IELTS Briefing - Speaking CUT for presentation

It is about IELTS speaking tip

1. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
Common problems
in IELTS speaking
for Vietnamese candidates
British Council
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#1 –Not knowing how you are marked
Marked on:
Fluency & Coherence
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Pronunciation
25% for each category. Final mark = average of 4
categories
Cannot get .5 in each category only overall

3. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
Download the public band descriptors
at j.mp/ieltssb
They tell you what you need to do to get your score
#1 –Not knowing how you are marked

4. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#2 –Ineffective practice
Reading about speaking does not directly
improve your speaking
Best way to improve speaking:
speak English
Skype partners
Record yourself
What you say and what you
think you say are often different

5. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#2 –Ineffective practice
Memorisingresponses is not effective
Usually off-topic
Examiners are trained to notice memorisedanswers
Be careful with lists of “current IELTS speaking
questions” on Facebook groups & websites
They are often inaccurate
IELTS frequently changes speaking test topics

6. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#3 –Idiomatic vocabulary
Lexical Resource: 7 and above:
Does not justmean use some idioms such as “I’m
over the moon” / “It’s raining cats and dogs”

7. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#3 –Idiomatic vocabulary
Idiomatic vocabulary in IELTS means using English
naturally, including:
Idioms
Phrasal verbs
Collocations
Word choice (style, register, etc.)
etc.

8. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#3 –Idiomatic vocabulary
Don't learn lists of idioms
If you use them in the wrong way, your speech will
sound very unnatural.
Remember that many idioms are informal orclichéd
Idiomatic language can be simple (ex: “catch up”)

9. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#4 –Hesitation
Experiment

10. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#4 –Hesitation
Why do people hesitate?
Nervous
Translating from L1 to L2
Thinking of grammar / vocabulary / pronunciation
Don’t know how to chunk (2, 3, 4 words together)
Bad habit

11. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#4 –Hesitation
Advice:
1.Record yourself and listen to yourself.
2.Count the number of “umm”s/ “err”s/ pauses
3.Think about whyyou hesitated at those times
4.Record yourself again
(with the same response)
5.Listen to yourself. Less hesitation?

12. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#5 –Pronunciation vs. Accent
Pronunciation ≠ Accent
IELTS looks for a range
of pronunciation features
i.e. stress, intonation,
chunking, sounds,
etc.
How clearly can you be
understood?

13. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#6 –Worrying about ideas
IELTS is not an IQ test
It measures your English language skills
No points for creativity, knowledge or insight
If you don’t know much about a topic,
try to talk as closely as possible to it
Focus on your language, not your ideas

14. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#7 –Never telling a lie
The IELTS is a language test
Not an IQ test or lie detector test
It’s OK to tell a lie…
ifit gives you better language
Example: I have never left
my village.

15. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
#8 –Afraid to ask questions
“I will lose marks if I ask the examiner questions.”
Part 1: Ask to repeat
“Sorry, could you repeat the question?”
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”
Part 2: Ask to define a word
“What does ‘circus’ mean?”
“Does ‘spare time’ mean ‘free time’?”
Part 3: Ask to explain
“Could you please explain the question?”

16. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
Useful Websites
www.britishcouncil.vn/en/exam/ielts/courses-resources
ielts.org
dcielts.com
ielts-simon.com
ielts-academic.com
ieltsbuddy.com
ielts-blog.com

17. www.britishcouncil.org/takeielts
Any questions
about speaking?