IELTS Speaking Practice: How to Sound Natural and Confident

Introduction

Speaking the English language is indeed considered to be a hard nut to crack for students, especially living in the state of Gujarat. Hence, they lack confidence when speaking fluently in front of the examiner. This blog will help you find the most important points to consider before starting your IELTS speaking journey with a plan, given by expert faculty members from overseas consultancy Ahmedabad to follow regularly, making your speaking free-flowing.

Familiarization with the format

Before embarking on a new skill-set, it is vital to know the format of that skill. IELTS Speaking is divided into 3 parts: Introduction, Cue-card and Follow-up.
In the introduction round, the examiner wants to know more about your likes and dislikes. So, the questions asked will be based on very common topics such as clothes, family, work or study, colors, hometown and so on. Here, you must keep in mind that just a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ won’t work. Your answer should be backed by a logical reason in order to convince the examiner.
Cue-card round is the most tricky part of the speaking test if not handled with confidence. Here, you will be given a topic with 3-4 sub questions on the spot and you’ll need to speak continuously for a minimum of 2 minutes without taking any long pauses. 1 minute time will also be provided to prepare on what to speak. Ensure that you make just bullet points at the time of preparation rather than writing full sentences. This round is considered to be more like story-telling where you need to present your thoughtfulness along with good hold over grammar and vocabulary. It may happen that the examiner may stop you during your speech but that doesn’t mean that you must have made an error. So, don’t panic and go with the flow.
The last round, the follow-up round, is a part where the questions related to your cue-card will be asked. These questions will be based on general viewpoints. They can be based on comparisons among countries, cultures, or age groups. Try to support your answer with an example to make your stand more clear.

Parameters of evaluation

It’s very crucial for you to understand the parameters of evaluation in your IELTS Speaking. Your speaking will be judged on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.

• Fluency and Coherence: Ensure that you don’t fumble while answering any question. Intelligent pauses are appreciated, but at the same time, pauses taken to think about the answer may hinder the band score. Speak as naturally as you can. Keep yourself away from using accents if you are not a native speaker.
• Lexical Resource: Inclusion of various forms of words and synonyms will aid the examiner in assessing your knowledge of using different yet relevant vocabulary. Try using relatable idioms and phrases to score high.
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Use properly worded statements with appropriate use of tenses according to the question asked. Understand the need of the question and answer accordingly. A decent and varied grammatical structure of complex and simple statements will always help you fetch a higher score.
• Pronunciation: Avoid speaking a word that sounds alien to you. Smiling can help calm your nerves which in turn helps your pronunciation. Speak clearly and confidently. Using clear enunciation and tone will show the examiner that you can use a range of pronunciation features.

What to do daily?

There are certain tasks that you need to follow daily in order to be effluent speaker. They are:

• Speak regularly: Practice speaking in English with your friends, peers or family members to bring fluency in your speech.
• Record your speech: Record and listen to your speech every day to figure out the mistakes and rectify them if needed.
• Time your answer: Know how much time it takes you to answer a particular topic. This will build confidence and fluency.
• Shadowing: Listen to any short audio clips and repeat them while trying to match the speaker’s intonation, style, pattern, and pace.
• Loud Reading:Read some pages from an English novel or a newspaper loudly to habituate your vocal cords to speak in English.
• Make your own dictionary: Reading through various media of communication will help you improve your vocabulary, and ensure you list down those new words in a separate notebook and use them in a sentence.
• Mirror Practice:Position yourself in front of a mirror and practice answering the questions all by yourself. This will eliminate the fear of uncertainty.
• Try to relax: Be completely calm and composed while speaking. Anxiety may lead to constant repetition of words or sentences.

How to analyze your score?

Prior to booking your IELTS exam date, preparations need to be impeccable. Receive professional assistance from the best IELTS coaching institute in Ahmedabad, where the certified faculty will guide you with a proper study plan and evaluate your performance so that you can represent yourself more optimistically. Repeated speaking sessions can help you ameliorate your command of the English language and bring a greater level of self-assurance.

How to impress the examiner?

IELTS Speaking is more about how well you speak rather than what you speak. In order to impress the examiner, you need to focus on a few points:

• Paraphrasing: Concentrate on paraphrasing the statements to avoid repetitions
• Don’t mug up the answers: Memorizing full answers does not excite the test taker. So, keep your speech conversational and not robotic.
• Ignore long and unfamiliar words: Using unknown and big words may break your fluency and reduce your
• Avoid fillers: The usage of words such as umm, like, eeh, you know, well, yeah and so on makes speaking dull. Hence, keep these fillers at an arm’s length.
• Use connectors and idioms: Using a combination of words such as not on but also, if and then, although and yet, but, because, along with and so on helps the examiner comprehend your level of language proficiency and creativity.
• Respond in detail: Always back your opinion with examples and valid reasons rather than just giving answers in one/two words or in short.
• Don’t copy accent: Accents don't matter as the examiners are very well versed in understanding different slang and accents, so keep your speaking as original as possible.

Conclusion

Making speaking a daily 15-minute habit can definitely help you land on your desired score. Just keep in mind the aforementioned key factors and you will be able you speak English as fluently as a professional without hesitation and fear. Speaking is just a piece of cake if done with clarity and consistency. Comfort yourself by taking support of an expert IELTS coaching institute in Ahmedabad to score a minimum of 7 bands in your 1st trial.

A Four Week Speaking Routine

Speaking improves with short daily practice rather than long weekend sessions, because fluency is a habit rather than a body of knowledge. This routine needs about fifteen minutes a day.

Week one: get comfortable talking. Answer five Part 1 style questions each day about familiar subjects, your work, your home town, your routine, and record yourself on your phone. Do not write answers down first. The aim is to speak without rehearsing, and the recording is there so you can hear where you hesitate.

Week two: the long turn. Take one Part 2 cue card a day, prepare for one minute and speak for two without stopping. Two minutes feels long at first, which is exactly why it needs practice. If you dry up at ninety seconds, add detail by explaining why rather than moving to a new point.

Week three: opinions and reasons. Part 3 asks you to compare, speculate and justify. Practise answering with a position followed by a reason and an example, and deliberately take unfamiliar topics so you learn to think aloud rather than recall.

Week four: full tests under pressure. Run complete fourteen minute tests with someone who will interrupt and ask follow up questions. Listen back for the two habits that cost most marks: excessive self-correction, which breaks fluency, and memorised phrasing, which examiners recognise immediately.

Accent is not assessed. Pronunciation is, and it is judged on whether you are easy to understand, not on sounding British or American. If you want structured feedback rather than self-review, our IELTS speaking guide lists the quickest corrections, and Global Colliance builds one to one speaking time into every batch rather than relying on group discussion.

Talk to Global Colliance

Global Colliance builds one to one speaking practice into every batch rather than relying on group discussion alone. We are overseas education and study abroad consultants with offices in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Delhi, and the first counselling session is free. Contact our team to book a session or call 75740 33366.