33 2: 37 IELTS Speaking a — — Anabel Panganiban (a a _—___—$<——_——— Hello and welcome to my IELTS Class! :Overview of the Speaking Section © The speaking test lasts between 11 and 14 minutes. © +» The speaking test is in the form of an interview with a trained examiner. + The exact, same test is conducted all over the world; therefore all examiners anywhere in the world complete the same training to the same standard. © The interview is recorded but please there is no reason to panic. * The tests are recorded in order to monitor the examiner's standard and ensure you are getting a fair test. iThe Ice-Breaker Part 1 (4-5 minutes) In this section, you answer questions about topics you know well, such as your home life, family life, work or study, and your interests. You also answer questions about other simple, familiar topics, which are quite general and do not require any specialized knowledge.The Long Turn Part 2 (3-4 minutes) The examiner gives you a particular topic and asks you to talk about it for 1-2 minutes. Before you talk, you are given exactly 1 minute to prepare yourself. The topic is written on a card, which the examiner will give you, and there are also some instructions that will help you guide your talk. At the end of the talk, the examiner asks one or two questions related to your talk.The Development of a Discussion Part 3 (4-5 minutes) This part of the test is a discussion with the examiner based on themes connected to the previous topic in Part 2. In this part of the test, you discuss and develop more theoretical ideas over one or two themes. Now you have the basic format and idea behind the speaking test, look at the following 30 Top Tips for the IELTS Speaking Test.TIP | - Be Calm. It's easy to say relax, but studies report students perform better in tests if they try to remain calm. Remember, it is in the examiner's interest to show the best of your ability so be calm, polite and positive, listen carefully to the examiner's questions and demonstrate your language abilityTIP 2 Speak up, with rounded Answers. Remember that in Part 1 (and Part 2) of the test, the examiner can only ask the scripted questions card so it's up to YOU to make sure you speak. You. need to develop full, rounded answers.\ What's a full-rounded, answer? S Question; ‘Do you like reading?’ + Answer 1 ‘Yes/No! Question: Do you like reading” Answer 2 ‘I love reading a and always try to have a book in my bag. At the moment, I'm reading ‘xxxx' which I'm really enjoying.” OR To be honest I'm not a great fan of reading. I'm more of an outdoors person and love sport. In fact, the only books that | read are for my course.TIP 3 Understand the Band Scoring. The examiner does not give you an overall Band Score out of 9 for your speaking test. A candidate is scored out of 9 in four different aspects of speaking ability. Your final speaking Band Score is an average of these four scores.TIP 4 - Fluent and Coherent. Making Criteria 1 - Fluency and Coherence. Here the examiner is looking at how your speech flows. Do you speak at a ‘normal speed’ and without hesitation? Do you speak too quickly or make long pausesCoherent and Cohesive. An examiner also assesses how you link ideas and language together to make coherent, connected speech. TI Pp 5 Do you sequence your ideas in a logical way? Do you use (but not overuse!) cohesive devices (connectors, pronouns, and conjunctions)?TIP 6 - Choose your words Carefully Marking Criteria 2 - Lexical resource. Here the examiner looks at the range of vocabulary you use. Do you use a reasonable variety of words? Are they appropriate and adequate to express your meaning? Do you attempt idiomatic language? Is the idiomatic language appropriate?- Variation and Accuracy. The examiner looks at the accuracy, the appropriacy, and the range of your grammar. Do you make a lot of TIP 7 grammatical errors when you speak and do those errors make it difficult for people to understand you or are they natural native speaker mistakes? Do you attempt to use more complex. grammar and subordinate clauses?TIP 8 Being Understood. Marking Criteria 4 - Pronunciation Here the examiner assesses your ability to produce comprehensible speech. The examiner considers how easy or difficult it is to understand you and how much of your speech (if any) is unintelligible. Do you use English sounds, follow English stress and intonation patterns correctly, and is there too much of your first language interference?Grammar focus in Speaking. Teachers generally notice students focus a lot on their grammar when preparing for the IELTS test. TIP 9 Undoubtedly, grammar is important but it only represents 25% of your Band Score. Content and structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation account for 75% of your Band Score. Remember that!Self-Correction. Don't be afraid to correct yourself OCCASIONALLY if you make a TI Pp 10 grammatical mistake. Self-correction is a natural feature of speech and even native speakers self-correct. However, don't let your correcting yourself stand in the way of your fluencyTIP Il Wrong grammar choice in an Answer. There is a very simple trick for avoiding some verbal grammar mistakes especially in Part 1. Listen attentively to the question! Generally the verb tense used in a question is the verb tense you are expected to use in the answer.Example imple so the answer will be present simple too. Answer ‘I love reading actually and always. have a book in my bag. At the moment, I'm. reading* ‘xxxx' which I'm really enjoying.* (* still present tense but the candidate is speaking about ‘at the moment’ so the present continuous is necessary) OR To be honest I'm not a great fan of reading. I'm more of an outdoors person and love sport. In fact, the only books that | read are for my course.” ™ ere is an example 1. Question; ‘Do you like a eading?’ The verb ‘like’ is in the presentrs" uestion; ‘Did you like reading when you “ny were a child?” The verbs are in the past simple so the answer will be too. Answer: | loved reading actually and always asked for books for my birthday. OR ‘To be Exa m ple 2 honest, | wasn't a great fan of reading. | was more of an outdoors child and loved sport. In fact, the only books that | read were at school.’ ED —<— —— a —————TIP 12 If you don't understand a question, ask the Examiner.. ‘I'm not sure what you mean. Could your repeat the question please.’ Candidates often think that asking the examiner to repeat the question risks making their level of English look lower. The examiner should not consider this is true without further evidence. Asking for clarification is a natural feature of speech. It is much better to ask for the question to be repeated than to simply ‘freeze’. Ask the examiner to repeat the question if you don't understand what they asked you.TIP 13 Can't think of anything to say in Part 2? An awkward moment for candidates is when they cannot think of anything else to say in Part 2. You have between 1 and 2 minutes to speak but how you say something is far more important to the examiner than how long you speak. Have a few phrases ready for these situations, such as: Top Tip No 16 ‘I think that's about it’. ‘| can’t think of anything else right now.’ By saying one of these phrases, you're giving the examiner a clear message that you can't think of anything else to say and not just hesitating and making the examiner wonder if the problem is a language problem.TIP 14 How long is a minute - Practice. In Part 2 you are expected to talk for one to two minutes. The examiner will stop you when two minutes has passed. Obviously, you want to make sure that you speak for at least one minute. Practice makes perfect, but also allows you to judge how long a minute really is. So practise speaking about a topic and also time your speaking so that you know what a minute really feels likeTIP 15 - Don't Hesitate. Examiners often report in Part 2 after 1 minute's preparation some candidates have asked ‘What does ‘vocabulary related to the question’ mean? Firstly, Don’t wait for a whole minute to ask a question about the vocabulary! If you don't know, ask! Secondly, the examiner can only repeat the questions on their card but that might be the difference between understanding or not.Thirdly, if you really don’t understand the question, interpret it in your own way and when. the time to speak comes, say simply to the examiner, ‘I'm not really sure what ‘leisure’ means TI Pp 16 but | think it means, so I'm going to talk about that.’ Lastly, according to the banding, speaking off topic should not affect your score but sitting in silence certainly does!TIP 17 Topic Development. In Part 3 the examiner finally enters into a two-way discussion. Although it is a discussion, you are still expected to do most of the talking in response to the examiner's prompts. These prompts are designed to encourage your speaking through topic development but not for you to ask questions.TIP 18 Abstract rather than Personal. Candidates need to be aware that the questions in Part 3 are of a general nature and not about their personal life. Candidates must be able to respond to questions and prompt about abstract ideas. However, if a candidate approaches the question on a personal level, the examiner will try to move the discussion to a general stanceStage and Developments. Each part of the test assesses your speaking in stages and in different ways. + Part 1 is examining how you perform with Tl Pp 19 familiar topics. + Part 2 is examining how you perform if you speak alone for a set period of time. + Part 3 examines how well you perform when talking about more general, abstract topics.Set phrases for coherence and Cohesion. Learn some phrases for giving opinions such as In TIP 20 my opinion... | think that... or As far as I'm concerned... These are useful as they link the examiner's question directly to your answer, and demonstrate levels of coherence and cohesionTIP 21 Use future tenses in Part 3. Part 3 of the test might contain hypothetical and abstract ideas and so you will need to use some future forms and phrases. Review the basic future tenses grammar and in addition learn some useful phrases such as: Probably ‘something’ will happen or ‘something’ might even happen’.Use future tenses in Part 3. Part 3 of the test might contain hypothetical and abstract ideas and so you will need to use some Tl Pp 22 future forms and phrases. Review the basic future tenses grammar and in addition learn some useful phrases such as: Probably ‘something’ will happen or ‘something’ might even happen’.But, don't overuse the future 'wi Try not to use ‘will’ exclusively to talk about the TI Pp 23 future as this often sounds unnatural. As a general rule, when we are sure about a statement, we use ‘will.- Speculate in Part 3. Can we always be sure about the future? When you speculate in Part 3 try to use words such as, Tl Pp 4 ‘probably’, ‘possibly’, ‘might’, ‘may’, ‘perhaps’ with a future form for example, ‘probably going to, will possibly, these words really do add weight to the discussion.Don't worry about the result. Don't ask the examiner for your Band Score. They cannot give you that information; you will receive Tl Pp 25 your result from IELTS after a few weeks. In fact, the examiner should not speak to you at all at the end.a oe —=—<——— ——=—= _—_—_—_—_— Thank You! Do you have any questions for me before we go?