English beyond the classroom

IELTS is a test of your general English ability, so to do really well in the exam you need to use English
in everyday life outside of the classroom. This doesn’t have to mean endless hours of boring
studying. Instead, you should have some fun when using English and even bite-size chunks of 15
extra minutes per day will really benefit you in the test.

Try:

- Chatting to your friends in English for the first 15 minutes when you meet them in a café.
- Downloading movies and watching 15 minutes per night.
- Watching English-language TV channels
- Reading English novels and newspapers
- Listening to English songs on YouTube

Read, watch and listen to whatever interests you. In this way, you are naturally exposing yourself to
English whilst having fun in your free time.

Of course, you can also spend time gaining general knowledge about some of the common IELTS
topics which come up in part 3 speaking, task 2 writing and in the listening and reading tests:

 Environment * Education * Economics

 Technology * Health * Culture
 Globalization * Travel * Transport
 Government spending * International aid * Crime

Reading, watching and listening to materials on these topics will improve your vocabulary and
general knowledge, and make it easier to generate ideas about them. Again, you can read an article
or watch a short YouTube video when you’re on the bus, sitting at home, or waiting for a friend who
is late.

Here are some useful sites you can use:

Reading:

The Guardian / The New York Times / BBC news website

Listening:

 TED talks
 BBC Radio 4
 Voice of America Podcasts https://learningenglish.voanews.com
 Player.fm https://player.fm/featured/current-affairs

Watching:

 American late night show monologues which tackle current affairs with comedy:

Steven Colbert / Seth Meyers / Trevor Noah / Jimmy Kimmel

 BBC nature documentaries / natural world documentaries (YouTube) / BBC Life Story

 TED talks

 Newsy.com (for short 1-3 minute videos)

 The following free documentary sites:

Vimeo Documentary 
Freedocumentaries.org 
Top Documentary Films 
Documentaries Heaven
Documentary Tube

Speaking:

You could watch/listen to any of the above and then have a discussion with your friends.

Also, https://esldiscussions.com/ has some great questions across a vast range of topics that you can
discuss together.

So, why not enjoy your free time and develop your English ability, without even realizing it?