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Shadowing practice: IELTS Writing Task 2 | TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE? with Jay!

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  1. Hi everyone, my name is Jay.0:00
  2. I'm one of the expert IELTS teachers at etoonlanguage .com.0:02
  3. What are we going to do?0:07
  4. In this live class, we're going to look at the agree, disagree type essay.0:08
  5. Of course, there are a number of different question prompts that you'll see on test day for your IELTS, including agree, disagree, discussion, give your opinion.0:15
  6. What are some other ones?0:26
  7. Problem solution, advantages, disadvantages.0:27
  8. This one here, the agree, disagree is pretty tough.0:32
  9. Let's look at it in more detail.0:36
  10. What we're going to do in this live class is we're going to aim for IELTS 9.0:39
  11. We're going to aim for an IELTS 9.0:43
  12. Why not?0:44
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  1. If we fall a bit short, that doesn't matter.0:45
  2. This is an IELTS 9 essay, or at least it should be.0:47
  3. It has all of the attributes that you want to aim for to get a very high score.0:53
  4. I've written on topic, I've used precise vocabulary, I've used accurate grammar, and I've used a logical structure.0:59
  5. I'm going to show you how to do that in this lesson.1:08
  6. What actually what we're going to do is write this thing sentence by sentence.1:13
  7. Get out a pen and a piece of paper because there's only one way to learn how to write an essay, and that's to write an essay.1:18
  8. Let's do it.1:26
  9. The first thing you need to do on test day is look carefully at that question prompt.1:28
  10. It's going to look something like this.1:34
  11. What you can see up here, of course, is just the generic information.1:37
  12. You have 40 minutes.1:41
  13. Down here, it says to use reasons and examples, and to write about 250 words, at least 250 words.1:43
  14. In other words, we need to write more than 250 words.1:52
  15. What's truly important here, though, is this part here.1:55
  16. This is the question prompt.2:00
  17. This is what you need to look at on test day.2:02
  18. This one says this.2:04
  19. To what extent do you agree or disagree?2:06
  20. I'm going to show you how to write these types of essays.2:10
  21. Right.2:14
  22. Fine.2:15
  23. What you'll notice about this question prompt is that it has a general statement.2:15
  24. The statement here says vaccinating children against preventable diseases is not only unnecessary, but also dangerous.2:22
  25. Let's think about this general statement.2:32
  26. First of all, it's just one side of an opinion.2:35
  27. Somebody is saying to you that vaccinating your children is dangerous and unnecessary.2:38
  28. There's not two sides of the opinion.2:44
  29. It's one side of the opinion.2:46
  30. What you have to do is, well, you have to do this.2:48
  31. You have to discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree.2:52
  32. What does that actually mean?2:58
  33. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree?3:00
  34. Let's think about that.3:04
  35. Because it's not asking, do you agree or disagree?3:05
  36. It's saying discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree.3:09
  37. We need to get this right if we're going to get an IELTS 9.3:13
  38. In my essay that I just showed you, the extent to which I agree or disagree, I've used words like entirely, completely, completely, and absolute entirely.3:17
  39. In other words, I've completely disagreed.3:32
  40. I've absolutely disagreed.3:36
  41. But there are other ways that we can do this.3:37
  42. What we need to do is, we need to think about the extent to which we agree or disagree as a spectrum.3:40
  43. Here you can imagine somebody completely agrees, and here's the other side of the argument.3:48
  44. You completely disagree.3:53
  45. Here someone moderately agrees, and slightly agree, slightly disagree, and moderately agree.3:55
  46. This is what this essay is asking you to do.4:01
  47. It's saying, where on that spectrum are you?4:04
  48. Do you completely agree?4:08
  49. Do you completely disagree?4:09
  50. Do you somewhat agree?4:10
  51. Do you somewhat disagree?4:11
  52. This is what we need to do in this essay.4:13
  53. Let's think about this with these question prompts.4:15
  54. Smoking cigarettes is good for your health.4:21
  55. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree.4:24
  56. Maybe if you're crazy, you might completely agree, and you might think smoking cigarettes is great for your health.4:26
  57. Most people would completely disagree with this one.4:34
  58. That's the extent to which they disagree.4:37
  59. They completely disagree.4:42
  60. Okay, fine.4:43
  61. What about this question prompt?4:44
  62. It says, public transport is the best way to get to work.4:45
  63. Most people would probably moderately agree or maybe slightly agree, because public transport's busy, and sometimes it's dirty, maybe even a bit dangerous.4:51
  64. That's an extent to which you agree with this one.5:03
  65. What about if you were stuck in the desert, Coca -Cola would be the best drink?5:06
  66. Well, I think people would either moderately or completely disagree with this one.5:12
  67. That doesn't really make sense.5:17
  68. What about if it said, if you were stuck in the desert, water would be the best drink?5:19
  69. Okay, I imagine people would sort of probably completely agree or maybe moderately agree and say that Gatorade would be the best.5:25
  70. I don't know.5:33
  71. But anyway, then we're back to our one, which said vaccinating children against preventable diseases is not only unnecessary but also dangerous.5:34
  72. What I'm going to do in this essay, I'm going to land about here.5:45
  73. I'm going to sort of completely disagree with this, but I'm also going to add something in here, and you'll see what I mean by that.5:52
  74. Let's think about the essay structure.6:01
  75. In an essay structure, the basic structure is like this, four paragraphs, introduction, paragraph one, two, and a conclusion.6:04
  76. What we're going to do is, well, the introduction is the introduction.6:13
  77. What we're going to do in this essay, to what extent do you agree or disagree, we're going to acknowledge side one.6:17
  78. This is a hard essay to write.6:25
  79. I think this is probably the hardest one.6:28
  80. In our first paragraph, I'm going to say, look, I understand why some people don't want to vaccinate their children because of these reasons.6:30
  81. Then in the second paragraph, I'm going to destroy their logic.6:40
  82. It's kind of mean, but that's what you need to do.6:47
  83. I'm going to acknowledge why some parents might not vaccinate their children.6:49
  84. That'll be my first paragraph.6:55
  85. But then I'm going to completely disagree or agree with side two.6:56
  86. I'm going to say, give my reasons why this should be.7:02
