IELTS Speaking Exam How to Get Band 7
Hi, I’m Justin.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can see what you need
to do to get band seven in the IELTS speaking
exam.
To get band seven in the IELTS speaking exam,
you need to speak at a high level.
There’s no other way; no one gets band seven
for IELTS without speaking really good English.
However, you also need to know how the exam
works, how the scoring works, and how to prepare
for your IELTS speaking test.
In this video, you’ll see exactly what to
do to get band seven in the four parts of
your IELTS speaking score.
You’ll also see some common problems that
IELTS candidates have, and we’ll share some
practical exercises to help you prepare for
your speaking exam and improve your IELTS
speaking score!
But first, I just mentioned “the four parts
of your IELTS speaking score.”
Do you know what those are?
Your final IELTS speaking score is actually
an average of four different scores.
First is fluency and coherence.
This means whether you can speak without pausing
or hesitating, and whether you can answer
questions fully and directly.
Next is lexical resource.
This basically means ‘vocabulary’.
This score focuses on your ability to use
a wide range of vocabulary accurately.
Third is grammatical range and accuracy.
To get a high score here, you need to use
a wide range of grammar structures without
making mistakes.
Finally, you get a score for pronunciation.
This depends both on how clear your pronunciation
is, and whether you use features of native
speech, like natural intonation.
We’ll look at these four scores in more
detail during this class.
If you want to read the scoring system, you
can, and you should!
There’s a link underneath the video.
Let’s start with your fluency and coherence
score, and what you can do to improve it.
To get band seven in your fluency and coherence
score, you need to speak without hesitating
much, stay on topic, and use linking words
well.
It’s okay to hesitate occasionally, for
example because you need one or two seconds
to remember a word.
However, if you hesitate often, then getting
band seven is difficult.
‘Linking words’ here includes very simple
connectors, like and, but or for example.
You don’t need to use formal or academic
language in your IELTS speaking test.
In fact, it could even hurt your score.
So, what should you do?
First, identify your biggest weaknesses.
Here are some common problems which could
stop you getting band seven:
You pause and hesitate a lot when you speak
You give short answers.
You go off-topic.
You speak in short, simple sentences, without
using linking words.
What do you think; what’s your number one
problem?
It’s important to choose one.
To improve, it’s better to focus on one
thing at a time.
Got an idea?
So, here’s what you do.
Choose a common IELTS speaking topic.
Choose one topic and record yourself talking
about it for one minute.
Listen to the recording.
Next, check for problems.
For example, if you said your biggest weakness
is hesitating and pausing, then listen to
your recording and count the number of times
you pause.
Count every time you stop, every time you
say ‘um’, ‘er’ or something like that.
Then, repeat the task, and try to improve.
For example, if you’re working on hesitations
and pauses, then try to get fewer hesitations
and pauses the second time.
If you’re working on giving longer answers,
then try to get closer to one minute.
After you improve your answer, set yourself
a new challenge.
For example, you can choose a different topic,
or you can try to talk for longer.
Try to talk for two minutes without hesitating,
or three.
You might need some help here.
For example, students who go off topic generally
don’t realise they’re going off topic;
that’s part of the problem.
In this case, you might need feedback from
a friend or a teacher.
Use of linking words is more difficult to
practice by yourself, but here’s a simple
exercise you can do: write down a list of
simple linking words, like this:
Do the same activity: choose a topic and speak
for one minute.
Try to use all of the linking words on your
list.
Listen to your recording, and cross off the
linking words when you use them.
If you don’t use them all, try again.
If you can use them all, make the task more
difficult: make your list longer, and try
to speak for more time.
Practice regularly with different topics,
and your fluency should improve.
Next, what about your vocabulary score?
To get band seven for your vocabulary score
in your IELTS speaking test, you need to:
use vocabulary to talk about different topics,
use some less common vocabulary, use collocations,
use register appropriately, and use paraphrase.
Let’s see what these things mean!
‘Collocations’ are word combinations.
For example, think about the word complex.
What things can be complex?
You could have a complex situation, a complex
question, a complex personality, or a complex
idea.
There are others, but that’s not the point.
It’s not enough to know a word, like complex,
you also need to know how to combine the words
you know.
‘Register’ means whether the language
you use is formal or informal.
In the IELTS speaking test, the most common
mistake is trying to speak much too formally.
If you use words in an unnatural way, it will
hurt your score.
Your goal is to communicate clearly and naturally,
not formally.
Finally, ‘paraphrase’ means using a range
of language to avoid repetition.
Let’s look at an example.
The examiner asks: Tell me about your free
time.
You say:
In my free time, I enjoy reading books.
Whenever I have free time, I like to read
different kinds of books, especially historical
fiction or fantasy.
I usually have free time at the weekends,
so I read books as much as I can.
In many ways, this is a good answer.
However, there’s a problem; can you see
it?
It’s too repetitive.
The candidate uses the words free time and
read books too much.
Paraphrase means that you use different language
to avoid this.
For example:
In my free time, I enjoy reading books.
Whenever I have some time to myself, I like
to sit down with a good book, especially historical
fiction or fantasy.
I don’t have to work at the weekends, which
lets me read as much as I want.
This answer has the same ideas as the first
answer you saw, but it uses a wider range
of language to avoid repetition.
So, now you know what you need to do to get
band seven for vocabulary.
But, how can you improve?
First, focus on collocations.
Most IELTS students who we meet have enough
vocabulary to get band seven, but they can’t
combine the words they know correctly.
Here’s an exercise: read something in English
every day.
It can be anything: a news article, a blog
post, part of a story…
Anything is fine.
In the text, try to find 5-10 new collocations
using only words you already know.
