Welcome to 'Step 4 Online', which supports the exercises in your 'Roadmap to IELTS Speaking Success' ebook. Today we're going to turn the spotlight on you and spend some time thinking about your speaking habits.
It's not only about your level of English
I
was recently talking to a friend who I'd cooked a meal for. She was telling me
how much she liked one of the ingredients - 'Swiss Chard'. I say 'liked' but actually
it was clear she absolutely adored it. As I listened to her I imagined her sitting
in an IELTS Speaking exam, telling the examiner about an item of food she liked.
If my friend had been graded I think she would have earned a '10', even though
the band scores only go as high as '9'!
What was it about her speech that made it so good?
Well, it wasn't anything to do with grammar - her statements were quite simple really. She did use a wide range of vocabulary to describe why she liked it, but even this wasn't what made it so memorable.
The magic ingredient was .... enthusiasm!
It went something like this:
"I did like that chard ... I think I'd eat it every day if I could ... it's so pretty to look at ... isn't it? (I say yes) All those different coloured leaves ... and it has such an earthy taste ... don't you just love it? (I say I think it's OK) Oh come on ... it's absolutely delicious ... I'm not usually fond of the stems ... you know ... the hard stems you get in some leaves like spinach or lettuce ... I don't really like that but ooohh ... the stems were so tasty and crunchy ..."
And so it went on. You can see from this extract that there were no long, complicated sentences although there were several useful words or phrases related to the subject like 'earthy taste', 'stems' and 'crunchy'.
However, if you look carefully, you'll see she used other devices to make what she said so interesting to listen to.
1)
She gave examples to show why she likes chard so much ('All those different
coloured leaves', 'such an earthy taste').
2) She compared chard to
lettuce or spinach to show why chard is special.
3) She expressed her feelings
about the subject by using emphatic structures such as 'I did like that chard',
'so pretty', 'such an earthy taste', and 'absolutely delicious'.
4) She was
keen to find out if I agreed with her and asked questions, both question
tags ('isn't it?') and direct questions ('don't you just love it?')
Finally, something you won't be able to appreciate was her use of intonation and stress to express her liking for this simple vegetable.
So how does this apply to your IELTS preparation?
Practise your communication skills
How well did you score in the self-assessment quiz in Step 4 of 'Roadmap to IELTS Speaking Success'? Did you get too many ones or twos? If so, try practising the following during your preparation to give your English the chance to blossom.
Tip 1: Extend your answers with reasons and examples
If you're telling someone about something, bring it to life with reasons or examples. Why do you look forward to eating your favourite meal so much? Why do you feel so close to your best friend? Why do you enjoy watching a particular TV programme? Give your speaking partner, your teacher or the examiner a fuller picture of you, your likes and your experiences.
Tip 2: Practise your listening as well as your speaking skills
Listening and speaking are of course closely related, but people often fail to respond to what they hear during a conversation or discussion. When you talk to other students show interest in what they are saying. This will help the conversation flow and ultimately give you more opportunities to speak. Use reply questions or statements such as:
- Do/Have/Are you?
- Don't/Haven't/Aren't you?
- Really?
- Seriously?
- Never?
- You're joking?
- Do you think so?
- Lucky you!
- Poor you!
- So do I!
- Neither do I
Tip 3: Have a positive attitude
We're all capable of showing our enthusiasm for something, whether we're trying to persuade a friend that a piece of music is the best thing ever or like my friend, that a particular item of food is delicious. Unfortunately, we won't always be so interested in the subject we have to talk about in class or in an exam. However, the last thing we want to do in a situation like this is to seem bored or uninterested. Try to show a degree of enthusiasm for the subject, even if you don't really feel it. Use structures like my friend did to show emphasis ('so', 'such' ect) and use reply questions or statements to keep the conversation going. Finally, maintain eye-contact with your speaking partner rather than looking in the distance while you dream of going home!
Tip 4: Remember there are 4 assessment criteria
There might be a variety of reasons why we're so concerned about being accurate when we speak a second language. It might be to do with the importance we place on accuracy when writing and we think it's equally important to be accurate when we speak. It could be that our teachers have always stopped us as soon as we uttered a mistake, leaving us scared to say a word. We might be facing an exam and want to impress the examiner with our faultless English. Whatever the reason, accuracy is often given prominence over everything else. However, it's very important to remember that 'Grammatical Range and Accuracy' is only one quarter of the overall assessment criteria in IELTS Speaking. This means the examiner will be just as interested in your pronunciation, your use of vocabulary and how fluently you can speak English. You should therefore take the opportunity to practise these skills as well. This might mean giving yourself 'permission' to make mistakes - especially when practising your fluency skills.
Tip 5: Take every opportunity to speak
You won't always be in the fortunate position of having somebody around to practice your speaking skills with. However, this doesn't mean you have to wait until your next English lesson or Skype conversation. Use some of the ideas we highlighted in 'Roadmap to IELTS Speaking Success' to speak when you're alone. Try keeping a daily 'oral diary', even recording yourself as you do it. It doesn't matter that there's nobody around to give you feedback. The objective is to practise your speaking skills - and doing this on your own can sometimes take away the pressure of needing to be accurate. It won't cost you anything and you can do it whenever you have some time alone!
Look out for the Step 5 email
In 4 days time we'll send you the fifth of our emails - 6 key areas of vocabulary areas to revise.