Some People Believe That The Best Way To Learn Anything Is Learning By Doing | Band 9 IELTS Essay Sample
Some people believe that the best way to learn anything is “learning by doing.” Others would rather learn through books and from teachers. Think of learning a language. Which way do you think is a better way to learn a language?
Here is a band 9 IELTS essay on this topic written by one of our students. Need help with IELTS writing? Get your IELTS essays, letters and reports corrected by me.
Band 9 IELTS essay sample
According to some people, practice is essential to learn any skill. Others insist that reading books and listening to lectures is sufficient. In my opinion, when it comes to learning a language, the only way to achieve perfection is to keep practicing it.
Language learning has several components. Natives first learn to speak and then learn to read and write. Learning to speak our mother tongue requires hardly any effort. We hear the language all the time and pick it up with little effort. However, learning to read and write does require some effort. We need books or teachers to acquire those skills.
Non-natives need help with learning all aspects of the language. They first learn to read and write and it takes them years of practice to achieve fluency in a foreign language. Just like natives, non-natives also need the help of a book or teacher to master the art of reading and writing. Speaking is different. It is not a skill that you can learn from a teacher. Of course, a teacher can help you learn the grammar and acquire sufficient vocabulary. Still, in order to speak fluently, you need practice. Otherwise, you will struggle with speaking. This is actually a problem that is commonly seen among educated Indians. They are quite good at reading and writing English because they have learned the necessary grammar and vocabulary at school and university. However, many of them have no real opportunities to converse in English on a day to day basis. Hence, these people stumble when they have to express their ideas in English.
To sum up, there are certainly some skills that we can master from books or teachers. However, language learning is not one of them. In order to achieve fluency in a language, one has to speak it at every available opportunity. In other words, this is a skill that we need to learn by doing.
Band 8 IELTS essay sample
In order to acquire any skills we need a lot of practice. However, some people insist that we can learn by reading books or listening to lectures. In my opinion, practicing a language is the only way to acquire perfection in it.
Language learning includes components such as reading, speaking and writing. This involves learning the grammar rules and acquiring vocabulary. Correcting grammar or pronunciation is a crucial part of learning a language. While learning the basics of any language these components are better learned from books or from good teachers. Good books and good teachers can help to build these fundamental blocks while enabling students to learn the language. Getting fundamentals correct helps in learning new words. New words must be acquired by learning their meaning and pronouncing them correctly. Reading improves the understanding of using the language. Reading a new language presents challenges due to presence of different writing systems around the world. These systems should be taught by a teacher or a book while studying a new language, especially if the script is completely new.
At the same time, when it comes to learning a language there are both theoretical and practical aspects. Theory involves learning to read and write. You can acquire this from a teacher or a good book. The practical aspect is learning to speak. This cannot be learned from a book. Of course, you can learn the grammar rules and vocabulary. However, in order to achieve fluency in a language, you have to practice speaking it. A book or a teacher cannot make you a proficient speaker. That means language skills like reading and writing can be learned from a book or teacher, but learning by doing/speaking is the only way to acquire proficiency in speaking.
To sum up, the basic rules of a language can be learned from a book or a teacher; however, in order to acquire fluency in a language one has to practice speaking it.
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