An IELTS Speaking Test includes three parts:

 

IELTS Speaking: How to Speak in Part 1

 

In IELTS Speaking Part 1, the examiner is mainly testing you for two things: i) everyday vocabulary and, ii) basic grammar.

For almost every answer, you should give a two-part answer: First, a direct answer to the question and then add more information.

A 'direct answer' does not mean the same as 'an immediate answer' – a 'direct answer' means 'not an indirect answer'. Indirect answers lower your coherence score. Here's an example of an indirect answer:

Question: "Do you work or are you a student?"

Answer: "Oh, I've been working for five years."

That answer does tell the examiner that you are working but it does so indirectly. The question asks you to choose between "A" and "B" and, in order to answer directly, you should first choose between A and B and then add some suitable extra information. So, a more suitable answer is, "I'm working. In fact, I've been working for five years."

There are times in the Speaking test when it is suitable not to give an immediate answer, for example, when it's a difficult question and you need to think for a second before answering or when you want to make a comment about the question. This is natural even when you are speaking your native language. In the case where you need time to think, you should tell the examiner that you need a second to consider the question; don't sit there silently thinking about your answer.

In other words, you should always start speaking immediately after the examiner asks a question but what you say does not always have to immediately be the answer to the question from the moment you start speaking. However, you should not need to speak this way very much in Part 1 because almost all questions in Part 1 are rather simple, information-seeking questions. This advice is more suitable for some Part 3 questions.

Be very willing to give the examiner a lot of information. ("Information" includes your feelings and opinions.)

The best way (but not the only way) to give new information is to include the information in the same sentence as your direct answer. When you do this, you usually use a relative pronoun such as, "which" to make the whole sentence into a complex sentence.

When you give extra information, make sure it is new information, not information that everybody already knows.

Here's an example of extra information that is not new information: "I study chemistry, which has a lot of experiments." Almost everybody knows that the study of chemistry (usually) includes experiments. That's almost like saying, "I study history, which is the story of the past." But if you say, "I study chemistry, which has a lot of interesting experiments" then you are giving new information to the examiner – the information that the experiments are interesting to you.

Note that there are times when it is not suitable or natural to use a relative pronoun to connect the extra information to your basic answer. For example, if you say, "I'm working, which (is something) I've been doing for five years" then your answer will sound a little unnatural and forced.

 

IELTS Speaking Advice: record, transcribe, analyse

Here are some steps that you could follow when practising for the speaking test:

1. Choose a real speaking test from one of the Cambridge books.

2. Record yourself answering one or all of the parts of the test.

3. Listen to the recording and transcribe it (write down everything you said).

4. Analyse the transcript. How could your answers be improved?

5. Take some time to prepare better answers for the same questions.

6. Try the same questions again! Record yourself, transcribe and analyse.

7. Repeat the process a few times until you are happy.

Imagine if you did this kind of hard work every day for a month. I'm sure you'd be more confident and better prepared than you are now.

 

 

IELTS Speaking: the most common question and comments

 

IELTS Part 1 Sample Answer:

The most common and also the easiest speaking question in part 1:

Examiner:

Where do you come from?

Student's Answer:

- I’m from Rasht in Iran.  Rasht is a city in the north of Iran.

Comment:

Notice how my answer is short (I haven’t given a history of Rasht since the beginning of time!) But not too short; I didn’t just answer ‘Rasht or “Iran”.

Also notice how the tense of the verbs in my answer is the same as the tense of the verb in the question. It’s a good idea to listen to the tense of the verb in the question so that your answer is on the right track.

 

IELTS Part 2 Sample Answer:

"Talk about your favorite film"

Student's Answer:

"Okay, I would like to start my topic. My favorite film is Cinderella and, uh, … and uh, during my, uh, English I started doing (30 seconds) and uh, which is carried by my English teacher from America. At first, at first, pictures is very attractive and then I'm very moved by the characters Cinderella and his spirit, (1 minute) uh … and … a little bit nervous … uh… and uh …. and the most, and the most, and the most, (90 seconds) gool I like is during the uh, uh, …"

Comment:

While preparing for one minute the student only took a few notes, so forgot what to talk about. After I typed this, I read all the sentences slowly. It took me only 30 seconds. So, this student wasted 90 seconds. That is not a good way to show your English ability!

