IELTS Speaking tips for Nigerian and African test takers. Band 8.0 strategies

hello and welcome to the ielts multi-step program today we're going to be dealing with the speaking section of the ielts which is inaugurally one of the easiest parts in the ielts but for most non-native users of the english language this happens to be the pitfall that they usually have when they take the test so what are the strategies that can assure you of success in the speaking section of the ielts that is what i'm here to share with you today my name is landry and i'll be your uncle throughout this video and i'll advise you to please take a pen and a piece of paper and please jot down the tips that you will be getting in this video as they are actionable and practical tips that you need to put into action before the test itself so what are you waiting for let's go the speaking section of the ielts is one that is the same for both the general training model and the academic model so there's no difference in what you're going to be doing either you're taking the general training model or the academic model for your speaking test the speaking test ideally takes place three days to seven days before the main test itself which contains the listening the writing and the reading sections of the test the speaking test is one of the most important parts as it is quite easy to get maximum scores in the speaking so i would advise you to put a lot of focus on the speaking section of the ielts as this might be the decider for you in your journey towards success in the ielts you have three sections in the speaking test and the total duration for the speaking test takes between 15 to 17 minutes the three parts in the speaking test are the section one which is a conversation or a chat between you and an examiner the part two which is called the long term where you'll be expected to give a speech on a given topic that will be given to you on a cue card and the part three which is a discussion where the examiner will give you abstract questions derived from the topic that you talked about in your pattern so what is the structure of all these different sections what are the structures of all these different sections sorry and what are the peculiar tips that you need to know about and you need to apply for you to get the scores that you need in the section of the ielts the section one is the same for both the general training model and the academic model as mentioned earlier and it takes between four to five minutes here you will have an introduction and then two topics which the examiner will be given that you will be asked questions from i'll take this again the section one contains just two major parts the introduction part and then two topics that the examiner has been assigned to derive the questions that they will give you from the introduction is just a basic conversation that you can find in a social context or in a formal official context the examiner will start off the test by introducing himself to you and then they will ask for your name usually at this time you are expected to give the name that is on your international passport which is the documents that you will use to register for the ielts test at this point in time i would advise you to be as vocal and audible as possible this is the reason why you are a non-native user of the english language and your examiner most times will be a native speaker of the language when you are giving your name to someone who has never heard this kind of name before or who is not familiar with your cultural practices it might be advisable for you to try as much as possible to enunciate every syllable in your name as clearly as possible this is because you do not want to start off your test on the wrong foot where the examiner has to strain your ears to catch everything that you're saying or has to strain your ears to get the meaning to extract the meaning from something that you're saying so when it gets to the point where you're introducing yourself and saying your name take your time to say it as slowly and as clearly as possible especially if your name is not a common english word or is not a name that the examiner might be used to after that the examiner has a range of topics which they can draw from usually you have like seven to eight common topics that is usually asked in the part one but for the purpose of this video i will be sharing six with you or seven with you the common areas where the questions are derived from are work study friends hobbies your town food sports and then family i'll take that again work study friends hobbies food sports family and then your hometown any of this areas could be the two top the two areas where your questions for the part one will be derived from looking at the range of these topics you would find that they are topics that fall on that um ambit of conversational topics these are topics that a normal user of the english language would have in one at one point or or the other in their lifetime had course to discuss with either a friend or either an acquaintance that they made anywhere so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to have answers to respond to the questions that will be given to you on these topics so you ask why do people fail the speaking test if these are the range of topics that will be assessed the answer is very simple there is a particular format or structure for the way your answers need to be and if you do not follow this structure or you do not follow this format chances are that you will be talking a lot but not saying so much since now what are the criteria that the speaking test is usually assessed with they as follows pronunciation fluency vocabulary and grammar pronunciation fluency vocabulary and grammar these are the things that the examiners will look out for when you are speaking to them the most important one is your fluency fluency is your ability to sustain a continuous flow of information or continuous flow speaking without unnecessary interruption so you would need to reduce your