All about IELTS Speaking

The IELTS speaking exam often increases anxiety among IELTS aspirants. The condition become worse when you are facing any one or all of these like, a lack of preparation, a fear of speaking in English for an extended period, and a lack of awareness of how the scoring scheme works. The effect on a score for the speaking module can be important.

Clearly, doing appropriate and accurate preparation before the day of the exam will help to decrease the stress related with the speaking test. However, it is recommended that candidates only do training courses with English teachers who are expert in the exam.

Undoubtedly, these teachers can give direction on improving a test taker's language skills. Due to their better understanding of IELTS, they help in a way which is really impossible to do by other teachers. They offer better understanding of the speaking module, because they can easily figure out the specific areas in which a test taker requires to progress to get a higher score in the speaking module. At times, only small things need to be avoided, or improved, for a noteworthy effect on the score that a candidate would get in the test.

Beside decent preparation, there are also things that can be accomplished in the test itself. Here is a list of some important things a test taker must perform throughout the test for improving the chances of getting the best possible score.

·         Look and sound confident. Try very hard to appear polite, friendly and - most importantly - relaxed. Remember, one of the areas assessed in the speaking module is fluency and coherence, which is effectively a measure of your confidence in using English.

·         Ask if you don't hear. If you don't hear something, ask the interviewer to repeat it.

·         Ask if you don't understand. If you don't understand a question, ask the examiner to explain it.

·         Don't try to be perfect. A fluent speaker of English can speak smoothly and continuously; in other words, with little or no pausing (or breaks), repetition and corrections when speaking. Therefore, don't worry about making grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation mistakes

·         Stay calm. Your fluency will drop off rapidly if you're anxious.

·         Keep it simple. It's better to be simple and clear, rather than complicated and unclear. The four areas assessed by the examiner are fluency and coherence, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

·         Use less common words. But, make sure that it won't affect your fluency, try to use some less common vocabulary.

You can easily get a decent Band or score by keeping track on small issue and with lots of practise and patience. Prepare well and be confident.

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Finest Advices for IELTS Speaking Test

Your IELTS speaking test result was still not satisfactory, while your spoken English is much better than the average, grammar was high in quality, and you are able to express your ideas in a much better way, you have a rich vocabulary and spoke fluently. The reasons behind your failure is you followed tips in a wrong way. Tips that gone misunderstood are:

Tip 1. Don't speak too slowly

This is the most common type for IELTS speaking: speak slowly, not speak like you are running, and communicate in a slow and clear voice without confusing the examiner. But here the main element of the tip is not reducing the speed of the speech, instead speak fluently with a constant average speed. If you speak too slowly or too faster than in that case you'll get a low mark for fluency if you speak slowly in the IELTS speaking test. Try to speak at a normal talking rate instead of an unnaturally slow or fast speed.

Tip 2. Don't worry too much about pronunciation

Many candidates believe that their first language accent while speaking English will fetch them low marks in the test. In fact, having an accent is not a problem. It's possible for you to speak with a foreign accent and still get a high mark for pronunciation. Even if you occasionally pronounce a word incorrectly, you can still get a band score that's good enough for entry to most university courses or for migration to another country.

Tip 3. Don't use only simple words

The main objective of the speaking test is to evaluate your ability to communicate efficiently in spoken English. The examiner at IELTS test will definitely look for is whether you have the words to talk about known and unknown topics. The examiner also evaluates whether your vocabulary is good enough to talk at a stretch on topics without employing the similar words while whole test. There is provision to give separate marks for vocabulary in IELTS speaking test. You will get more marks if you have a wide range of vocabulary which you can use appropriately.

Thus, the idea here is you should try hard to show your knowledge and expertise in English. Try to show the high range of words you have to present your idea. Try to use less commonly used words, phrases and idioms, but use them in a correct way. This tip will surely help you in getting more marks.

So, follow all these advices like, speak at a normal speed; don't worry about pronunciation; use some high-level vocabulary; use lengthy sentences; and give full answers when appropriate for better marks.

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Best guidance for the IELTS speaking exam

There are many promising tips. The first and most crucial is to take it seriously and prepare for it.

So here are some guidance for scoring well in speaking paper. These all tips sounds simple but, by adhering all these, one can surely get success in IELTS speaking exam without fail. Remember from all these tips the most important is the first one.  

