IELTS Speaking: The ONE thing you MUST do!

There is one thing you must do in the IELTS speaking test

and it will improve your result dramatically,

and it's probably not what you think.

(pleasant rock music)

Hello, this is Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy,

helping you speak English confidently in weeks,

and loving English for a lifetime.

Well, I hope so. (chuckles)

Listen, I guess you are here because you are preparing

for the IELTS test, or maybe you've got the test coming

in the near future, right?

Maybe you are still not sure about your exam technique

or even maybe you are not sure about your English level,

whether it's band six or band seven.

Okay, well, I think I can help you today.

I'm going to give you some general tips to help you,

and then I'll tell you the one thing you must do.

Must?

Well, you don't have to, but I suggest you should do it

and it will really help improve your result dramatically.

Finally, if you stay to the end, I'll give you

some specific advice that can help you choose the right path

for you to prepare for IELTS, if you stay 'til the end.

If you don't stay 'til the end, that's fine.

Just go and enjoy whatever you're going to do.

Let's begin.

Now, you probably already know a lot

of things that you should do in IELTS speaking, for example,

in part one, you know you should talk about yourself, right?

Make it personal.

You should give short answers.

Two to three sentences is enough, really.

In part two you probably know you should prepare well.

That one minute to prepare, make the most of it.

And I suggest you prepare your first sentence,

so you start part two, bang.

With a bang, with a confident bang. (chuckles)

Also, remember to breathe, right?

We don't want you collapsing on the floor.

Remember to breathe in part two.

You probably know in part three

you should develop your answers, right?

And don't worry if the examiner interrupts you.

Cutting in, they often do that.

That's normal.

In fact, sometimes it's a good sign,

because they're pushing to find

out if you are a higher level.

So chill out about that.

What you may not know

is that you should spend most of your time preparing,

focused on improving your English level,

improve your spoken English.

And just after you've done that, focus on exam technique.

I think, and I suggest to students, it's an 80/20 balance.

80% of your preparation time should be

on improving your spoken English, building up the level,

and just 20% on exam technique.

Okay?

Now that one thing you must do,

I'm going to tell you in a moment, because

I'm a bit worried.

I get quite a lot of emails

from students telling me things that they have been told

that they mustn't do, and it's nonsense.

It's not correct.

So I just want to clarify that for you right now.

Okay?

Some people say, or students tell me,

I mustn't make hand gestures when speaking.

Nonsense.

Of course, you can make hand gestures, you know.

If you speak with your hands, that's fine.

I mean, don't distract the examiner, but just be you.

Another one is, a teacher told me,

don't make eye contact with the examiner.

Right?

So you're going to speak looking at the floor,

looking at the ceiling, looking at the window?

No, nonsense.

(laughs)

Seriously, just do what you normally do.

Look at the examiner, you can look away, look back,

think about something, look back.

Some contact is really good.

That's how we communicate.

I mean, obviously don't stare the examiner.

Don't stare down the examiner or stare at the examiner.

It'll make them feel uncomfortable.

Again, just be you.

Number three, I've been told not to wear a tie.

Listen, if you want to wear a tie, that's fine.

I mean, wear a tie like this.

Mm, maybe not like this,

although I know it's really fashionable.

What?

It's not fashionable?

Ah, nevermind.

Listen, if you want to wear a tie, that's fine.

If you want to wear a shirt and jeans, it's fine.

My advice

is just go smart, casual, right?

Your dress code, what you wear will not affect the examiner.

Finally, dear Keith, a teacher told me not to use

wanna, gonna, coulda in the exam.

Nonsense, right?

Of course, not only can you, you should.

Wanna, gonna, coulda is that is contractions we use

in natural spoken English.

You must be using these contractions, right?

Great.

Okay, let's move on.

Okay, now that we've parked these myths

and mistakes over here, out of the way,

I mean there are certainly things that you

shouldn't do in the exam,

and the key one is don't memorize your answers.

The examiners are trained, they'll spot it,

and if you memorize your answers, ba ba, it's game over.

Really.

The other one is don't rush.

I think a lot of students get nervous

and they speak quickly and they try to keep

up with the examiner, ba, ba, ba, ba, it doesn't work.

Take your time.

The other one is

don't use fancy, complicated vocabulary you don't understand

and that your grandma wouldn't understand.

Well, okay, maybe my grandmother wouldn't understand, right?

Let's imagine

for a moment that your grandmother understands English,

speaks English, and you go to her one day and you say,

grandma, I've got a new job, and she says, great.

Tell me about your job.

A typical IELTS question, right?

Tell me about your job.

And you say, grandma, I --

Well actually, don't say grandma to the examiner, right?

