What vocabulary should you learn for IELTS Writing Task 2

IELTS Task 2 Topics. 

As a teacher, I understand why students focus on questions like ‘What are the most common IELTS Writing part 2 topics?’

They are likely to be under pressure and are worried they will be unfamiliar with the test topic and therefore not have any relevant ideas.

As always, the kind of vocabulary you learn can help you in not only the Writing Task 2, but also in the Listening, Reading and Speaking Test.

A strategy to vocabulary is to both study selectively and also study widely.

Let’s focus of Selective Study.

Are the Writing Task 2 topics repeated?

There are a large amount of topics that can feature in Writing Task 2. I’ve seen over a 100 topics suggested on some websites.

However I have looked at sample tests, examined the most popular themes in commonly used classroom textbooks and have also spoken to other IELTS teachers and we agree;

Prominent core topics are generally repeated in a cycle.

IELTS Essay Topics

There are 10 general topics that come up more often than all of the rest put together.

They cover:

• Health
• Environment
• Education
• Technology
• Globalisation
• Development
• Transportation
• Criminal Justice
• Youth Crime
• Government Spending

(source sample texts/published textbooks between 2015 -17)

IELTS Study selectively

What you need to do…

1. Develop your vocabulary, especially in the key IELTS topics such as work, education, social trends, mass media, travel and tourism, and the environment.

IELTS Study widely

The second part is study widely.

Once we understand the topics that generally appear in IELTS it’s good practice to read around these topics.

What you need to do…

1. Develop your vocabulary. The best practice exercise for vocabulary to of all is to simply read.
2. When you get used to reading articles from newspapers and magazines, you will have fewer problems with long articles in the test itself.

Practice reading quickly for understanding, then look for specific facts and figures of interest.

Make notes as you go of new words and phrases.

You will pick them quickly as you reading improves.

As a starting point, I’ve compiled for this post a list of 11 useful reading resources and websites which may help you practice your reading skills at home.

They cover a very wide range of topics, but are selective, so are very useful for the IELTS Test.

 

• learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/business-magazine: Free texts and exercises with a focus on business and work

• bbc.co.uk/news/world: Good for academic English and also good to keep up with current world issues

• Newscientist.com: Excellent site about technology, health, science and the environment

• The economist.com: Covers world politics, economics, science and technology, offering 3 articles a week for free if you sign up

• Nationalgeographic.com: Covers environmental issues, culture, nature and animals. Very illustrative with a lot of amazing pictures.

• Socialnewsdaily.com: Features many short, easy to understand, contemporary articles drawn from the world of social media

• The-scientist.com:A site with features about science, health, ecology, biology and innovation

• History-news-network.org:An American site focusing on history, both US and worldwide, with lots of current affairs articles too

• BBC.co.uk: Current news, views and much more from the UK’s most famous media institution. All topics included – also a good site to practice listening

• Inspirational-short-stories.com/funny-short-stories: Sometimes it`s good idea to expand your vocabulary by reading short stories – here are some funny ones, and there are plenty more on the website

• Theconversation.com/uk: Academic opinion and viewpoints, written by verified academics in an accessible style

I hope these websites help you improve your reading skills for the IELTS, but let me know if you have any resources to add to this list!

Of course, remember reading what you enjoy in English is a valuable skill too.

You can use tips and information on this website to help make it easier to obtain a higher score, but remember you still need to work at learning the language to be successful.

Please share to someone you know and in the meantime take a look at my Facebook Page and Website for IELTS answers and you can also join my Facebook Group here too.

Good Luck

 

Jonathan

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