1. Listen and answer the question carefully

The best instruction for IELTS speaking is basically to listen to the question and answer it carefully. The objective for this is that you will get only one chance to be face to face with the examiner and will definitely make you nervous. So, in that situation if you try to recall intricate tips, then you will surely get confused and will not be able to perform well.

2. Practice even before the exam

You should practice before the exam so that all skills will become automatic and that will be possible only by practicing the correct skills. Try to practice accurate skills as, each part of the speaking tests requires different skill.

3. Speak English before exam also

Most of the non-English speaking people try to speak in their own language before the exam and then with the start of the examination try to switch to speaking English, this practice should be entirely avoided, instead speak in English even before the start of the exam, this will give you flow and consistency.

4.  Try to extend your answer appropriately

Extend your answer in the appropriate way, giving to the point and short answer will not give the examiner a proper idea of your speaking skills, whereas, try not to increase it overly as then there may be possibility that you may get distracted from the topic and lose  it is to extend your answer appropriately. Be aware, however, that very long answers are not always a good idea. It is possible that you will go off topic and miss consistency.

5. Make eye contact

Even while speaking large part of communication is non-verbal. By not making eye contact there may be a chance that the examiner will not get fully impressed by your communication skills.

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Prepare for IELTS Speaking Test

The speaking element:

The IELTS speaking test takes between 11 and 14 minutes and is in the form of an oral interview amongst the candidate and an examiner. During the interview you will require to answer questions asked by the examiner. You are asked to speak at length on a topic given by the examiner and provide and explain your views on a variety of issues related to that topic.

The interview has three key elements:

·         General questions about yourself, your life and your interests.

·         A brief discussion on a given topic.

·         A discussion of issues related to a given topic.

·         Relax and speak with confidence.

Candidates who will not properly participate in the discussion with examiner will surely fail to achieve their prospective band score. The reason behind this is that they are not able to showcase their expertise in the language.

·         Learn how the Speaking element is assessed.

The objective of the test is to evaluate your capacity to communicate efficiently. The examiner ponders this ability in four different ways:

Fluency and Coherence

Lexical Resource

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Pronunciation

·         Be prepared to answer the questions asked by the examiner.

It begins with an introduction in which the examiner asks you basic questions about yourself and asks to see your identification. The examiner will then go on to ask you further questions about yourself, your family/hometown, your job or studies and a range of similar topic areas that are familiar to you. In order to score more points in this section follow these tips like:

·         Provide full answers to all questions

·         Give longer responses to some questions

·         Give information by describing and explaining

·         Identify what to expect.

The initial section of the test will consists of some basic information about you, your origin, and identification. From this information the examiner will clearly assess about your English speaking abilities.

·         Carefully contemplate what you know about the questions which were asked to you.

Think of all the possible questions that the examiner can ask about you and make sure that you have all the vocabulary you need to discuss the topics in depth. Check and practice the pronunciation of any new vocabulary. Practice extending your answers to questions. You will perform better in the IELTS interview if your speech is fluent. You should also be prepared to make use of the past, present and present perfect tenses to describe your current situation in an effective and correct way.

Be prepared to answer any question in a perfect way, with a perfect use of speed, proper pronunciation and accurate use of synonyms, idioms and phrases.

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What to Read for IELTS Reading Task

From newspapers to magazines, from recipe books to health pamphlets, or even manuals on how to set up a universal remote control-you can read just about anything when preparing for the IELTS reading task. All you need is to develop some attitude and skills in reading.

I remember my Developmental Reading teacher during the first day of classes asked me to define reading in my own words. It took me a while to give an answer. I can’t remember how the textbook we used defines the word reading but I do remember my teacher saying that reading is a skill. If reading is a skill then it can be developed. The following are some reading materials that just might help you develop your reading skills and get that higher band score in IELTS:

Newspapers – of course it can provide you with important information about events that happen in the country or around the world but the reason why I included newspapers in the list is this: every article especially in the news section of the newspaper is limited to some number of words as space is very important. That being said, the writer needs only to mention the most important objects in his article. If we read the way a news writer treats every word in his article, then we read in such a way that we treat every word very important. That is one attitude that we need to develop in reading-every word is very important.

