IELTS Preparation: Speaking

The speaking part of the exam is traditionally considered one of the most difficult in IELTS for several reasons:

1. This is spontaneous speech, meaning you don't have time to think over each phrase, choose a better turn of phrase, check your vocabulary and grammar again. The 2 minutes you are given in the second part don't really help the situation: you are nervous, you don't have enough words, ideas, you don't know what and how to say, your plan often falls apart. I don't know, maybe it is possible to think through a presentation from start to finish in 2 minutes and deliver it with flying colors, but I have never met such people. The first and third parts are basically unprepared.

2. The evaluation criteria can also sound quite vague.

3. Assessing speaking is quite labor-intensive: it requires a teacher who knows the criteria and agrees to listen to your recording several times (only very experienced examiners can assess your speaking the first time, and even they make mistakes).

However, you cannot afford not to spend time on this part. The best thing you can do in this case is to increase your level of English in general:

• take lessons with a teacher, specifically a teacher, and not just a native speaker. A teacher will be able to draw your attention to the strengths and weaknesses of your speech, explain unclear points, and work through the rules for using a particular grammatical or lexical unit with you. A native speaker, if he or she is not a professional teacher, will either not pay attention to your mistake or a successful turn of phrase, or will simply say that they don’t speak like that.

• read a lot in the language: the more you read, the more ideas you get, the more you pump up your language instinct and take interesting turns. At the same time, since we are talking about IELTS, you need to read modern literature and articles in popular science magazines, online articles from authoritative sources, for example, The Guardian, New York Times, The Economist.

• listen to a lot of interviews, podcasts, lectures, contemporary works. Among the podcasts I can highlight: BBC 6 minute English, VOA learning English, TED talks, Espresso English, for lovers of the detective genre Morning Cup of Murder =)

• watch movies to improve your natural speaking skills. This will be especially useful in the first and second parts of speaking, as one of the requirements for oral speech is its naturalness, so forget about popular memes comparing normal language and IELTS language.

Unfortunately, this list looks quite impressive now, and for those who constantly work even impossible, but, in fact, for example, you do not need to spend 2 hours watching one movie, especially since the first time you will only be able to understand the general meaning of the movie, but will not pay attention to the details in the form of vocabulary and interesting turns of phrase. Ideally, you can watch the movie in pieces, where there are dialogues or monologues and take interesting vocabulary from there.

For example, this is how the work on the film is structured in my blog on boostyI cut out pieces of the film of 3-5 minutes each, and over the course of a week we analyze the vocabulary and grammar from this piece, and improve our listening and pronunciation based on the speakers from the film.

The assimilation of the material is gradual:

• First there are tasks on understanding the information from the video and a set of words from the video;

• then, I choose relevant vocabulary and do exercises with the possibility of feedback: listen to phrases, write the necessary vocabulary, practice it in different contexts, create my own contexts;

• after this, the vocabulary is once again consolidated in listening and speaking;

• then comes the time for grammar with practice, naturally,

• At the end of the week we practice vocabulary and grammar during zoom meetings;

• On Sunday, subscribers receive assignments to review.

Thus, during the week, you get a small but regular practice of English, and with those phrases that you can use later in your speech, and if we are talking about IELTS, then you get a live and relevant language to answer questions in the first and second parts of speaking at least.

Let's take as an example a few phrases that we took earlier in my blog: hazardous, a valuable asset, to face a challenge, out of the question.

And this is the second part of the speaking from the last tasks:

Describe smth you own that you want to replace

You should say:

What is it?

Where is it?

How did you get it?

And explain why you want to replace it

This topic can be presented, for example, like this:

A few years ago I faced a serious challenge – I almost broke my back when I fell off a hazardous rock. That happened because of the cheap gear that I had bought trying to save up some money. I had gone to the Chinese market near my place and stopped at the first stall I saw selling some ropes and hooks. I decided to buy the one that looked bright and strong and it was twice as cheap as the professional gear. Unfortunately, the rope broke when I was in the middle of my way, so I fell and had to stay in hospital for several months. Now, I opt for special equipment from a professional store only, and my old broken ropes are lying far away in the attic as a reminder of my stupid economy. Now my health is the most valuable asset for me and risking it again is out of the question.

In principle, these words and expressions can be replaced with simpler ones, but the score will then be lower: hazardous – dangerous, face a challenge – have a trouble, a valuable asset – a very important thing, out of the question – impossible.

The most important thing is regular classes, even if not for long, 10-15 minutes a day. True, this format will allow you not to forget English, and full preparation for the exam also implies more intensive work on the level and the exam tasks themselves.

If you want to work with films on your own, it is better to take the films that you already know, so that you can focus on vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. And then you can follow the scenario I described above: from working on content to vocabulary, to grammar, listening, and working on your pronunciation (the so-called shadowing – repeating after the speaker, copying his pronunciation and intonation).