IELTS Speaking Tips
A few general IELTS speaking tips:
- Show the examiner what you can do and use every opportunity to talk – no monosyllabic answers!
- Part 1 is “easy” in content but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use complex grammar and vocabulary.
- Ask the examiner to clarify or repeat if you’re not sure. These types of interactions also show your level of English, they don’t have to be a problem. Say something like “Sorry, could you repeat that”, rather than “eh?” or “what?”
- Record yourself on your phone and listen back to improve. You might cringe a little but you’ll get over it!
IELTS speaking tips for Part 1
Keager answered these sample questions:
Let’s talk about your home town or village.
Let’s move on to talk about accommodation.
Tell me about the kind of accommodation you live in?
IELTS speaking tips for Part 2
Keager and I discussed this sample question:
Describe something you own which is very important to you.
You should say:
where you got it from
how long you have had it
what you use it for
and explain why it is important to you
Part 2 is very different to Part 1. Use your one minute wisely (=intelligently) in part 2. You have lots of options:
- Make a spider diagram
- Write down key words
- Write a list or a flow chart of what you’re going to say
- Write one or two key sentences or phrases
- Do nothing, just think!
Read the prompt carefully for part 2, and know in advance how you are going to use the 1 minute of preparation. Do whatever works for you.
IELTS speaking tips for Part 3
Keager answered this question
Let’s talk about the role of advertising. Do you think advertising influences what people buy?
Vocabulary
- To get over sth – to recover from something. If you get over an illness then you are well again. You can also get over something emotionally: “I lost my job and I was very upset but, in the end, I got over it”.
- To cringe – to get very embarrassed when you think about something you’ve done.
- “A two storey, semi-detached house”
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- A storey (with an ‘e’) is another word for a floor – a two-storey house has an upstairs and a downstairs.
- We divide houses by how they are attached to other houses:
- A terraced house – lots of houses in a row, all attached to each other.
- A semi-detached house – attached to a house on one side but not on the other
- A detached house – not connected to any other houses.
- To get bogged down – if you get bogged down you get confused and stuck on something. You can’t answer it but you can’t continue either. So, for example., if you have to answer 5 question and you get bogged down on number one, then you leave no time for numbers 2 to 5.
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