In this blog, you will find 10 IELTS speaking tips to help you score better. Keep reading to know these tips.
If you want to ace your IELTS speaking exam with a high band score, you might feel a bit tense about your preparation and scores. The pressure intensifies, especially, just before your exams. Don’t worry! Instead, use this pressure built up to score better.
What is an IELTS Speaking exam?
IELTS is an English proficiency test created and designed for people willing to move abroad to study, work, or migrate. It aims to achieve your purpose of migrating to a country where English is broadly spoken.
Before you go through the tips, knowing a bit about this exam will help you gain some insight. The IELTS speaking exam consists of three parts. You can take this exam on your computer or face-to-face. The mode of exam doesn’t affect the pattern of the IELTS exam. It remains the same for both cases. Now, we will talk about the parts.
Part 1:
The first part is general. So, expect to have a conversation with your examiner about yourself. You can talk about your family, work, your hobbies and interests, and so on. It takes around 4 to 5 minutes to complete this part.
Part 2:
In this section, you get a card bearing a topic from your examiner. Then, you have one minute to prepare for this topic. During this one minute, you can take notes using pen and pencil and prepare yourself. After this, you will be given 2 minutes to speak on the given topic.
Part 3:
In this part of the IELTS speaking exam, your examiner will talk to you about the topic given to you in the previous part. During this conversation, you will have a discussion in more depth about the topic. This part usually takes 4 to 5 minutes.
Now, you know about the exam a little bit better. So, we will move forward with speaking tips for you to ace this exam.
Tips for speaking IELTS exam
Many worry that the IELTS speaking exam is very tough to clear. But this isn’t true. The level of difficulty depends on many factors like how prepared you are, whether you have an idea about the exam patterns, etc.
On the other hand, if you prepare better you will have the confidence to score better. This requires some practice. Apart from practice, keep these little things in mind to score even better and avoid mistakes.
1. Avoid big and complex words:
After memorizing a plethora of new words, you might feel like using them. But this can be a disadvantage. Using new words increases the chance of making mistakes in the IELTS speaking exam.
You may use the words in the wrong context or wrong meaning. There is a higher chance of incorrect pronunciation. This will make a bad impression on your examiner. In the end, it will affect your band score.
So, be on the safe side and try to use familiar words instead of complex ones. Use memory maps to increase your vocabulary. Start with making a list of words connected to a particular topic. It will come in handy to memorize the words with ease.
2. Be natural
Preparing beforehand is good but avoid memorizing your answers. This seems counter-intuitive. But your examiner will know if you give memorized answers in the IELTS speaking exam. When you give a well-crafted rehearsed answer, it sounds monotonous and unnatural.
Also, the memorized answers don’t say much about your speaking skills. Stay natural and calm, and try to answer the question by yourself. Don’t be too tense. Be light-hearted, confident, and conversational.
Confidence plays a very important role. Speak confidently and on the spot. If you feel nervous then use it to practice beforehand but avoid memorizing everything.
3. Accent doesn’t matter
Don’t think hard about accents. Avoid faking any accent because accent is not a criterion for evaluation. So, feel free to use your accent.
Examiners carry out a lot of tests. In short, they will understand your accent. If you still feel worried then try practicing with your friend and ask them if they can understand you. These speaking tips will surely help.
Remember that this exam is about how well you communicate, not your accent. So, stress on grammar, intonation, and stress while speaking. Try to maintain your pace and fluency. Avoid speaking too fast or too slow. A healthy pace ensures the proper delivery of messages and also shows your confidence.
4. Focus on grammar
The IELTS speaking exam evaluates on criteria of grammatical accuracy, pronunciation, fluency, coherence, and lexical resource. Practice your speaking while keeping these criteria in mind.
Make use of both simple and complex sentences while speaking. Include your friends. Whenever you make any mistakes, note them down. You will learn about your mistakes and it will increase your chances of avoiding them.
Try to use a wide range of grammatical structures. Also, try to use them accurately. Stress on the use of tenses. Use your laptop or mobile to record what you speak. Keeping track of your speeches helps a lot.
Hear them in your leisure and see how you are improving. Mark the changes you need to make plus speaking tips.
5. Say no to fillers
It’s natural to get stuck or use fillers. This usually happens when you are unsure what to say. From the examiner’s perspective, you may seem to have a poor command of vocabulary or an inability to express yourself articulately. So, avoid the use of fillers such as, you know, umm-, ahh-, eh-, yeah, well, and other fillers.
6. Take your time to think
You may believe that ‘pauses’ are bad. But, this is not true. If you face any difficulty, don’t be afraid to take a break. Don’t worry about the time taken. You won’t be judged on taking pauses in the IELTS speaking exam.
Simply say politely that the question seems a bit hard or that you need a minute to think. Utilize this time to come up with an answer.
7. Intonation and emphasis
Speaking in a single tone or using a monotone is not very engaging, both for the speaker as well as the listener. If you don’t change your tone or don’t emphasize the important points, the examiner won’t be able to understand your message. The examiner might have difficulty understanding your main idea.
Emphasize the main ideas and points you want to deliver to the examiner. Contrasting and comparing the points also becomes evident when you put stress and use intonation.
Another thing to consider is body language. Use your hands to make the conversation more appealing while giving your IELTS speaking exam.
8. Feel free to have a different opinion
Sometimes, you have different opinions. Well, it’s totally okay to disagree with the examiner. You may think that agreeing with the examiner will increase your scores.
But having different or the same opinion has nothing to do with the scores. The IELTS speaking exam checks your speaking skills, not your opinion. Try to be conversational and speak in an engaging way. After all, it is your speaking charm that will fetch you high scores.
9. Smile for better pronunciation
Smiling helps a lot. Always bear a smile. It helps to lighten up the atmosphere and relieve stress.
It highlights your friendly tone and in fact, helps to pronounce words clearly. When we smile, our lips widen, so we speak more clearly. Pronouncing correctly is crucial to ace your exam. So, pin this as one of the important speaking tips.
10. Practice, practice, practice
Practice is the key. The more you practice, the better you become. Only your vocab will expand but you will improve at expressing your ideas. Meanwhile, gradually you will find that your pronunciation skills become better.
It won’t harm to know the common topics beforehand. You don’t have to memorize everything but just the ideas and common words. Think of other topics, and don’t hesitate to do it with your friends and colleagues.
Conclusion
Acing your IELTS speaking exam requires adequate practice and being yourself. Try to practice as much as you can. Don’t hesitate to take help from your friends and peers.
After going through these tips, you have gained some insight into this exam. If you want to take your preparation up to the next level, then we can offer you help. Enroll into DG Training is the leading training institute in Dubai that offers the best IELTS course in Dubai. Get in touch with us for more details.
If you want to maximise your overall IELTS band – Checkout our dedicated blogs on IELTS Reading tips and IELTS Listening Tips.
FAQs
- Is the IELTS exam very tough to clear?
It depends on your level of preparedness. If you prepare well, then clearing this exam is not hard.
- Is making a first good impression necessary?
Making a first good impression helps but it can fade away quickly if you don’t try to maintain it.
- How many times can I take the IELTS speaking exam?
You can take this exam as many times as you want. The validity of the examination score is two years.