um uh um and things like that that are common speech fillers that truncate your speech a fluent speaker is one that can continuously maintain a flow an uninterrupted flow of words or utterances that are allowed to pass across a specific message pronunciation is quite easy to understand we all know how what it means to pronounce english words correctly now pronunciation even though it is important might not be the decider for your failure or your success and why is this because every speaker of the english language has their speaking or has their usage of english language colored by their cultural background for an indian user of the english language you cannot erase the role of accent for a house speaker of the english language you cannot erase the role of accent for a social speaker of the english language you cannot erase the role of accent so i would advise you to put not too much focus on your accent but on how to pronounce words clearly so that the examiner will be able to understand or pick what you're saying your accent has a role to play but do not stress it too much because the period that you have to prepare for the ielts is not enough for you to overhaul your accent or your pronunciation completely to that of a standard speaker of the english language vocabulary is also important what do i mean by vocabulary using the appropriate words effectively to convey your message you do not want to keep on repeating the words good or bad when you're talking about negative or positive you should have extra words synonyms words that can better describe or convey your meaning this is how you get max or vocabulary for vocabulary also please there's a caveat to be noted here vocabulary does not mean using jawbreaking words it actually means using appropriate words or expressions that convey the meaning of what you want to say so why use a hundred dollar word if you can use a 10 cent word please this is very very important do not go out of your way to use jawbreaking words to swallow the dictionary as they say where i come from what you need is to use appropriate words correctly in the right context finally grammar grammar is an essential part of the english language and it also plays an important role in the speaking section of the ielts for your grammar you need to watch out for your tenses you need to watch out for how you describe or how you convey your sense of numbers which is singular or plural and lastly in your grammar you also need to watch out for how you use words that convey different nuances or shades of meaning these are the three areas and most specifically the two main areas are tenses and number these are the places where a lot of non-native users of the english language have challenges when they are speaking so that is a basic structure of the speaking test and we will go straight into what you should and should not do in the section one of the speaking tests so what are the basic things that you must do or the things that i would advise you to do the first thing that you must note is that the ielts is a test of communication another test of intelligence so what implication does this have for your speaking test you need to be confident confidence is a state of mind you get into the ielts test and you have all the beautiful vocabulary you have all the grammar at the back of your hand and you have a perfect pronunciation and you are fluent but your mind isn't settled or you are so doubtful of your own abilities chances are that when you get into the speaking test you are going to mess up so your state of mind has a very significant role to play in your success for the ielts you need to be as confident as possible um i would use a peculiar expression find your happy place before you do the speaking test i'll repeat that again find your happy place before you do the speaking test in the highest your happy place is a place where you are a calm where you are at peace with yourself where you have a very heightened self of sense of self-esteem and this is the part this is a place where your confidence flows and your answers stem from a place where you are feeling very very relaxed with yourself i would advise you to practice whatever thing that you know how to practice be deep breathing or be it meditation or be just even having fun with your family and friends before you write the speaking test to boost your confidence the second thing that you want to do or you need to know also has to do with your psychological preparation you want to project a friendly engaging tone in the speaking test this is important why because your examiner is going to be sitting right across from you and they will be asking you these questions as if in a conversation that is for the part one you do not want to engage the examiner with your face all wooden or with your face all butted up you want to as much as possible portray a cheery atmosphere that will draw the examiner in and make your speaking test a memorable carefree experience for both you and the examiner remember it is a test of communication and if i communicate from a place of joy i am much more likely to do better than if i'm communicating from a place of fear or i'm communicating from a place of anger or sadness so a friendly atmosphere a friendly tone a cherry vibe is what you want to portray for the speaking for the part one of the speaking tests and this is something that can only be done if you have prepared psychologically before you get into the exam hall finally make eye contact make eye contact now this is a challenging tip for a lot of test takers and i've seen this over the years in my classes training a lot of test takers some people have a very huge challenge in maintaining eye contact when you're talking to other people and this might not be such a bad thing now when i say maintain eye contact in the speaking test i do not mean that you stare at the examiner unblinkingly throughout the whole four to five minutes no this is quite impossible for you to do what i do mean is that truncate your answers with at least once or twice