Tips for Speaking and Speaking Test Tutorial!!
It is now made up of three parts :-
In Part 1 the candidate answers general questions about themselves, their homes/ families, their jobs/studies, their interests, and a range of similar familiar topic areas. This part lasts between four and five minutes.
In Part 2 the candidate is given a verbal prompt on a card and is asked to talk on a particular topic. The candidate has one minute to prepare before speaking at length, for between one and two minutes. The examiner then asks one or two rounding-off questions.
In Part 3 the examiner and candidate engage in a discussion of more abstract issues and concepts which are thematically linked to the topic prompt in Part 2. The discussion lasts between four and five minutes.
The speaking part is usually a conversation about you, your plans for the future, your past studies, the reason for which you are taking the IELTS, your country, your town. Therefore be prepared for these subjects. You should prepare something to say about them. In addition, the examiner will show you a card with an argument you are supposed to discuss about. The thing you have to remember is: use easy words and expressions if you are not very confident and everything will go well. To be able to communicate what you think is far more important than doing it with a perfect English accent. Therefore, don't wary if your pronunciation is not exactly a British one. That's not the main point. Your understanding of what the examiner says and the ability to communicate without grammar mistakes is more important. The conversation lasts usually 15-20 minutes and will be recorded. Don't panic about that!!
The Test
How good are you at chatting? Are you fluent? Are you aware of the particular accent with which you go around speaking English? Do people understand clearly what you speak?
Well,this is what the speaking component of IELTS is all about. This is a test to find out how well you can converse in English while carrying out your daily activities.
The test is divided into 3 different steps, not very discrete, but you will be definitely able to point out when one step conclude and other step begins.
The entire interview is recorded in a tape as you go ahead with the conversation.
This is just a formality and it is in your own interest that the conversation is recorded, so that in case you are not satisfied with your score, this tape will help in RE evaluating.
Let the tape not bother you and you go ahead with the speaking freely.
However, keeping in the view of importance of the tape recording your voice,make sure that you are loud and clear enough. The interviewer’s voice will also be recorded and you are at an advantage here that 1st the interviewer will ask you if he/she can start the tape and then the interviewer starts with the 1st question.
Note his loudness level and the clarity with which he is speaking.Make sure your quality of sound should matches with his, for a conversation which isn’t clear and loud will produce more irritation than any favorable effects on your score.
Remember at all steps that this is a test to check your ability to converse efficiently. So you should not be quiet.
You have three main aims here
1.yap,
2.yap and
3.yap!
The interview has three main parts:
1st part :
1st part of the interview starts with introduction.
The interviewer will ask your name, where you coming from ,your job ,your life and your interests.
The topic will change swiftly to some thing very common like the weather that day, or even traffic. Or you might be just asked to describe how did you reach the test center from home.
Do not hesitate.Sit back relaxed and make the conversation enjoyable.
The aim is to impress the interviewer and I believe that each one of us have our own style to do this;Use yours!
This part of interview lasts for not more than 4-5 minutes.The topics are of general interests and usually deal with the following :
. Your country of origin
. Your hometown
. How long you have lived there
. What you do: work or study
. Your interests and future plans
. why u want to go abroad
. are you aware of the situations there
. why this particular field interests you
. Shopping
. Your hobbies
. your family
. interesting places in your hometown - which one u like the most? Why? Whats the most interesting thing there? Would you like to change some thing there?
. climate/seasons
. festivals in your country
. traditions in your country
This is just a general overview to give you an idea of what exactly the 1st step consists of.
The topics may vary with the interviewer’s choice.
Make sure that you are fully aware of your future plans, the reasons why you are planning to go abroad, the competition in your field and any alternative plans you have if this one do not materialize.
Prepare your mind for these sort of questions.
Its definitely impossible to predict the questions but the idea is that always be prepared, for processed speaking always better than random speaking.
2nd Part :
Though its totally upto the interviewer to decide when the 1st part ends and 2nd part begins,you will be able to clearly identify that you are into the 2nd part when the interviewer says, “ Now I will give you a topic to speak on (and will hand over the card with the topic). You will be given 1 minute to think over it. You are allowed to make notes if you wish.”