Just say, I've taken on the professional vocation

of being a medical practitioner in the field of medicine.

My grandma would be. (mimics smacking sound)

Speak English, speak plain English for goodness sake.

I don't know about your grandma.

The point is, that's not natural, right?

You know, what would you say to your grandma?

(popping sound) I've got a new job

as a doctor.

That's it.

That's how you should be speaking.

Great.

Okay, let's get down to business.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

What is the one thing you must do that will

improve your score dramatically?

It's this,

enjoy the test.

What?

Yeah, enjoy the test.

The big problem most students have is they're anxious,

they're nervous, they're not happy, and they're

in the test and...

It doesn't help their speaking.

If you can change your mindset to enjoy the test,

you'll flow and everything will flow much better.

Most students forget about this because it's mindset.

They're so busy learning, vocabulary, grammar,

pronunciation, fluency, practicing, and exam technique,

they forget the mindset.

However, I'm sure you all know the great basketball players

and the great football players, all the great sports people,

they work on mindset.

And all the best students work on mindset.

And if you can spend, I don't know,

five minutes a day for the five days before the test

thinking about enjoying the test,

it'll make the world of difference, right?

You can even practice being excited about your study,

being excited about learning new things,

about all the great things that are going to happen

to you after you pass the test,

and take that excitement into the test with you.

Okay?

There is a very simple technique that I use,

and I learnt this years ago.

It's called the anchor technique.

The anchor technique is where you close your eyes, you think

of something beautiful, happy, that makes you content.

Maybe it's a day out with your family, maybe not.

Maybe it's sitting on the beach with a pina colada,

an orange juice, and when you've got that image,

you let the feeling of happiness come in

and you press your thumb

like that.

And that physical anchor, you hold it,

and then you anchor that feeling.

So that whenever in the future, for example,

before the test or before a class, you just close your eyes

or even keep your eyes open, and press and it releases

that feeling again.

The anchor opens the feeling.

It's amazing, right?

It's a very powerful technique.

You can try it.

But that one thing,

if you can not only relax but enjoy the test,

research shows us, right,

that when you're -- the effective filter, creation's

effective filter, if you are relaxed

you're going to learn better,

you're going to perform better.

That's it.

Great, now, in addition, I want to give you

some specific advice to help you choose the right path

in your IELTS preparation, right?

If you are an independent kind of person

and very much an independent learner,

then you can probably get

by finding the resources you need on the internet.

There is so much out there you can probably find it

and learn what you need to learn.

Great.

If you are relatively new

to learning English or learning a second language,

you may need more guidance and help in doing that.

Be really careful of trying to find stuff on the internet.

I see a lot of students trying to find materials

and tips and advice on Facebook, Instagram.

A lot of it is nonsense, and it's really a minefield

and it's a distraction for most students.

Probably in that case

you probably would be better finding a teacher.

Now, that's not always easy.

There are lots of platforms

like Italki, Cambly, some great teachers.

You do need to find one who is relevant for you

who maybe matches your personality

and matches your learning style.

Otherwise, you could waste a lot of time

and I know they're not cheap, right?

But that's one alternative.

What you can also consider is taking an online course.

Maybe you've never thought about taking an online course,

and I'm not talking about my courses, right?

Forget about me.

Just generally speaking, online courses can be

great to give you resources and guidance.

Think about it.

An online course lets you study any time.

You can study at your own pace, which is so important.

You can go back and review things.

You can even stop the teacher, bang,

and review.

You can't do that in a real live class, right?

Imagine in your university, excuse me,

can you just stop a minute?

I'm just making my notes.

No.

Online courses you can.

You can also pick out what you want and what you don't need.

You can cherry pick the things you need.

You are kind of personalizing your learning.

What's more for language learning,

Learning online has huge advantages.

You can focus on the things that you need,

ignore the rest.

You get endless input with the videos, the audios, the text.

You can review or input as much as you want.

You've got endless output.

You can pause, repeat, pause, repeat.

You can have all of this input and output forever.

There's no limits on it, right?

Huge advantages.

I seriously think thinking about an online course,

a good one, for your IELTS speaking preparation

and probably all of your IELTS preparation,

is really worth thinking about.

Just find a good one.

It'll give you guidance and control.

I like that.

Guidance and control.

Nice.

So listen, I hope you've enjoyed this video.

If you want more information

about IELTS speaking in particular,

go and check out my website, the Keith Speaking Academy,

actually www.keithspeakingacademy.com.

And if you've enjoyed this, subscribe to the channel,

like the video, and listen, if you're taking the test

as I suspect some of you are soon, I wish you lots of luck.

All the best.

And listen, I'll see you in the next video.

Take care, my friend.

Bye-bye.

(pleasant rock music)