[IELTS Article] Improving your speaking fluency

In the speaking test in IELTS (International English Language Testing System), the examiner assesses how fluently you speak: can you speak smoothly and continuously, and at a normal speed?

Here’s an example of poor fluency. When asked, “What would be a perfect place to have a holiday?,” one of my students said:

“A place ... a perfect place ... I think that a perfect place that I would want to visit is ... A perfect place would be Phuket ... Phuket Island.”

The student paused many times and repeated words in order to add new information. Unfortunately, this would result in a low score for “Fluency and Coherence,” one of the four areas assessed in the speaking test. Here are five ways to improve fluency.

Think in English

Psychologists specialising in language have determined that a different part of the brain deals with foreign languages (e.g., English) as opposed to your native language (such as Thai).

You have to regularly use the English part of your brain if you want to develop it. Therefore, spend at least 20 minutes every day thinking in English. Do it when you don’t have to concentrate on something else, for example, while you’re walking, travelling or taking a shower.

Furthermore, the most inefficient way of speaking in English is first thinking of what you want to say in Thai, translating it into English, and then saying the English translation.

It’s also the most ineffective way of trying to improve your English speaking ability. Why? It’s because you’re constantly hopping from the “Thai area” of your brain to the “English area” and back again. This adds unnecessary steps in communicating, and fluency is often worse as a result.

What should you do? Just create sentences in English, without using any Thai. When you get used to doing that, you’ll find it’s much easier to talk. Your fluency will develop faster, too.

Don’t try to be perfect

A fear of making mistakes could easily make you too shy to speak English. Your spoken fluency might therefore not improve at all. Worse still, you might not be able to have a conversation in English even if you know much grammar and vocabulary.

As well, if you try to be perfect all the time, you’ll probably speak slower than normal, repeat or correct words, or include pauses in your speech.

This is a common problem among candidates needing a high ielts band score, like 7.0. For example, by concentrating on avoiding grammar errors in order to get a high grammar score, their fluency suffers, resulting in too low a score for fluency.

No matter what your language level is, don’t expect to speak without making errors. If you focus too much on grammar rules, for instance, it’s easy to become nervous or even forget about your fluency.

My advice is: don’t worry about making mistakes. Just relax and think about the message you want to communicate.

[IELTS Article] What is speaking fluency ?

Some reasons Why IELTS candidates lose marks for fluency and some ways to overcome them

The speaking test in IELTS (the International English Language Testing System) takes between 11 to 14 minutes. The examiner will rate you in four areas:

• How well you can speak fluently and coherently.
• How effective your vocabulary is.
• How accurate and appropriate your grammar is.
• How clear your pronunciation is.

You’ll be given a mark for each area, and the marks will then be averaged to give your speaking test band score.

Let’s look at fluency. Many people think that speaking fluently means being able to speak perfectly (or very well) or speaking quickly. However, they’re wrong. “Speaking fluently” means being able to speak smoothly and continuously. In other words, with little or no pausing (or breaks), repetition and corrections when speaking.

In the speaking test, aim to speak at a relaxed pace. Your delivery should sound smooth, not “stop-start.” Of course, because you need to think about what you’re going to say, it’s natural to pause now and again when speaking. This is accepted as a normal part of speaking in any language, and you won’t be penalised if you do that in the IELTS speaking test.

In contrast, you may lose marks if you show you’re having difficulty knowing what to say or how to say it. This will become evident if you repeat or correct yourself, speak slowly, often have short or lengthy pauses, or stop speaking altogether. Any of those behaviours risks lowering your fluency mark.

Here are some reasons why IELTS candidates lose marks for fluency and some ways to overcome them.

Overcoming anxiety About the IELTS test

Overcoming anxiety About the IELTS test The impact of being nervous during the test can be major

Cristina, a nurse in the Philippines, asked:
“Does lacking confidence affect the speaking test score?”
Here’s my reply:
The speaking module of the IELTS test probably creates more tension for test takers than the other, paper-based modules (listening, reading and writing).