looking at the examiner to keep the examiner in the loop and keep the examiner in the sense that you know that you're communicating and you're trying to pass across a message so in a space of four questions i look up at the third question and i make eye contact and i go back to either looking at myself or looking at my table or looking elsewhere i do not need to stay at the examiner without moving an inch or without even blinking throughout the four to five minutes that will be awkward and weird but i also do not want to do a four to five minutes interaction with someone without for once making eye contact with them that also will be absurd so you need to balance your need for eye contact with your need for privacy or with your need to avoid distractions remember some people uh some people have the kind of face or the kind of look that could actually distract you from what you're trying to say if you walk into an exam hall and you discover that your examiner has that kind of expression or that kind of face you might want to reduce your points of eye contact let's move on the next thing that you want to take note of is you need to be excited you need to portray an air of excitement and i mentioned this earlier when i spoke about you being friendly why is excitement an important part of the speaking test in your part one for example you are asked the question do you play any sports and you say no i don't and the next question that is asked is um why don't you play sports or what kind of sport would you like to play in the future and you say i would like to play basketball because basketball is nice and i think it's cool and you say that in a monotone no variation in your tone no conveying of either you are excited no pitch no pace everything is just flat in the monotone that obviously would bore the examiner it will also bore you and chances are that if you do that in the exam you might end up feeling very bad because you know that you have not given that delivery the best that you can give it so as much as possible see this as a conversation between you and an acquaintance probably an acquaintance with positive vibes and once you have that kind of mindset it becomes easier to channel that into your answers and also convey that to your examiner who is the person receiving that bit of communication excitement will help you it will not it may not improve your scores but it definitely will not reduce your scores or will not make you feel so what does it hurt you to be as cheery to be as carefree and to be as engaging as possible in the speaking part one of the ielts moving on for your vocabulary you need to as much as possible look at those areas that i have listed out before and try as much as possible to build up vocabulary in those areas before the day of the test what do i mean by this when we talk about food what are the different expressions what are different terms that you would use when talking about food so for example words like cuisine will come up when i'm talking about food words like healthy diets will come up if i'm talking about food words like um overeating will come up when i'm talking about food words like um local native delicacies or dishes will come up when i'm talking about food and words like um delicious will come up when i'm talking about food these are the relevant vocabulary that would allow me to effectively convey what i feel or what i know about food to the examiner if you're talking about family words like bonding will come up when i'm talking about family words like emotions will come up when i'm talking about family words like support will come up and i'm talking about family and words like blood relationships will come up when i'm talking about family these are also common terms that would most likely come up if i'm having a conversation about family know these expressions do your research listen to tapes about these topics watch news about these topics read stories or read news items discussing these topics or read articles or document or watch documentaries discussing these topics and you will be able to pick one or two relevant vocabulary items that you can use in the speaking test for the ielts and this is all part of your preparation and practice before the day of the test itself moving on when you're talking about preferences as this would be a very important area that would come up in your part one talking about preferences is one area that usually regularly comes up in the speaking part one of the ielts do you like food what kind of food do you like do you like sport what type of spots do you like what are your hobbies what do you prefer now when talking about preferences a lot of people are usually stuck with one particular vocabulary item saying i like i like this i like football i like bins i like sport i like music i like this but do you have other options to express preferences what about i prefer what about i enjoy what about things like i really love these are variations in expressions that can easily improve your band score in the speaking test for the ielts finally looking for in the ielts in the speaking part of the ielts what will be assessed or what they will mark is what you say what does this mean it means that you need to say as much as possible so that the examiner has enough material to assess your communicative competence i'll repeat that again since what will be assessed in the speaking test is what you say you need to say as much as possible to provide as much information as possible so that the examiner has a lot to assess your communicative competence with so the ielts test or the speaking pattern of the ielts is not a place where you go and give monosyllabic answers do you like your hometown yes do you like sports no would you like to learn english in the future no all these are things that you should not or you should avoid for this part one of the speaking tests on the other hand what you should do is to expand your answers now there are some questions that automatically put you in a place where you're giving a yes or no