With notes, the student might have remembered to talk about "Who" – Cinderella's sisters and her mean mother. The student could have talked about "What" – the jobs Cinderella had to do and the party she wanted to go to. The student could have talked about "How" – the magical way she was able to go. The student could have talked more about "Why" – the student was moved by "his" spirit. (oops!) Why not say, "I was moved by the way Cinderella continued to hope even though she had to do so much hard work at home and had no body to help her". That's a good way to show your English level.

It's unnecessary to start the speech with, "I would like to…". Anyone can memorize such a sentence, so it shows little real ability to speak English. The sentence “…during my …” can be modified as "During my English literature class when I was in the second year of university, my English teacher showed us a wonderful story that really impressed me".

Instead of "at first, pictures is very attractive", the student could say, "The first think I noticed is that the pictures are very colorful and attractive". I don't know what "gool" is at the end, but the student already had missed an opportunity before that. This student must communicate more specific information using complete sentences.

It's hard to give a score without the scorer's guide, and especially with such a small sample of language. The student had an opportunity but failed. I would have to guess that if the student can't do better on part 3, the score will probably be 4.

 

PART 3

Examiner:

How do you think the Internet will change entertainment in the future?

Student's Answer:

Just yesterday I saw there's some advertising on Internet to put some blanks on Mr. Bush to attack his economic policies which bring American economy…

Comment:

The topic is not just the Internet, but about "change", "entertainment" and "the future". It is not acceptable to change the topic to "politics" in "the present". As for the language, I doubt "advertising" is the right word here and "blanks" should almost certainly be "blame". Verbs are all in the simple present. Most likely "bring" should be either "is bringing" or "has brought".)

Student's Answer:

How do you think the Internet will change ENTERTAINMENT?

It's a kind of entertainment, but it can affect people's opinions. (1 minute has passed so far)

Comment:

After the question is repeated, the student must use good English to support the previous statements. "It's a kind of entertainment" is too simple, level 5 at the highest but a level 4 student might be able to say a few such sentences too. Instead, this student should say something better, for example, "I believe that, for many people, political discussions ARE a kind of entertainment, which will probably grow more common in the future". This will bring us back to the topic and show that the student is level 6 or 7, instead of 4 or 5.)

Examiner:

How about in the future?

Student's Answer:

I think this trend will go on.

Comment:

The student should explain which trend and give some reasons why it might continue.)

Student's Answer:

Which trend?

People express their ideas through some entertainment. But new patterns on Internet.

Comment:

Instead of an incomplete sentence such as "but new patterns on Internet", which has no verb, the student should explain in detail. "There are new patterns of communication thanks to the Internet, for example…")

Examiner:

Can you give me some details on how it will be done in the future?

Student's Answer:

Because the Internet is comparatively… very cheap (2 minutes so far) so people can future some films some, record some we do, record some new music or to put them on the Internet for other people to share, can share their information.

Comment:

The student is trying to give more information, but is quite vague and is making some mistakes that are hard to understand. "People can future some films some" is not a normal English sentence. Instead, the student might say, "People in the future will be able to choose from among many different films". "Record some we do" also has no meaning, but the speaker corrects the mistake, which is good!)

Examiner:

Do you think that this will affect traditional movie theaters?

Student's Answer:

To some degree because to live to film is more expensive than if you compared with Internet entertainment. (3 minutes has passed)

Comment:

Already three minutes has passed. The student has said very little during this time. The possibility of getting a 6 now is almost gone. What does "to live to film" mean? If the student provided more specific information, for example by talking about specific prices, then it might be more clear.)

Examiner:

So what will happen to traditional movie theaters in the future?

Student's Answer:

They should make it more accessible and not maybe from big cities to some smaller cities because especially in China there aren't many films cinemas in small cities in China but Internet we can use Internet whenever, wherever we are.

Comment:

This is a better sentence, a better explanation. Of course, a level 5 student can sometimes do this. To be a level 6, this student probably needed to do this from the beginning.)

Examiner:

How can movie theaters become more accessible? (4 minutes so far)

Student's Answer:

Maybe we don't need large scale cinemas in small cities, but more small more compact uh pattern.

Comment:

This sentence is very simple. Another opportunity lost! Why not say, "Maybe we don't need large scale cinemas in small cities where there are fewer people. Instead, more compact theaters might be appropriate". This is not such a difficult sentence. Even if vocabulary such as "compact" and "appropriate" are changed to "small" and "good", the student could have shown some advanced ability.)

Examiner:

How do you think you would have enjoyed living 100 years ago, without the Internet and without television or radio?

