IELTS Reading Tips: Languages and Learning (Silbo Gomero)｜IELTS with Fiona: a comprehensive guide to IELTS

Hi there, this is Fiona from IELTS with Fiona and the Members Academy.

This week there was an International Day for Endangered Languages, so I thought this comes up quite a lot in IELTS.

And I've created a full lesson for you on my website about all things related to languages and learning in IELTS, especially the topic of being bilingual and how we learn.

So we're gonna look at a reading which is all about a special whistle language.

It's a Spanish language used in the Canary Islands.

But before we do that, let's have a look at some of the vocabulary that will be very useful for this topic.

So things like mother tongue, minority languages, language exposure, how we learn languages and being deaf monolingual bilingual multilingual, and then, of course, the language barriers that we face if we haven't learned the language of the country where we visit, and how important it is to preserve these minority languages.

For example, I'm from Wales, so I speak Welsh fluently and we are in the minority.

There are only three million of us, but the language has been rescued thanks to the efforts of a lot of people who insisted that we had our own Welsh language language channel and so on has been a very successful campaign and welsh is widely spoken and taught in all schools now.

So the topic will come up about is it worth saving these minority languages and also like what's the best way to learn languages.

It comes up in writing, task one and on my website I've got two examples of pie charts of languages that students study at university and there is that whole language associated with pie charts and percentages and proportions that you can review there, and i've also got a few model answers for you, for example in the speaking part one.

It'll be easy personalized questions Do you speak any foreign languages?

How did you learn?

Do you enjoy learning languages?

Things like that.

There are nice phrasal verbs for you to learn.

For example, to get by, meaning you manage to communicate somehow.

To pick up a language, meaning just to learn something naturally.

In speaking part two, you may get asked to describe a language that you'd like to learn and say why it might be useful to you.

And then in part three, we'll get these kind of more general questions.

What are the benefits of learning a foreign language?

How has technology changed the way people learn languages?

And some key phrases there are it's tough to make progress.

You have to stick with it.

It opens doors and you have to be willing to learn.

There's a little video tip about the pronunciation itself of language.

It ends in age, but it's pronounced idge, like so many other words like advantage, cottage damage and so on.

And there's a quizlet to help you practice.

There's an academic writing task two model, which is this question I mentioned earlier.

Some people believe that learning a foreign language at a young age is essential.

Others think it is better to start learning later in life.

So there's a lot of ideas there.

I've given you with some language again that you can use in your response.

There's a listening.

It's from book 17.

It's called the impact of digital technology on the icelandic language.

So that would be really useful for you to answer that question about how technology affects the way we learn.

And finally, there are several reading texts in both academic and general training.

There's the one we're doing today, which is called Silbo Gomero, the whistle language of The Canary Islands.

And there are two readings about the benefits of being bilingual.

And I've also made a previous podcast called This Marvelous Invention.

And in book 19, there's one about artificial speech translation.

So it's a really important topic.

Let's dive into it now.

By looking at this part two reading.

So it's medium difficulty, it's from Cambridge Book 15 and it's test three.

Here's a quick summary.

Silbo Gomero is a whistled form of Spanish used on the mountainous island of La Gomera to communicate over long distances.

People change words into high and low whistles and use context to understand meaning.

Research shows that the brain processes silbo like spoken language, proving its flexibility.

Although useful in the past, the language is now endangered, so it is taught in schools to help preserve it.

So again, IELTS is all about research and the purpose of research, as well as the important issues such as saving a language that has existed for centuries.

This reading has two sets of questions.

True false not given and gap fill.

Let's look at the true false, not given first, because I believe that there are a lot of good examples of the red flags.

I talk about a lot that can really quickly give you the answer without too much effort.

So the first statement is number 14.

La gomera is the most mountainous of all the canary islands.

Now, whenever you see the most, you have to look for a comparison in the text.

And in the first paragraph it says La Gomera is one of the Canary Islands, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, off the northwest coast of Africa.

This small volcanic island is mountainous.

That's it.

It is mountainous.

Is it more mountainous than any of the other islands?

Is it the most mountainous?

We don't know.

So that answer is yes. not given and the clue is the most.

It's very often not given because there's no comparison in the text.

Next, 15.

Sylbo is only appropriate for short and simple messages.

Now again, keyword, red flag, only.

Whenever it says only, it suggests that that can't be true.

It can't be only for something.

And as you look Through the text, when it explains more about the language, it says the silbadors, that's the people who use this language, silbadors, are able to pass a surprising amount of information via their whistles.

In daily life.

They use whistles to communicate short commands, but any Spanish sentence could be whistled.

So is it only good for short messages?

No, you could make any sentence from this whistle.

15 is false.

Now, 16.

Let's come to the research, the study of the brain activity when whistling.

It says, in the brain activity study, silberdors and non-whistleers produced different results.

So let's jump to the paragraph where we find the research.

It says the study team used neuroimaging equipment to contrast the brain activity of silver doors while listening to whistled and spoken English.

So that's the first line of the paragraph.

So it tells you exactly where to look.

It does explain the research a bit.

I'm not going to go into too much detail.