Recipe book – I do believe everybody needs to learn how to cook.  We are trying to cook a delicious IELTS score here. A culinary recipe has so many components: dish’s name, ingredients, equipment needed, preparation steps, etc. A recipe book tells you what to do with what and when and how. You must be careful with everything especially with sequence. So be careful also when reading instructions or passages in the Reading module of IELTS. Remember what we are trying to cook here.

Online Q and A – it could be about anything that strikes your interest but should be the ones answered by experts. The reason why I recommend reading online Q & A’s is that I want you to take note of how experts provide their answers to questions. You will be answering around 40 questions in the Reading task of IELTS. You must be as precise and as accurate as an expert in giving your answers.

There are many other reading materials which can help you become an effective reader. Just remember to focus on what you are reading. You can also get yourself an IELTS book which you can use to train yourself or you can go for Online IELTS learning.

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What to Expect from IELTS Writing Module

When preparing for IELTS, Academic or General Training is wise to consider if you want to experience what you will encounter during the test. Exposing yourself to real writing experience could make you experience the feel of it.

Let us see how the Writing task is constructed:

General Training Version – IELTS GT module should be completed in one hour. There are two tasks in which the candidate has to write 150 to 250 words each.

·         In Task 1, you will be asked to write a letter. You will be given a situation together with the details that need to be included in the letter that you are going to write. In some cases the candidates will only have to complete the letter by filling the blanks with words (which you will be chosen from a word pool) or prepositions. (It doesn’t mean that this setup is easier than writing a complete letter).

·         In Task 2 you will be composing an essay about a certain topic. (This also goes for the Task 2 of Academic Version and is discussed in details below.

Academic Version – the duration of the academic writing task version is also 60 minutes. The candidate also needs to complete two writing tasks.

·         In Writing Task 1 you will be handed with a particular graph (it can be a bar, pie or line graph), a chart or a table or process. This task is to extract information with you have been given and interpret it using at least 150 words. The task tests your ability to discern the main features and report it. Your ability describe and compare data will also be assessed.

·         The EILTS Writing Task 2 requires not less than 250 words. The candidate needs to formulate and develop a position relative to a given prompt, which could be a statement or a question. The candidates’ ideas must be backed up by evidences and/or examples which may come from his or her experience. In this task, the candidate decides whether to agree or disagree completely with the given statement. He may also choose to partly agree or disagree with it or express no definite opinion.

The candidate may choose one of the following approaches:

1. Express your position in the beginning of the essay and then provide your justification with your agreements. You can do this especially if you have a strong feeling about the statement.

2. Have the arguments in the introduction and then express your thoughts in the conclusion. This is suitable if you have a weak opinion about the statement but able to provide arguments on either side.

                More or less this is how the Writing Task of IELTS looks like. You can check some online IELTS learning samples of writing tasks or IELTS books to learn more.

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Importance of Practice for the IELTS Writing Test

Why Practice for the IELTS Writing TestIf you will take an IELTS test then you would need to practice the 4 categories to be tested namely writing, reading, speaking and listening. Among the 4 categories, writing is the toughest and you would need to invest your time, effort and at times money so that you will be able to pass in the big day.

Why Practice?

There’s a quote that says “Constant Practice Makes a Man Perfect”. Well, I don’t believe that practice would make us become perfect but it would surely make us near to perfection. If we have constant practice, then you will be able to boost our confidence towards achieving what we are preparing for.

In writing for IELTS, practice can really boost your confidence and it would condition your brain and mood to think and respond to the task which will be given to you.

How to Practice?

If you want to become adept in writing then write. Keep writing and you’ll be able to get there. However, you don’t just write but you would need to read as well because you will never have something to write if you don’t know what to write. Read… Write… Read… Write… so on. It does not end there but it should continue and it should not stop. Professional writers do this that’s why they are getting better each day.

You Also Need Help

You can ask for somebody to help you improve your writing. You can sign up for some online IELTS learning programs, buy IELTS books, or learn from free resources which you can find on the internet. There are a lot of free and paid resources out there which you can find with just a few clicks of your computer’s mouse.

You can also go to an IELTS review center. This might be costly but it is worth your investment. However, if you have only a limited budget then you might want to go for the internet resources.

People find writing as a tough test in the IELTS examination however if you keep practicing then you will be able to make it to the top. There is no hard thing if you prepare for it. If you aim higher then you will surely need to practice.

Are you aiming high for your IELTS examination day? If you say yes, then start practicing now. Need help? Look for somebody, a book or an online learning program that can help you now.

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