Of all of the
things I assess on the IELTS Speaking test, the most common problem is
fluency.
Fluency - is
your ability to speak smoothly (not quickly) without noticeable effort or loss
of coherence. Poor fluency is normally associated with frequent
self-correction, hesitation, pausing or repetition.
In order to
help you improve your fluency I will identify the most common reasons for poor
fluency and then look at how to improve each of them. We will also
discuss what you can do each day to help you improve your fluency.
1. Problem # 1 - Trying to Speak Too Quickly
As I mentioned above, students with good fluency speak smoothly, not quickly. It is a common misconception that good fluency means very rapid speech. If you listen to how native English speakers talk, they do not normally speak very quickly. Listen to native speakers on the radio, news or movies and this will give you a good idea about how quickly they speak.
Trying to
speak too quickly in any language will cause a loss of coherence because your
brain simply can’t keep up with your mouth. Combine this with speaking in a
second language under exam conditions and the result is going to be a loss of
coherence and lots of mistakes.
Solution – focus on speaking calmly and smoothly. Listen to
native speakers and try to copy their pace of speech. This will not
only help your fluency, but will also give you more time to think of ideas and
find the correct grammar and vocabulary.
2. Problem # 2 - Trying to Think of Ideas
Students often complain that they can’t think of ‘good’ or ‘correct’ ideas and this causes their fluency to suffer. This is often caused by a misunderstanding of what is actually being assessed on the speaking test. If you look at the official marking criteria, you will notice that there is no mention of ‘good’ ideas. As long as you give an answer that is related to the question asked, you will be fine. It is not an ‘ideas’ test or an ‘intelligence’ test, it is a speaking test. Unlike a maths test, there is no right or wrong answer. Just show the examiner your ability to speak.
Solution – do not worry so much about the quality of your ideas
and focus on the quality of your speaking. Talk to the examiner about what you
know about the question being asked. If you know nothing, or very little, about
the topic, don’t be afraid to tell the examiner.
Also this will not
be a problem in Part 1 because the questions are all about you, so you will
obviously have no problem thinking about ideas for that.
For Part 3,
some of the questions will be difficult. You just have to accept this and
try to answer them as best you can.
For Part 2,
you need to have a structure…..
3. Problem # 3 - Not Having a Structure
This problem is mostly related to Part 2. Students have to talk for up to 2 minutes about a topic given to them by the examiner.
You will be given a cue card before you talk, just like the one below. You are given a general topic to talk about and then there are three or four things that they suggest you should talk about.
The problem
here is that many people run out of things to say and then their fluency
normally suffers. This is for
two main reasons.
Firstly, many people think that they can only talk about the three suggested things on the card. It is difficult to only talk about three small things for 2 minutes.
Secondly, most people do not prepare anything else to talk about apart from the three things on the card.
Firstly, many people think that they can only talk about the three suggested things on the card. It is difficult to only talk about three small things for 2 minutes.
Secondly, most people do not prepare anything else to talk about apart from the three things on the card.
Solution – you must talk about the general topic at the top of
the cue card, but you are free to talk about whatever you like within that
topic. Therefore, you could:
- Introduce the topic
- Give your opinion about the topic
- Talk about the past, present, future of the topic
- Give a description of the topic
- Tell a personal story about the topic
When you combine these things with the things they suggest you talk about on the cue card, it opens up many more possibilities, allows you to structure your answer during the 1 minute planning time before you speak and ensures that you will have enough to talk about during the two minutes.
For more
information about this please check out my Speaking Part 2 Strategy. For more
information about how to structure your Part 3 answers please check out my Part 3 Guide.
4. Problem # 4 - Focusing Too Much on Grammar and Vocabulary
Grammar and vocabulary count towards 50% of your score and they are very important, but thinking about them too much will lower coherence. If you focus on them too much you will be constantly thinking of the correct language to use and this will lead to lots of hesitation and pausing. This ‘language first’ approach is often the result of strict school teachers who prioritised grammar and vocabulary over speaking skills.
Solution – find two part 2 questions. Get something to record
yourself like a phone or computer. You are going to record yourself answering
the two questions.
- Answer the
first question focusing on language, making sure you get all the grammar and
vocabulary correct.
- Answer the
second question focusing on fluency and not worrying too much about grammar and
vocabulary mistakes.
Which one sounds better? You will make more language errors in the second one, but your overall performance will probably be much better. If you do this exercise on a regular basis, you will soon learn that you should have more confidence in your language ability and realise that fluency is what you really need to work on.
5. Problem # 5 - Not Enough Practice
Many students have great vocabulary and grammar, but they never actually use this language by speaking or writing. This causes huge problems for both pronunciation and fluency, 50% of your score.
Like any
skill, speaking requires practice and unless you practice often, you are not
going to be able to get one of the higher bands. The biggest
problem for students is not being able to find partners to speak with. However,
there are many ways you can do this.
Solution – the first solution is to use the suggestion for
problem 4 above.
You can also
try to find native English speakers in your own area. If you live in a large
city, there are probably lots of online groups of English speakers who want to
practice your language with you and you can practice English with them.
There are
countless websites that offer language exchanges. You practice your language
with them and they practice English with you in exchange.
Finally, there
are lots of Facebook groups where IELTS learners practice speaking with one
another. Here is a link to my group.
6. Problem # 6 - Trying Not to ‘Umm’ and ‘Ahh’
Many students
associate making ‘ummm’, ‘ahh’ and ’emmm’ sounds with poor fluency. If you
hesitate frequently and makes these sounds, then it is a problem, but making
them sometimes is not only fine, it is totally natural.
Listen to
anyone, in any language, and they naturally make these sounds when chatting
with someone. The problem is that many students obsess about not making these
sounds in their speaking test and the result is they think about them too much
and it is totally unnatural to do this when you are speaking. This results in a
loss of fluency and it takes up too much of your brain power that would be
better used on language and ideas.
Solution – accept that making these hesitation sounds will
happen and they are totally natural and acceptable. If you make them
infrequently, don’t worry. Again, you can
record yourself and find out how often you make these sounds. It is probably
much less than you think.
Finally,
people normally make these hesitations when they are thinking of ideas or
searching for language. See the solutions to problems 2 and 4 above and they
will become less of a problem.
7. Problem # 7 - Stress
If you are very nervous and stressed out during your test, you are going to be less fluent than normal. Think about someone speaking in public who is very nervous. How is their fluency?
The main
reason, I think, that people are nervous during their test is that they are not
fully prepared.
Solution – follow the suggestions above and you will be fully
prepared and confident.
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