IELTS: speaking

Basics

15 minutes:

PART 1 (4-5 minutes) - general questions on familiar topics, e.g. home, family, work, studies and
interests

PART 2 (3-4 minutes) - talk for 1-2 minutes on a topic that the examiner gives you. You have one minute
to prepare your talk

PART 3 (4-5 minutes) - further questions connected to the topic of Part 2

Four assessment criteria your speaking will be measured on:

 fluency and coherence

 lexical resource

 grammatical range and accuracy

 pronunciation.

These are some typical Part 1 questions:

“Let’s talk about what you do. Do you work or are you a student?”
“Do you like your work?”
“Do you intend to keep this job for a long time?”

“Is money important?” “Do people in your country save their money?” “What sort of things do young
people spend their money on?”

“What is your favourite meal, e.g. breakfast, lunch or dinner?” “How important do you think it is to have
three meals a day?” “Who do you think enjoys cooking more, older or younger people?”

Do you like sport?

Yes, I like it very much.

Do you get on well with your family?

Yes, I mostly get on well with them.

Did you have a lot of friends when you were a child?

Not really. Just a few.

Do you enjoy shopping?

Exemplification

There are lots of reasons why I prefer living in the city. It’s much easier to find all the services you
want,  for example.
I think there are more job opportunities,  for instance.

Contrast

The city tends to be noisier and more polluted,  while  the countryside is obviously quieter and has
cleaner air.

The city’s a place which usually has lots of work options,  as opposed to  the countryside, where I don’t
think you have so many opportunities.

Comparison

My parents don’t tend to wear traditionally formal clothes like suits or dresses.  Likewise, I much prefer
more informal clothing.

I think my home town is  exactly the same as  any other town of the same size in my country.

Addition

Apart from  those traditional meat dishes I mentioned, there are  also  lots of well-known desserts from
my region.

Good public transport can definitely make life easier for many people  as well as  helping to keep
pollution levels lower.

Highlighting

It’s worth pointing out  that these days the internet is more and more widespread in my country.

A good primary education is  particularly important  I think.

Result

I don’t really have time to read much these days.  This means that  I just look at the newspapers online
when I have a spare few minutes.

Pollution is already having a major impact on people’s day-to-day lives,  and consequently  deserves
much more attention.

Sequencing and transition

The first point I’d like to make  is that most people just don’t have time to read at length these days.

…and that’s one important factor.  The other thing I’d say  is that prices have to come down in order to
be attractive for more people.

Moving on to the second point in your question, I have to say I completely agree.

Giving reasons

My family all have to walk to work and  that’s due to the fact that  there’s no bus service in our village.

I haven’t had a chance to go running for some time,  as a result of  the weather we’ve had recently.
Try to use some of the language here when you’re practising on this course, not only this week, but also
in Week 2 and 3 as well. Don’t forget that you can always come back to check this list of example
language.

Test advice

These Exam speaking videos from LearnEnglish Teens give useful tips, vocabulary and practice in a range
of tasks.

These tips from the LearnEnglish website will also help you impress your examiner.

More advice from people who’ve taken the Speaking test

IELTS Practice Speaking Test

Connecting language

This article for teachers talks about some ways of helping learners use linking expressions. You might
find it useful!

Another activity from the British Council’s LearnEnglish Teens site to help you with connecting your
ideas.

 Who/what/when/where/why?

 main points

 structure

 language.

Complex structures:

Use connecting words

I think football is a really complete sport,  as  it involves the need for skill and stamina.

I think we have too many exams at my university,  and it’s worth pointing out  that most people I study
with feel the same.

Until we move to Canada in one or two years, we plan to continue working as much as possible in order
to save some money.

Subjunctive structures

I wish that it were  less important for people to worry about what they wear, but unfortunately, for
some people, it seems to matter. (Note: it’s possible to use the form I wish that it was here too.)

If you want to experience really typical food,  I suggest that you have  lunch with a local family.

Complex tense structures

Having lived  in this country all my life, I can honestly say that is not true.

I think that anyone who saw what happened  would’ve said  that it was completely unfair.
Using longer sentences
Remember that combining sentences or adding dependent clauses is better than using a succession of
shorter sentences. Have a look at some of these to help you do that:

 Common connectors: although,  in spite of,  despite,  even though, and  though.

 Relative clauses: find out more about defining and non-defining relative clauses.

Subjunctive forms and complex tenses

Lots of practice can help in this area, so follow the links here for some of the more complex mood and
tense forms you can use in English.

 Learn about how to use if only  and  wish.

 Find out more about conditionals and mixed conditionals.

 Look at some information on how you can use modals of deduction to talk about the past.

 Read about the future perfect and continuous forms.

Words and grammar

It can be difficult to separate words and grammar. Although your lexical range, or knowledge of
vocabulary, is something you’ll consider separately in Week 3, if you have enough time, why not find out
about multi-word verbs in English? Used in combination with the other features here, they will only add
to the positive impression you make.

These resources will help you improve your pronunciation.

This blog has some useful advice on how to improve your intonation.

The phonemic chart can help you work on the differences between individual sounds.

This resource from the University of Iowa shows you how different sounds are made (requires Flash).

This pronunciation dictionary lets you look up words and hear how they are pronounced.

There are lots of good blogs with advice and practical tips to help you prepare for the Speaking test:

 IELTS Speaking: Using technology to improve your vocabulary  – some advice on how to use
online resources to prepare for the speaking test.

 IELTS Speaking: The grammar challenge – a look at how to improve your score for grammar in
Part 2 and the speaking test in general.

 Ten dos and Ten don’ts for the IELTS speaking test – contain some useful advice on the topics
we’ve covered this week.

1. Comparing and contrasting

 on the one hand… on the other hand…

 in contrast to…

 back then… whereas nowadays…

  exactly the same as…

On the one hand  I think it’s harder for younger people to find work these days, but  on the other
hand  they also have a wider range of opportunities than my generation.

My parents,  in contrast to  my grandparents, lived all their lives in a big city.

Back then  it just wasn’t possible to travel abroad,  whereas nowadays  it feels like you can fly anywhere
in a few hours.

As far as I’m concerned, using a card is  exactly the same as  using cash.

2. Speculating and predicting

 It might be the case that…

 I would imagine that…

 I suppose it could be…

 It’s extremely unlikely that…

It might be the case that  people stop using cars in the future, but I think it is a long time away.

I would imagine that  the impact of tourism is quite significant in all of those areas you mentioned.

I suppose it could be  a problem if this kind of trend continues, yes.

It’s extremely unlikely that  we will ever have a situation like that, I think.

3. Analysing

 The first thing I would say is that…

 It’s not a straightforward…

 Let’s take… as an example.

The first thing I would say is that  I have seen the weather in my country change in recent years.

It’s not a straightforward situation, so I feel only an expert can be sure about the impact climate change
has on our everyday life.

Let’s take  a university student  as an example. I think they should spend more time doing practical
studies.

4. Giving your opinion

 As far as I’m concerned…

 I really do believe that…

 I’m afraid I don’t agree at all that…

As far as I’m concerned, advertising is something which has a real influence on people.
I really do believe that  all these changes we’re seeing in the weather will make life more difficult for us
in the future.

I’m afraid I don’t agree at all  that the media has a positive role.

5. Justifying your opinion

 The most convincing reason for this is…

 Given… I think that…

 The reason I think that’s the case is that…

The most convincing reason for this is  the second point you mentioned, I think.

Given  the number of people moving to cities these days,  I think that  problems in cities will naturally
increase too.

The reason I think that’s the case is that  there are more and more people who don’t use cash, so I think
it will become less important.

Remember that although we recommend you don’t try to memorise whole answers, you should try to
learn and use these kinds of phrases. They’re very useful for Part 3 of the test.

Here are some ways you can paraphrase:

Synonyms
Synonyms are words which have a similar meaning (though often not exactly the same meaning). In
English, words like ‘might’, ‘could’ and ‘may’ are synonyms in many contexts. Using synonyms is
probably the easiest way to avoid repeating the same words as the examiner. For example, if the
examiner says ‘What do you think might be the reason for that?’ you could reply, ‘One
reason may be…’.

For example, if the examiner says to you ‘What are the important things that teenagers have to make
decisions about?’, to avoid repeating the key words you could say, ‘There are lots of critical choices

Word formation
Instead of using a different word (a synonym) you could use a different form of a word. Imagine the
examiner asks this question: ‘Why do you think there are so many people who speak English in the
world today?’ You could answer, ‘I would say there’s such a huge number of English speakers because…’
In this example, the answer uses the noun ‘English speakers’ instead of the verb phrase ‘speak English’.

Grammatical changes
You can even use a different grammatical structure to avoid repeating what the examiner says. For
example, if the examiner says ‘Do you think this situation is going to get worse in the future?’, you could
use a more complex structure to reply with something like this: ‘I suspect it should improve actually, but
I’m not 100% sure.’ So remember, you don’t have to answer by repeating the same structure the
examiner uses: ‘I don’t think it’s going to get worse in the future.’

work and study

food and drink
magazines and newspapers
health
the internet
the arts
sports and hobbies
fashion and what people wear
education
society
friendships and family relationships
the natural world
travel and transport

Speaking practice activities

Speaking skills practice at different levels here on our British Council website.

Vocabulary

Improve and expand your English vocabulary with these activities at different levels.

Other ways to practise speaking English

A blog post listing ways to speak better English without taking classes.

A free social network app to help with language learning.