live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Confidence and Fluency - Common Issues, Reasons, Mindset Confidence and fluency are critical in the IELTS Speaking test. Address common issues and adopt the right mindset:
Identify Common Issues: Recognise areas where you lack confidence, such as pronunciation or vocabulary. Understand the Reasons: Pinpoint why these issues occur—nervousness, lack of practice, or unfamiliarity with the test format. Adopt a Positive Mindset: Believe in your abilities and view the test as an opportunity to showcase your skills, not as a threat. Explore strategies to boost confidence at IELTSpodcast Confidence and Fluency.
Confidence and Fluency - Readiness Test / Quick Questions Assessing your readiness through quick questions can help identify areas for improvement:
Readiness Test: Take a practice test to gauge your current level and identify weaknesses. Quick Questions: Practice with common IELTS Speaking questions to become comfortable with spontaneous answers. Feedback: Seek feedback from teachers or peers to fine-tune your responses and improve fluency. For practice questions, visit IELTSpodcast Quick Questions.
Overview of Part 1 Part 1 in the IELTS Speaking test involves answering general questions about yourself and familiar topics:
Personal Information: Be prepared to discuss your work, studies, hobbies, and interests. Everyday Topics: Topics may include your hometown, lifestyle, and experiences. Answer clearly and concisely. Practice and Preparation: Regularly practice answering these questions to build confidence and fluency. Questions You Should Be Able to Answer About Home Country Discussing your home country can be a common topic. Be ready with informative and insightful responses:
Cultural Aspects: Be prepared to talk about traditions, festivals, and cultural practices in your country. Geography and History: Discuss geographical features, historical events, and significant figures. Current Issues: Stay informed about current events and social issues in your country. Find tips on how to answer these questions at IELTSpodcast Home Country Questions.
A Presentation, Get Ready, Master This Skill! Giving a presentation can be part of the speaking test. Mastering this skill involves:
Structure Your Talk: Have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. Practice delivering your talk confidently. Engage Your Audience: Use eye contact, gestures, and voice modulation to keep your audience engaged. Practice Regularly: The more you practice, the more comfortable you will become with speaking at length. For presentation tips, visit IELTSpodcast Presentation Skills.
IELTS Speaking Part 2 - Exercise with Cue Cards Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test involves speaking on a topic given on a cue card. Prepare effectively by:
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:05
you are now listening to the I podcast
0:08
learn from cheors and ex- examiners who
0:10
are masters of eye outs preparation your
0:13
host Ben
0:15
[Music]
0:18
Worthington I speaking
0:22
confidence this is your 23 minute crash
0:27
course this tutorial is based of the
0:31
curriculum of the speaking confidence
0:34
course we have at ieltspodcast.com
0:37
it's a very highlevel overview but it's
0:42
still packed with a ton of practical
0:46
advice to boost your confidence and
0:51
improve your
0:52
fluency if you found some of this advice
0:57
useful or you couldn't get to grip with
1:00
it maybe it was a bit too confusing then
1:02
you can go over to ieltspodcast.com and
1:04
you can have a look at the course and
1:08
maybe you want to invest in the cost to
1:10
boost your speaking abilities um find
1:13
out what I was talking about it'll go
1:16
into more detail with more
1:18
exercises
1:19
and of course if you don't like it you
1:22
can get a uh quick refund no problem
1:26
right then let's jump into it so
1:27
confidency fluency the common issues and
1:31
we're going to look at the reasons and
1:33
the mindset as
1:36
well so first of all you probably want
1:40
to identify where you're losing points
1:44
is it pronunciation is it your
1:47
vocabulary do you just get nervous as
1:51
soon as you start
1:53
speaking I know so many students who can
1:56
speak to me quite freely and then even
2:00
when we go into the IELTS mode they just
2:02
freeze up when I mean I mode I'm asking
2:05
them like I part three questions or
2:08
they're doing a
2:10
qad and this is so common this is so
2:14
common and what I found with students in
2:17
Asia especially Chinese students is that
2:21
they focus on the accuracy because they
2:24
don't want to make mistakes but they
2:26
focus on the accuracy so much that it
2:30
hinders it pro it inhibits the
2:34
fluency whereas students from Latin
