India, July 20th, 2022: 62% of IELTS aspirants consider pronunciation their biggest problem. This shows that Indian students still have difficulty holding fluent conversations in English. Recently, South Asia’s largest end-to-end overseas education platform, LeapScholar, released a report on Indians’ English language abilities. According to the survey, there are several challenges Indians face in their English spoken and listening skills. 60,000 Indians aspiring to take the IELTS were chosen as a sample by the edtech startup.
Familiarity with Vocabulary: The Real Challenge
Students have a hard time seeing the relevance of academic English as compared to everyday conversational English. The survey also revealed that vocabulary and fluency are challenges in speaking and writing tests. The most difficult aspect of reading was concentration for 37% of candidates, followed by understanding for 36%. In the speaking test, 27% perceived they could improve their vocabulary and confidence the most.
Indians favor Online Coaching over Physical Classes
Approximately 68% of Indians prefer to learn IELTS online rather than through physical coaching. In terms of digitizing their entire test preparation and coaching, students cited Covid 19 as a major factor. Since online coaching is convenient, accessible, and flexible, it is expected to continue to be a trend. In addition to offering 24×7 support and engagement, edtech platforms are beneficial to students and professionals as it gives them the freedom to access the content at their own pace and convenience.
Hollywood Movies & OTT for Mastery Over Global Accents
A whopping 56% want to work on improving their listening skills, one of the main elements of IELTS. More than 42% of respondents said they practice sample tests to learn global accents, while 33% said they watch Hollywood movies and TV shows to improve their understanding. The Office, Suits, and other shows provide aspirational platforms for students to improve their English. Even though 71% percent of IELTS aspirants studied English at school, they still had difficulty having impromptu conversations in the language. In addition, 39% of respondents admitted to filling English sentences with regional native languages.
Commenting on the survey, Vaibhav Singh, Co-founder of LeapScholar said, “With the spike in students aspiring to study abroad, fluency and command over the English language is critical and of utmost importance. In today’s globalized world, English serves as a medium of intra-national and international communication. The insightful findings of the survey throw light on the pulse and dynamics of the entire IELTS preparation journey of an Indian student. From physical coaching centres to having the entire process end to end online, students truly love the platform approach to solving accessibility with better convenience and top quality mentorship.”