The topics will be of general interest and something on which any one can speak on. It is carefully selected that it doesn’t requires any professional knowledge to speak on these topics.
Common Topics are :
-Your Favorite Tourist Destination : Where would you like to go? With whom?
-Your Favorite Home/place of living
-Men- Women Relationships
-Sports and Fitness
-What you think is the best way to combat stress
-Country living or City life : what you prefer and why
-Why do you think people go abroad for
-Family or friends : who is more important to you
-Pollution in cities
-Your view on technology : is it helpful?
-Education
There can innumerable topics here and this list is just to help you with the TYPE of topics usually allotted.
There will be sub topics or suggestions following the main topics, giving you the idea on which you need to elaborate.However, you should note that you can speak on any idea which isn’t mentioned in the sub topics,but should be related to the main topic.
The card will look something like this :
"Q. Describe a person from your youth who had a great influence on you:
You should say:
where you met them
what relationship this person was to you
what was special about them
and explain how they influenced you so much."
Utilize the one minute efficiently.Prepare your mind of what exactly u will speak on! Write down the key words quickly on the paper provided. Can remember any interesting incident or example? Quote it! This will make the conversation more interesting. Get ready and plan how exactly you r going to start.
For e.g. for the sample question above :
If say,I want to tell about one teacher who had greatly influenced me, my rapid 1 minute note will be something like this :
-Ida Borrison (note that, writing just the name prepared my answer for the main topic and next 2 sub questions as well.)
-teaching style
-school journal
These 3 words did not take more than 30 sec for me jot down, but will provide me enough matter for me to speak for the next 2-3 minutes.
Make sure that your start is correct and your every sentence is ‘propagative’ (i.e. automatically helps you start with the next sentence), rather than dead sentence ,which starts and ends by itself.
for the given e.g.,
a dead sentence would be like : My school teacher, Ida Borrison influenced me the most.
Note that though this sentence is on the topic asked and is grammatically correct , it will not help you much with your fluent conversation.
Perhaps I found that,if the FLOW of the conversation is good and you could involve the interviewer in whatever you speak, the interviewer will have no choice but to give you a great band.
A good start for the above e.g., could have been like,
O well, Ida Borrison was one person I just cannot forget. She was our English teacher when we were in 9 th standard. She taught us just for an year and then she got transferred .But that one year was so influencing that ....!
Note that,
Here the essence is, the candidate first told the name and then explained who she was. He met her when he was in 9th standard and he wants to talk about just 1 year he was in contact with her.
Note how gradually the conversation is propagating rather than jus saying , “ My school teacher, Ida Borrison influenced me the most.” and STOP!
Learn to master this when you start practising.
Learn to use sentences which automatically leads to the next one and there is no thought blocking.
This is the 2nd part of the interview and is regarded as the most important determinant of the final score.
You are supposed to speak for 2-3 minutes on this following which the interviewer will ask you to elaborate on certain points you have mentioned.
Don’t bother if the interviewer stops you and asks his question. Immediately change your concentration on the immediate question put forth to u.
3rd Part
Step 3 of the interview deals with the same topic but the interviewer will ask you more deeply and into the topic.
It will usually depend on what you have described in the 2nd part.
Don’t bother much. Speak as much as possible. Don’t bother if the you don’t know the exact answer to the question put forth by the examiner.
Don’t sit back and think that , “You don’t know”! Speak this aloud!
You are being judged on your speaking skill not the depth of your knowledge about traffic controls or teaching styles of different people(for e.g.).
The interviewer puts forward a certain question to prompt you to speak; The question should not make you silent.
This is the last part of interview and lasts for around 3-4 minutes.
Total duration of the interview varies from 11-14 minutes approximately.
Be polite through out. Do not overdo things. Just be yourself.
The Practice
Its always a good idea to practice speaking with a partner. Form a group, make a list of the topics and go ahead discussing one by one.