  87. I'll show you in a second how I do that.7:05
  88. This is the structure that we're going to use.7:07
  89. It's very similar to the structure that we saw in the other essays.7:10
  90. Similar to the structure we saw in the discussion, the other opinion.7:13
  91. If you haven't seen those, check those out on YouTube as well.7:17
  92. Very similar structure.7:21
  93. We're going to write it sentence by sentence.7:22
  94. You'll notice that the introduction and the conclusion are similar.7:25
  95. You'll notice that the paragraphs are exactly the same.7:29
  96. In fact, this structure is easy or quite easy to remember.7:33
  97. How do we write the introduction?7:37
  98. We need a place to start.7:39
  99. We're going to write sentence one where you write a general statement based on the prompt.7:41
  100. Here's the question prompt again.7:48
  101. It says, vaccinating children against preventable diseases is not only unnecessary, but also dangerous.7:50
  102. What I'm going to do here is I'm going to write a general statement.7:56
  103. I'm not rewriting this in my own words.8:01
  104. That comes next.8:03
  105. What I need to do is write a bit of a background statement about this prompt.8:05
  106. A background statement.8:11
  107. A bit of a general statement.8:12
  108. What I in fact wrote was this.8:14
  109. My general statement says, vaccinating children has become increasingly unpopular among certain demographics of society.8:16
  110. Vaccinating children has become increasingly unpopular among certain demographics of society.8:26
  111. I've written a general statement based on this.8:32
  112. What I want you to do is you're going to do it on a different question prompt.8:37
  113. This is your question prompt.8:42
  114. It says, smacking children is the best form of discipline.8:44
  115. To what extent do you agree or disagree?8:49
  116. What I need you to do now is write a general statement based on this prompt.8:53
  117. Here you have one minute.9:00
  118. I should call it a background statement, actually.9:43
  119. Or a general statement based on this.9:48
  120. Don't rewrite that sentence yet.9:50
  121. Just write a background statement.9:52
  122. Let me have a look at that chat.10:08
  123. All right.10:11
  124. What have we got?10:12
  125. We've got Jason says, some people believe that corporal punishment is the best way to instill discipline in children.10:13
  126. Sometimes as a teacher, you just think life's good.10:23
  127. That is a beautiful sentence.10:27
  128. Smith says, spanking children is an age -old practice generally followed by people.10:29
  129. Good.10:35
  130. Fine.10:35
  131. Victor says, children's behavior can be controlled in many ways, but some people choose to use physical punishment.10:35
  132. You guys are too good.10:41
  133. Julie, to control children's behavior, some people use physical punishment.10:42
  134. Pneuma, these days it has become difficult to discipline children.10:47
  135. Great.10:50
  136. That's fine.10:51
  137. That's a general background statement.10:51
  138. That's fine.10:53
  139. Physical punishments, discipline children has become a hot topic of discussion in recent years.10:54
  140. Close.11:00
  141. Good.11:01
  142. Let's go back.11:02
  143. We wrote a general statement.11:03
  144. Now we want to rewrite that question prompt in our own words.11:05
  145. A little bit different.11:10
  146. Let's look at mine.11:11
  147. My question was, vaccinating children against preventable diseases is not only an unnecessary but also dangerous.11:12
  148. So what did I do?11:20
  149. First, I wrote a general statement.11:22
  150. Vaccinating children has become increasingly unpopular among certain demographics of society.11:24
  151. Now I rewrite this in my own words.11:31
  152. I've added a few words here.11:36
  153. I've said these people claim that vaccinations are hazardous to children's health and as such are not needed.11:38
  154. So the idea of being hazardous is that it's dangerous and not needed is unnecessary.11:45
  155. I've added something here about these people.11:52
  156. That's fine.11:54
  157. You can do that if you want.11:55
  158. But effectively, what I have done for my second sentence is I have rewritten this in my own words.11:57
  159. So here we have a background sentence.12:07
  160. Now I rewrite that prompt in my own words.12:09
  161. Now I want you to do it for yours.12:12
  162. I want you to rewrite that sentence that smacking children is the best form of discipline.12:15
  163. Of course, you may want to say that some people or some parents believe that smacking children rewrite it in your own words.12:20
  164. See how you go.12:28
  165. All right.13:11
  166. Let me have a look at some of the answers.13:13
  167. So, okay.13:18
  168. I think we need to start with...13:19
  169. I can see what happened.13:24
  170. That first sentence really needs to be a general background statement about children becoming less well behaved or something about physical punishment has always been around for a long time13:26
  171. or something like that.13:38
  172. Then we move a little bit narrower and we rewrite this in our own words.13:40
  173. Ray said some people believe that corporal punishments is necessary to discipline children.13:44
  174. Excellent.13:48
  175. Smith says some parents believe that punishing children by spanking is the best way to discipline their children.13:50
  176. Good.13:55
  177. Julie says although one category of parents can consider this approach as appropriate, I completely disagree with that.13:56
  178. Not yet.14:02
  179. We're not giving our opinion yet.14:04
  180. First sentence, background statement, no opinion.14:06
  181. Second sentence, rewrite the question prompt, no opinion.14:09
  182. The third sentence, which I'll show you in a second, is where we move into our opinion because we need to build this essay out.14:14
  183. We need to start wide and go in to start broad and then go precise.14:21
  184. Syrish says some people believe that punishment is a good way to grow kids, raise children, a good way to raise children.14:30
  185. Remember this is a formal essay you need to write.14:38
  186. Victor says for some parents, smacking children is the best way, sometimes there's no synonym, is the best way to control and improve the behavior of their children.14:41
  187. Good.14:56
  188. Let's keep going.14:57
  189. Here we go.14:58
  190. So now we move to our opinion and we say this essay will argue that, will argue why, then we move into our opinion.14:59
  191. Let me read your mind.15:09
  192. So first sentence, background statement, vaccinating children has become increasingly unpopular among certain demographics of society.15:11
  193. These people claim that vaccinations are hazardous to children's health and as such are not needed.15:22
  194. Of course, in the second month, all I did was rewrite that.15:27
  195. The third sentence here is my opinion and this is where I say, what the essay will do.15:30
