Students’ Difficulty in Learning IELTS Preparation Course
D. Speaking
By its very nature, conversation practice will be a time of some errors in pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary (Lubis, 1988). So many difficulties in speaking, yet so many solutions to tackle them. Difficulty in pronunciation happens when the students do not know the stressed syllable. Even though there is no police grammar, the students are not confident in speaking because of grammar. They are afraid of making mistake, whereas they can do self-correction.
METHODOLOGY
This is an experience-based paper. The method used to collect the data was qualitative by the technique of observation and informal interview. The observation was done during the course, commonly it lasted from a month to 4 months (the data taken from April to July). The classes that were observed were both private classes and regular classes. In the first meeting, the writer always asked he students about the most difficult skill. Although there were a placement test (pre-test) and final test (post-test), they would not be used as a technique to accumulate the data because the tests (the questions) have been prepared by the institution.
The setting was in IONs International Education, an informal education located in Jl. C. Simanjuntak 50, Yogyakarta. This place provides exam preparation class, including IELTS. There are 2 levels of IELTS class, Foundation and Intensive, while the data for this paper was only taken in Foundation level.
RESULTS A. Listening
Listening sections given in the official test consist of 40 questions divided into 4 sections. These sections last 40 minutes including extra 10 minutes for transferring. Section 1 and 2 are concerned with social situations and social needs.
While section 3 and 4 are related to education. Both section 1 and 3 are presented in conversation. Section 2 and 4 are monologue.
There will be wide range of accents, for instance American, British, Indian, Spanish, and many more. This becomes one of the reasons why the students have got difficulty. They frequently listen to American and British accent as they listen to English songs or watch movie. Other reason is on the task type of the listening section. They will find multiple choices, map/ diagram completion, form completion, sentence completion, classification question, matching, and short answer. Actually, this difficulty is caused by the unfamiliar or high-leveled vocabularies used in the listening. They sometimes find words that are never heard before and even they heard the word, they are in doubt in writing it down as the answer. In addition, the listening is sometimes provided in the form of telephone
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conversation. There must be an unclear conversation that makes the students have to listen carefully. This type of listening section will be more difficult if it is spoken by non-English speakers.
To overcome those problems, the students may try out some strategies in doing listening tasks. The first strategy that can be applied is predicting. This strategy can be done by looking up all the questions and reading it carefully in order to understand them. Afterwards, they can make prediction about what is needed in the questions or what is the probable word may appear based on the topic. Recognizing key words is the second strategy in avoiding difficulty. The students are allowed to make notes on the question sheet, so they are suggested to underline the key words to help them while they are listening to the audio. Those sometimes come up in different words. Anticipating may be the last strategy can be used in completing the listening section. In this case, writing notes, whatever words that the students heard, is very helpful. Those notes will be clues as the students have got any missing numbers.
B. Reading
Most of the students point out that reading is boring and makes sleepy since it is very long, up to 2700 words. This disinterest leads to result of the reading test.
However, finding 40 answers in 60 minutes is not that difficult if the students know how to use appropriate reading skill for each task type. Skimming is the first reading skill which has to do at first. The students will get main idea of every paragraph that is suitable for multiple choice and paragraph heading task type. In addition, scanning can be used for short answer task type. To answer Yes-No-Not Given (or True-False-Not Given) task type, they may apply reading for detail.
The problem coming up to the students is vocabulary. It influences them in understanding the sentence or even the paragraph. To manage their time, it is better to skip that difficulty. They will comprehend that sentence or paragraph containing difficult word if they get a question relating to that sentence or paragraph. Reading is so tricky due to its vocabularies. Different words used in the questions and the passages cause confusion among the students. That is why they have to read again and again to find the correct answers. They can deal with the vocabularies by reading more academic texts such as journal, encyclopedia, and other academic texts.
C. Writing
In IELTS, writing is divided into 2: task 1 and task 2 that has to be accomplished in an hour. The task 1, one of at least 150 words, is to describe line graph, bar chart, pie chart, diagram, map, and or table. On the other hand, writing task to be about justifying an opinion based on the current issue given in the question. In doing writing task 1, the most common problem faced by the students is how to divide the data presented into some paragraphs. This is can be solved by looking at the overview. Actually, body paragraphs are the elucidation of the overview. So, the students only have to put more detail information in line with the overview they made.
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The other problem is how to avoid repetition. In this case, it is about how to make sentences in different structure. During the course, the teacher must give useful languages that can assist them to vary their sentences for example synonyms, and numerical expressions. In addition, writing task 2 also has difficulties. The first one is how to understand the question. It relates to the key words and influences to how to paraphrase the questions. The first paragraph, introduction, is not only about paraphrasing sentence, but also thesis statement which defines the students’ task response.
As that problem appear, the students has to habituate themselves in managing their time. Allocate 5 minutes at the beginning is the solution. This time can be used to analyze the question, do brainstorming, and make an outline. An outline can guide the students in developing their paragraph cohesively since it is one of the assessment points. Wide range of vocabulary may be the other problem. Unfamiliar word is the key how to get very good mark. It shows the examiner that the students have learnt English very well. However, it has to be academic word and is a good diction. To overcome this problem, the students have to read more, find more new words, and then try them out in sentences.
D. Speaking
The speaking test is one-to-one interview and last for 11-14 minutes divided into three parts. It is recorded for remarking (if needed). The first part is called introduction and interview. In this part, the students have to be ready in introducing themselves and are given some questions related to familiar topics for example their job, study, hobbies, family life, and others. Because this is the first part, the students might be nervous. They realize that they are being assessed while they are speaking. It influences to their confidence and may cause wrong pronunciation and or grammar mistakes. Although fluency is one of the criteria assessed in speaking test, the students do not have to speak very fast. It is much better to speak slowly, to show their interest in the topic, to be confident, and to do self-correction. Also, adding more supporting details instead of just answering in short sentence can up the score.
The second one is named by individual long turn for 3-4 minutes. In this part, the examiner will give the students a piece of paper outlining a particular topic and ask the student to prepare in one minute. Then they have to speak for one to two minutes. Some students, presumably who never have an IELTS class, will have no idea about what to do in one minutes. They may run out of time to think about the answer. Actually, it does not have to be the best answer as long as they can accomplish all the questions given in the card. Therefore, what they can do in one minute is writing down the topic and all the question words since the examiner will take the card away once one minute is over. Doing more practices can assist the students to habituate them speaking in 1 to 2 minutes.
Discussion is the last part of the speaking test and it has similar topic with the second one. This will be finished in 5 minutes. Questions in this part will be more general and need opinion and preference. That is why this might be the most
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difficult part so as to think hard. This problem of difficulty can be tricked by ‘buying the time’. Asking for some times to think of can be the solution.
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