IELTS writing task: how to Extend your vocabulary on problems in cities.

To increase your score for IELTS writing task 2, one area to work on is lexical resource, and I am going to talk about 3 important strategies to improve on that: recording topic-based vocabulary; learning language chunks and recording examples with different word classes of the same word.

One useful strategy for learning vocabulary for the IELTS writing task 2, as well as for your general English, is recording lexical items within topics, since one theory is that your mind stores vocabulary in this way.

Consider the following task 2 question.

People who live in large cities face a range of problems in their daily life.

What are the main problems people in cities face, and how can these problems

be tackled?

One part of this task is talk about the main problems faced by people living in cities, and as well as generating ideas on these issues, it is also helpful to express them using some language chunks, which introduces the second strategy; namely, instead of recording single words when learning vocabulary, it is a good idea to record collocations; that is, words that frequently go together. This is in order to learn how to use language in a natural way; for example, if a student has learned the words illness, stress and related, they might write illnesses related with stress. While this is not incorrect, it is more natural to express this concept with stress-related illnesses. That is why students should learn the language chunk.

In view of this, here are some language chunks on the broad topic area of problems in cities.

stress-related illnesses drug abuse

affordable housing high property prices extreme poverty

air pollution noise pollution

traffic congestion rush-hour traffic

a lack of basic infrastructure extreme poverty

crime in inner-city areas

As you can see, all these lexical items consist of 2 or more words, which are frequently used together. Also, there are clear associations (with different degrees of directness) between them, which facilitates storage; for example, high property prices implies a lack of affordable housing, especially for people living in extreme poverty.

Finally, after listing the language chunks, it is important to record an example of them in a sentence, as well as other word classes of target words (important words within that language chunk that you want to learn). This is because providing a meaningful context for vocabulary helps with memorisation, and being able to employ different forms of the same word allows students to paraphrase, therefore avoiding repetition. For instance, a learner could record the following example sentence: There is a lack of affordable housing for low-income families. Now, it is also important to list the verb afford in another chunk like can't afford to buy/pay for...and record an example sentence, like a large number of families can't afford to buy their own home, so they have to rent a property.

To sum up, students should create lists of language chunks and the different words classes of target words around common IELTS writing task 2 topics, as well as example sentences. This will aid memorisation and faciltate a natural use of language.