answer but you should expand those answers in fact expansion of answers is an integral role for success in the speaking part one of the ielts expanding your answers can be done in a variety of ways you can expand answers by giving reasons for your answers you can expand answers by giving examples to illustrate what you said you can also expand your answers by sharing experiences to illustrate what you've said those three ways are the key ways to expand your answers for example do you like sports yes i do because i believe sports is is essential to keep to have a healthy mind and a healthy body that is a much more preferable answer to do you like spots yes for example another question could be do you like cooking now instead of saying yes i like cooking or no i do not like cooking i would expand that answer by giving a personal experience to expand it i would say yes i like cooking because when i was younger my grandfather threw me in a pot of burning oil and since then cooking became embedded in my dna now this might sound funny this might sound absurd but for the purpose of the ielts nobody would laugh for the purpose of the ielts that might suffice why you see you can lie in the ielts but as much as possible try to keep your lie within the ambits of believability you do not want to get through out such outlandish and absurd lies that will throw off the examiner of their balance or that would even divert you away from the what you're talking about from the context of what you're talking about remember every information that you provide in the speaking test must serve a purpose and what purpose is that it must be relevant to the message they are trying to pass across do not just say things for the point of saying it do not just use words for the beauty of using them everything you say has and a purpose that is aligned with the message that you're trying to pass this will boost your scores when it comes to coherence everything must be coherent everything must be relevant do not talk off point and finally practice practice and practice practice is a non-negotiable step towards success either the writing the reading the listening or even the speaking sections of the ielts all require adequate practice before you finally do the test itself if you do not practice you are setting yourself up for failure please avoid not practicing so what are the things that you should not do the don'ts that you should take note of for the ielts the first is this do not approach the test as a test of intelligence i'll repeat again do not approach the test as a test of intelligence the test is not about what you know the test is about how you express what you know the test is about how you express what you know so for example in a question that asked about your hometown please there's no point in giving them your real hometown if this is a place you haven't been to in two or three decades and you probably have no recollection of that particular place so the question where you are in the ielts test and i ask you please describe your hometown and your hometown is a place called um abraca in delta state which you haven't been to in the past 30 years and then you go my hometown is a place called abraca is um um it has um i think five streets and um no why set yourself up for that uh difficult route when you can't easily use lagos where you stay as your hometown remember nobody is going to fact check you in the ielts so you should as much as possible approach the ielts from the easiest point if i stay in lagos and i have lived in lagos for the past 10 years and i know lagos like the back of my hand when i when i'm asked a question about my hometown i will use lagos your hometown is the place where you find easiest to describe your hometown is a place where you have a lot of information to back it up or to provide please do not approach the test as a test of intelligence approach it as a test of communication they are asking you about your hobbies and you really want to give your personal hobby the one that you actually prefer doing but you do not have enough information about it why not just use something else that you may not like but you can't talk about remember the only thing that you are doing at that point in time when you're sitting on that chair in the aisle for the speaking test is to pass the test not to improve your value the validity of your claims not to improve your your honesty profile not to even impress the examiner all you want to do is to pass the test and every strategy every tip that can make you pass the test is one that must be explored and deployed appropriately another thing that you should not do in the first in the part one of the ielts is you should as much as possible try not to expand your answers to a general from a general perspective in the part one most of the questions that will be asked will be banking on your personal experiences or on your personal uh on your personal opinion they will not ask you for a general opinion or they will not ask you how those things or how those concepts apply to a general from a general perspective or to a general population so do not as much as possible relate your answers to a wider audience or to the general public try as much as possible to derive all the reasons or the examples or the illustrations from your uh for your answers from your own personal experiences and like i mentioned earlier if you haven't experienced those things you can make them up or you can cook up a story just related to yourself as this will not only improve your scores it will also make it easier for you to flow and also improve your fluency for the speaking part one in the next couple of seconds we will move to the speaking part two which is called long turn in the ielts and then we will be going through the structure what are the things that you should do and what are the things that you should not do for the speaking part two in the aisles

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Id: H9KGNZT-OyU

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021