But at the end of the paragraph it says when the experiments were repeated with non-whistleers however, activation was observed in all areas of the brain.

So there is a real contrast between silberdors and non-whistlers.

So because of that word however, it shows that there is a difference between them.

So the silberdors produced one reaction and the non-whistlers produced a different reaction.

So yes, they produced different results.

I think you could predict that.

So number 16 is true.

Number 17.

It says the spanish introduced silbo to the islands in the 15th century.

So jump down paragraph where it talks about the origins of Silbo.

It says that indigenous this important word we've heard in so many podcasts indigenous the people who lived there first.

Indigenous Canary Islanders already had a whistled language when Spain conquered the islands in the 15th century.

So there's the key word makes it easy to find the 15th century and that's when the Spanish conquered these islands.

But The indigenous islanders, the people who lived there before, already had a whistled language.

So the Spanish did not introduce this language.

So number 17 is false.

Number 18.

There is. precise data available regarding all of the whistle languages in existence today.

Those two red flag words, precise meaning perfect, exact data regarding all 100%, every language.

What do you think?

Do you think that's possible?

Well, it says there are thought to be as many as 70 whistled languages still in use.

Even that introduction, they're not sure how many exist.

There are thought to be as many as 70, but they don't know exactly how many.

And it says, though only 12 have been described and studied scientifically.

So there's your key word again, only.

Only 12 have been described and studied scientifically.

So there is no precise data for all of the languages.

So 18 is false.

Hopefully you can guess this last one.

The children of Gomera now learn Silbo.

What do you think?

Is it going to be a positive ending?

It says.

With dwindling numbers of Gomera Islanders still fluent in the language, canaries authorities are taking steps to try to ensure its survival.

Since 1999, silbo gomero has been taught in all of the island's elementary schools.

So Since 1999, tells us.

Up until now.

So, yes, the children of Gomera now learn Silbo.

That is true.

So all of those true false, not given questions were spread out throughout the whole text, but they did go in exactly the same order as the text.

This happens similarly in the gap fill summary.

The title is simply Silbo Gomero, so you don't limit yourself to one paragraph.

It's summary of the whole text, but the first title tells us where we can find the information quickly.

It says how Silbo is produced.

So you go to the paragraph 4.

Silbo is a substitute for Spanish and with individual words recoded into whistles which have high and low frequency tones.

So that is gap fill 20, where it says high and low frequency tones represent different sounds in spanish, and words is the answer plural words, spanish words.

Next, gap fill.

The pitch of the whistle is controlled using the silver doors, something.

So think about how you whistle.

You use your lips, But what else do you use to control that whistle?

And it says a whistler or silberdor puts a finger in his or her mouth to increase the whistle's pitch.

So the answer is finger.

And 22, something is changed with a cupped hand.

So they use their hand to change something else.

The finger was to change the pitch and the hand, what does it say?

While the other hand can be cupped to adjust something.

The direction of the sound.

So the hand changes the direction and that is the answer for 22.

By the way, all of these are one word only.

Next heading says how silbo is used.

It says it's used in everyday use for the transmission of brief something.

Brief meaning short.

So we're looking for 23 something which talks about what everyday use is.

And it says in daily life, so that's a synonym for everyday use.

They use whistles to communicate short commands.

Short is brief.

The answer is commands.

Plural C-O-M-M.

And they can relay essential information quickly, for example, to inform people about something.

So this is 24 and it says Silbo has proved particularly useful.

When fires have occurred on the island and rapid communication across large areas has been vital.

So to inform people about fires and that's plural again.

The final heading is the future of syllable so you can jump down to the last paragraph.

It says the future is under threat because of new something.

The first line of the last paragraph says with modern communication technology.

So that's three words.

You have to choose which one goes in the space.

Modern is new communication technology is in the text, but you can only choose one, So you need the noun, which is technology.

And it says researchers say whistled languages like Silbo are threatened with extinction.

We've had that phrase when we talked about animals which are in danger of extinction.

So threatened or under threat because of new technology.

And the final gap fill.

Canaries authorities are hoping to receive a UNESCO something to help preserve it.

So UNESCO is in capital letters.

It's easy to find.

And we are looking for a countable noun because it says a UNESCO something.

Now, look for that countable noun.

It says locals seeking assistance from UNESCO.

So assistance is uncountable.

So that's not the answer.

The local authorities are trying to get an award from the organization, so the answer is Award.

Don't write an.

Just award is the correct answer.

So that is it.

Have a look at that online.

You can find it, or you can go to my website, where you'll get all the bonuses all of the listening tips, the reading, the writing, the speaking models, the useful vocabulary.

That's all part of the bronze membership and get all of my courses. in the Members Academy package.

Thank you for listening.

Do let me know if you have any questions or any requests.

Have a great day.

Bye bye.

[雅思語言主題備考指南與 Silbo Gomero 口哨語解析]-[IELTS Reading Tips: Languages and Learning (Silbo Gomero)]

📋 Summary

語言學習與雅思備考的核心策略

深度解析：Silbo Gomero 口哨語

填空題型解題技巧

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript