IELTS Speaking

Introduction
IELTS SPEAKING AT A GLANCE

The IELTS Speaking test lasts

11-14 minutes.

The test consists of three

parts.

You cannot use a dictionary

during the test.

IELTS Academic and IELTS

General candidates do exactly
the same test and it is marked
in the same way.
WHAT WILL YOU HAVE TO TALK ABOUT?

Which of these subjects do you think the examiner will ask

you about?

experiences
your work
you have
or studies
what was in had
the news
last week
people what would
you know make your city
how to solve a a better place
mathematical
problem
 THE IELTS SPEAKING BANDS
IELTS Speaking measures how well you can describe your own
experiences and express your own thoughts and feelings.

Like the other parts of IELTS, it is graded on a scale of 0 to 9.

Candidates who can express themselves on most subjects, but
who make many mistakes, will get band 5.

A native English speaker will get band 8.5 or 9.

What band are you hoping to get?

 WHAT IELTS SPEAKING MEASURES

If you had to measure how well someone spoke your language,

what would you listen for?
THE FOUR CRITERIA FOR
IELTS SPEAKING

pronunciation

lexical resource

grammatical
range and
accuracy

fluency and
coherence
PRONUNCIATION: CAN YOU SAY THESE?

What’s your
photograph favorite film?

measurement
I’ve had a
delicious
breakfast.
breakthrough
LEXICAL RESOURCE (Vocabulary)
To get a high score on IELTS Speaking, you need a large
vocabulary.
Match these words with their synonyms.

car boiling

hot appreciate

fast beneficial

value (as a verb) speedy

helpful automobile
 GRAMMATICAL RANGE &
ACCURACY
For a high band in IELTS Speaking, you need to be able to
form simple and complex sentences correctly.

What are the mistakes in these sentences?

1. The summer of 2012 have been very rainy.

2. Louisa wants for going to the beach next weekend.

3. During I was in Turkey, I enjoy going to the market.

4. The history was my favorite subject in school.

5. I called up the man which I met yesterday.

FLUENCY & COHERENCE
A fluent speaker is someone who can speak naturally on a wide
range of subjects.

How can you tell that someone speaks your language

fluently?
PART 1 IELTS SPEAKING
(Pleasantries)
The examiner will ask you to identify yourself,
and then ask you questions about your own life.
Here are some topics which might be covered:

your house or your favorite

your job or
apartment sports or
studies
hobbies

what you what kind of

like to eat films, music or your
books you family
enjoy
PART 2 IELTS SPEAKING
(The Long Turn)
You will be given a piece
of paper called a ‘cue
card’, which looks like
this:
You should say:

• when you visited it

Describe an interesting • how you first knew about
website you have the website
• what the website is about
visited.. • why you think it is
interesting
What happens during part 2 of the
IELTS Speaking Test?

The examiner will give you

60 seconds to study the
cue card, and to make
notes on a piece of paper.
Then you will need to
speak without interruption
for one to two minutes.
After that, the examiner will
ask you two or three
questions about what you
have said.
 PART 3 IELTS SPEAKING
(The View)
The examiner will ask you questions related to the topic of
your cue card. You will need to express your thoughts and
feelings about this topic.

The cue card we saw earlier in this lesson was about

a website. So the examiner might ask:

A. Whether you think young children should be allowed to

access the internet, or;

B. Whether the government should make sure that everyone

has access to high-speed internet.
HOW GOOD DOES MY ENGLISH HAVE
TO BE?
No one can fail the IELTS Speaking test.

It measures your level of English. Very advanced learners will

normally get band 7 or 8, even if they make a few mistakes.
Intermediate students will get 5 or 6.

The examiner is looking for the ability to express your own

thoughts. Mistakes are only considered serious if they are very
frequent, or if they prevent the examiner from understanding
what you are trying to say.
 GETTING THE BEST RESULT

IELTS Speaking is like an athletics or

diving competition at the Olympics.
Athletes need to show off all the
skills they have practiced.

In less than 15 minutes, you

need to show how well you
can speak English.
 TO GET THE BEST RESULT IN MY
EXAM, SHOULD I…?
A. use different tenses E. pronounce words
correctly correctly

B. read the newspaper F. use long words,

the day before the even if I’m not sure
exam what they mean

C. use synonyms for G. listen carefully to

words in the the questions
examiner’s
questions H. try to memorize
questions and
D. speak very quickly answers before the
exam
 WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Which part of the IELTS Speaking test do you think will be the
most difficult?

What skills do you think you need to work on hardest?