IELTS Speaking test is divided into 3 parts. The First part is the Introduction, the Second part is the cue-card and the third part is cross-questions or you can say detailed discussion. The total test duration is around 15 Minutes.
IELTS Speaking test evaluation is done on basis of 4 points called as: –
- Fluency and Coherence
- Lexical Resources
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Pronunciation
All 4 points are equally important and in order to score well you need to focus on all. Let’s first discuss Fluency and Coherence
Fluency and Coherence
This point has 2 sides, First, let me give you information about Fluency. It is very easy to understand – You need to speak fluently with only rare repetition and auto-correction. Let me explain it with a very simple example. Let say you are talking about your favorite chocolate. You need to take care of 2 things
- Planning of your speech
- Self Correction
Planning of your speech
If you plan it well you don’t need to think about words, grammar, or anything else that can interrupt your speech and you won’t repeat as well. ( if you are new and practicing for the very first time it won’t happen. Keep practicing and the most important is be patient)
Self Correction
Well, it is good to correct your own mistakes but not all the time. If you self-correct your own mistake immediately after completing your sentence one in a while that is fine but never do it after a while ( For example you can not correct your cue-card mistake when you are in part 3)
Now let’s talk about coherence in detail
It is very easy to understand what is coherence – Coherence is the logical arrangement of your talk. How every part of your answer is connected with another sentence ( Let me make it easier for you with a very simple example – Let say again you are talking about chocolate and you have 3 subtopics to talk about
Name of Chocolate
Why do you like it?
When you had it for the last time
First, you talk about the name then why you like it, and then when you had it last time. You need to connect all parts very properly. )
Lexical Resource
Lexical Resource means vocabulary. Yes, you are right. You need to use a wide range of vocabulary to enhance your talk but remember not too much and not too little. It is not mandatory to use a high level of vocabulary or you can say unique words in each sentence that you form. Up to 10 to 15 unique words in your entire answer are more than sufficient.
You need to focus on 2 things
- Impact on fluency
- Correct position
Impact on fluency
Don’t think too much about new words. Stay focused and balance all 4 points. Never priorities vocabulary over Fluency.
Correct position
Always use the right word in the right place. Always use the most suitable word, Idiom, Proverb, etc..
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Try to be fluent in English Grammar use a wide range of grammar structures ( Don’t just use simple structures. Explore Compound sentences, Complex sentences, Compound-complex sentences, Conditional sentences) and ignore grammatical mistakes.
Pronunciation
In your talk, you need to focus on pronunciation a lot. Most students are making a common mistake in between Pronunciation and accent. Accent does not matter at all. You can speak in any accent ( For example I am From Gujarat and having a Gujarati accent and that doesn’t bother at all, to achieve a high band score I don’t need to change my accent at all).
Now the question is How to improve the pronunciation?
It is now very easy to do so. We have a lot of tools. The best one is called Google Translator ( Just Type your words and convert it to audio and improve your pronunciation.
How to calculate overall IELTS Speaking Score?
Each criteria is equally important in IELTS Speaking Exam. Let me explain with simple example.
- Fluency and Coherence. – 7
- Lexical Resources – 6.5
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy – 7
- Pronunciation – 7.5
Learn to calculate band score ( 7 + 6.5 + 7 + 7.5) /4 = 28/4 = 7