1. I don’t have anybody to practise speaking with, how can I improve my speaking?
This is a conundrum for many people, especially if you love in a remote area. Clearly to improve speaking you have to speak! However, all is not lost because there are some things you can do to practise.
Firstly are you absolutely certain there is nobody? If you have friends, family or colleagues who are also taking IELTS then this would be the obvious way to practise – together.
The internet is a great way to find speaking partners – send messages to IELTS forums – tell them your band so that you can find people who are similar to you and not too low level. Other sites like English Club also provide speaking practice – even if it isn’t specifically IELTS it really doesn’t matter you just need to speak.
For specific IELTS practise you can record yourself answering the questions and especially doing Part 2 and this will help you to improve. However, this on its own will not work well as you need to be in a conversation to improve your fluency and this is very important in the IELTS exam.
2. How can I find things to say for Part 2 of the IELTS speaking test?
Firstly you have no choice about doing this – it’s part of the speaking test so the best thing to do is to make sure that you are well-prepared before you take the test.
As far as possible use the whole two minutes. The more you say, the more the examiner can hear how well you speak. If you stop at 1 minute the examiner will have less ‘material’ to work with. Time yourself when you practise and get a feel for how long 2 minutes actually is.
You are given 1 minute to prepare for a reason – this is to help you – so use it. Write down some notes and words that give a structure to your ‘talk’ – think of it as a mini speech. Make sure that you notes will be helpful and that you can see them easily as you speak and also that they won’t distract you.
Try to use something that really happened. In that way you will have a memory that you can recall and then your job is to tell that story to the examiner in the same way that you might tell it to a friend or family member. Stories are great as they have clearly defined beginnings, middles and ends and if you have pictures in your head of what happened, how when and who was there, it will be easier to tell the story.
Most part 2 topics are about things you will know so just describe these things. If there is a topic word you don’t know like the name of a flower or bird or the name of a specific food or festival – just say it in your own language and say you don’t know it in English and then describe it.
“This festival is called xxx I don’t know its name in English but it’s to celebrate the harvest and we hold it every year in September” – this would be a very natural way of speaking.
3. How can I practise Part 2 speaking?
Record yourself doing Part two. Make sure that you prepare first then record your efforts, time it and afterwards listen with critical ears. How could you improve it? Which words or sentences could you add? Are there any places where it wasn’t fluent, where you hesitated too much or couldn’t find the right word? Make a list of what you can do to improve it then do the same one again. Repeat the process and then record again for a third time. You should see an improvement from your first version. Record as much as you want until you are happy with your performance, then move on to another topic.
If you do this regularly you should find that your part 2 becomes more spontaneous and fluent.
4. How can I stop getting too nervous before my speaking exam?
Like everything else in life the more you are familiar with something, the easier it is to do. The same is true of the speaking in IELTS. If you don’t practise and just turn up for the exam then you will most likely feel quite nervous. The situation is a nerve wracking one and you have to perform at your best in front of a stranger not knowing what you will have to speak about or what this person is going to be like! The key is confidence.
Having confidence means being skilful in your speaking and being skilful means practising – and practising lots. The better your skill in anything the more confident you will be in the exam. Think about other skills-based things you have learned – driving, cooking, using a computer or smartphone – all of these require both knowledge and practice and the more you use them and do them the better you are and the more you will learn about them. Language is also a skill so confidence comes from practice and confidence will see you through the exam.
The answer is simple – try to get as much practice as you can from anybody and anywhere – it does not have to be a native speaker. Your speech organs will be used to your own language so the more you exercise them with English sounds, and this can be done with other IELTS students just as effectively, the more they will adapt to English and the more fluent you will become. Similarly the more you practice, the faster the words will come into your speech so it really cuts down hesitation.
5. What can I do about my pronunciation?
Pronunciation is one of the things that examiners will check in your speaking. Unless your pronunciation stops the examiner from understanding what you say (and it’s worth checking this if you have a very strong pronunciation) then it shouldn’t be a very big problem. However, if your pronunciation is causing problems then you must deal with it. On the other hand if your language is fluent and you are able to express your ideas well it may be the next thing to do to ensure a very high band.
There are two aspects to pronunciation; the first is to recognise the sounds and then you need to copy them. One of the best ways to practise is to try and mimic native speakers. Take a sentence, listen to it and then try to copy exactly how the sentence is said. You’ll need a lot of patience as you may need to repeat it several times. Try to record yourself to see how close you are to the original.
Pronunciation is not just sounds; it is the stress on words and in sentences as well as your intonation patterns (when your voice needs to go up and down).
