12 IELTS Speaking Tips

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In today's lesson, I'll give you 10 important tips to do well

and to get a higher score on the speaking section of your IELTS exam, or actually on

any oral speaking test where you're sitting with a live examiner. Okay? So these tips

don't apply actually to the TOEFL where your answers are recorded, but it's for any English

exam where you're sitting with a real examiner. Okay?

Now, the IELTS, of course, the speaking section of the IELTS test is about 11 or 14 minutes

long, has three different sections, and so on. And the IELTS is an exam which is a...

It's an English proficiency exam. It's used for immigration purposes, for example, to

Canada and Australia. It's used for admission to universities where English is the medium

of instruction, and it's also used for professional certification purposes. So lots and lots of

people, millions of people do the IELTS exam. And if you're one of them, these speaking

tips will really help you. They're general tips; they're not about the specific sections.

They apply to all sections of the speaking test. Okay? Let's get started.

So, the first point is: during your speaking test, be formal. By that, I mean treat it

like a job interview. And just as in a job interview, you'll be on your best behaviour

and so on, behave that way. Don't take it very casually. Okay? Take it seriously and

be formal.

Next, give a full answer whenever possible. Now, remember and just think about it: you

have about 11 to 15 minutes to use the best English that you know and that you've studied

all your life. Okay? So, obviously, you want to try to show off during your English test.

So, when I say give a full answer, I mean, in the first section when they ask you some

questions about you, about your family, about your background, if they say, for example:

"Where are you from?" Don't just say: "Tokyo", because that's just a one word answer. Try,

as much as possible, to give sentences. Give full sentences. All right? Full answer. So

that you can show when you use the full sentence that you know grammar, you know vocabulary,

and all these other things. So, instead of just saying: "Tokyo." Say: "I'm from Tokyo,

the capital of Japan." Or: "I'm from the capital of Japan, Tokyo." Now, you've given a lot

more information. So, obviously, you get much more marks if you kept doing that throughout.

Right? Give full answers, using sentences, not just words.

Next: be polite. What we mean by that, for example, if the examiner asks you something

and you didn't understand, it's okay. Just ask for the explanation in a polite way. Don't

just say: "What?" Or: "Sorry?" Say: "Excuse me? Could you please repeat that?" Because

that's also using English, and that's what they want to know: can you use English? And

by being polite, you're not just showing that you know the language, but also that you know

the culture of the language, which is being polite. Okay? So remember to do that.

Next, maintain good posture. Why do I put that? Nobody's filming you. Right? So, why

do you have to maintain good posture? Because your posture actually affects your... The

way you speak. It affects your confidence, the confidence with which you speak, it affects

the way your voice is projected. So you want to make sure that you don't, for example,

lean on your hand when you're speaking or anything like that. Okay? Make sure that you

sit straight and don't put your hand anywhere near your face, even if you're nervous, because

that will affect the quality of your voice and the way it's projected. Okay?

Next. Number five: speak clearly. Now, what I mean by this is: don't worry too much about

your accent. Everyone has an accent, and as long as you do your best to enunciate the

words clearly, that's all you can do. If you need to improve your pronunciation, work on

that before your exam. If there are some very specific pronunciation errors that you tend

to make or that people from your country tend to make, then obviously, work on those beforehand.

For example, if you are a Spanish speaker and you say: "Jess", instead of: "Yes", then

that's a big mistake that you want to correct well before you come to the exam. So, work

on those pronunciation issues before, and then afterwards, don't worry about your accent,

just speak as clearly as you can. Okay?

Next: use descriptive words. By that, I mean, again, remember, we were supposed to show

off, use the best English you have? So, don't use boring words, don't use overly used words,

like: "good", "bad", "okay", "nice". Use exciting words, use dynamic words to show that you

have a rich vocabulary to express yourself in English. Don't just say: "Good". Say...

Or don't just say: "happy", say: "thrilled". Don't just say: "sad", you can say: "depressed".

Use a more advanced word if you know it and if you're sure of the meaning. But most of

all, try to stay away from the overly used words like: "good", "bad", "okay", "nice". All right?

Next: speak up. Speak up means make sure you speak loudly enough to be heard and also recorded.

Because during the IELTS, for example, you are judged by that examiner, and also you

are recorded so that another examiner is going to listen to what you said during your English

test. So speak clearly enough that the recording will allow you to be heard properly. Okay?

Next: keep a steady pace. That means don't speak too fast, and don't speak too slowly.

If you're not sure how fast you should speak, speak slower than you think is necessary because

that way it's much more likely that you will be understood. Okay?

Next: explain any foreign words that you use as part of your answer. What do I mean by

that, and why should you be using foreign words? Well, foreign words can also be the

names of cities, for example. So if they ask you where you're from-right?-and you need

to use the name of a city or a town, which is not common knowledge, like London or Paris,

it may be not as common and it may not be so easy to understand. So, instead of saying...

For example, suppose you came... Suppose you're from India and you come from a city called

Hyderabad. Now, Hyderabad is a bit of a mouthful, it's an unfamiliar word. So, what you could

do to make it easier and to get higher marks is instead of just saying: "I come from Hyderabad",

and the examiner might think: "What did he say? What does that mean? I don't understand."

So, they... Another... A way to get around that is to say: "I come from a city in the

southern part of India called Hyderabad." Now, what you've done is you've given an explanation

of what you're going to say so the listener knows that there is a word coming, and even

if I don't know it, I know what it means or what it refers to. So it will sound, in fact,

like you speak better English, because you have taken the listener into account. Okay?

Next: stay on topic. So, even though I said speak in sentences, don't use too many sentences

to answer any one question. So that... Because if you do that, then the examiner will think

that you don't understand the question. You want to make sure that you answer the question

and don't go way beyond that. Okay? They always have enough questions to ask you. Don't worry.

Next: don't use slang. Again, you want to use your best English. And slang can even

be things like: "kids". A lot of my students don't realize that you should be using the

word: "children" instead of "kids". Or you should use the word: "items" instead of "things",

"stuff". This is all slang. Okay? Slang is not just bad language, but also this kind

of casual language. Right? You don't want to use that kind of language in your English

test or on your IELTS speaking test. Use the best English that you know.

And last of all: don't memorize answers. A lot of students read model answers, and it's

good to do that. It gives you an idea of how to answer. But what you should do from that

is to take ideas about how to structure your answer, take some vocabulary, take some expressions,

but don't try to memorize the answer because it's going to sound very artificial. And if

you forget, it's going to completely fall apart. And also, the examiners can... Are

quite experienced; they can usually tell if you're suddenly giving like a little speech.

They'll know that's not you, because you also answered, you know, 15 other questions, and

you didn't sound like that. And all of a sudden, you give this little mini speech, and it doesn't

sound good, and they might not give you marks for that at all because it's not you speaking;

you just memorized something. They don't want to know what you can memorize. They want to

know what you can say when you're using the language by itself in a natural way. Okay?

So learn how to benefit from those kind of model answers, but don't memorize. Okay?

And I assure you that if you do a lot of these things or all of these things, you're definitely

going to get a much higher score on your IELTS speaking test, and also on any oral English

exam. Okay? If you'd like to do a quiz on these points, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

Thanks for watching, and good luck with your IELTS or any English exam. Bye for now.