  196. This essay will argue why, vaccinating against spreadable diseases is entirely necessary despite some potential risks.15:38
  197. Now, if we think about our spectrum, I've used this word here entirely necessary, entirely necessary.15:48
  198. So I've, the extent of my opinion is clear.15:59
  199. I have said that vaccinating children is entirely, it's absolutely necessary.16:04
  200. I haven't, my extent, I've gone right to one end here.16:10
  201. Now you may want to do that with yours, but what I want you to do is give your opinion and think about that spectrum of where you sit on16:14
  202. that spectrum.16:21
  203. Okay.16:23
  204. So yours says, smacking children is the best form of discipline.16:23
  205. What are you going to argue?16:28
  206. This essay will argue that, are you going to completely agree?16:30
  207. Are you going to completely disagree?16:35
  208. Or are you going to moderately agree, moderately disagree?16:38
  209. You have one minute.16:42
  210. Okay.18:03
  211. Essay will argue that spanking is not the best way to discipline children.18:04
  212. Good.18:10
  213. That's fine.18:10
  214. That's fine.18:11
  215. Okay.18:12
  216. Good.18:12
  217. That's, that's, Oma totally agrees.18:13
  218. That's fine.18:16
  219. Sometimes you just have to choose, even if you don't believe it, sometimes you should just choose whatever's easiest to argue because you just want to, you know, it's not18:18
  220. a test of your, what you truly believe.18:27
  221. It's a test of how, while you write in English.18:30
  222. So if you are faced with a question prompt that's, you know, if there's an easy option, take it, take it.18:32
  223. You've got 40 minutes.18:40
  224. You don't have four days to, to think about your option there.18:41
  225. Julia, this essay will discuss the reasons why I completely disagree with the using physical power of adults over children.18:45
  226. While some people may argue against, okay, good.18:53
  227. That's fine.18:57
  228. Jason, this essay will argue why corporal punishment is completely unacceptable.18:57
  229. Great.19:02
  230. So on the spectrum of what, to what extent does Jason agree or disagree?19:03
  231. He says it's completely unacceptable.19:08
  232. And so he's gone right down that end of the spectrum.19:11
  233. Excellent.19:15
  234. Good work.19:16
  235. Let's have a look at the paragraphs.19:17
  236. We have just written our introduction.19:21
  237. Mine says this, let me explain to you how I did it.19:23
  238. This first sentence, I wrote a general statement about vaccinating children.19:27
  239. It has no opinion in it.19:33
  240. It's just a background statement, setting the scene for my essay.19:35
  241. It says vaccinating children has become increasingly unpopular among certain demographics of society.19:40
  242. Then I rewrote the question prompt.19:46
  243. And I said, these people claim that vaccinations are hazardous to children's health and as such are not needed.19:49
  244. Now, is there an opinion in this sentence?19:55
  245. Is there an opinion in this sentence?19:58
  246. No.20:00
  247. I just said these people claim that vaccinations are hazardous to children's health and as such are not needed.20:01
  248. There's no opinion.20:08
  249. All I did was rewrite that question prompt.20:09
  250. Then I move into my opinion by saying this essay will argue, I said this essay will argue why vaccinating against spreadable diseases is entirely necessary despite some potential risks.20:12
  251. Just like Jason said, it's completely unacceptable.20:30
  252. I'm saying that vaccinating is entirely necessary.20:34
  253. If I look, think about the extent of my agree or disagree, I've gone to the far left or right, whatever that is, I'm not sure.20:37
  254. Cool.20:46
  255. Good stuff.20:47
  256. Let's now think about paragraph one.20:48
  257. Paragraph one will look like this.20:52
  258. Now, this particular question prompt doesn't have sides.20:54
  259. Sometimes the question prompt will say, some people believe this and some people believe that.21:00
  260. So you've got a red side and a blue side.21:08
  261. You've got two competing or different opinions.21:10
  262. And that's kind of easy because your first paragraph, you talk about side one and your second paragraph, you'll talk about side two.21:14
  263. This question prompt that we looked at just had one sign that said vaccinating children is bad or smacking children is the best way to discipline them.21:22
  264. There's no side two.21:33
  265. But we need to sort of think about this a little bit differently.21:35
  266. What we want to do in paragraph one is we want to acknowledge side one.21:39
  267. We want to, that question prompt, even if we're going to completely disagree with it, we want to think about reasons why people might believe that.21:46
  268. That will be our paragraph one.21:55
  269. Then we'll say what we think in paragraph two.21:57
  270. So let's do that.22:00
  271. I'll show you what I mean.22:01
  272. The first thing I need to do is restate side one.22:04
  273. So vaccinating children against preventable diseases is not only unnecessary, but also dangerous.22:08
  274. So I'm sort of restating this, changing it a little bit because I'm going to talk about parents.22:15
  275. I said parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.22:19
  276. Parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.22:24
  277. In fact, what I'm going to do, I'm going to skip ahead.22:28
  278. I'm going to show you, just bear with me while I do this.22:31
  279. I'm going to show you what this paragraph looks like.22:34
  280. And then we'll come back and do it sentence by sentence.22:39
  281. Okay.22:42
  282. So I'm going to acknowledge these parents views.22:43
  283. People who are against vaccinations.22:46
  284. So my opening sentence says parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.22:49
  285. Then I'm going to give a reason.22:55
  286. They are justifiably worried about injecting their children with unfamiliar substances that could potentially make them sick.22:56
  287. I'm going to give another reason.23:04
  288. Parents naturally feel protective of their children.23:05
  289. I'm going to give an example.23:08
  290. Indeed, there have been some recorded instances of children unfortunately reacting adversely to their injections.23:10
  291. Then I'm going to write a concluding sentence.23:18
  292. These few instances have bolstered existing fears in parents that vaccinations are not necessary and potentially more dangerous than the possibility of contracting the communicable disease itself.23:20
  293. This is a complicated paragraph.23:31
  294. This essay prompt is a hard one to do.23:34
  295. What I want you to do is acknowledge the other side of the argument.23:37
  296. So what I've done here is I've said, look, I understand why some parents don't want to vaccinate their kids.23:41
  297. They're protective of their children.23:47
