Lesson 2.1: Speaking test - Part 1

What do you like about living in your hometown? 

What don’t you like about living in your hometown?

These are some of the questions the examiner might ask you in Part 1 of the Speaking Test.
The examiner will ask you questions about familiar topics.

Other examples of topics might include food, sport, or hobbies. If the topic is food for
example, the examiner might ask you questions such as:

What kind of food do you like? or
Do you enjoy cooking? To answer these questions, you need to talk
about how much you like or dislike them.

Here are some natural expressions for saying how much you like things.

Talking about 'likes' :  Useful expressions:

I'm a (huge/big) fan of......

I'm (really) into......
I'm (really/quite) keen on......

I'm (really/quite) fond of......

You can use these expressions instead of always using ‘I like’. Notice that the expressions can be made stronger or weaker by the words in brackets.

On the other hand, if you want to talk about dislikes, here are some other expressions
you can use instead of always using the phrase ‘I don’t like’.

Talking about 'likes' :  Useful expressions:
I'm not (really) fan of....
I'm not (really) into...
I'm not (very) keen on...

I'm not (very) fond of...

Now you will see some examples, listen carefully for the expressions that the candidate uses
to talk about what they like and dislike.

Did you notice how the candidate used a variety of phrases to express their likes and dislikes?
Remember, in Part 1 of the Speaking Test, it is important to show the examiner a range
of language.

Lesson 2. Speaking

Generally, speaking test takes place on a different day from the other three parts of the test, and in some centres you may do all four parts on the same day. It's 11 to 14 minutes long, and that there are three parts. Let's take a look at those three parts now.

The first part of the test takes four or five minutes and gives you a chance to introduce yourself. The examiner introduces him or herself, asks you to introduce yourself, and checks your identity. Then the examiner will ask you some general questions about you-- your family, your job, things like that. 

After that, you'll move on to the next part. In this part you have to talk for a couple of minutes. The examiner gives you a task card, which asks you to talk about a particular topic. The card also includes points that you can cover in your talk. You get a minute to prepare what you're going to say and a pencil and paper to make notes. When the minute is up, you'll be asked to speak for up to two minutes. After that, the examiner might ask you one or two questions about the topic you've been talking about. The whole of part two lasts between three and four minutes. 

Then we move on to the third part. This lasts between four and five minutes. The examiner asks you more questions that are related to the topic you talked about in part two. This time, though, the questions give you an opportunity to discuss things that are more abstract than part two. It's a chance to discuss your ideas and opinions.

https://view.vzaar.com/3572638/video

The assessment criteria

Fluency and coherence:

This describes how fluent and connected your English sounds. Do you speak without much hesitation and do you use a range of different ways to connect your ideas?

Lexical resource:

This describes how wide your vocabulary is. Can you talk accurately about any topic and use idiomatic language?

Grammatical range and accuracy:

This describes both the range of different grammatical structures you can use and how well you use them.

Pronunciation:

Can you be easily understood at all times?

The marking criteria

Fluency and coherence

• A Band 9 “speaks fluently with only rare repetition or self-correction”
  
• A Band 6 “is willing to speak at length, though may lose coherence at times due to occasional repetition, self-correction or hesitation”
  
• A Band 3 “speaks with long pauses”
  

Lexical resource

• A Band 9 “uses vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics”
  
• A Band 6 “has a wide enough vocabulary to discuss topics at length”
  
• A Band 3 “uses simple vocabulary to convey personal information” but “has insufficient vocabulary for less familiar topics”
  

Grammatical range and accuracy

• A Band 9 “uses a full range of structures naturally and appropriately”
  
• A Band 6 “may make frequent mistakes with complex structures though these rarely cause comprehension problems”
  
• A Band 3 “makes numerous errors except in memorized expressions”
  

Pronunciation

• A Band 9 “uses a full range of pronunciation features with precision and subtlety”
  
• A Band 6 “uses a range of pronunciation features with mixed control”
  
• A Band 4 “uses a limited range of pronunciation features”
  

Read the full assessment criteria in the PDF.

https://ugc.futurelearn.com/uploads/files/05/a9/05a90951-5fbe-4086-8e6b-b8ad2c192953/Speaking_Band_descriptors_2014.pdf

1. The IELTS test format

The first thing to note is that there are two modules to choose from, the academic module and the general training module. Which one's right for you depends on what you want to do. The academic module is mostly for people who want to study at university. The general training is mostly for people who want to either move to another country and need an English qualification to do that, or who want to study at a level below university. If you have a definite plan to use an IELTS qualification, be sure to check which one you need, academic or general training. Whichever module you take, you will be tested on all four language skills-- listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Everyone takes the same listening and speaking tests, but there are different reading and writing tests for the academic and general training modules.

You do the listening, reading, and writing tests all on the same day, but the speaking test is on a different day. It could be before or after the other three parts.

Let's start with the speaking test. This part of the test lasts for about 13 minutes and there are three parts. In the first part you talk about yourself, your family, your work, things like that. In the second part you'll be given a topic to talk about, and then some time to prepare yourself and then give your talk. In the third and final part, the examiner will ask some questions connected to the topic in part two. We'll talk about the speaking test in more detail in week two (Lesson x) of this course.

Now moving on to listening test, this part of the test lasts around 40 minutes, and you have to answer 40 questions that might be multiple-choice, note completion, matching, things like that. There are four sections, and you hear each section only once. We'll talk about the listening test in much more detail in week three  (Lesson x) of this course.

So on to the writing test. As previously mentioned, there are different modules for academic and general training, but either way, the test takes 60 minutes and there are two parts to the test, so you have to write two things. You have to write at least 150 words for part one and at least 250 words for part two. The type of task depends on the paper. The academic paper gives you the sort of task you might have to do in university studies. We're going to talk in more detail about both academic and general training in weeks four and six (Lesson x) of this course

Finally, the reading part of the test. Again there are different modules, but whether you're doing academic or general training, you'll have to answer 40 questions in one hour. These might be multiple-choice questions or matching parts of sentences or completing notes, things like that. There are three sections and different types of text. We'll talk more about them when we look at reading in much more detail on the course in week five.(lesson x) .

 

So that's the overview of the IELTS test. Four parts testing the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. And in this course we'll look at each of these parts in more detail to try to help you develop techniques to do well in each of them.