Connectors to express contrast - a range of different ways to join sentences without using “but” or “although” – excellent for improving your range of grammar

The language of problems - a post explaining the need to use varies vocabulary to describe problems with a download and an interactive exercise

Cause and effect 1 : basic variations of cause and effect vocabulary

Academic caution (1) - advice on how to extend your answer in part 3 speaking by being more cautious

Academic caution (2) - how to improve your writing with specific and general language

Impersonal language for academic essays: a list of impersonal “it”. “there” and “one” phrases to make your writing more academic

academic

Task 1 writing

Vocabulary to help with academic task 1 writing

Basic vocabulary to describe graphs: basic variations of trend vocabulary

More advanced vocabulary to describe charts and graphs: a list of words and phrases to boost your band score

How to use quantifiers correctly to describe numbers : a grammar/vocabulary lesson on how to avoid some basic mistakes and a gapfill exercise to complete a table

More advanced vocabulary to make comparisons: useful words that you can use to qualify your comparisons (eg considerably greater)

Download of vocabulary to help you describe process diagrams: Sequencing language for process diagrams (3753)

Speaking

Advice on vocabulary for use in the speaking test

IELTS speaking – opinion vocabulary – a video post with a download to help improve the range of your opinion vocabulary by not saying “I think” all the time

IELTS speaking – the language of comparison – how to use the language of comparison in speaking to extend your answers with an emphasis on using a range of different structures. Comes with a downloadable worksheet.

Vocabulary for giving more fluent answers – a downloadable list of helpful phrases to allow you to pause intelligently and make your speaking more fluent