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IELTS
IELTS Test Knowledge - Basic Info
IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System. It is an English language proficiency exam which measures the ability of test-takers to communicate in the four basic language skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
The IELTS is managed by three main institutions: the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL). This is important to understand in order to prepare for what is essentially an examination of British and not American English.
Many students who have prepared for or appeared for the TOEFL iBT are surprised when they face difficulties understanding accents and expressions used by British speakers in the IELTS. This is why thorough preparation, at a language school or through self-study, is so essential for success in this exam.
There are two versions of the IELTS exam: general and academic. Test-takers must know in advance which one is needed for their purposes as the scores are not interchangeable. Each test lasts two hours and forty-five minutes.
Broadly speaking, the IELTS
is taken by those who wish to study,
live, or work in a country... Review of 'The Adventure of English', Melvyn Bragg, Hodder & Stoughton For a good, highly readable overview of how English developed and where it may be going, Melvyn Bragg's book, based on the TV series of the same name, does the job. Bragg traces the roots of English back to the Frisian and other Germanic languages of those who invaded Britain from the 5th century onwards - the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. He follows the growth of what have become the varied forms of modern English, not only through the familiar paths of the Norman invasion, Chaucer, Shakespeare and so on, but also through looking at other influences on English - the words of the Wild West in America, the Creole languages of the Caribbean, or the vocabulary the British brought from India. Indeed, the lists of words can become overwhelming at times.
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A Common Language
His view of English is in some ways very democratic: the role of the ordinary people and particularly the oppressed is stressed, whether through the survival and transformation into Middle English of Anglo-Saxon under Norman French rule or the advance of Australian English. His account of Wycliffe...
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