6. How can I pronounce English sounds correctly?
If there are sounds that you have difficulty with then you should try and practise these in isolation. Identify the sound then try and say in in the English way – you may need to look in a mirror to see what is going on with your mouth, lips and tongue as you pronounce the sound.
Keep listening and then mimicking using your mirror to get the sound correct.
Generally the most common are the vowel sounds as we have both long and short versions as well as diphthongs which can be tricky, the ‘th’ sound is also not in many language and can cause a problem with many people using‘ d’ instead.
In addition there are sounds which certain language speakers have problems with and which may need special attention. A book called Learner English gives lists of these from different language speakers. The book is aimed at teachers but if you can get sight of a copy then it may help you for your language sounds (this is called interference).
Overall the method is listen and repeat for as long as it takes to be able to produce the sounds.
The following books may help:
English pronunciation illustrated (a very old book but helpful and fun)
Free exercises here from the BBC
Or try some tongue twisters – good for sounds and fun too
7. How can I improve my stress patterns in English?
The method is the same as with sounds – listen and then copy – record yourself so you can hear how close you are getting.
Stress:
You need to practice Word stress (where the stress falls in a word) there are some rules around this depending on the number of syllables.
You also need to practice sentence stress (where the stress falls in a sentence) this can alter the meaning of what you say so it’s worth being aware of it. As a general rule the stressed words carry the meaning and other small words such as articles, prepositions etc. are not stressed unless they become important to the meaning.
Try moving the stress and see how it changes the meaning.
- Mrs Jones went shopping yesterday. (neutral sentence)
- Mrs Jones went shopping yesterday. (not Mrs Smith)
- Mrs Jones went shopping yesterday. (not Mr Jones)
- Mrs Jones went shopping yesterday. (not today)
The differences are subtle but can be important.
8. How can I improve my intonation?
The final piece of the pronunciation puzzle is intonation – this describes how our voices go up and down when we use a language. In English the intonation patter is quite wide – so our voices move quite a lot when we speak.
If your language doesn’t have a wide intonation pattern then you can exaggerate this when you speak English.
As before you need to listen carefully and then copy the sounds of the voice going up and down. There are some ‘rules’ usually voices go up at the end of a sentence for questions and down for statements.
A very flat intonation can make us sound unfriendly and maybe also rude whereas a more up and down voice will make us seem polite and friendly. When your voice is up it also signals that you are still talking and will stop another person interrupting you – try this!
On the contrary, once your voice is down it signals that you are finished and then other person can start what they want to say. This is also true if you are giving a list of things so if in your IELTS test you say I think this is true for 3 reasons then after the first 2 reason your voice should remain high so that the examiner will know you are not finished and then after the third you will drop your voice to say you are done.
These are all natural patterns, but if you are not doing them and you find that people interrupt you a lot it may be worth practising.
Here is a fun explanation from the BBC.
9. How can I add great grammar and vocabulary to my speaking?
The simple answer is – Don’t – unless your language is already sophisticated. The speaking test is a test of communication and anything that interferes with natural, spontaneous and fluent communication is likely to jeopardise your score. If you focus on the question and on responding in a timely fashion with a good, full answer then you’ll find (so long as you practise speaking generally) that the words and phrases that you want will come automatically.
If you speak fluently, clearly and spontaneously even though you use good but ‘ordinary’ language you should be fine. On the other hand, however, if you focus on words and structures instead of your answer then you are likely to hesitate, stumble and not be very communicative and it doesn’t matter how fantastic the words you are using are if you are not fluent and spontaneous you won’t get a good band.
10. What happens if I can’t answer the question?
This mustn’t happen. You have to give an answer. To remain silent is serious in the IELTS speaking test. It will always be possible to think of something to say. If you haven’t heard the question then ask the examiner to repeat it (this will give you time to think too but it isn’t the best thing to do especially in Part 1). Then say something like – “I don’t really know too much about this question/topic, but I think….” and give your answer. Phrases like these give you time to think. In Part 3 a good strategy is to say – I agree with this for 3 reasons and then think of 3 reasons – it gives you time to think and helps you to formulate a longer reason. Of course you will need to have 3 reasons.
There are tons of sites online which give examples of speaking topics so there really isn’t any excuse for not knowing what to say. If you are nervous then your mind may go blank for a second but in all honesty, if you really practise a lot then you should be able to solve any excess nervousness by building confidence in your speaking ability and also be prepared for any topic you might get.
Here is a blog post I wrote some time ago which will give you ideas for practising speaking alone.