IELTS Exam: How to Teach Speaking Skills

Students speak English, but you see that it does not sound as confident as they need to be able to get a higher score for IELTS? You are not sure that the students will be able to avoid awkward silence when the examiner asks a question that they do not understand, aren’t you? You want their speech to sound fluent and impressive, don’t you? Then this article is for you.

Read out: How to Teach Listening Skills and How to Teach Reading Skills

First of all, let’s see what the IELTS speaking exam is:

• Length: 9-12 minutes
• Type: a face to face dialogue with the examiner
• Parts: 3

IELTS Part 1: Icebreaker

The examiner will:

• Introduce herself/himself and ask the examinee to do so as well
• Ask the examinee general questions about familiar topics

Comment: This part aims to help the examinee relax and talk.

Tips for teachers

Teach your students how to:

• Make a good impression on the examiner; smile, look confident, relax.
• Be friendly and relaxed; this will improve their confidence level, and their answers will sound more fluent and confident.
• Extend the answers, however, they should not give too long answers (each answer should not be longer than 20 seconds).

IELTS Part 2: Cue Card

The examinee will:

• be given a card which will ask them to talk about a specific topic, and there will be points to cover in the speech.
• be given 1 minute to prepare and up to 2 minutes to talk.

Comment: The examinee will not be interrupted, however, in the end, the examiner may ask them 1 or 2 questions about their card questions.

Tips that you should give to your students

• Make notes while preparing.
• Use synonyms if possible or paraphrase the questions on the card in your answer.
• Make sure to speak for 1-2 minutes.
• Do not write phrases or words that you are very comfortable using, make sure you write advanced phrases and sentences to answer questions in the card.
• Make sure the answer sounds natural.
• Keep eye contact.

While preparing

You will need to make sure that preparing nonstop speeches is a common thing for your students. Moreover, make sure that your students can speak about the list of their favourites such as a film, a book, city, country, etc. Students may be required to answer questions related to their preferences, experiences, etc. on such topics as art, books, communication, daily routine, sport, family, languages, technologies, travelling and so on.

IELTS Part 3: Discussion

• The examinee will be asked further questions related to the topic in the card.
• There will be a discussion about abstract issues and ideas.

Tips that you should give to your students:

• Paraphrase the question.
• If needed ask for clarification.
• It is ok to pause as you are thinking about the answer.
• Sound natural.
• Do not give memorized phrases or sentences.

While preparing:

Give enough practice of arguing topics. They should be able to stand a position in debatable issues and bring arguments to support their views.

The other method that you can try is to make your students tell their essays; this is a great way to practice long-run speaking.

In the end, you should also inform your students about marking criteria for IELTS speaking:

• Fluency and coherence
• Lexical resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
• Pronunciation

And here is the more detailed explanation on each criterion: fluency and coherence.

Your students should be able to speak:

• Fluently at length
• Without pauses or hesitation
• With cohesive devices

IELTS Lexical resource

Your students should be able to speak:

• With a wide range of vocabulary
• With less common vocabulary
• With more topic-specific vocabulary

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Your students should be able to speak:

• With error free sentences
• Proper application of grammar structures

Pronunciation

Your students should be able to:

• Use intonation
• Pronounce the words properly
• Speak so that the examiner understands them

So, I hope this short but structured guidance will help you to plan your lesson for IELTS speaking. Be open-minded and creative in planning your speaking lessons. Make sure you force the students to pick up advanced and challenging topics to discuss and improve their vocabulary to be able to fluently discuss those topics.