Student's Answer:

Maybe life is boring but we still have other styles of more natural entertainment.

Examiner:

Can you give me some examples?

Student's Answer:

Such as play some game, cards, personal contact, personal interchanges, personal communications is more uh, it's more widely used. (5 minutes so far)

Comment:

The student should take one example at a time. "One example would be playing games such as cards. These are very popular, yet simple to do over the Internet".)

Examiner:

Let's change the topic a bit. How do you think television affects society?

Student's Answer:

I think different people get different information from television. Some people, especially child, children, they vulnerable, they are vulnerable to the television information, information from the television. They can't distinguish what is right, what's wrong, so they may adapt all what they see.

Comment:

The student is getting better. If you can make this kind of sentence during the whole test, getting a 6 or 7 is easy. There are many small mistakes in these three sentences, but the student is communicating successfully.)

Examiner:

So, do you think we should control television in some way?

Student's Answer:

Maybe, especially like what we have done this days before 10 o'clock we have some contraints in the conTENT of the television but after that more free styles can be show.

Comment:

Intonation can change the meaning, so be careful! "conTENT" means "happy" while "CONtent" means what is inside.)

Examiner:

Thank you, that's the end of the speaking test.

Comment:

The student came up with only a few good sentences at the end, and with quite a few mistakes. If I only look at the answers to the final questions, I would guess this student is a 6. (I cannot give an official score here.) However, based on all of the questions, with such short answers, more likely this student would get a 5.

 

IELTS speaking: pronunciation and accents

As we all know that pronunciation is a very important criteria in the speaking part of your IELTS test. Here is the marking guide for pronunciation in band 6, 7, and 8

Band	Pronunciation
8	uses a wide range of pronunciation features sustains flexible use of features, with only occasional lapses is easy to understand throughout; L1 accent has minimal effect on intelligibility
7	shows all the positive features of Band 6 and some, but not all, of the positive features of Band 8
6	uses a range of pronunciation features with mixed control shows some effective use of features but this is not sustained can generally be understood throughout, though mispronunciation of individual words or sounds reduces clarity at times

 

Accent, everybody has their own accent when they speak English, and accent is not the marking guide, however, it would definitely affect your score.

NOTE: L1 (first language) accent is not a barrier to you being understood when you're speaking English, hence the part "having minimal effect on intelligibility". Your L1 accent may be noticeable, but its effect is "minimal". It probably means that you're pretty close to sounding like a native speaker, or at least well on the way to it.

 

Advice on Speaking and Writing Styles

IELTS Writing and Speaking Topic: High Education

Tertiary education is a common topic in both Writing and Speaking. Here are some reasons for NOT attending high education/ university. Please pay attention to the expression differences between the writing and speaking.

Ideas for the writing part:

§  For some youngsters, going to university is now too expensive, time consuming, restrictive and potentially soul-destroying for people with talent to bother with anymore.

§  Study loans are really the huge burden for some young people who might spend their 20s or 30s paying it off, when instead they might have been discovering how not to be an average person by attending a short-term training course.

§  It’s true that not all businesses now recruit ‘graduates only’ and the ability and experience is the key.

§  Your working experience tends to be equivalent to your qualification.

§  Many subjects in universities seems to be too academic and theoretical, and students would be spectacularly uninspired by some of the lecturers. Consequently, some smart and tenacious students might waste three or four years when they could have been learning useful skills in the real word, such as marking contacts, learning how to answer a phone and be nice to their colleagues   

§  I was spectacularly uninspired by all but about three of my tutors. Most were nice, smart people, but they spent a long time getting through a small part of the vast volumes of textbooks the university obliged me to acquire.

Ideas for the speaking part:

§  I don’t like living in the hall of residents or living with others, and they generally aren’t all that great. Being in halls means being surrounded by…

§  I’m just not that good with other people. I have little in common with people my own age, and also I’m not into the main pastimes of a university education, which seem to be…

§  There are many drinking and parties in college or uni. I don’t drink, and the latter isn’t really much fun when the former is involved. These seem to be the main interests of a lot of people.

§  I’m not sure what subject to choose. Much as I love the arts, I see very little value in studying them. And my mathematical / scientific abilities aren’t all that great.

§  I’ve done the whole working-for-people thing, and I’m just not really into it. I can’t see myself ever working for a for-profit company (unless it’s mine and I’m the only employee.) I suppose if I wanted a job in the civil-service or something then a degree would be necessary to get an interview.

