About this Book
So, you have Book Two of the Practical IELTS Strategies series. Let us first be sure we know the meaning of those two key words.
Practical = connected with real situations; right
or sensible; likely to be successful
Strategy = a plan that is intended to achieve a particular purpose;
the process of putting a plan into effect in a skilful way
This book—Book Two—is for the IELTS Speaking Test. This is not a grammar book; not a testpractice book; not a vocabulary book, although all of those elements are here. Overall, this book is practical and strategic, exactly as those definitions tell us. The real situation is the IELTS test, and the particular purpose or plan is to give you the highest score that you can achieve.
My other ‘Practical IELTS Strategies’ books are:
Book 1: Reading
Book 3: Writing Task One [Academic Module]
Book 4: Writing Task Two [Academic Module]
Book 5: IELTS Test Practice Book
Now, it is very important at this stage for you to trust me, and for this to happen you need to know two facts. The first concerns my credentials. In order for you to trust someone who writes an IELTS preparation book, they must be fully qualified to do so. Please look at the back cover of this book, and read my credentials carefully. The second fact concerns why I wrote these books. Let me begin this by saying that students of English often come to me and ask, ‘How do I pass the IELTS test?’ This is the wrong question—you do not pass or fail the test; you just receive band scores. However, I know what the students mean. They mean how do they achieve the bandscore they need—usually 6.5 or 7.0 overall.
So what do I say to these students? I usually say that there are no magic answers to obtaining higher band scores in the IELTS test. It is a test of English language ability, so, of course, you obtain higher scores by having higher ability. The best way to raise your ability is simply to practise your listening, reading, writing, and speaking. However, no matter how you’re your English may be, it is certainly possible for you to be unprepared, unpractised, and to try to do parts of the IELTS test in the wrong way, and thus to receive a result lower (or far lower) than what your English ability deserves. This is why it is also important to prepare and practise. I say this, too, to my students. However I know that they want a more definite answer.
This is why there is so much ‘IELTS Preparation’ material available, and my students often have, read, and use some of it, but does this material always provide the best advice and approaches?
The answer is no. Students should know that there are no magic answers, and that practice and preparation are important to achieving a high IELTS band score, but they clearly want and need some practical and strategic approaches showing how, and they are too often relying on unsatisfactory material to find this.
So that is why I wrote these IELTS books. In short, these books are the answer to that question about how to ‘pass’ the IELTS test. The answer is to follow the tips in these books. In this one, there are twenty tips and over forty exercises. Each tip builds on the previous. Each tip is solid, proven, and supported. There are answers to all exercises. All the knowledge is summarised and demonstrated at the end to make a clear and achievable framework. This book is how you ‘pass’ the test. So, let us then begin on this road.
Tip 1
The Basis of Good Speaking
Preliminary
What is one of the most important pieces of advice in the IELTS Speaking test? The answer is…to speak! The test is not a good time to be shy or in a quiet mood. You have to prove yourself to be a good speaker. Examiners can only judge the speaking that is recorded. Thus, it is important to give views and opinions in a clear and persuasive way. Well, that is not easy – but there are many people pretending it is, and giving much bad advice – advice that is not the basis of good speaking. So, what is this basis?
Let us first consider perfect speaking? How do you receive an IELTS Band Score Nine? Let us consider ‘native’ or ‘natural’ speakers of English. It may surprise you to know that educated native speakers of English sometimes do the IELTS test. Australian doctors, for example, who want to work in England, have to do the IELTS test. They do not study IELTS books, but they usually score an IELTS Nine for speaking. How? Well, they have almost perfect grammar and very good words; they speak easily, fluently, willingly, and they do not pretend or lie. In doing this, they use all the features of natural speech which prove their high speaking ability to the IELTS examiner. Let us look at some of these features.
Features of Natural Speech
Exercise 1
Can you match the features in the first column with their example in the second? You might need a dictionary for this. Check the Answer Section to see if you are right.
Features of Natural Speech Example
1. Discourse markers A. ‘It’s a toss-up between the two.’
2. Informal grammar B. ‘There’s four people there.’
3. Hedges C. ‘If I did go to England, I’d…’.
4. Ellipsis D. ‘Every Tom, Dick, and IELTS candidate.’
5. Onomatopoeia E. ‘…as a matter of fact…’
6. Abbreviations F. ‘Got a cold. Long time. Feeling bad.’
7. Colloquial expressions G. ‘He was, kind of, y’know, tired.’
8. Jokes and puns H. ‘I was gonna be late ’cos I missed the bus.’
9. Fixed expression I. ‘Anyway, everyone had a good time.’
10. Effective stress and tone J. ‘The thing went ‘whoosh’ right passed me.’
The ‘Beat’ of English
Another feature of natural speech is speaking with a beat. How would an English native speaker say, ‘What are you doing?’ The speaker would not say, ‘What – Are – You – Doing?’ but quite possibly say,
‘Whadayado’n?’
/ wɒdəjəduən /
English is a ‘stress-timed’ language, and this means that there is a regular ‘beat’ to the speaking. For example:
Try saying this yourself, putting stress on the key words. What do you notice? You should notice that the parts between the ‘beats’ are not said very strongly. They are called weak forms – where the words are pushed together, often with the weak /ə/ sound. In our very first examples, ‘are you’ became /əjə/.
When listening to English native speakers, you will hear these weak forms all the time. When you speak, you should think about trying to do the same. It is not ‘bad’ pronunciation, it is natural pronunciation, and in the IELTS test, this ‘beat’ of English is rewarded by the pronunciation band descriptors. Try reading a written text aloud. Put in the ‘beat’.
Exercise 2
Which words do you think are stressed in the following answer to an IELTS Speaking Test Part One question? Read it aloud. Read it aloud again, then again, and try to become natural in this. The answers, and some rules, are given in the Answer Section.
Actually, I prefer cats. You see, … I have personal experience with cats. I grew up with them, and I really began to admire their grace, cleanliness, and attitude to life. I remember a bumper sticker I once read, which said, ‘Dogs have masters; cats have servants.’ And guess what? I actually like that attitude in cats. Seeing their complete self-indulgence actually makes me feel relaxed.
The features of speech in Exercise 1, and the pronunciation in Exercise 2, do not come by remembering sentences, or thinking too much about ‘strategies’. If you memorise and calculate, you will probably speak in an unnatural and inappropriate way, and your score can be lowered for these reasons.
Basically, Features 1-10 come with knowing more ‘English English’, and not this unnatural ‘IELTS English’ given by people trying to milk the IELTS cow. Features 1-10 come as you develop a naturalness and honesty and relaxation about what you say. That is the basis of good speaking.
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