For those who are new to the journey of IELTS preparation, one of the biggest problems is probably “What book to choose?” among countless IELTS titles on the market. To contribute to answering this question, in the following article, 9IELTS would like to introduce to readers the book: IELTS Foundation Book, Let’s learn about this basic IELTS book with 9IELTS!
IELTS Foundation Book is designed to help learners improve their IELTS band score and gradually reach the goal of studying abroad at a foreign university. The book aims to build skills and confidence for learners, so the book content is arranged in order of training from basic knowledge to practising common types of questions in the IELTS exam.
IELTS Foundation Book Review
Book Contents
IELTS Foundation Student’s Book is divided into 3 main parts:
- The first part consists of 11 themed lessons (11 units), with content commonly encountered in IELTS tests in recent years. Each lesson includes the following sections:
- Strategies and practice exercises for 4 skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing.
- Language helps diversify learners’ vocabulary and grammar according to related topics.
- Study skills help learners form self-study skills and self-add language aspects to support the IELTS test, such as how to classify vocabulary, how to memorize words by topic, learn words by diagrams. Thinking,…
- Dictionary focus trains learners to use dictionary skills.
- The second part is Unit 12: IELTS preparation. This section summarizes the notes and strategies for the types of 4 skills in the IELTS test.
- The last part is writing samples and recordings of Listening lessons (tape scripts).
Target Readers
True to the title, the book is intended for learners who are just starting out with IELTS, have no background in IELTS, do not understand the test structure as well as frequently asked questions, and are aiming for band scores from 4.0 to 5.0.
However, the book is written entirely in English, and the exercises in the book also require learners to have a certain background in English (about 3.0 to 3.5 according to the IELTS band score).
Pros & Cons
The topics in the IELTS Foundation Book are common topics in any of the recent IELTS skills tests, such as advertising, computing, technology, .. so updating can be seen as a factor. The highlight of this IELTS preparation material.
The language in the book is simplified to the maximum, especially the vocabulary, the structure used in the instructions, tips & strategies, along with illustrations and summaries of knowledge with pictures. Tables, charts, making them understandable and receptive to IELTS learners.
In the book, individual activities and group and pair activities are designed to be intertwined, allowing learning to take place in many forms: self-study, practice in pairs, and groups, meeting the needs of learning styles of a wide variety of students.
In addition, with IELTS Foundation Book, learners can improve their accuracy and flexibility in using expressive language through Grammar & Vocabulary Bank sections along with Language Focus presents extremely specific and realistic high bow.
These strategies are more of a note than a recommended strategy because they fail to help learners clearly visualize the steps to take for a particular type of lesson. For example, in Unit 1, tips for Writing Task 1 are given as follows: ‘The opening statement should contain general information, but don’t simply repeat the words in the diagram.’ general, but do not repeat completely the words used in the chart).
The piece of advice above is good in two ways:
- First, it indicates the desired nature of an opening sentence (which contains only general information).
- Second, it emphasizes the importance of paraphrasing the opening sentence.
However, what information is considered “general/general information”, and how to paraphrase the first sentence is not covered here. This will probably put a relatively large question mark for beginner learners.
IELTS Foundation Book Study Guide
As mentioned earlier, the tips and strategies in the IELTS Foundation Book are not presented specifically enough for learners to easily visualize and follow, but they are still valuable suggestions.
You need to study, and learn more about them in other learning materials or channels such as Youtube, British Council, Cambridge.org, etc. Most of these techniques are very common and can be easily found in sections. Thoroughly explained in any English learning website in general and Reading practice website in particular.
In addition, learners often face many obstacles before and during the IELTS test, such as limited vocabulary and grammar, too complicated and confusing Reading; can’t catch up when Hear or Hear “yes” but not sure which answer to choose; lack of ideas in writing or lack of flexibility and natural reflexes in Speaking skills.
To help overcome these problems, you can refer to the LinearThinking method on 9IELTS’s English learning website: 9ielts.vn. This is a method developed by the academic team of 9IELTS, and is expected to effectively solve the difficulties of learners with all 4 skills in the IELTS test: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing.
Download IELTS Foundation Book Free
Please visit the link below to download the IELTS Foundation Book and start practising immediately! Overall, IELTS Foundation Book is a useful document because it will systematize and give you almost all the knowledge you need to get off to a good start in your IELTS journey and confidently participate future IELTS exam. Good luck!