Make sure the number of persons in your study group should be just optimum.In my view, 2 are best and more than 3 is crowd. Of course,it also depends on
Don’t bother much if you r alone and cant find a study partner. Take a topic and practice speaking for 2-3 minutes at a stretch.
Record
Fluency :
This measures your ability to speak without too many pauses and hesitations. It is also to do with how easily and clearly your ideas can be understood.
Some pauses are normal and acceptable for a good conversation. However, check if your pauses are just too frequent or too long.
Learn and choose, how exactly you would pause. “...aahhmm” is the most commonly used one.You can even use a gesture with your eyes,eyebrows or hands.
Watch interviews on TV and try and observe these small things and try to adopt it in your style.
Vocabulary :
A good vocabulary is a very strong point for your interview. But do you use all that you know when you speak? Well, most of us don’t!
Listen to your recorded conversation when you practice. Identify if you are using one particular word repeatedly. Find out if you can replace that with some another word (and same meaning).
Try using thesaurus and list down various words with similar meanings which you would use while speaking.
Do this for every topic you speak on.
You will be rich in no time.
However, learning new words is never easy and more difficult is to use a new word in your conversation,especially when you will be under stress at the time of the interview.
Keep this in mind when you learn a new word. Make sure you will be able to use it as easily as you use the other words you know.
New words can be learnt from dictionary, thesaurus. What I found as the best way for this is to sit with newspaper article with a pencil in hand and a dictionary by your side.
Mark any unfamiliar words, search the real meaning in the dictionary and then see how it has been used in the article. Try and use these words as much as u can till your brain gets adjusted to the new addition.
The following bbc link I found very useful for improving vocabulary :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/index.shtml
There are more resources here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml
Explore and find out what you need the most.
Pronunciation and Accent
Pronunciation is the most important factor in speaking. Most of the time it actually doesn’t matters if you don’t show off much of your vocabulary power with complicated words, but whatever you speak should be correctly prononunced.
You wont be aware of your wrong pronunciation till you actually think over it. Watch BBC (or even HBO or Star Movies). Note if your pronunciation is wrong.
How do u pronunce “HEART”, as ‘hurt’ or as ‘hart’.These are small things which you might have never thought on before,but beware, the interviewer is going to mark you on these.
Don’t bother much about the accent.Its always good to maintain a ‘neutral’ accent.
Remember that the Interviewer is usually a trained person from the city, where u r taking the test.Don’t TRY to introduce any foreign accent for the interview sake, the interviewers are trained to catch these.
Grammatical mistakes :
The variety of grammar you use and how correctly you use it are both judged by the interviewer. So, the range of tenses as well as the appropriate use of them is important in all parts of the Speaking test.
Don’t panic if you realize that you just spoke a grammatically wrong sentence. Go ahead and correct it. This is what we do in our day-to- day conversation, isn’t it? and the interviewer also gets to know that you actually know correct English.
Listen to your recorded conversation while practicing. Is it grammatically correct?
Ideas to speak:
Most candidates complain that though their English is good ,they have a good vocabulary and are strong with the grammar, too, yet they stop as soon as they start the conversation.Do you experience the same problem?
It is usually because we don’t get actually what we want to speak or rather it’s the scarcity of ideas.
You are what you know and you know what you read. So improve your ‘Idea Bank’.
Read articles on Men-Women,Technology, Sports, Pollution, Tourism and such general topics.
Prepare your mind for the ‘Personal Topics’ say, your most funny experience. Am sure you must have had many,but which one would you like to quote? Make sure its interesting and that you talk on it for at least 5 minutes at a stretch.
Prepare beforehand, what you will talk if you are asked to describe about yourself, your family, your job, your future plans or even your favorite tourist destination.
These topics should be at your finger tips.
Don’t mug up preformed speeches.Interviewers are trained to catch these.
Also, you should develop your own spontaneous conversation which should be as unique and interesting as you are.Try giving interesting examples.
