By Pan Li

Studying abroad for international students whose first language is not English is a big challenge. Even though the international student may have learned English in school, it may not be at the level of fluency required to study in a different language. Developing fluency is difficult but essential for students to learn and live in a foreign country. The following section guides how international students can attain that fluency. There are two renowned English test systems: IELTS (The International English Language Testing System) and TOEFL( Test of English as a Foreign Language). Non-English countries students need to take IELTS or TOEFL and achieve a mark which their university and program set. They both include four parts: listening, reading, speaking, writing. However, the examination questions are different.

Preparing IELTS

1) In terms of listening, generally, listening skills take much time to improve. For IELTS listening questions, which are more related to life topics, there is a simple way to increase your fluency to listen or watch English material relevant to life topics in daily life, for example, TED talks, English songs, English movies and so on. It helps you to involve in an English environment.

2) In terms of reading, if you have a long time to prepare for the test, then reading English books is a great way to improve your reading comprehension; if you do not have sufficient time, then it is helpful to review the questions of previous IELTS tests because it is helpful for students to be familiar with the pattern.

3) In terms of speaking, finding a good teacher to help you practice is the most efficient way. A teacher can correct your grammar and pronunciation. The goal is to help you create an English logic when you want to speak, rather than translating your own language to English before you speak. So for IELTS speaking, improving fluency and the ability to react to any questions are most important.

4) In terms of writing, the logic of a topic is more important than fancy vocabulary and complicated sentences. In other words, critical thinking should be practised when you prepare IELTS test. Meanwhile, IELTS writing is the foundation for essay writing in your future studies. Besides, there are time limits for every student, so writing an article in the required time is a necessary practice, especially in a test. Most people are a little nervous, which may take more time than usual writing.

preparing TOEFL

1) In terms of TOEFL listening, it is more complex than IELTS listening because the questions are related to academic topics. For instance, you should answer the questions after listening to a presentation about astronomy, biology, geology and so on. Therefore, you should listen to materials relevant to professional fields. Meanwhile, it is essential to accumulate academic vocabulary. On the other hand, shorthand ability is be required for TOEFL listening because sometimes you should answer more than five questions after listening to a speech or conversation. It will help if you practice remembering some long or complicated words’ abbreviations.

2) In terms of TOEFL reading, you need to focus on finding the answer in the article after you understand the questions. The answer sentences are often very long and have complicated grammar. It is crucial to analyse and understand the answer sentence. At the same time, skimming the article help you to save time and find the answer sentence quickly. Besides, the TOEFL reading is different to IELTS because you cannot review the questions of previous tests. So improving the skills of analysing complex sentences and skimming articles are required.

3) In terms of speaking, TOEFL more focus on testing the pronunciation and speaking content. Logic is most important for the content because you need to let the computer know what you express clearly. Otherwise, advanced vocabulary and complex grammar are also crucial to getting a good mark. In comparison, learning vocabularies and grammar are more critical in TOEFL than in IELTS.

4) In terms of writing, the same strategy is to improve the ability of logical writing. In other words, if your story convinces the examiner, you are a good storyteller. To enhance your ability, you should write an article every day and find an English teacher to help you correct the mistakes; then you will make progress. Otherwise, it will be useful if you read some great writing examples learn the idea and writing skills. Finally, for every topic, you must have your own opinions to explore more about it, which is related to independent thinking.