  298. They love their kids and they don't want the kids being injected with this crazy stuff.23:49
  299. Who knows what it is?23:53
  300. In fact, there have been some examples of kids getting really sick from vaccinations.23:55
  301. In my last sentence, I've said, however, despite this, blah, blah, blah.24:01
  302. I want you to acknowledge the other side of the argument.24:06
  303. Let's go back.24:11
  304. I said, parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.24:16
  305. I want you to restate the other side of the argument.24:22
  306. So if you're against smacking, you should talk about why some parents believe in smacking, for example.24:27
  307. You have one minute.24:34
  308. Let's have a look at acknowledging the other side of the argument.25:50
  309. So Jason says, on the one hand, those who believe that when pain is inflicted physically, the absorption of learning is long lasting.25:55
  310. This means that children will definitely remember and learn in the long run.26:03
  311. Good.26:07
  312. You've acknowledged the other side of the argument.26:07
  313. Of course, in paragraph two, we're going to destroy their logic.26:10
  314. And that's what makes a good essay.26:14
  315. Kudos says, because it will generate negatively in their behavior, I'm missing something.26:18
  316. This missed something.26:24
  317. Omas Julia says, the parenting style in some families describes raising children through using power, which can maintain the children's behavior in a more positive level.26:27
  318. Good.26:39
  319. You're acknowledging the other side of the argument.26:40
  320. Smith says, parents think of various ways to discipline their children.26:42
  321. Good opening sentence, nice, short and clear.26:46
  322. That's fine.26:49
  323. Sandia says, some parents find smacking their children is the only way to control their tantrums.26:50
  324. Good.26:55
  325. Ray says, on the one hand, some parents believe the children get spoiled if they do not have any fear about punishment.26:56
  326. Good.27:02
  327. We've acknowledged that.27:03
  328. Now we're going to give some reasons why.27:04
  329. We're going to give two reasons.27:07
  330. And I'll tell you why we're going to give two reasons is I just wrote this presentation today.27:08
  331. And I thought it was great.27:15
  332. And I'd written this beautiful essay and I thought, wow, the structure is perfect.27:17
  333. Fantastic.27:21
  334. I put it into Microsoft Word and I did a word count.27:22
  335. And it was 185 words.27:25
  336. If I submitted this in IELTS, I probably would have got a six, not a nine.27:27
  337. So today in this one, we're going to give more reasons and more examples because we're going to build up our paragraphs.27:32
  338. Yes.27:41
  339. So let's give two reasons or two examples.27:41
  340. So here we go.27:45
  341. I've got two sentences here giving reasons.27:45
  342. Let me read you my paragraph.27:48
  343. Parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.27:51
  344. They are justifiably worried about injecting their children with unfamiliar substances that could potentially make them sick.27:55
  345. It's another reason.28:04
  346. Parents naturally feel protective of their children.28:06
  347. So now I want you to give a reason or two to your paragraph one.28:09
  348. Right.28:22
  349. Two reasons.28:23
  350. I'm going to give you two minutes.28:24
  351. All right.30:05
  352. That's a minute 30.30:06
  353. Let's have a look.30:07
  354. We want some reasons.30:08
  355. We acknowledge the other side of the argument.30:10
  356. And now we want reasons why people might think that.30:12
  357. Oma says, okay.30:15
  358. Not quite as proper sentences affect the child behavior and become more violent and give him indication that life is like that.30:20
  359. Good.30:28
  360. Fine.30:29
  361. Smitha.30:29
  362. Some parents believe that the traditional way of disciplining the children by punishing them is the finest way.30:29
  363. Good.30:35
  364. Prasanna says, while for some kids who are timid and generally obedient, a time out is a good enough punishment.30:36
  365. Okay.30:43
  366. I'm not sure what your paragraph is there.30:43
  367. That's fine.30:45
  368. Prima says, as children of this generation have become too difficult to handle, parents are left with no option other than smacking them.30:45
  369. Julia says, this can be the only way for them to control the manners of their children.30:55
  370. In addition, smacking children can explain the fact that some parents may be not so good at bringing children up.31:00
  371. Fine.31:07
  372. Prasanna says, there are others who are stubborn and do not relent to easy punishment.31:08
  373. Maria says, for this reason, it can affect the kid.31:14
  374. Remember, this is a formal essay.31:19
  375. So we want to say child, not kid.31:20
  376. Words like that are problematic.31:23
  377. It can affect the child psychologically in the long run instead of helping blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.31:24
  378. Great.31:29
  379. We're giving reasons.31:29
  380. Let's go back to our essay, because now we need to give examples.31:30
  381. For example, for instance, one recent study says 99 % of children smack their parents in whatever.31:35
  382. So here we go.31:47
  383. I've written an opening sentence here, which acknowledges the other side of the argument.31:49
  384. Parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.31:56
  385. Fine.31:59
  386. I've given the reasons.32:00
  387. Why are they wary of vaccinating their children?32:01
  388. Well, they are justifiably worried about injecting their children with unfamiliar substances that could potentially make them sick.32:03
  389. What's another reason they're protective of their children?32:10
  390. Well, parents naturally feel protective of their children.32:13
  391. Fine.32:16
  392. Now I write an example.32:17
  393. Indeed, there have been some recorded instances of children unfortunately reacting adversely to their injections.32:19
  394. So the difference between a reason and an example is not particularly clear.32:29
  395. What you might want to do is ask yourself why.32:35
  396. When you ask yourself why, you're going to come up with a reason.32:38
  397. So why are parents wary of vaccinating their children?32:41
  398. Or why do parents smack their children?32:46
  399. Parents believe that smacking their children is the best way to educate them or to stop them from doing something unruly.32:48
  400. Fine.32:56
  401. That's a why.32:56
  402. That's a reason.32:57
  403. And what about an example?32:58
  404. For example, a parent might slap a child on the back of the hand to scare the child.33:00
  405. Or for example, a parent might kind of weird getting into examples of physical punishment.33:07
  406. Anyway, this is all just fun.33:14
  407. Let's see how we go.33:16
  408. Give some examples of maybe give some examples of why they would do it.33:19