The following link gives you a wide range of topics to practice on.Hope you find it useful.
http://www.writefix.com/ieltsspkg/
THE IELTS ACADEMIC SPEAKING TEST TUTORIAL
The IELTS Academic Speaking test is the shortest of the components of the IELTS test - only 11 to 14 minutes. In this short time you have to convince the examiner who will be speaking with you of your level of English.
The IELTS Academic Speaking Test is the same for both the Academic and General Training modules. The test is conducted with 1 examiner and 1 candidate. The Speaking test is recorded. The Speaking Test is divided into 3 sections:
Section 1
Section 1 begins with some general introductory questions. This is followed by some questions on personal information similar to the type of questions one would ask when meeting someone for the first time. Finally the examiner asks a series of questions of 2 topics of general interest. (4 - 5 minutes)
Section 2
Section 2 is a monologue (1 person speaking) by the candidate. The examiner will give the candidate a card with a subject and a few guiding questions on it. The student must talk for 1 to 2 minutes on this subject. The examiner decides on the exact length. The student has an optional 1 minute in order to prepare for his talk and is provided with some paper and a pencil in order to make some brief notes. After the candidate's talk the examiner will ask 1 or 2 brief questions in order to finish off the section. (3 - 4 minutes)
Section 3
Here the examiner will ask some more questions generally related to the subject spoken about in section 2. These questions will be more demanding and require some critical analysis on the part of the candidate. (4 - 5 minutes)
Question Types
The types of questions that come in the IELTS Academic Speaking Test are very general in nature and are designed so that anyone around the world, regardless of what background or culture they come from, should be able to answer them. The questions will not be overly personal and will avoid contentious subjects such as politics, *** or religion.
All the questions will be open questions rather than closed questions. An open question asks the candidate to give an extended answer, and so have the opportunity to show how good his English is. A closed question is one that can be answered by a single word or a couple of words. So, you will not get a question like:
Do you like living in your town?
A student could just answer yes. Any answers like this will just be followed by the question why? so you have to extend your answer (what you should have done after the "yes" anyway). Anyway, the question is more likely to be:
Why do you like living in your town?
Here the candidate has to give an explanation and therefore the examiner hears plenty of English which will help him or her evaluate you.
Marking - IELTS Academic Speaking Test Marks, Bands and Results
In the IELTS Academic Speaking Test you will be marked in 4 areas. These 4 areas are: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource,
Fluency and Coherence: The examiner grades your fluency, which is how easy, smooth and flowing your speaking is. To get a good grade here, any gaps in your speaking should be associated with searching for the right idea rather than hesitancy with finding the right word or structure. For the coherence part, the examiner looks at how easy you are to understand. Does your flow of ideas run smoothly, logically and with consistency? Do you communicate well?
Lexical Resource: This mark grades the range of words that you use in your speaking test and whether you use the words in the right way, at the right time and in the right place.
Pronunciation: This mark grades you on how clearly you speak English.
The Three Sections of the IELTS Academic Listening Test
Here we will look at the three sections in more detail. Remember, the IELTS test always tries to mirror situations that you will encounter as a student or immigrant in an English speaking country. The speaking test is no different and each of the sections has a specific purpose. Like all the different modules of the IELTS, the speaking gets more difficult as it goes on. The questions that are asked in Section 1 are easier than in Section 2 and so on. This does not mean that by Section 3 they are impossible but they are more demanding linguistically.
Section 1 (4 - 5 minutes)
This section is divided into three parts.
i) The first part involves general introductions. Here the examiner checks that he or she has the right person by checking the candidates name, origin and identification. This only takes a few seconds.
ii) In the second part the examiner asks some personal (not too personal so don't worry) questions about some familiar topics such as yourself, your family, your home or your work/study. These questions are the type that people would use when meeting someone for the first time. This should last for a couple of minutes.
iii) In the third part the examiner chooses 2 sets of questions from his selection. These sets of questions will cover general ideas on a theme of general interest.