2:37
America or the Mediterranean like
2:39
Southern European Italian Spaniards
2:42
whatnot these students often this is a
2:46
huge generalization but these students
2:49
often struggle with the accuracy they'll
2:52
just speak and speak and they got no
2:54
problems but a lot of the times there's
2:56
some grammar errors in there so and uh
2:59
just one last thing with Slavic speakers
3:01
It's usually the pronunciation that
3:03
trips them up and and the use of
3:06
Articles as
3:08
well so what I'm saying is you need to
3:11
probably find which area you're
3:15
struggling with is it accuracy is it
3:18
fluency and a good way to do this is to
3:21
get feedback um and there's lots of
3:25
tools out there and I'll mention a few
3:28
later on so let's have a look at
3:31
confidence now with
3:35
confidence it's it's kind of like a
3:37
funny one as I was saying before a lot
3:39
of students they fall to bits when
3:42
they're inside the exam room now if this
3:45
is you then I'm going to share a very
3:48
useful technique with you which is
3:49
called reflecting so if you this is
3:53
basically using the words in the
3:55
question in your
3:58
answer so if the student if the examiner
4:01
says um are festivals an important part
4:04
of your culture you say yes festivals
4:07
are an important part of our culture
4:10
because and what you're doing is just
4:13
reflecting what you hear and this is
4:16
easy to understand you be like ah I can
4:19
do that tomorrow but just yesterday I
4:21
was working with a student from India
4:24
and the amount of times she reflected
4:28
but there were parts
4:30
there were prepositions missing or she
4:34
stumbled and used a different
4:36
tense and the problem with this is that
4:39
one the accuracy of your answer
4:42
diminishes if you're dropping out if
4:44
you're dropping prepositions and whatnot
4:47
second if you're not using the exact
4:49
tense or if you're not reflecting
4:51
exactly which would include using the
4:53
correct um the exact tent then you run
4:57
the risk of answering the question you
5:00
thought was answered was asked rather
5:04
than answering the question that was
5:06
actually
5:08
asked and this compounds because now
5:11
it's the first sentence of your
5:14
reply and then you carry on developing
5:17
it so you're going further down the
5:19
wrong track and with every word that is
5:23
further mentioned you are diminishing
5:26
the chances of scoring points because
5:28
you're asking you're answer answering
5:29
the wrong
5:31
question so this is why it's incredibly
5:33
important the other advantage of using
5:36
this technique is that it gives you a
5:41
few
5:43
seconds it gives you a few seconds just
5:45
to formulate your answer so you can you
5:48
know exactly what you're going to say
5:50
for the first few words and those few
5:54
those first few words um start you off
5:57
on the right track and then you can just
5:59
build up from
6:01
there now I when I'm working with a
6:06
private student I drill this and we do
6:08
lots of different exercises and the goal
6:11
is to get it quick and
6:14
automatic and it's almost robotic and
6:18
that's fine because at that
6:21
point of answering like a robot we've
6:24
reached a level called automaticity
6:27
we've reached a level of automaticity
6:29
where it's quick and it's natural and
6:31
then from there we can start improving
6:34
it and by saying for example our
6:36
festivals important in your country oh
6:39
yes definitely without a shadow of a
6:42
doubt festivals are incredibly important
6:45
in our country this is
6:48
because
6:50
and it makes you sound more natural but
6:53
it's still retains all the benefits of
6:56
reflecting the question so we still got
6:58
a few we' still bought ourself a few
7:01
seconds to think of the answer the
7:03
content of the answer but we've just
7:05
made it a little bit more natural and
7:07
we've added some emphasis maybe some
7:09
intonation oh yes definitely you see and
7:12
we're going up and down and this makes
7:14
it sound so much more natural but to get
7:16
to that level first you need um in my
7:19
experience um we need to drill and just
7:24
Master this response in fact one useful
7:27
exercise we do is I will give a student
7:30
a list of part three questions and they
7:31
have to write out the reflected answer
7:34
and this just helps a
7:37
student um get into the habit of sort of
7:41
like recognizing the tense and then
7:44
giving the correct
7:47
answer now then going back to the course
7:51
a good technique a useful technique is
7:54
just to know about your own country
7:56
there is a chance that you're going to
7:58
get asked about your country
8:00
so I said this years ago if the student
8:03
if the teacher asked me where I'm from I