  409. Give some example, not of the punishment itself.33:26
  410. Anyway, you write what you want.33:30
  411. I'll check it in a minute.33:32
  412. Okay.34:38
  413. All right.34:39
  414. Let me check some of these examples.34:40
  415. They reasonably point out that the younger generation is more exposed to the world of crimes than older times.34:42
  416. Fine.34:49
  417. Well, for some kids, I've read that one, kudos, they will misbehave with other one.34:50
  418. This will lower their mental development.34:56
  419. Okay.34:59
  420. Fine.34:59
  421. Good example, Smitha.35:00
  422. Many people think that they have grown up to be responsible adults because of the way they were disciplined as kids.35:01
  423. Okay.35:06
  424. That could be an example, Prasanna.35:07
  425. A recent study shows that about 21 % of parents in India relent to corporal punishment because of the repetitive nature of the children's bad and unacceptable behavior.35:08
  426. Beautiful.35:18
  427. Now, the question is, do you need to refer, do you need to use statistics and research that is real?35:19
  428. No, not necessarily.35:28
  429. You have no access to Google.35:29
  430. You have no access to a library.35:31
  431. You can make up some statistics.35:32
  432. That's fine.35:34
  433. Good.35:35
  434. Julia says, a good example is that some mothers can easily stop their son or daughter in order to stop uncontrolled behaviors such as using inappropriate words.35:36
  435. Excellent.35:47
  436. So there's your example of why a parent might resort to smacking their child.35:47
  437. Maybe the kids are being rude.35:53
  438. And so the parent will resort to smacking the child, blah, blah, blah.35:54
  439. Good.35:58
  440. Fine.36:00
  441. Let's write the closing sentence of our paragraph.36:01
  442. We need to conclude this side.36:04
  443. And what we want to do is just sort of acknowledge that side one.36:06
  444. Let's go back.36:11
  445. So opening sentence.36:13
  446. Parents, what I do is I, what do I do?36:15
  447. Let's go back.36:18
  448. I need to check myself.36:19
  449. Restate side one.36:22
  450. Restate side one.36:23
  451. So I'm acknowledging side one.36:24
  452. For me, why some parents don't vaccinate their children.36:27
  453. I'm acknowledging this side of the argument.36:31
  454. Parents have always been wary of vaccinating their children.36:34
  455. Reason one, they are justifiably worried about injecting their children with unfamiliar substances that could potentially make them sick.36:37
  456. Reason two, parents naturally feel protective of their children.36:45
  457. Example, indeed, there have been some recorded instances of children unfortunately reacting adversely to their injections.36:50
  458. Now I'm going to conclude side one.36:58
  459. These few instances have bolstered existing fears in parents that vaccinations are not necessary and potentially more dangerous than the possibility of contracting the communicable disease itself.37:02
  460. So you can see that this sentence has flown on, flowed onto this one here.37:15
  461. These few instances is referring back to people, children reacting adversely.37:22
  462. But what I've really done here is I've sort of said, okay, so parents have fears about vaccinations and I've taken it back to the question prompt.37:29
  463. Let me, let me read this last sentence again.37:44
  464. These few instances have bolstered existing fears in parents that vaccinations are not necessary and potentially more dangerous.37:47
  465. So I've taken that back to the question prompt and said, okay, that's why parents don't like vaccinating their kids because they think it's unnecessary and they think it's dangerous.37:57
  466. So I've brought it back to that question prompt.38:06
  467. See if you can do the same thing with your paragraph.38:09
  468. You need to conclude side one.38:13
  469. Whoops, you're not going to do vaccinations though.38:15
  470. Why, you're going to do Y4 or against smacking.38:20
  471. All right.40:26
  472. What am I doing?40:28
  473. I'm looking at the chat and I'm seeing these concluding sentences.40:29
  474. How you wrap up and finish your paragraph by linking back to the question prompt.40:33
  475. Good.40:39
  476. In addition to that, okay, let me try another one.40:40
  477. Smith it.40:46
  478. There are a few reasons why parents think physical punishment is the best choice to shape the children's behavior.40:46
  479. Good.40:52
  480. Omar, moreover, smacking children has been unusable among people because it is not a civilized action.40:52
  481. Fine.40:58
  482. Ponema, smacking may not be the best form of discipline, but for some parents, it does help to control their child's behavior.40:59
  483. Excellent.41:05
  484. Kudos.41:06
  485. As I said, children will be more scared of their parents than respecting them.41:07
  486. Good.41:11
  487. Ray, therefore, these parents believe that smacking children will help to discipline them.41:12
  488. Good.41:16
  489. Prasanna, this suggests why some parents resort to inflicting pain on children to reinforce good behavior.41:17
  490. Excellent.41:24
  491. Let's now look at my paragraph from beginning to end.41:25
  492. So what I need to do is I need to restate why, for me, why some parents don't believe in vaccinations.41:30
  493. And that's because they're wary of vaccinating their children.41:38
  494. Now I need to give a reason why they're wary.41:42
  495. And I say they're wary because it could potentially make them sick.41:45
  496. Now I need to think of another reason because I need to make my paragraph longer.41:49
  497. I said parents are protective of their children.41:53
  498. I need to give an example.41:55
  499. And I say there are some recorded instances of adverse reactions to injections.41:57
  500. Then I conclude this by saying these few instances have bolstered existing fears in parents that vaccinations are not necessary, potentially more dangerous, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.42:03
  501. That's linked back to the question prompt.42:15
  502. Fine.42:18
  503. How do we write paragraph two?42:19
  504. It's exactly the same as paragraph one.42:21
  505. This thing's going to die.42:24
  506. What's going on?42:25
  507. It's exactly the same as paragraph one.42:26
  508. But now what we do, and this is the fun part, we destroy the other argument through good thinking and good writing.42:29
  509. So we've acknowledged side one.42:40
  510. We said, okay, look, I understand why parents might believe this, or I understand why parents might smack their children, or I understand why people should be able to smoke42:41
  511. in public.42:50
  512. However, now we bring out the big guns and we shoot down the other side and we win the war of the argument.42:52
  513. Let's see how I did that.43:01
  514. Here's my paragraph two.43:05
  515. It's the same structure.43:08