Section 2 (3 - 4 minutes)
In this section the candidate has to give a small "speech" or monologue on a general subject chosen by the examiner. The examiner will hand you a card with the subject written on it, along with about three questions on the subject in order to guide and help your speaking. The examiner will then tell you that you have 1 minute to prepare your mini-talk and he or she will give you some paper and a pencil to make some notes during that minute. You can refer to your notes while you are speaking. After the minute, the examiner will ask you to start talking and you must talk on the subject until the examiner asks you to stop. After he has asked you to stop, he may ask you 1 or 2 general questions about what you have been discussing. You cannot ask the examiner for another card. You must use the one that he gives you.
Section 3 (4 - 5 minutes)
In Section 3 the examiner will ask you a series of questions thematically linked to the subject that you spoke about in Section 2. These questions will be of a more demanding nature and will require a more analytical and thoughtful answer. You will also probably need to use more complex language as regards grammatical structure and vocabulary.
How to do Better in the IELTS Academic Speaking Test
There are a number of things you can do to have a better performance in the IELTS Academic Speaking Test.
First of all practice. This is the key to all the different modules of IELTS. Below you will find a separate section devoted to practising the speaking.
When you are in the test, smile and look the examiner in the eye. Try and be friendly and look as though you are enjoying the conversation. This has a big effect on the examiner. If an examiner has to talk with someone who doesn't talk much, doesn't smile at all and who clearly doesn't want to be there, then it has a negative effect on the examiner. Being nervous is fine. The examiner understands that and will try and put you at ease. But be friendly. It makes a difference.
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.
You have to talk. Without your talking input, the examiner can't grade you very well. Try and give as full an answer as you can so that you show the examiner that you are comfortable at talking at length and can communicate well. Don't do this to extremes though. When you have finished what you have to say stop. Don't try and force more out as it will probably be strained and repetitive. The examiner will see that you have finished and will give you the next question. Similarly, you won't be able to answer all questions at length. Different people can talk about different questions more and the examiner knows this. If you don't know much about something, say so and then say what you do know. When you're finished, the examiner will give you another question. You can't duck out of every question though - the responsibility is on you to talk.
Don't try and be too clever. Just try and talk normally as that is when you will perform at your best. If you try and extend yourself too much, then that is when you will make the most errors.
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, 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.
Don't forget your ID! You need it at the start of the test.
Don't give yes/no answers unless you continue with a because. It gives a bad impression. If you do give a yes/now answer, you'll probably get a why next anyway.
Practice
As in all parts of the IELTS, this is the one thing that will really improve your band. There are various things that you can do to improve your performance.
Prepare the types of questions for each of the different sections.
Section 1
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In section 1 you start with personal questions such as about yourself, your family, your home or your work/study. So, sit down with your dictionary and try and think of all the vocabulary you would need to completely describe all parts of your life, home, family and work/study. Then sit down with a piece of paper and write down every question you can think of about these ideas. Try and come up with about 20. You can then practice them in 2 ways:
i) Get a friend to ask you the questions and practice giving long, full answers. Do this again and again. It doesn't matter if you do the same question frequently, as you will give better and better answers with more and more information. The more often you practice this, the better you'll get.
ii) If you don't have a friend who can do this, then you can do it by yourself. You just look at your list and imagine that someone has asked you the question. Then, off you go. You can do this sat at home, you can talk to the cat, the mirror or do it driving on the way to work. It may feel a bit strange at first, talking by yourself, but it works and you will improve. You don't have to do either method i or ii, you can mix both. It all helps.
In the second part of Section 1 you have to answer questions on themes of general interest. These are not complicated but are more demanding than the ones that you did in the part before. Let's say for example that the theme the examiner chooses is travelling. The examiner will have a set of questions to ask you. How many he asks depends on how long you talk for in your answers. The first question could be:
Do you enjoy traveling and why/why not?
Then this could be followed by:
Where would you like to travel to and why?
You can find other sample themes and questions in IELTS Practice Now Question Papers and from other sources. Once you have an idea of the types of theme and question, you can start to make your own examples and practice answering them in the ways (i and ii) above. I have done this with classes and it works very well. Students doing this, more often than not, come up with actual themes and questions from the test itself!!