§  If I chose the wrong subject I’d get bored and give up. Then I may hate myself.

§  It costs rather a lot of money.

§  I’d be away from friends and family and would likely sink into depression, at least for a while.

 

Some tips on mistakes

Don't worry about the occasional mistake. The examiner will expect some mistakes – after all, English is a foreign language for you and people make mistakes in speaking foreign languages. The examiner is not making a note of every single mistake that you make. This would be impossible to do and concentrate on your speaking. He will more get a general impression of your English accuracy so individual errors don't matter. More important is your communication.

Perfection is not needed. You can still make some errors and get a 9 (not many errors though). So don't let making errors upset you. Get on with the talking and concentrate on your communication.

One thing that puts candidates off is that the Speaking test is recorded. This is done so that, if necessary, the speaking can be re-marked. If the bands for a candidate's writing and speaking for instance are very different (more than 2 band difference), then the candidate's test is re-checked.

If the speaking was not recorded, then this could not be done. This doesn't happen very often. Sample recordings are also sent to the IELTS administration to be monitored to make sure that examiners are doing a good job and assigning the correct bands. So, try and forget that the recorder is there and get on with answering the questions.

 

GENERAL TRAINING SPEAKING PRACTICE

Section 1

Living place

Could you describe the street that your house or apartment is in?

Do you prefer to live in a town or in the country?

Which town would you most prefer to live in (if you had to) and why?

Animals and Pets

Do you have a pet at home? (Why/Why not?)

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a pet?

Describe an animal that is famous in your country?

What’s your favorite animal? (Why?)

The Weather

What’s your favorite kind of weather?

What’s the weather like in your country?

What do you like to do when it¡¦s raining?

Would you like to live in a very hot/cold country?

Section 2

Describe your ideal house

You should say:

How big it would be

What it would look like

What would be inside it

And explain why it would be your ideal house

Section 3

Where people live

Do people in your country prefer to rent or own the place where they live?

How has architecture changed in your country over the last 50 to 100 years?

What do you think the housing of the future will look like in your country?

Does your country have restrictions on how people can change or construct buildings?

Buildings and Tourism

Do you think it¡¦s important for a country to preserve old houses and buildings? (Why?)

Describe some of the famous buildings that a visitor to your country should see?

Do you think that important buildings should be free of charge to visit? (Why/Why not?)

Can you compare the importance of spending money on restoring a country’s old buildings and spending money on education and health?

 

 

Some more advice on speaking skill

Recently, a lot of students ask how to prepare the IELTS speaking part at home as they don’t have an “English environment”. And they also ask “Is that a good way to write every answers down and try to reading again, again and again?”

Well, the answer is no. because once the students try to write down their answers, the tone of the contents is “written”, not “oral”. Remember that you are talking to the examiner in the real test, not reading or reciting in front of him/her. You are talking with a human, not a robot! So chilled out.

My advice of practicing speaking at home:

1. Choose a real speaking test from one of the Cambridge books.

2. Use your smart phone to record yourself answering one or all of the parts of the test. (pay attention to the timing)

3. Listen to the recording and transcribe it (write down everything you said, including all those mistakes, repetition, and words like ‘er…a…well…. You know….’).

4. Analyse the transcript. Maybe just simply correct all the grammar mistakes first.

5. Take some time to prepare better answers for the same questions.

6. Try the same questions again! Record yourself, transcribe and analyse.

7. Comparing the second time with the first one. Do you see any improvement? Do you feel better the second time?

8. Repeat the process until you are happy.

 

 

Some advice on  How to Speak and Practice in Part 2

Consider the following points, before you do any practice on IELTS Speaking Part 2.

1. More than 9 out of 10 candidates in the Speaking test have never done a Part 2, under test conditions, before they do the real test! This is like entering a swimming competition never having participated in a serious game of swimming before!

2. What are the results of this lack of experience?

Firstly, many candidates find that the 1 minute of thinking time is too short – they can't think of enough things to talk about. As a result, they can only talk for a little while before stopping to think of what to say next. This results in a loss of points for fluency.

Secondly, because these candidates have never done a Part 2 under test conditions, they have very little idea of how fast the time is passing. So, when the examiner asks them to stop talking, they think they still have about 1 minute left when, in fact, the full 2 minutes have passed. In other words, many candidates do not manage their time well – they speak too slowly and do not have enough time to talk about the last line on the task card that begins with the words, "and explain ….". This line is possibly the most important point on the task card, and this non-completion of the task can also possibly result in a loss of points for the fluency/coherence sub-score (this time, a loss of coherence points because, without answering the last line, your story is incomplete and makes a lot less sense.)