  516. So I've restated side two and I've said, despite the minor risks associated with vaccinating children, the idea that they are unnecessary and dangerous, the idea that vaccinations are unnecessary43:09
  517. and dangerous, and here's my spectrum opinion, is completely preposterous.43:25
  518. And now I give a reason why.43:35
  519. Vaccines have prevented vast numbers of deaths over hundreds of years in countries around the world.43:37
  520. Give me another reason.43:44
  521. The number of deaths so far prevented far outweighs the number of children who have been adversely affected by the immunizations themselves.43:45
  522. Give me an example.43:54
  523. Some diseases have actually been completely eradicated through vaccination campaigns.43:56
  524. Wrap this paragraph up.44:02
  525. Overall, the idea that vaccinations are unnecessary and dangerous is ill -informed and dangerous in itself and could potentially lead to a far worse outcome for society.44:04
  526. I've acknowledged their arguments in the first paragraph.44:17
  527. In the second paragraph, I pull out all of my belief and knowledge and I go, and I destroy it.44:20
  528. Well, yeah.44:28
  529. So you can write your paragraph two in your own time.44:30
  530. You may want to pause the video now and write your paragraph two.44:34
  531. For now, though, we're going to move to the conclusion.44:38
  532. I'm going to show you how to write a very strong conclusion.44:40
  533. How to write the conclusion.44:44
  534. Now, this is just going to be a two sentence conclusion and it will say, this essay argued that.44:47
  535. Why?44:53
  536. Sentence two, we're going to give out opinion and we're going to use the spectrum, the extent.44:54
  537. So this essay argued that.44:59
  538. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.45:02
  539. I don't know if you remember, but in our introduction, I don't know if you can see this.45:04
  540. It says this essay will argue why.45:09
  541. So in our conclusion, we say this essay argued why.45:13
  542. Here we've got a past tense verb.45:17
  543. Here we've got a future tense verb will argue to argued.45:19
  544. This is logic.45:24
  545. This is essay logic.45:26
  546. This essay will argue why blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.45:28
  547. In your conclusion, this essay argued why blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.45:32
  548. So here in the introduction, we tell the reader what we will tell them and here we tell them what we told them.45:37
  549. That's good essay.45:44
  550. Here we go.45:46
  551. So this essay argued that or why.45:48
  552. This essay argued that people who are against vaccinations have a flawed understanding of vaccinations and underestimate the effects of what they believe.45:51
  553. This is a tough essay to write.46:04
  554. I've said this a few times, but I do believe that this extent question, the extent to which you agree or disagree is the toughest one.46:06
  555. The other ones are more formulaic.46:15
  556. The other ones are more sentence by sentence.46:18
  557. This one requires a bit more a bit more lateral thinking.46:21
  558. It requires you to be a bit more, need to think a bit more deeply to get this right.46:26
  559. This one definitely requires practice.46:32
  560. That's what I'm trying to say.46:34
  561. This essay type requires feedback.46:39
  562. Let me explain what I mean here.46:43
  563. If you're a payday2language .com, remember you'll know what I mean.46:44
  564. But if you go to www .e2language .com, you can, if you want, get feedback on your essays, written feedback, as well as tutorials with expert teachers.46:47
  565. This is something that you need to do if you want to get a high IELTS score, if you're stuck in IELTS.47:05
  566. Check out the website.47:11
  567. We can help you out.47:12
  568. Require practice essay questions.47:14
  569. More than that, you require feedback, maybe even one -on -one tutorials on your writing.47:16
  570. Anyway, your turn.47:22
  571. This essay argued that.47:23
  572. What did your essay argue?47:26
  573. And you're not giving your opinion yet.47:29
  574. You're just restating your main arguments.47:31
  575. All right.48:40
  576. Let's have a look at some of these.48:41
  577. Pnema, I'll get to questions in a second.48:47
  578. Jason, this essay argued why physical punishment is scientifically proven to be unacceptable.48:49
  579. Great.48:58
  580. Omar, this essay argued that those parents who use smacking, who smack their children should be thought again, should think again about their violence.48:59
  581. Good.49:10
  582. Julia, in conclusion, this essay argued that smacking children is absolutely inappropriate while some people still punish children physically.49:11
  583. Kudos.49:23
  584. This essay argued that smacking children can make take coward and frighten, which lead them to do behave negatively.49:24
  585. Okay.49:33
  586. You definitely need to take a tutorial there.49:34
  587. Ray, this essay argued by punishing children corporally is completely unacceptable.49:36
  588. Beautiful.49:42
  589. Prasanna, this essay argued that instilling good behavior through physical punishment is not only irrational, but can also lead to bad consequences.49:42
  590. Maria says, in conclusion, this essay argued that punishing children physically through smacking is the best method to discipline them.49:51
  591. Okay.50:00
  592. Good.50:01
  593. Now we need to move on to giving our opinion.50:01
  594. So let's see how we do that.50:04
  595. Give your opinion or the extent to which you agree or disagree.50:07
  596. Now, I just have to pause this for a second because the alarm's going to go off.50:14
  597. Right.50:38
  598. I'm back.50:38
  599. So let's see.50:39
  600. Let's see.50:41
  601. Let's see.50:41
  602. So what did I do?50:44
  603. I did this.50:45
  604. I said, this essay argued that people who are against vaccination have a flawed understanding of vaccinations and underestimate the effects of what they believe.50:48
  605. Now I give my opinion.50:58
  606. In my opinion, vaccinating children is an absolute imperative that is entirely justified despite the small and occasional risk involved.51:00
  607. So here it says to what extent do you agree or disagree with this?51:14
  608. And I've basically completely disagreed with it.51:18
  609. Why do I actually believe that?51:23
  610. No.51:25
  611. I don't actually believe that.51:26
  612. My opinion is a bit more nuanced than that.51:29
  613. But on test day with 40 minutes and a gray lead pencil and a piece of paper, I can't really tell, I'm just going to choose the easiest option.51:33
  614. And often the easiest option in this type of essay is to completely agree or completely disagree.51:43
  615. So maybe you want to think about that one.51:49
  616. Cool.51:53
  617. So what did I do?51:53
  618. Well, I completely disagreed with that prompt there.51:55
  619. So what are you going to do?51:59
  620. Smacking children is the best form of discipline.52:01
