Top 8 IELTS Speaking Tips

01) Be Formal

• Treat the speaking test as a formal job interview.
• Attend with a decent dress code.
• Take a comfortable seating position.
• Maintain a good posture by sitting straight and hands well placed.
• Show your confidence by speaking loud enough to be heard and maintain eye contact with the examiner.
• Avoid colloquialism. Make your speech either formal or semi-formal in style. Do not use slang. E.g. wanna, gonna, guys, dudes etc.

Observing the above points will give the examiner a glimpse of your personality, confidence level and a sense of formality which will smooth the communication process throughout the test.

02) Forget About Accuracy

Whatever you think you need to improve should be done before the real test. You will not be able to recall each and every language rule and speaking tip during the test.

You had better focus on facts and how to sequence them but not the language itself.

If worry too much about your language during the test, you will tend to make a lot of mistakes the following type of mistakes: 

• Back tracking (going back to previous ideas which have already been mentioned)
• Repetition (repeating the same idea, word or phrase again and again )
• Hesitation (taking a lot time to move from one idea to another)
• Self-correction (correcting grammar mistakes too often)

03) Give Full Answers

Always give full answers to the questions asked. Do not give very short answers like YES or NO. Try to expand your answers into full sentences, but it does not mean you should speak out of the topic. Elaborate your answers by giving appropriate reasons and examples.

04) Explain Local/Foreign Words

Sometimes depending on the topic you may have to use a few local/foreign words. Any foreign or local word you use should be described in English.

For example:

• I come from Uddu, which is one of the largest southernmost islands in Maldives.
• The staple food of Maldivians is rice with Garudiya which is a curry made out of tuna.

 05) Have a Strategy and Do Not Memorize

Give up the habit of byhearting answers for a set of questions. The examiners are so curious to know about your fluency. They will be able to easily figure out whether your answers are natural part of your speech or mere repetition. Memorizing answers will eventually betray you especially in part three, where the candidate is asked more general but abstract questions.

The best thing you can do is to have some tactics to handle various type of expected questions. Practise answering different type of questions on variety of themes. Be familiar with thematic vocabulary that you can use depending on the question asked.

Visit: http://www.ielts-exam.net/ielts_speaking_samples/387/

        http://www.goodluckielts.com/IELTS-speaking-topics.html

06) Make Your Speech Natural

If you are targeting at a higher band score in  the speaking test then it is unquestionable that you should make your speech natural.

So what do you mean by natural speech?

Natural speech refers to the spontaneous flow of your speech. Ideas should flow like a waterfall in the order of importance in well-connected sentences. If the flow of your speech is natural then there will be spontaneity. If there is spontaneity there will be fluency.

Does it mean you should speak nonstop without a break?

No, it does not mean like that. Sometimes even in natural speech we pause to think about certain matters. But it will be a content related hesitation and not about the language itself.

So how can I make my speech sound natural?

• Use discourse markers

These are some of the fillers used by native speakers in order to fill the gabs in their speech. It may not be a part of your mother tongue, but in English culture it is an important element of speech.

e.g.     

• er… / erm… / mmm… / well…

Visit: http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/fillerterm.htm

        https://voxy.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/fillers-english/

• Use stress where necessary.

English is a stress language where you stress important words and phrases to highlight meaning.

Look at the following examples:

• I want your pen. (Meaning- I want your pen. Nobody else needs it right now)
• I want your pen. (Meaning- I am in great need of a pen. Do not refuse.)
• I want your pen. (Meaning- I demand your pen; I don’t want anybody else’)
• I want your pen. (Meaning- I want a pen; not anything else)

So do not keep your voice flat.

• Use collocation appropriately

Use correct word combinations. We generally use words in groups; not in isolation. But you should know which word goes which. Wrong collocation makes your speech unnatural.

For example, here is an extract from Cambridge English Collocation in Use.

• Use idioms naturally

Use idioms naturally which will match the context. do not try include idioms inappropriately into your speech.

• She knows the system inside out. (knows every detail of it)
• The business could be profitable in the long run. (in the end)
• I don’t think these plans will bring a long lasting solution to the problem. (permanent)
• He is still struggling to make both ends meet. (financially unstable)
• I am a bit out of touch with politics these days. (I used to know but don’t know the latest developments)

07) Relax, Relax and Relax

Relaxing before the speaking interview will influence significantly on your score. It is the nature of the brain to switch off temporarily under stressed conditions. So relaxing your mind and body will smoothen the oxygen intake and blood flow to the brain.

So how can I relax?

Do a few rounds of deep inhalation and exhalation. Do it slowly and rhythmically. Quick and haphazard breathing will worsen the situation. While you do your breathing try to relax your whole body and mind.

To uplift your spiritual strength you can also chant whatever the positive mantras you wish.

e.g.

• I am calm and cool now!
• I can do this!

08) Practise before the Test

Prior practice is the key to success if you are targeting for a higher band score in the speaking test.

Of course pre-practice is quite essential for all other exams, but in speaking it plays a vital role, as it is one of the instant productive skills, where your ideas and creativity need to be shaped immediately with quick construction of sentences in order to maintain the natural flow of your speech.

I strongly suggest that you practise polishing up your language before the real test.

So how can I do it by myself?

The best feedback self-tool that you can use for yourself is recording your voice on a phone or an electronic device and reflect upon it by replaying many times.

Here you will be able to comment on your own speech as a third person pretending yourself to be an examiner.

When you are replaying focus on the following:

• Coherence
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Pronunciation

In another way, ask yourself these questions.

• Was my speech well-connected with linking devices (and, but, because, on the other hand, however etc.)?
• Did I hesitate a lot unnaturally?
• Did I do a lot of self-correction and back tracking?
• Did I use appropriate tense, word class, preposition etc.?
• Did I use enough words related to the topic?
• Did I mispronounce any words?
• Did I stress important words?
• How was my intonation (up and down of the voice)? Was it natural?
• Did I meet the time limit?

So which section is more appropriate for this kind of pratice?

Practising all the three sections is important, but for this purpose, you can mainly make use of part II related cue card topics. As part two is an individual long run where you have to speak one to two minutes continuously on a topic, it gives you an overall idea about the strengths and weaknesses of your own speaking skill.

So let us get started now?

First download and listen to the following sample conversation from the IELTS official website:

http://www.ielts.org/test_takers_information/test_sample/speaking_sample.aspx

Then try out this question from the Cambridge IELTS 10 series.

For more sample cue cards click on the links:

http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/2-recent-ielts-speaking-tests/

http://www.ielts-mentor.com/cue-card-sample

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-speaking-topics-part-2/

Any other useful techniques can be shared in the comment section below.