IELTS SPEAKING TEST - SKILLS

The IELTS Speaking Module is designed to allow you to demonstrate your oral skills in a variety of situations. These situations are similar to those you may meet at university in an English-speaking environment where you will be expected to speak in front of your colleagues in tutorials and to discuss issues relevant to your area of study, both with your lecturers and with other students.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST IN GENERAL APPROACH

Below are lots of resources to help you prepare for the IELTS speaking test.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PART 1 SPEAKING TOPICS

Introduction

On this page you will find common IELTS speaking topics and sample answers.

Remember that these are personal questions and you should therefore give personal answers. You should not memorise answers and if the examiner thinks that you have done this, you will lose lots of marks.

IELTS SPAKING TEST - PART 1 DOs AND DONT'S

Speaking Part 1 lasts between 4-5 minutes and you will be asked questions about familiar topics, such as:

- Your job/studies

- Your family

- Your home

- Your hometown

- Your hobbies

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PART 2 TIPS

Many consider Speaking Part 2 to be the most difficult part of the IELTS Speaking test because it is a monologue. A monologue is different from the rest of the test because you will be speaking alone, without any questions or help from the examiner.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PART 2 STRATEGY

This post will help you give better answers in part 2 of the IELTS speaking test. In IELTS speaking part 2 you will be given a topic or cue card similar to this:

Describe a plant grown in your country. You should say

– what the plant is 

– where it is grown 

– why you like or dislike it 

- and explain why it is important to your country.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PART 3 GUIDE

This post will cover:

- what to do if you don’t understand the question

- what to do if you can’t think of an answer

- how to extend your answer

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PART 3 COMMON QUESIONS

This post will help you prepare for the IELTS speaking test by learning 7 common question types and the language we use to talk about them.

IELTS speaking part 3 lasts 4-5 minutes and allows the examiner to ask you questions related to part 2. The conversation is more general, abstract and, you will be expected to give answers in greater depth than in part 1.

Many students fear part 3 because they don’t know what to expect. It is this supposed unpredictability that can cause students to not do as well as they should. Luckily, a quick analysis of the questions reveals that there common question types and this allows students to practice the grammatical structures and phrases used to talk about them.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PART 3 TIPS

After your 2 minute monologue in Part 2 of the Speaking test, the examiner will ask you around 4-5 more abstract questions about the same general topic you talked about in Part 2. For example, if Part 2 was about mobile phones, they might ask you deeper, more complex questions about mobiles like:

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - DON"T UNDURSRAND THE QUESTION

1. What If I Don’t Understand the Question?

It is totally natural not to be able to understand some of the questions the examiner might ask you. Think about how many times a day you have to ask someone to repeat or explain something in your own language.

The Speaking test is supposed to represent a ‘normal’ conversation between two people and it is totally normal to be able to ask the person you are speaking to for clarification if you don’t understand. However, there are some rules that you should follow.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - SPEAKING CRITERIA

A few months ago I wrote post about the difference between band 5 and band 8 answers on the writing test and lots of people have asked me to do the same thing for the speaking test, so here it is.

I have taken each of the IELTS Speaking Criteria and broke them down and explained how the examiner thinks about your speaking and how they grade you. Knowing the IELTS Speaking Criteria helps you get the band score you deserve, because if you don’t know what the examiner is looking for it is very difficult to give it to them.

Not knowing the criteria is one of the main reasons people, especially good speakers of English, sometimes don’t get the grade they expect. They are very confident speakers but they are unaware of what IELTS actually wants them to do. Below you will find out how to give the examiners exactly what they want and nothing else.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PREPARING STEPS

1. Understand the Speaking Test Format

This might seem like an obvious point, but there are lots of students who go into the IELTS speaking test not knowing what to expect at all. The speaking test is split into three parts and it lasts between 11-14 minutes in total.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - TOPICS

‘IELTS speaking topics’ is one of the most searched for IELTS terms on Google and one of the biggest concerns students have in my own classes. Many students are worried about being asked about a topic they are not familiar with and would like to do some background research before the test. Others think they can cheat the test, learn the common speaking topics and prepare memorized answers. One of these approaches is good and one of them can get you a band 0 in the speaking test.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - FORMAL OR INFORMAL

1. Formally Speaking

One of the things that surprised me when I started teaching in Asia was how many formal phrases some students used.

Phrases like ‘In my opinion….’ and ‘In modern life…’ seemed to be contained in every sentence and I heard ‘moreover’ more times in my first class than I had in my entire life.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - SPEAKING TIPS

These are the speaking tips I share with all of my IELTS classes. You can use these tips for speaking in both the academic and general IELTS tests.

THE IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

1. Introduction

On the IELTS Speaking test you will be graded on four different things:

1. Vocabulary (25%)

2. Grammar (25%)

3. Fluency and Coherence (25%)

4. Pronunciation (25%)

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - WORDS DIFFICULT TO PRONOUNCE

You might think that all native English speakers have no trouble with their pronunciation, but you would be wrong.

You shouldn’t feel guilty about your pronunciation of English words; I know one IELTS examiner who finds it difficult to even say the word ‘pronunciation’!

A hugely popular Reddit thread asked people to list the words they find most difficult to pronounce.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - PRONUNCIATION

If you look at the IELTS speaking marking criteria, you will notice that pronunciation makes up 25% of the total marks. In other words, it is difficult to get a high band score in your speaking test without good pronunciation.

Many students believe that good pronunciation is the same as having a ‘native English accent’. This is one of the most common misconceptions and students should not worry about having a British or American accent.

According to the marking criteria, it is more important to be:

- easy to understand and

- use a wide range of pronunciation features.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - USING AN IDIOMS

One of the things that separates native English speakers from those learn the language is the correct use of idioms. 

In the IELTS speaking test they can really help boost your score, if used properly, however, they can also lower your score, if you don’t use them correctly.

IELTS SPEAKING TEST - USING AN IDIOMS

I probably get asked more questions about idioms than any other single thing. Every day I get questions like:

- Will using idioms increase my score?
- Which idioms should I use?
- How many idioms should I use in the speaking test?
- Should I use idioms in the writing test?

This is one of the most misunderstood areas of the test and making some of the mistakes below can really lower your score.

Below are 7 ways idioms can decrease your speaking and writing score.