  621. To what extent do you agree or disagree?52:03
  622. In my opinion, I blah, blah, blah.52:06
  623. You have one minute.52:09
  624. All right.53:18
  625. Let's have a look.53:19
  626. Q -doss.53:25
  627. I'll get to that in a second.53:27
  628. Yes, you can partially agree and partially disagree.53:30
  629. It just probably makes it a bit harder.53:33
  630. Yes, it depends on the question prompts.53:36
  631. You can.53:38
  632. Smitha, in my opinion, physically punishing children is definitely not the correct method to discipline them.53:39
  633. Excellent.53:48
  634. The word definitely puts you on the spectrum at this end.53:48
  635. And that's a good thing to do because you've answered the question.53:53
  636. To what extent do you agree or you definitely agree or you definitely don't agree?53:56
  637. Jason says, I believe that children who would punish physically will manifest psychological alterations when they grow up.54:03
  638. Full stop.54:12
  639. Thus, comma, I totally disagree with corporal punishment.54:14
  640. Good.54:18
  641. To what extent do you disagree?54:19
  642. You totally disagree.54:22
  643. Good.54:24
  644. Janne, in my opinion, I totally disagree that inflicting physical punishment on children is the best way to discipline them.54:24
  645. Good.54:34
  646. Omar, I totally disagree as that would affect the children's behavior and their personality.54:35
  647. Good.54:44
  648. Ray, I believe corporal punishment is definitely not the method to discipline children.54:44
  649. Maria says it's entirely unacceptable.54:51
  650. Beautiful.54:54
  651. I love this.54:55
  652. This is good.54:55
  653. This is good.54:56
  654. This is answering the question.54:57
  655. Let's have a look at what that all means.54:59
  656. I'm going to skip that.55:03
  657. I'm going to show you my full essay.55:04
  658. This is 254 words.55:07
  659. 254 words.55:11
  660. This is what your essay should look like on test day.55:12
  661. Should be four paragraphs.55:15
  662. What you really need to do in this type of essay, this is a hard one, you need to pad out your paragraphs.55:18
  663. You need to make your paragraphs about six sentences long.55:24
  664. You need to give one or two, you need to give two reasons or two examples because what's going to happen is these are going to be about 50 words.55:28
  665. Sorry, that's not true.55:39
  666. Your introduction will be about 40 words.55:41
  667. Your conclusion will be about 40 words.55:44
  668. What's that 80?55:46
  669. Even if this is 50 and this is 50, that's only going to be 180 words.55:48
  670. You don't want to write 180 words.55:54
  671. You need your paragraphs to be about 70 or even 80 words long.55:56
  672. I'm not going to do the paragraphs, make them larger by adding more reasons and more examples.56:09
  673. Yeah, it's hard to do because you don't have a word count.56:15
  674. You have to count the words yourself.56:19
  675. 254 words.56:21
  676. Why would this essay get an IELTS 9?56:22
  677. Why?56:25
  678. Well, first of all, I wrote on topic.56:26
  679. Everything written here relates back to the question prompt about vaccinating children.56:29
  680. Everything.56:37
  681. I have not written off topic and I've not written off topic because I've followed this sequence of sentences.56:38
  682. Everything here, if you follow that sentence by sentence structure, it makes you write on topic.56:45
  683. You cannot write off topic if you follow that structure.56:53
  684. It's really important.56:57
  685. Cool.56:59
  686. Why else is an IELTS 9?57:00
  687. Well, I've used precise vocabulary.57:02
  688. Let's have a look at the first, at the two paragraphs, for example.57:06
  689. I've seen, I've used words like wary, justifiably, potentially, recorded instances, not necessary.57:11
  690. I've said communicable disease.57:23
  691. I've got good vocabulary in here.57:26
  692. I've said preposterous.57:28
  693. That's a beautiful adjective.57:30
  694. What else have I got?57:32
  695. I've said vaccination campaigns.57:33
  696. That's a nice noun phrase.57:36
  697. I've said, I've said minor risks.57:38
  698. That's a nice little adjective noun phrase as well.57:41
  699. So I've used good vocabulary.57:44
  700. What about grammar?57:47
  701. Well, my grammar is in fact, well, perfect or almost perfect have been, I've used a present perfect verb here.57:48
  702. I've used a variety of verbs.57:58
  703. I've used correct prepositions, etc.58:02
  704. All my grammar is looking good.58:06
  705. Again, it's about feedback if you want to improve.58:09
  706. What about this one?58:12
  707. This is the key to writing good essays, and it's using a logical structure.58:13
  708. The structure is the thing that I just showed you before.58:20
  709. Cool.58:24
  710. That's all.58:26
  711. Yeah, this one was a little bit tricky.58:28
  712. If you want to watch some of my other videos, do that because they're a bit simpler to follow.58:30
  713. Do you need to practice this?58:38
  714. What you'll notice is that the structure that I've taught in each of the videos is slightly different for each essay.58:40
  715. But even if you go, even if you learn this structure, not even 100%, but at least you have an idea of how to structure your introduction, your paragraphs, your58:47
  716. conclusion, at least on test day, even if you're under pressure, you'll still be able to write something, formulate something that has a decent structure.58:56
  717. And that's important.59:08
  718. If you want to get really good, like if you're really looking for an IELTS 8, for example, you probably need some help, do check out the website.59:10
  719. Right now, though, I'm going to go to Q &A.59:19
  720. So I'm going to, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.59:21
  721. Let me go to Q &A.59:25
  722. Where are you people?59:27
  723. Let me answer some questions.59:28
  724. Julia, Jay, in this type of essay, I need to state my opinion just twice.59:33
  725. Once in the introduction and once in the conclusion, is that enough?59:38
  726. Yes, that's enough.59:42
  727. In the introduction, you say what your opinion will be.59:43
  728. This essay will discuss why blah, blah, blah, blah.59:46
  729. In the conclusion, you say this essay discussed or argued why in my opinion.59:50
  730. So you've given your opinion in the introduction, your opinion in the conclusion, your paragraphs also contain your opinion, but just not explicitly said.59:56
  731. Remember what we did.60:07
  732. We acknowledged the other argument, but then we destroyed it in the second paragraph.60:09
  733. So in fact, you're giving your opinion, but just not explicitly in your paragraphs.60:15
  734. Pneema, is IELTS Writing Task 2 similar to PTE Write Essay?60:20
  735. Interestingly, PTE Write Essay is an argumentative essay.60:29
  736. It's pretty, in fact, they have a question prompt very similar to this in PTE.60:34
  737. The good thing about PTE Write Essay is that they're all argumentative.60:40
