Team Activities Can Teach More Skills For Life- IELTS Writing Task 2

Team activities can teach more skills for life than those activities which are played alone. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Outline

Essay Type

Opinion Essay

Introduction 

Paraphrasing the question followed by stating your opinion.

Paragraph 1 – Exploring the benefits of team activities like improving communication, leadership and playing for the team. Citing a real life example.

Paragraph 2 – Further emphasizing the benefits of team activities with the help of skills like social skills and conflict resolution.

Paragraph 3 – Acknowledging the importance of standalone activities and the skills one learns through them, but stressing that team activities bring more to the individual than them.

Conclusion 

Restate your views.

Sample Essay

It is being argued that team activities can teach more life skills than companionless exercises. An individual encounters team exercises throughout his life – in school or college, a group presentation, a collective project, or at work. I agree that such activities can inculcate life skills in an individual.

The primary skills one can learn from team exercises include communication, leadership, and playing for the team. For example, performing a university-assigned group task will include individuals learning how to communicate verbally and non-verbally. In addition, the person who takes the initiative to allot tasks will inculcate leadership lessons, which everyone will function towards achieving maximum cohesion.

Through team exercises, one can also learn various social skills, gain a deeper knowledge of the workings around them and encounter a quintessential skill – conflict resolution, for conflicts are bound to happen when people start working together. Conflict resolution is an enormous life skill to possess, something autonomous activities cannot teach.

It is true that standalone activities have their own benefits. For example, a person tends to become more responsible, competitive and crafty when he/she is in charge of himself/herself. But, we cannot ignore the importance of the life skills that group activities teach us.

In conclusion, an individual surely learns a lot through independent activities but also learns some essential life skills from team activities that help them to deal with various situations in life and finally achieve success.

Band 9 Sample Essay

Unequivocally, every individual has different perspectives on how to carry out their tasks and responsibilities, whether with or without the assistance of others. For example, while some people believe that working or playing alone is better, others opine, including me, that teamwork is more practical and can teach more life skills. Therefore, I shall put forth my views in the following paragraphs. 

To begin, collaborating with team members to complete any task increases efficiency and quality while also instilling fundamental skills like brainstorming, idea development, communication, and team management. Individuals can also benefit from team activities since they help them develop strong leadership abilities and provide a different perspective on the task and project, making problem-solving easier. In addition, people who lead the team instill active listening skills and leadership skills. For instance, children learn diverse skills when they play together as a team, such as cooperating, communicating, sharing, working/playing together, and assisting one another. 

Furthermore, children and adults gain considerably more life skills when they play, work, or participate in group activities than when they work alone. Individuals can build strong interpersonal skills by working as a team. For example, if they encounter any difficulties while completing a task, they can seek help from the other team members, which they would not be able to do if they were working alone. As a result, the connection formed through a tough moment will undoubtedly last a lifetime.

Although individual activities reduce disputes and increase job efficiency, team activities allow for the pooling of ideas and the viewing of problems from various angles, resulting in the acquisition of important life skills. For this reason, the value of team activities should not be overlooked.

To summarise, team activities instill practical skills, generate diverse thoughts, and provide differing opinions on the task, contributing to the activity’s ultimate success. Furthermore, team activities promote a wide range of life skills that we need in our daily lives.

Vocabulary

• Standalone

Meaning: complete in itself
Example – He featured in a stand-alone play

• Encounter

Meaning: unexpectedly be faced with or experience
Example – We have encountered one small problem

• Inculcate

Meaning: teach (someone) an attitude, idea, or habit by persistent instruction
Example – They will try to inculcate a sense of respect for their culture in you

• Presentation

Meaning: a speech or talk in which a new product, idea, or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience
Example – The boss was impressed by his sales presentation

• Initiative

Meaning: the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do
Example – Anti-hunting groups have seized the initiative to spread awareness against poaching

• Cohesion

Meaning: the action or fact of forming a united whole
Example – The work at present lacks cohesion

• Quintessential

Meaning: representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class
Example – He was the quintessential tough guy—strong, silent, and self-contained

• Resolution

Meaning: a firm decision to do or not to do something
Example – She kept her resolution not to see Anne any more

• Crafty

Meaning: clever at achieving one’s aims by indirect or deceitful methods
Example – A crafty crook faked an injury to escape from prison

• Essential

Meaning: absolutely necessary; extremely important
Example – It is essential to keep up-to-date records