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2020

IELTS essay, topic: People who read for pleasure develop their imagination more and acquire better language skills compared to people who prefer watching television (agree/disagree)

It is believed that people who read for pleasure develop their imagination more and acquire better language skills compared to people who prefer watching television. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Sample Band 8 Essay

Some people subscribe to the belief that reading helps enhance language skills and creativity, whereas watching television does very little for these abilities. Personally, I support this opinion for several reasons, which will be laid out in this essay.

As we all know, books use text to convey ideas and quite often there are no images or illustrations to picture the scenes described in the book; therefore, we have to use our own imagination while reading. For example, reading a fantasy novel that contains mythical creatures one would normally see the appearance of those characters in their mind while following the plot. In contrast, movie heroes on a TV screen are usually created for the viewer by directors and producers of the film. Watching TV substitutes the need to develop one’s own imagination because the characters and their surroundings are shown on the screen.

Furthermore, it is argued that reading is the best way to expand one’s vocabulary. The reader learns the correct spelling of a word by seeing it printed in a book, and they grasp its meaning from the context, without having to look it up in a dictionary. Not only new words but also numerous sentence structures can be learnt from books. To take advantage of these benefits English teachers in many schools use English novels as teaching materials. Students are asked to read the story and capture the keywords to answer the questions in the exam. In comparison, learning new words while watching a TV show isn’t always easy because the viewer’s attention is drawn to the action on the screen and if there are no subtitles, the spelling of the words is not obvious. All this makes a book a more effective tool for a language learner compared to TV.

In conclusion, I believe people who love to read tend to have a more active imagination and advanced linguistic comprehension than those who watch television, since readers are required to imagine the story in the book and learn the meaning of new words from the context.

Click here to see more IELTS essays of Band 8

How to get Band 7+ in IELTS Speaking (video lesson #3)

There is some extra value in Lesson #3 that you will love! Things Adam talks about will help you not only with Speaking, but also with other IELTS skills – especially writing! The vocabulary and grammar Adam will teach you in this lesson will help you speak better, write better and understand things you hear or read, which means your Listening and Reading scores can only improve with this knowledge.

If you missed Lesson 1 or Lesson 2, don’t worry, you can watch them later. Here is what you don’t want to miss though, one very important principle Adam keeps talking about: don’t just sit and watch this lesson. Grab a pen and paper, pause the video and use the grammar he explains to write a sentence about YOU. This will help you remember, because personal things stay in our memory for longer.

Watch the video on YouTube here

 

Go here to get Adam to assess your Speaking, estimate you the score you’re likely to get now and tell you how to score higher.

In the video: Speaking Part 2 and Part 3 – grammar, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions

The Part 2 topic Adam talks about in this lesson is,

Describe a successful small company that you know about. Please say

– What kind of work the company does
– How you know about the company
– What you know about it.

Adam saw many test takers hesitate when they got this question, and that is why he knew he had to show you a great way to answer it.

What kind of grammar will help you get a high score?

This is a ‘present’ question and it means you should use present grammar forms when you talk about it.

One of the options is Simple Present, for example: “The company sells computers.”

If you wanted to get fancier, you could use a Passive form, “The best pizza can be bought there”, or an Active form, “You can buy the best pizza there”.

Your other options are Present Perfect or Present Perfect Continuous, and of course Adam explains how to use these grammar forms and gives you examples.

Vocabulary and Idioms for Band 7+

In this section Adam gives you a list of words to use instead of ‘business’. You don’t have to keep saying ‘company’ – you can use ‘firm’, ‘corporation’, ‘organization’, ‘venture’, ‘establishment’ and many other synonyms. Not only that, you will also learn adjectives to describe what kind of business it is, and verbs to explain what it does. Adam also introduces to you some idiomatic expressions you could use to talk about a business (and how to use them in a sentence):

“Above board” – to be open and honest
“Bend the truth” – to lie a little
… and more!

Finally, Adam gives you some ideas how YOU can come up with things to say about a business in your country. He suggests what you could think about to get enough ideas for your talk. So, if you ever find yourself short of ideas, definitely watch this video.

Mock Speaking Test

Last but not least, it is Mock Test time! Adam will be asking you questions as a Speaking examiner, and you will be answering them (and, hopefully, recording yourself).

You will be amazed how many things about your speaking you can notice from listening to your own recordings. Listen and check if you’re using the expressions he talks about in this video, if you’re using the grammatical structures he recommends, and how fluently you are talking.

Don’t forget to check for fillers – how many times you use words like ‘um’, ‘er’, ‘ah’, ‘like,’, ‘well…’, ‘you know…’. You can also check if you’re making little grammatical or vocabulary mistakes, or if you hesitate a lot. Make notes about any issues you notice, and do better on your next Mock Test.