Let's review what the real test conditions are for Part 2.

a)     You are given a Part 2 topic that you may have never seen before.

b)     You have only 1 minute to think about the topic before you start speaking.

c)     You have to speak continuously for between 1 and 2 minutes.

Before you slowly read and think about any Part 2 topic that you may have never read before, the best study method is to first try to answer the question as if you were really doing the Speaking test. After you have done this, you can then spend more time thinking about and preparing how to answer that topic better.

The Steps

1. Put a clock, a stopwatch or some other timing device on your desk. If you can, set it so that it can tell you when 1 minute has passed.

2. Have a piece of paper and a pencil ready for making notes.

3. Have a tape recorder/ your smart phone with recording function ready to record what you say. A recording of your 'little story' will help you analyze how well you spoke and help you to fix some of your weaknesses in speaking.

4. Now go to the new Part 2 topic ( = a Part 2 topic that you have not read before) and strictly give yourself only 1 minute to read it and prepare to answer it. Don't give yourself 2 minutes to think about the topic and certainly don't give yourself 5 or 10 minutes to think about the topic. Make notes if you want to. If I have a link to notes for this topic, don't read them now – wait until you do your in-depth preparation after this first attempt at answering the question.

5. After you have thought about the topic for 1 minute, set the timer at 2 minutes, turn on the tape recorder/or the app from your smart phone and speak your answer for more than 1 minute but no more than 2 minutes. Close to 2 minutes is much better than just a little more than 1 minute.

6. After you have spoken your little story, listen to yourself on the recorder and think about ways you could have spoken better.

For example, in this analysis of your recording, if you stopped speaking for an unnaturally long period because you couldn't think of the exact word you wanted to say, use a dictionary to find the correct word. (But be careful about using words that are new to you. Very often when people use new words without thoroughly studying these new words, they use them unsuitably and/or mispronounce them.)

Similarly, if you recognize that you made a grammar mistake or if you had trouble composing a certain sentence, look in some grammar book or just simply check it online (Google it to see how this sentence should be correctly made. As well as that, think about ways that you could have spoken more continuously.

Even though you are not an expert, you will be able to recognize weaknesses and mistakes in your spoken story and fix some of these weaknesses and mistakes. Overall, I do believe this review of your recorded story is a valuable way to improve your English, but don’t spend too much time listening to yourself and trying to improve your performance.

7. After you have done this "Three Minute Training Exercise", you can then spend as much time as you like thinking about and preparing an improved answer.

I suggest you do not write a 'speech' and then try to memorize this speech, word for word. Why not? Firstly, most examiners, most of the time, know when you are speaking a prepared speech and they don't like it because they think this is not natural communication, which is what your answers are supposed to be. Not only that, a prepared answer shows that you knew what the question was before the test and you are not supposed to know that! If the examiner is quite sure that your answer was a 'prepared speech', he or she can ignore your answer completely! And the examiner might actually reduce your score if he or she is quite sure it was almost all a memorized 'speech'. As well as that, some of the examiners say that they will be less friendly towards you and will ask you questions in Part 3 that are more difficult than they usually ask, just to teach you a lesson!

Another reason not to write and memorize an answer is that most people's answers will sound like written English, not spoken English.

Besides, with so many different Part 2 topics being possible right now, you do not have time to write and memorize answers for all of them.

Instead, I suggest you prepare a list of key words and key short expressions (and perhaps a few key, short complete sentences) and memorize these.

After a few days, you can test yourself on this same topic again and see if you can remember your key words and expressions. It is best to record yourself again when you test yourself again.

8. Since you will be spending only about 4 minutes on each topic when you do this "Three Minute Training Exercise", I suggest answering more than 1 topic in one sitting.

9. Is it a good idea to study those model Part 2 answers that are found in IELTS Speaking textbooks?

Yes, I think reading these model answers is good because you can learn things from these model answers but you should read the answers aloud, not just read them in your head. As well as that, you should not try to memorize long passages of English, word-for-word like a poem because IELTS examiners usually recognize when you are speaking long passages of memorized English. Instead, it is a good idea to memorize, word-for-word, many short pieces of English such as phrases, and short sentences.