8:05
could say oh I'm from Manchester I'm
8:08
from a town called hfield near
8:10
Manchester in England that's okay but
8:14
what if I
8:16
said I'm from a town it's called
8:19
Huddersfield it's in the county
8:21
Yorkshire it's about 40 minutes away
8:24
from Manchester and as you might know
8:28
these town and these cities especially
8:31
in the north were quite famous for
8:33
around the Industrial
8:35
Revolution um so yeah that's that's
8:37
where I'm from and I recently moved back
8:40
okay just a little bit more detail and I
8:43
know this because I know a little bit of
8:44
history about the region where I'm from
8:47
maybe you're going to say oh I'm from
8:49
Marakesh it's a city in Morocco and it's
8:53
quite popular with tourists from
8:55
northern Europe I think it's because of
8:57
the food and the weather that we offer
9:00
there in Marakesh okay that's it
9:04
straightforward but you need to know
9:06
what's going on in your city what is
9:07
what's it famous for just check the
9:09
Wikipedia article about your city and if
9:11
you can't find anything about your city
9:13
then it's time to move I'm just joking
9:16
I'm sure you could find something you
9:18
could even just say like oh it's a
9:20
little known Village um on the outskirts
9:23
of deli and it's not very famous but we
9:27
do have some amazing patties there we do
9:30
have some amazing local Cuisine okay now
9:34
then for part two uh for part two we
9:38
have the
9:40
qcard now again just like General Tes
9:43
one we're going to follow the bullet
9:45
points in the qcad in the
9:48
question but it's useful to have a few
9:51
structures you can rely on now a few of
9:54
these structures um it could be I mean
9:57
this is the basic structure we teach
9:59
we've got a few different Frameworks to
10:01
use but I'll just give you the the basic
10:04
ones a phrase to use to get started I
10:08
would like to tell you about a local
10:10
Festival in my country just having
10:12
little phrases like this can help you
10:15
reduce your nerves because now you've
10:18
got a plan now you know how to start it
10:20
and it just sounds so much more eloquent
10:23
and likewise when we finish talking and
10:25
that is my small talk about festivals or
10:28
that's my little talk about festivals we
10:31
have in our country I hope you liked it
10:33
smile okay and that just avoids the
10:37
awkward pause and you know because the
10:40
examiner is not going to say anything
10:42
and what do a lot of students do is get
10:44
nervous and then keep talking and
10:45
talking and talking and making more
10:47
grammar mistakes because they're
10:49
nervous however just saying that little
10:52
phrase just stops that issue from
10:54
happening and we can move on now to part
10:57
three thank you very much Mr examiner
11:00
and smile as well this examiner they're
11:02
facing a lot of the um how many about 12
11:06
16 20 students a day when they're
11:08
examining especially on the weekends
11:10
this is a lot make the job easier it's
11:14
not going to hurt you smile be a human
11:17
and that's another side note actually
11:19
going there go into the speaking exam
11:23
one warmed up having spoken to somebody
11:26
in English maybe in the last 60 Minutes
11:30
you don't want to go in there having not
11:31
used your English for over two weeks 3
11:34
weeks because and I know this because I
11:37
speak of the languages but and it even
11:40
happens to be in English can you believe
11:41
if I haven't spoken to anybody for a day
11:43
or two when I do I get this like social
11:47
anxiety and it disappears maybe after 5
11:50
10 minutes but that's compounded if I'm
11:54
speaking in Spanish I'm Rusty to get
11:56
going but then after maybe 10 15 20
11:59
minutes minutes my brain's warmed up
12:01
it's like a muscle I'm I'm warmed up and
12:03
I'm speaking the vocabulary is coming
12:06
and you don't want to be warming up for
12:09
your eys exam you want to be going in
12:10
there steaming hot all right you want to
12:14
be going in there loose and warmed up
12:16
and uh relaxed and ready ready to get
12:19
your exam and ready to move forward in
12:21
life anyway I went off on a tangent so
12:24
we're talking about Frameworks we've got
12:26
that phrase I would like to talk I would
12:28
like to talk
12:30
about education in my country I would
12:32
like to talk about festivals in my town
12:34
so on and so forth I'd like to tell you
12:36
about a teacher my favorite teacher I
12:39
had at College okay and then we're
12:42
ending it as I said and now if you're a
12:45
student who struggles to fill those two
12:47
minutes you need a framework and a
12:49
framework could be just using the bullet
12:51
points and then add um saying I like
12:54
