In the second of our series of blog posts designed to help you prepare your students for IELTS, Pauline Cullen, author of The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, shares some insights into the speaking tests.
Do you think the IELTS speaking test is getting harder every year? Have you heard other people say that? When I was talking to a large group of IELTS teachers recently, this was one opinion I heard very clearly. I was curious about where the idea came from, because the speaking test is standardised very carefully. When we chatted some more, I realised that these teachers take the IELTS test regularly, at least once a year, so that they can demonstrate their own English level, as well as to better inform their students about the test. The teachers were assuming that their own experience of the speaking test would be exactly the same for their students. To be a fair test, though, a speaking test interview for a Band 4 or 5 candidate cannot be exactly the same as for a Band 7, 8 or 9 candidate.
So, how does this work in practice? In the speaking test, the trained examiners gradually adapt the questions to the level of each candidate. This helps to ensure that everyone has a good chance to answer the questions fully and show off their speaking skills. So, as the English teachers’ language level improved, the examiner’s questions reflected that level. If the examiner had only asked these teachers band 3 or 4 questions, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to show their band 7 or 8 language skills.
So, how can you use this knowledge to help your students improve their IELTS speaking test performance? Train your students to focus on language learning and to answer questions as fully as possible during the speaking test so that they can show off their full range of language skills. They needn’t worry that the examiner will ask questions that are much too difficult for them because the examiner will make sure that they receive a fair test.
Some good tips for ‘showing off’ your speaking skills are to:
- Listen carefully to the questions – notice whether you are being asked about the past, the present or the future and make sure you use the correct tense in your answer.
- Always give a full and complete answer to a question – don’t just answer yes or no. You can do this by giving a reason or an explanation for your answer or by giving examples.
- If you don’t hear a question properly, then ask the examiner to repeat it to make sure you are answering correctly.
You’ll find more helpful tips like this in the Speaking Skills section of the Cambridge Official Guide to IELTS.
Read the other posts in this series:
Help with IELTS #3: tips for the Academic Reading test