Language learning
Here is some advice about how to improve your language and test skills.
Speak and think in English to activate your vocabulary and fluency
Reading books, magazines, and websites, as well as listening to English with friends at work or in the media is good, but it is not enough - you have to actively use the language by speaking and writing it.
Use a dictionary and grammar book to help you improve your English. Speaking and writing are not only about fluency; they are also about having enough vocabulary and accuracy so you can go into detail. If you are worried about your English ability, an English class would be very good. You will need to search the web to find a course near you.
If you don’t have enough time to go to class, you could get a private teacher or practise speaking in English with a partner about serious topics (e.g. stories from the news, or problems at work), and do some writing on these topics too.
Build up your ability to concentrate in English
This is especially true for reading and listening.
You could follow a simple study schedule to improve this - e.g. for 2 weeks before your test, read or listen to English everyday. Time yourself and make sure you do 10 minutes for the first few days; then increase the amount of time each day, until you can read and listen for 30 minutes a day without feeling tired.
Practise your test skills
Often people find language tests difficult even if they use English frequently. You can buy and use the Official UBELT Practice Tests to help you prepare and/or you can follow the suggestions below.
Writing
Practice: Write by hand on a familiar topic, e.g. about a procedure or situation at work. In the test you only have 20 minutes, so use a clock and time yourself.
Do not use a dictionary while writing. Once you have finished, you can build your vocabulary by looking up new words and phrases that you wanted to use but didn’t know.
Handwriting: The information you give in the written test is for someone else to read; we must be able to read your handwriting, so practise it. If your handwriting is very bad, the examiner may not be able to read it at all, so you will get a much lower score or no score at all.
Reading
You need to practice reading quickly because in the test you have only 30 minutes for 2 texts.
When you are doing the test, there will be questions that you must answer.
- Good test takers always scan a text very quickly (e.g. 30 seconds) to understand the basic topic, but then they look at each question one by one. They understand what the question wants and then they look in the text to find the answer. Then they do the next question
- Don't read the whole text carefully to understand it and look at the questions later - that wastes too much time
- Practice: Read a professional or news article quickly with a time limit, and then write a short summary of it, without looking at the text. Read the text again and check the information in your summary. Ask yourself questions, such as:
- Did I get the main points and the important details?
- Did I understand people’s opinions and worries?
- Do not use a dictionary while practising the reading, but later you can build up your vocabulary by looking up any new and useful words and phrases from the article.
Listening
Listening tests may be the strangest for you. You have to read, listen and write - often at the same time. And you hear the recording only once!
During the test you have some time before each group of new questions.
- You have to read through the questions very quickly and note the topic area or key words/ideas you have to listen for.
- You have to continue to listen while following through the questions.
- You have to write while still listening and remembering the key word for the next question.
These are real skills and you really should practise them.
Communication skills are important
The speaking test is interactive. You need to respond to what the examiner asks or comments on. If you don't understand something in the speaking interview, you need to ask for clarification.
You need to speak long enough to really answer a question well and to show you have enough English. To help you speak for longer turns and to clarify what you mean, it is useful to be able to give descriptions and examples. Make sure you know a lot of the common vocabulary (and the pronunciation) for ideas and objects related to your work area.
Specific English language points which may be different in other languages
- English must use noun and pronoun forms (she/her, etc.) with verbs in most written and spoken sentences, otherwise the meaning gets confused
- English words often, but not always, change their form depending on how they work in the sentence/phrase (e.g. nation and loss are nouns; nationalise and lose are verbs). Learning basic rules about word formation is very useful
- The same word can have different meanings and the meaning changes according to other words it is combined with (look: look over there; he gave me a dirty look; look it up; look down on someone, et cetera)
- The differences between modal verbs are very important - e.g. ‘need, should, must’ do not mean the same thing. And the negative forms can have quite different rules or change meaning. Check your grammar book examples to see about these
- Phrasal verbs ( e.g. look into /catch up on something) are important and are used a lot in English - they are used by everyone all the time in all contexts
- English word order is very important for meaning. We must say: ‘He came to see me about his problem’, not for example, ‘His problem, he came to me to see about’.