this teacher because they were warm
12:57
generous and extremely kind
13:01
natured for example Now give me a real
13:04
world example for
13:06
example I remember a few years ago I was
13:10
feeling really sick I think I had the
13:13
flu or possibly even covid and the
13:17
examiner uh sorry the tutor I had at
13:20
that
13:21
time they were really considerate and
13:24
they offered to extend my deadline by
13:27
two weeks I didn't even have to ask so
13:31
this is just another reason why I like
13:33
this tutor okay just give a little
13:36
example in there and if you're going
13:40
higher level we can even make
13:42
comparisons uh we use different tensors
13:45
we could say something like whereas
13:47
nowadays my tutors at University they're
13:50
very strict and they're not as warm
13:53
they're not as kind natured as my
13:55
previous tutor little comparison there
13:58
little change tenses show The Examiner
14:01
we've got control of this
14:04
exam another Technique we can use to
14:07
prepare is uh we can write out our
14:10
answers to recent Q cards just write it
14:13
down so we're not caught as the
14:16
expression goes we're not caught with
14:17
our pants down we're not caught in an
14:20
embarrassing situation of having to
14:24
think of our favorite tutor we already
14:27
covered it last week when we were
14:29
writing out just sample answers okay now
14:33
another Technique we can do this is
14:36
related to confidence and to nerves is
14:38
to control our breathing now I would be
14:42
a fraud if I said this will cure your
14:46
nerves all I'm saying is try it out try
14:49
some rhythmic breathing try some
14:51
meditation try some concentration or
14:54
music or some relaxation music you need
14:57
to try all these different techniques
15:00
and do some research find out what works
15:02
for you personally I know some people
15:05
they cannot meditate for the life in
15:07
them they just cannot sit still my dad
15:10
would come to mind here
15:12
okay and other other people um you know
15:16
meditation will work I mean personally
15:18
meditation for me Works an absolute
15:20
dream and my brain is so much clearer
15:23
afterwards and I'm speaking clearer I'm
15:26
thinking clearer I'm writing clearer it
15:29
just it's like a sprinkling for my mind
15:32
but I know it's not for everybody so you
15:33
need to work out what works for you
15:36
again um focus music I go into YouTube
15:40
or I use brain fm.com and I listen to
15:43
focus music when I need to write some
15:45
work uh do some writing this works an
15:48
absolute treat for me I'm only sharing
15:50
what works for me okay you need to find
15:53
out what works for you test my
15:55
suggestions if they don't work move on
15:57
find some other ones okay
16:01
um again let's have a look at your uh
16:06
vocabulary are you
16:09
repeating words are you using the same
16:11
vocabulary again and again for part
16:14
three you need to um you'll know if
16:19
you're getting a band seven or a band
16:20
eight if you start hearing the same
16:23
question again and again but asked in
16:25
different terms different vocabulary
16:29
this is a good sign don't get fed up
16:32
don't use phrases like as I just said
16:34
okay you um just answer again but use
16:38
different vocabulary show The Examiner
16:40
you've got the skills to answer the same
16:44
question in a different manner you can
16:47
even look at it from different
16:49
perspectives okay say for example you've
16:52
answered is pollution um is pollution a
16:55
topic of concern in your country you
16:57
answered the question now you get the
16:59
question again what do you do well you
17:02
could
17:02
say I think actually especially in my
17:07
region pollution is definitely a topic
17:09
of concern and I think it's more of a
17:12
concern for the younger
17:14
generation because it's going to be them
17:18
who are most impacted when they're older
17:21
by the actions of what's happening today
17:24
so it is a very um crucial significant
17:28
topic
17:29
nowadays um especially for the younger
17:32
ones there we go and we just look at it
17:34
from a different perspective then we get
17:37
the question again because the examin is
17:39
a real pain in the bum I'm going to say
17:42
well I guess it is an important topic
17:46
especially globally but I don't think
17:48
it's really seen as that important
17:51
regarding the older generation perhaps
17:54
because they know that they're not going
17:57
to be suffering the consequence
17:59
quences or perhaps there's even an
18:01
element of guilt because the younger
18:04
Generations are inheriting the problems
18:07
partially caused by the older generation
18:09
so I guess for them it's not so
18:12
important okay so we did like three
