GuruEAP

Academic English not only for Indonesians

Songs censored by the BBC

For some reason I posted this as a page some time back, but here it is again as a post so that it shows up more easily in searches. Enjoy! (more…)

annotated text, collocation, IELTS, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Reconstructing public transport

Transportation, and the future of transportation, are common topics in the IELTS Speaking test. Reconstruct the text below to reveal an extract from an essay by Marcus Enoch in which he presents four visions for the future of public transport. (more…)

coherence, coherence and cohesion, cohesion, IELTS, jumbled sentences, reading, speaking

Comparing crash landings!

In this post we take a look at some nice language comparing two crash landings in which all passengers and crew survived! (full news story here). (more…)

analysis, compare contrast, discourse markers, grammar, IELTS, signals, speaking, vocabulary, writing

What is my IELTS score?

If you’re wondering what your IELTS score might be, take a look at these descriptions of language performance prepared by IELTS! What do you think your band scores might be in IELTS Speaking and Writing? (more…)

assessment, band descriptors, IELTS, self-assessment, speaking, writing

First Page IELTS #3

A third ‘first page’, again from Harry Potter! This time I’ve highlighted the suitablility of items for IELTS Speaking and/or IELTS Writing Task 1 and 2. (more…)

annotated, collocation, grammar, IELTS, reading, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Academic Collocation Flashcards

Reloading the page gives you a randomised collection of common academic collocations. Can you guess the missing collocates? (more…)

collocation, gapfill, IELTS, practice, reading, speaking, vocabulary, writing

First page IELTS #1

Please note this post, along with future installments, has moved to a dedicated page:
First Page IELTS

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of posts focusing on the first pages of novels. (more…)

fiction, grammar, IELTS, language, novels, reading, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Random academic collocations

Can anyone guess why I chose this particular image for the post’s profile pic? Answers in the comments below..! (more…)

collocation, corpus, IELTS, speaking, vocabulary, writing

More academic idioms

Here are some more academic idioms for you to use in IELTS speaking!

Guess the meaning of the idioms (highlighted in bold type), then click the card to see the meaning on the reverse. (more…)

idioms, IELTS, speaking

Awareness of ‘towards’

This approach represents their awareness towards the environment.

I think this another example of the clash of the collocation civilisations!

Indonesians are probably thinking ‘kesadaran terhadap..’, and translating terhadap as towards. I’m afraid that’s not English collocation. Here’s what you need: (more…)

collocation, IELTS, speaking, terhadap, vocabulary, writing