snanoi6 IELTS: Describing 3: Descriting graphs exercise | Onestoperglish Welcome Mahmoud] My account| Subscribe now| Tog out Number one for English language teachers IELTS: Describing 3: Describing graphs exercise 1 By Sam McCarter ‘The aim of this exercise is to help students deal with comparing the data in bar charts where there are no trends. ‘The aim of this exercise is to help students deal with comparing the data in bar charts where there are no trends. Exercise one ‘The aim ofthis and subsequent exercises in this series of material on the visual presentation and interpretation of data and diagrams is to help familiarize students with doing Task 1 in the academic writing module in the IELTS exam. ‘Many students find the analysis and description of graphs and other diagramatic data rather daunting. This exercise is a basic introduction to line graphs. ‘Teaching tips ‘The material can be used as an introduction to line graphs for students who have never analyses data in graph form before. Give the students the exereise and ask them in pairs/ groups to choose the appropriate answers. The length of time you allocate to this will depend on the class. + When you have checked the answers, ask individual students in the class to identify a line which rises/ fluctuates/ a rising trend etc. to recycle vocabulary. + You may want to introduce some new vocabulary, vocabulary elicited form the class, + Choose a sequence of the mini graphs: for exampleba dh cia and soon. + Read out a description and ask the students to write down the letters of the graphs that match the descriptions you have read out, You may want to repeat graphs and make the dictation as long or short as the level of the class will allow. + Ask students to check their answers in pairs or groups. + Ask the students to write their own sentences without looking at the descriptions in the exercise using, ‘the sequence you have dictated. + Asa variation oran additional step, ask the students to write their own sentences, say 7 — 10, depending on the level of the class and then give their sentences to another pair/group to work out the sequence of graphs used. + Make sure the students write the sequence they have used on a separate paper or on the back of the sheet. + For homework give the students a list of noun phrases, for example: bicycle sales/ bieycle purchases/ sales of bicycles/ purchases of bicycles/ the number of bicycles sold/ purchases and ask the students to write a range of sentences using these phrases and the line graphs. The complexity of the vocabulary you use will depend on the class ‘fyou think the students can handle it, or emphasis Key A) ii/iv, B) Oi , F) ii/iv G) i Intpihwwanestapenglsh.com Jexamsieltsescribinglls-cescribing 3 deseribing-graphe-xerise- 1144750 article 18snanoi6 IELTS: Describing 3: Descriting graphs exercise | Onestoperglish Exercise two ‘The aim of this exercise is to help students deal with comparing the data in bar charts where there are no trends. Teaching tips ‘The material can be used as an introduction to bar charts where individual factors ete are being described rather than trends etc. + Give the students the bar chart and ask them in pairs to study it and sce if they can divide the factors into natural groups. For example, you can divide the items on the bar chart into teaching and non- teaching. + Allow the students to come up with different possibilities before you give them your own answer. A. division that is commonly suggested is according to percentage. This may seem convenient, but students may end up grouping items together that do not really fit. + Point out that putting the items into natural groups is like arranging information into paragraphs for writing and reading. The relationship between the different skills will help students gradually build up a picture of the thinking behind the IELTS exam. + Ask the students to give you the percentages of several factors; say which is the highest/ the lowest; which one comes top /bottom/second from the bottom; which ones they would give ete. + Then give the students the list of phrases and the sentences. You can complete a few of the answers, depending on the level of the class - you may want to do some of the more difficult ones. Ifthe class is advanced, you could ask them to look at the sentences first in groups/pairs and see if they ean predict the words that are missing. Before you let them look at the phrases, go through and see how many they can give. Point out that you are not looking for the exact answers or necessarily the correct answers. You may be satisfied with the students getting the grammar correct. Allow the students in pairs/groups to find the answers from the list of phrases Key 1) M, 2) 0, 3) J, 4) B, 5) F, 6) N, 7) H, 8) L, 9) 1, 10) D, 11) A, 12) F, 13) C, 14) G, 15) K Vocabulary development As you are checking the answers with the class as whole, ask the students for possible synonyms of words and phiases to build their vocabulary and flexibility in writing. For example, Sentence 1: illustrates/ selected ‘picked Sentence 2: is/with Sentence 3: poll/around/about — What about roughly? Sentence 4: poll/took place Sentence 10: can be split/divide/split Sentence 11: gave/quoted cited ete. Information gap exercises 1. Check that the students understand all the words in the sentences. Then divide the class into pairs and give each pair the two charts A and B. Point out that the items on the chart are the same as in the exercise they have just looked at, but that the percentages for the items have been changed. 2, Tell them not to look at each other's charts. Tell them their task is to ask each other questions to complete the bar charts. When they have finished they can look at each other's charts. Avariation of this exercise is to have the students ask you questions to complete either Chart A or B. A further variation is to dictate the missing information in simple or complex sentences depending on the level of the class. You can then check if the students have understood the chart and the language by asking them to make sentences orally to describe/compare particular factors. As a follow up, you can ask them to write sentences or a simple text describing the data in the chart. Readers’ comments (3) + Web Editor | Wed, 5 Aug 2015 2:13pm Intpihwwanestapenglsh.com Jexamsieltsescribinglls-cescribing 3 deseribing-graphe-xerise- 1144750 article 28