18:14
different answers there just looking at
18:16
different perspectives on the same
18:20
question now listening skills and I'm
18:24
just going to it's a little bit of
18:26
repetition because as I said before
18:29
um when we're reflecting the answer
18:32
we're really really showing the examiner
18:34
we've got the ex the listening skills
18:36
and this is so important it's so
18:38
important we're answering the right
18:40
question and we're also paying attention
18:43
to the prepositions the
18:45
Articles and this is incredibly
18:47
important but it does it's not a skill
18:49
that you can get insanely you can't get
18:52
it quickly I mean we can develop it over
18:55
a few classes if you're working
18:57
privately with me because I'm just
18:59
Drilling and it's just intense and it's
19:01
tough
19:02
okay and we kind of like Fast Track it
19:05
however if you haven't got a tutor who's
19:07
going to be just drilling you with very
19:09
specific very Niche activities uh which
19:13
is what we do then a good way to do to
19:17
develop this skill is just start to
19:19
listen to uh tutorials listen to
19:23
podcasts listen to tutorials and also
19:26
just listening and pause pause and then
19:29
repeat exactly what you heard exactly
19:31
like the listen cover write techniques
19:34
that I've mentioned in previous
19:37
tutorials also just one last Point here
19:41
um you want to get used to different
19:46
accents if you only listening to
19:49
American series or sitcoms as they're
19:53
called in the
19:55
US then you're going to be very Adept at
19:58
with the American accent but the moment
20:02
somebody um the moment you start
20:04
listening to a northerner from the UK
20:07
not myself I'm a northerner from the UK
20:09
but my accent has been reduced
20:12
significantly
20:13
but um somebody who hasn't had their
20:16
accent reduced um an Irish person for
20:19
example or a Scottish person or an even
20:21
Australian or a South African getting
20:25
broadly aware and developing the skill
20:28
of
20:29
tuning into accents and it might take
20:32
you a minute it might take you five
20:33
minutes but you want to reduce it so you
20:35
can start understanding almost
20:38
immediately whichever accent and you get
20:41
this by listening to a broad range of
20:43
different
20:45
material or a broad range of different
20:48
authentic material if you want a quick
20:52
very quick crash course you can uh
20:54
listen to those 30 Accents in 20 minutes
20:57
or 30 accents in 5 minutes those famous
21:00
videos on YouTube you know and they're
21:02
mimicking a Nigerian then they're
21:04
mimicking a Scottish person then a Welsh
21:06
person then a scout then a man then um a
21:09
jordian so on and so forth and they're
21:11
quite entertaining obviously it's not
21:13
the most academic way to
21:16
prepare but it will give you sort of
21:18
like a a quick crash course and then if
21:21
any of those acents you not
21:23
understanding it's like okay I've got no
21:25
idea what this Irish person's saying
21:27
then obviously um you can look at it
21:31
from an academic point of view how do
21:32
Irish people speak or you could just
21:34
listen to Irish M material and podcast
21:38
by Irish
21:41
people just to get your ability up there
21:44
and if you're feeling really Brave you
21:46
can start listening to them at a faster
21:49
Pace uh and this will help you obviously
21:52
start decoding deciphering tuning in
21:54
quicker assuming you be you're able to
21:57
do it right right then we're coming up
21:59
to the 22 minute Mac this is the end of
22:01
the tutorial if you need help on any of
22:04
those extra any of those points that
22:06
I've
22:07
mentioned then you can go to I's podcast
22:10
have a look at our online courses have a
22:12
look at the speaking confidence maybe
22:14
buy it as I said before if you're not
22:15
keen you can get a full refund you can
22:17
dive into the
22:19
tutorial you can um there's exercises
22:23
there speaking and listening and very
22:25
soon actually I almost forgot about this
22:27
um probably by the the time this
22:29
tutorial is published if we're lucky we
22:32
might have our AI speaking feedback tool
22:36
available and as I said on previous
22:39
tutorials smart students nowadays are
22:41
using tools rather than just
22:43
information um so have a look at that at
22:46
ieltspodcast.com when you go over there
22:48
you can sign up and if we haven't
22:51
released it
22:52
yet just by signing up you will be
22:55
notified as soon as we release it and it
22:58
looks pretty cool to be
22:59
honest that's it have a beautiful day
23:03
good luck with your ILS exam and all the
23:07
[Music]
23:22
best thanks for listening tosp
23:24
podcast.com
23:25
[Music]