Section 2
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Preparation and practice for Section 2 is similar to the practice in Section 1.You have to talk for 1 to 2 minutes in English. Speaking for this time in your own language is quite hard, so in a foreign language it is harder. The reason it is hard is that you don't often talk uninterrupted for 1 to 2 minutes about anything, whether it is in your language or English. So, how do you get better at it? By practising it again and again. Let's say that your task is as follows:
Describe a favourite holiday destination that you like.
You should say:
When you first went there.
How you get there.
What you do when you're there.
And explain why this place is so special for you.
So, you can see the format of this section. The practice procedure is as before. Check out other question types and soon you're be able to develop your own. Then practice them with someone or by yourself. Soon, talking for 2 minutes without stopping won't be a problem. Remember you don't have to talk fast or without breaks. They want you to talk normally. Talk at a normal speed, pause to take breaths and take time to consult your notes to give yourself ideas about what to talk about next.
The follow up question to end Section 2 is not so important that it needs to be practiced as it only requires a few words as an answer. An example question from the examiner for the subject above could be:
"Do you think I would enjoy a holiday in this place too?"
The candidate would just be expected to say something like:
"Oh yes, I think so."
Or:
"Maybe not. It might be too hot for you."
You can see that nothing very long is required.
At this point I'd like to explain about the 1 minute preparation time and the notes that you can write during it. First of all, use your preparation time and make notes. Before you begin your monologue, you will have 1 minute to prepare for it. Some people think that they don't need the time at all and will start straight away. Very often these people will dry up early and be at a loss about how to continue. Use your time. Someone starting straight away does not get any advantage at all over someone who takes the full minute to prepare.
So, what should you write in your notes? First of all, don't try and write out your whole talk word for word. You don't have enough time. Looking at the question above (which is a typical layout for this section) you can see that there is a main question (Describe a favourite holiday destination that you like.) and then 3 mini-questions following (Say when you first went there, how you get there what you do when you're there and explain why this place is so special for you).
These questions are here to help you as they give you ideas to talk about and give your talk a bit of structure. However, it asks you to talk about these things so you should talk about them. In your notes quickly jot down one or two ideas for each of the questions, so that they will remind you about things to talk about when you look at your notes during your talk. Finally, if you have time, maybe make a note of something from your own experience connected to the talking theme. When you are talking about something from your own experience, it is easier to talk at length. For example, for the question above, you could be just finishing and still have 45 seconds left to talk. You could be saying why the place is so special to you. As you run out of ideas you could give an example out of your own experience. You could say:
"Actually why I like the place so much is shown from something that happened to me the last time I was there. I was in a restaurant having some food and..."
The subject of your story doesn't matter as you are still on the subject of your talk. The main thing is that it's keeping you talking.
Section 3
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Section 3 really carries on from where Section 2 left off. The examiner will ask you questions that are thematically linked to the subject that you talked about in Section 2. For example, for the question we looked at above about a holiday destination, the examiner might choose to ask you questions about tourism and the airline industry. The examiner will have a set of questions to ask you. How many he asks depends on how long you talk for in your answers. None of the questions will be of a technical nature or require any specialist knowledge as that would be unfair, but you will be expected to give your opinion on what is asked you.
So, let's look at some examples.
Tourism
Can you predict any major changes that could happen in the Tourist Industry over the next 50 years?
Can you compare the tourist industry in your country today with the tourist industry when your grandparents were young?Can you identify some of the factors that have led to the Industry success of the airline industry?
Airline
Can you suggest any ways in which air travel could be made safer?
You can see that the questions here are more analytical and require more thought than the questions in the previous sections.
As regards practice, the procedure is as in the previous sections. You need to get someone to do the questions with you, or do them alone and then develop your own questions and practice with them. ieltshelpnow.com Practice Tests also provide practice and often we provide much fuller examples. Our tests are also at least half the price! The choice is yours.
Anyway, work hard and good luck with the IELTS Academic Speaking Test. I hope that this tutorial has helped you
Labels:
IELTS,
Speaking Section
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