The idea is not to learn new words; instead,
your goal is to find new ways to use your
existing vocabulary.
You can also use a dictionary to find new
collocations.
For example, imagine that you’re reading
a news article and you see the phrase energy
use.
You already know the words energy and use,
so you learn this collocation.
Next, look up the word energy in the dictionary,
and find 2-3 more collocations, like:
energy consumption
green energy
conserve energy
Keep track of your new collocations using
digital flashcard apps like Quizlet or Anki.
By improving your knowledge of collocations,
you’ll be able to use a wider range of vocabulary
in your IELTS speaking exam, and this will
also help you to paraphrase.
It’s also important to read and listen in
English regularly to build your vocabulary,
although this is a long process.
Next, what about your grammar score?
To get band seven for grammar, you need to
do two things.
One: you need to use a range of ‘complex
grammatical structures’.
Two: you need to make ‘frequent error-free
sentences’.
‘Complex structures’ here does not mean
that you need to use very formal or academic
language, as we mentioned before.
It means that you need to use different verb
tenses, sentence structures, conjunctions
and so on.
For example, imagine the examiner asks you:
What kind of food do you prefer?
You answer:
I prefer Asian food.
I like strong flavours and spicy food, so
I particularly like Thai food, Indian food,
and so on.
I’m quite keen on Japanese food as well.
I think Indian food is probably my favourite.
This is a good answer in many ways, but it
does not have enough grammatical range to
get band seven.
Can you see why?
There are four sentences all starting with
the same word: I.
All of the verbs are in the present tense.
Also, only one sentence has a conjunction.
To get a higher score, you need to use a wider
range of grammar, like this:
I prefer Asian food, such as Thai, Indian,
and so on, because I’ve always been a big
fan of spicy food with strong flavours.
I tried Japanese food a few weeks ago, and
I like it, although I’d say that Indian
food is probably my favourite.
Think about two things here.
One: the meaning is the same.
You’re expressing the same ideas.
Two: you’re not using very complicated or
formal language.
What changed?
We combined the four sentences into two, using
words like because and although.
This will also help your fluency and coherence
score!
We’ve also used a wider range of verb forms,
such as the present perfect,
the past simple,
or the modal verb would
However, for most IELTS candidates, accuracy
is more important for band seven.
Remember that for band seven, you have to
produce ‘frequent error-free sentences’.
Think about the words ‘error-free’.
That means no mistakes.
No mistakes with prepositions, no mistakes
with the, no mistakes with verb tenses; no
mistakes at all, even small ones.
If you’ve been studying English for a long
time, you probably have some bad habits.
For example:
You forget the ‘s’ on 3rd person verbs,
so you say ‘she go’ instead of ‘she
goes’.
You forget to use past forms, so you use present
verbs to talk about the past.
You make mistakes with prepositions, like
using at, in or on to talk about time.
You use will to talk about everything in the
future, instead of using going to or the present
continuous when you need to.
These are some of the most common examples,
but there are more!
The point is: you probably make more mistakes
than you realise.
To get band seven for IELTS speaking, you
need to get rid of these bad habits.
So, what should you do?
First, identify five common mistakes which
you make.
If you don’t know, you might need to ask
a teacher for feedback.
Next, choose one mistake to work on, then
choose a topic and record yourself speaking,
like you did before.
Choose a topic which fits the grammar you’re
practicing.
For example, if you forget to use past tenses,
choose a topic which is about the past.
Listen to the recording and count the mistakes
you make.
Only focus on one grammar mistake at one time.
Repeat until you can speak for one minute
without mistakes.
Then, try again with a different mistake,
or a different topic.
In this way, you can learn to speak more accurately,
and get a better IELTS speaking score for
your grammar.
Finally, what about pronunciation?
To get band seven for pronunciation, you need
to be easy to understand and use ‘features
of natural speech’.
What does that mean?
For IELTS, this mostly means: intonation,
weak forms, word stress, sentence stress,
and linking.
An important point: your accent does not matter
for your IELTS score, so long as you’re
easy to understand.
You don’t have to speak with a British accent
or an American accent.
Pronunciation is hard to improve by yourself.
You need feedback from a professional teacher
to work on pronunciation.
However, there are some things you can do
in your own time.
First, think about the list of pronunciation
features we mentioned:
intonation
weak forms
word stress
sentence stress
and linking
Do you know what these are?
If not, find out!
There are many resources online to help you.
You can also find many free videos on our
website and our channel which can help you
to practice these pronunciation points.
Next, choose the point you find most difficult,
and work on that with your teacher.
If you can only study by yourself, this will
be difficult.
But, here are some tips that could help you:
Find English songs, and sing along to them
with the lyrics.
Find videos or recordings of famous speeches,
and try to copy them.
This is very good for your intonation and
stress.
Find audio sources in English—podcasts,
radio shows, YouTube videos—anything will
do!
Try to copy what you hear with the same accent.
This isn’t because accent matters, but when
you copy the accent, you’ll hopefully copy
a lot of the natural features as well.
Also, you should make sure you’re pronouncing
all English sounds correctly.
For example, can you pronounce ‘th’ sounds,
or do you change it to a /d/ or a /z/ sound?
Like everything else, you should first identify
which sounds you have problems with.
Practice the sounds with your teacher.
Ask your teacher to correct you every time
you make a mistake.
This way, you’ll improve quickly.
Getting band seven in IELTS speaking is not
easy!
Expect that you’ll need to spend a lot of
time and effort to get there.
Good luck with your IELTS tests!
If you already got band seven: how did you
do it?
Do you have any advice to share?
Please tell us in the comments!
Don’t forget to visit Oxford Online English.com for more IELTS preparation lessons.
Thanks for watching, and see you next time!