  738. They're all the same.60:45
  739. In IELTS, they're like six different question prompt types.60:47
  740. So personally, I think IELTS Writing is more difficult than PTE Writing.60:51
  741. However, PTE Speaking is more difficult than IELTS Speaking.60:57
  742. So you make the decision about which one you want to do.61:01
  743. Maria, what if my structure is good, but the rest is just right?61:05
  744. Will I get a band seven?61:09
  745. Well, what they do, Maria, is they look at those four things we look at.61:11
  746. Did you write on topic and then give you between an IELTS four and an IELTS nine?61:16
  747. So they say, Maria, she wrote on topic perfectly IELTS nine.61:21
  748. Then they look at your vocabulary and they give you a score between four and nine.61:26
  749. And they say Maria's vocabulary was seven.61:31
  750. So now you're nine and seven.61:34
  751. So your average score is eight.61:36
  752. So now you're in IELTS eight.61:37
  753. Then they look at your grammar and they do it between four and nine.61:39
  754. And they say, oh, Maria's grammar is only a five.61:42
  755. So your score is going to drop down to a 6 .5, for example.61:45
  756. So you need to get good at all of them.61:49
  757. Then they look at the structure finally.61:51
  758. So the four things you need to work on.61:53
  759. Did you write on topic?61:55
  760. Did you use good vocabulary?61:57
  761. Did you use accurate grammar?61:59
  762. And did you use a good structure?62:01
  763. You want all of those things to increase to get a high score.62:03
  764. Smitha, for giving examples, can we use quotations that are not true?62:09
  765. You can use quotations, but the problem with quotations is that you have to use the correct punctuation, the correct quotation marks.62:13
  766. Don't risk it.62:22
  767. Just say, for example, for instance, or a statistic, 99 % of people believe that.62:23
  768. Prasanna is asking about IELTS.62:35
  769. Yes, IELTS general and IELTS academic both use the same question types.62:37
  770. The IELTS academic will be slightly harder than the IELTS general in writing task two.62:43
  771. Pneuma, what should be the word count of each paragraph?62:50
  772. What if we don't meet 250 words?62:53
  773. That's a good question.62:56
  774. Your introduction and your conclusion will be about 40.62:57
  775. Try and make them 40 to 50 words.63:02
  776. Your paragraphs must be longer than your introduction conclusion.63:06
  777. That's why you'll add more reasons and more examples.63:10
  778. Boost them up to 70 words.63:13
  779. So you're going to have 70 and 70 is 140.63:15
  780. And then if you write 50 and 50, you're going to write 240, you're going to be close.63:18
  781. Make sure you write over 250 words because you will lose marks if you write below 250 words.63:23
  782. So what you need to do is extend your sentences while you're writing them.63:30
  783. You want to write a mixture of short, simple sentences and longer complex sentences.63:35
  784. But when you're writing, just think about how you can extend the length of your sentences.63:40
  785. Yep.63:48
  786. Cool.63:49
  787. All right.63:50
  788. I think that's it.63:51
  789. I'm exhausted.63:52
  790. I think I'm going to go home.63:53
  791. I'm going to go to bed.63:54
  792. Thank you very much for coming.63:56
  793. I appreciate it.63:57
  794. I hope this is helpful.63:58
  795. If you need any more help, check out the other videos, wherever they are.63:59
  796. I'll see you guys soon.64:03
  797. Thank you very much.64:04

A B2 IELTS Class, Delivered Live at 171 Words a Minute

Jay, one of the teachers at E2 IELTS, opens a live class by telling students exactly what they are about to do: build an agree, disagree essay from a real test prompt, sentence by sentence. It sits at B2, and the pace, 171 words per minute, is quick for a teaching video, so this is useful english listening practice as much as it is english speaking practice. The accent is Australian, and Jay speaks directly to camera with almost no hesitation, which makes the recording good raw material for english shadowing practice at b2: you are matching a real teacher's rhythm, not a scripted narrator's.

The topic carries real vocabulary: the prompt he reads out is about vaccinating children, and words like nuanced, demographics and outweighs show up as he talks through how an IELTS 9 essay is built. None of that vocabulary is simplified for the camera, which is why reading along and repeating it out loud helps more than reading it silently.

The Lines Worth Repeating Out Loud

A few lines in this opening stretch stand out. Jay states the goal plainly, then restates it for emphasis: he first says "What we're going to do in this live class is we're going to aim for IELTS 9" and then repeats it tighter as "We're going to aim for an IELTS 9." That restatement, the same idea said twice with slightly different phrasing, is how a live teacher makes sure a point lands, and it is a natural place to practise matching stress on two versions of one sentence.

  • "To what extent do you agree or disagree?" is the actual IELTS prompt line, read out cold. Short and evenly stressed, and worth saying as fluently as Jay does, since it is the phrase students meet on test day itself.
  • "Get out a pen and a piece of paper because there's only one way to learn how to write an essay, and that's to write an essay." is one long sentence built from two short clauses joined by "because", a good test of keeping breath and pace steady across a longer line.
  • "This is an IELTS 9 essay, or at least it should be." ends on a small hedge, said almost as an aside. Notice how the pitch drops on that last clause rather than staying flat.

How to Work Through the Opening of This Class

Treat this clip as short, repeatable lines rather than one long recording, and work forward through the transcript in order.

  • Start with line 1, "Hi everyone, my name is Jay." and line 3, "What are we going to do?" Both are short and let you match his greeting rhythm before sentences get longer.
  • Move to "We're going to aim for an IELTS 9" and say it back twice, once matching his first phrasing and once his shorter repeat, so you feel the difference stress makes.
  • Take "To what extent do you agree or disagree?" on its own and repeat it five or six times. It is the one line here you are likely to need verbatim later.
  • Work up to "The first thing you need to do on test day is look carefully at that question prompt." and say it in one breath, the way Jay does.
  • Finish the set with "Get out a pen and a piece of paper because there's only one way to learn how to write an essay, and that's to write an essay.", pausing where the comma falls rather than where you run out of breath.
  • Score each line before moving to the next rather than batching several and checking at the end. It is easier to catch a dropped word in an Australian accent when the comparison is one line long.
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