.
STRENGTHS: so the upsides are many
 both textbooks have integrated the four skills successfully.
 moreover, both deal with language focus, which means the ”designers” of the
textbooks realised the fact that grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling
help improve the development of the four skills, in particular the writing skill.
 another aspect worth mentioning is the fact that learners have the opportunity to
learn a second language meaningfully (with an audience and purpose).
 and also the presence of motivating tools. These ”aid” materials make the whole
learning process more interactive.
8. Weaknesses
 ”Objective IELTS”” hasn’t succeed in giving the four skills equal attention. Reading
and listening seem to prevail speaking and writing.
 there are many writing activities that prepare learners for writing but few that allows
learners to write their own story.. For the improvements to be seen, there must be practice
for learners to try writing themselves original texts.

9. CONCLUSIONS
 The weaknesses should not be seen as a reason for not using the teaching-
materials.
 To be able to deliver the final product (the piece of writing) is the goal of teaching
writing. That is why too much controlled writing represents a disadvantage.