It’s likely that a lack of confidence and the related anxiety that candidates can feel will result in them not performing as well as they could in the speaking test.

Reasons for anxiety
Here are some reasons why candidates lack confidence and become nervous about doing the speaking test:

• As candidates are examined individually, they can feel like they’re in the spotlight. In other words, they think that the examiner – who is a native speaker of English – is watching them very closely, and is actively looking for and finding all of the language errors that they make. This fear of looking incompetent by making language errors in front of the examiner can raise the candidates’ tension levels significantly.
• Candidates are expected to give prompt and detailed answers to a series of questions in English – which is nearly always not their native language. As well, they have to do so for almost a quarter of an hour. This can really put a lot of pressure on candidates to perform well.
• Candidates often do the speaking test after having waited nervously for several hours.

A long waiting time can result in candidates spending the time thinking about all of their fears about doing the speaking test and imagining that they won’t do well. They become nervous as a result.

• Candidates may be upset because they didn’t do well in the listening, reading and/or writing modules. They therefore fear that they’ll repeat their poor performance in the speaking test.

On the other hand, they might now be thinking that they must do well in the speaking module to make up for a poor performance in one of the other modules.

Either way, they will feel anxious.

• Candidates may be naturally shy and not feel comfortable talking with a stranger.
• Candidates may not have prepared well for the IELTS exam. They therefore fear that their weaknesses in the language will become evident before a real person in a face-to-face conversation which they cannot control or walk away from.

This is a different situation from the listening, reading and writing modules, where candidates have the relative comfort of being anonymous and not feeling judged by someone. Why? They never meet the person who assesses their language abilities.

More Tips For The IELTS Speaking Test

More tips for the IELTS speaking test To maximise your score, use specific techniques for each part of the test

The speaking module in the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam is challenging for most candidates.

Here are my tips for each part of the module.

Part 1: The interview

• Look confident. To create a positive impression, greet the examiner in a friendly and polite way. Try to look relaxed, and don’t tell the examiner you’re nervous.

• Paraphrase questions. You may reuse the language in questions (e.g., “What’s your favourite sport?” − “My favourite sport’s tennis as...”), but it’s more natural to use pronouns (e.g., “It’s tennis as...”).

Even better, use introductory phrases like: “I’ve really loved playing tennis ever since I was in high school as...”).

• Avoid short answers. Avoid giving one-word or short responses. Instead, answer questions directly, and whenever possible, give a simple explanation or example.

As a general guide, aim for two-sentence answers in Part 1, and try to speak for 30 to 40 seconds.

• Keep it simple. Only talk about what you know you can say in English, and answer questions clearly.

In other words, don’t make your answers complicated or too difficult to explain in a couple of sentences.

• Respond appropriately. If asked what your favourite (something) is, or what the most popular (something) is, give just one example.

However, if you’re asked to list things, like what types of transport are available in your hometown, give more than one example.

Top tips for the IELTS speaking test

Apart from good preparation, there are things

you can do during the test to improve your mark

From what I’ve seen, the speaking module in the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam would have to be the one that raises the most anxiety among candidates. A lack of preparation, a fear of speaking in English for an extended period, and a lack of awareness of how the scoring scheme works contribute to this anxiety. The impact on a test taker’s score for the speaking module can be significant.

Obviously, doing sufficient and proper preparation before the day of the exam will help to minimise the stress associated with the speaking test. However, I always recommend that candidates only do preparation courses with English teachers who are expert in the exam.

Certainly, these teachers can give guidance on how to improve a test taker’s language skills. Because of their deep understanding of IELTS, however, they can do some thing that most teachers can’t.

What is that? They can point out the particular areas in which a test taker needs to improve in order to get a higher score in the speaking module.

Sometimes, only small things need to be either avoided or improved to see a significant effect on the score that a candidate would get in the IELTS test.

Apart from good preparation, there are also things that can be done during the test itself. Here’s an introduction to some of the things you should do throughout the test to improve your chances of getting the best possible score.