Are you preparing to take the IELTS Speaking test?
Perhaps you have taken the IELTS before but the Speaking test was your biggest challenge.
Now, as you prepare to take it a second time, you are worried that you will make the same mistakes you made before.
Today we have a guest post from the IELTS professionals at All Ears English.
We will show you three simple secrets to getting a 7 or higher on the IELTS Speaking test. Check it out!
1) Start with a solid strategy
When you begin your preparation it's crucial to have a solid strategy system that you can fall back on.
This strategy system will help give you a foundation and will reduce your anxiety.
How do you find a speaking strategy?
You need to work with an IELTS professional who knows the exam.
Your teacher should have previous student results to show you.
After you learn your strategy you need to practice that strategy many many times.
This is not an easy test.
You cannot simply learn a strategy and go into the test and expect it to help you on exam day.
You MUST put in the hours to make sure you know how to use the strategy and how to make it work for you.
2) Balance your study plan
A solid IELTS study plan is balanced. That means that your plan should contain both test practice/strategy and also general fluency building.
You should do the following:
- Step 1: Find a native speaker to practice your general conversation and confidence. The native speaker should correct your mistakes with grammar, pronunciation, etc. You can also use these conversation sesssion to deepen your vocabulary. You can also listen to a podcast every day, watch TV, or read a newspaper article. Do anything that will incease your exposure to the language. This should be done 3-6 months before your exam and you can continue on a regular basis, once a week.
- Step 2: Find an IELTS professional. This person should know the exam. They will know important details about the exam that a general English conversation teacher will not know. They can help you with your speaking strategy. Do some practice speaking tests using common IELTS topics for Speaking Parts 1, 2, and 3. You can work with this IELTS professional for the 1-2 months leading up to your exam.
Remember, most students make the mistake of only doing step 1 or only doing step 2. If you want to get a 7 on IELTS Speakig you need to do both.
3) Don't focus on grammar
If you are thinking like a typical ESL student then you are probably burying your nose in a grammar book to prepare for the IELTS. Don't do it!
You need to be smart about how you prepare.
You have a limited amount of time and your speaking score is an average.
Don't focus on grammar because the amount of improvement that you could make would not be enough to bring up your score.
Learn a few sentence structures that will get you a higher score and then focus on increasing your pronunciation score.
Remember, you are graded on the following four things on the IELTS speaking test:
- Fluency and coherence
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Pronunciation
The easiest way to increase your score quickly is to focus on pronunciation.
Use intonation in your voice.
Put some feeeling behind your words.
By focusing on this rather than improving your grammar you will be able to pull up your average score.
So what does your IELTS study plan look like?
Leave us a message in the comments below and let us know.
Bio: At IELTS Energy and All Ears English we offer smart systems and strategies to help you finally get that band score 7 or higher that you need.
We publish podcast episodes 4 days per week and videos on our IELTS Energy You Tube channel.
Click here to get 7 Easy Steps to a 7 or Higher on IELTS
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