4 IELTS Speaking Tips | Mock Questions, Connectors, Filler Sentences

Easier said than done is extremely true for the IELTS exam. If you're preparing to take

the IELTS exam, I'm sure you're probably freaking out right now and a lot of candidates who

take IELTS find the speaking section the hardest one because it involves face-to-face communication.

But do you know IELTS speaking is the easiest section actually? Well you may think, how

is that? Interviews are so spontaneous, I just won't have time to think of a good answer

moreover I'll be worrying, it's true. Speaking interviews are spontaneous but all the test

takers are worrying like you and don't have much time to plan either and examiners are

used to that. So they don't expect you to speak like an orator, you're only tested on

your ability to speak fluently and without hesitation, use various vocabulary, avoid

grammar mistakes and pronounce words well. So today I'm going to share with you some

crucial tips to get your desired score in the IELTS speaking test, my name is Michelle

and you're watching me on Let's Talk the place to develop your English language skills. First

and foremost “you need to know what's coming”, that is you need to understand the structure

of the IELTS speaking test. Do you know that even students who have taken the IELTS test

multiple times sometimes can't really answer questions about the structure of the test?

I think that's a huge mistake. You must know the structure of the IELTS speaking test in

order to better answer questions because you will be expecting the right thing. So here

are a few questions that you should be able to answer, first, “how long is the speaking

test?” The answer is, “11 to 14 minutes” and “how many parts are there to the speaking

test?” Well there are “three parts” and “what does each part consist of?”

So the “first part is introduction” which is questions about yourself and your preferences

and the “second part is called a short talk” or long turn where you're given a cue card

and you have a minute to prepare in about two minutes to speak for and in the end you

have a “discussion about abstract topics” like relationships, food, global issues, climate

change and so on… So tip number one is “know what's coming”. Now let's move to our “tip

two” so in order to get a better score for the fluency and coherence criterion you should

use “connectors”. Some people also call them linking words and others call it signposting.

Well you need to use these words so that your speech sounds more organized and it is easy

to follow. So the key to use in connecting words is to use it naturally and there is

no better way to learn natural English than by a native speaker. So let's speak to one,

yes you heard me right. So I'm going to use an app called as CAMBLY for this, CAMBLY is

an English language learning app with trainers from various English-speaking countries, who

are available to answer your English related questions, 24/7 and the high point of this

app is that it acquaints you to variety of accents like American, Canadian, Kiwi, South

African and many more and this is going to help you a lot in your IELTS listening as

well. So let's connect to one of our CAMBLY teachers to learn more about “connectors”.

So guys now I'm going to open the CAMBLY app and we are going to try to speak to a native

speaker, so I'm going to the ‘tutors tab’ and we have all the tutors who are available

to talk in green, so let's connect with Rachel, so she specializes in IELTS preparation, that's

perfect, let's give her a call, “hi Rachel” “hi, how are you?” “I'm doing well,

how are you?” “I'm very good, thank you, nice to meet you.” “nice to meet you as

well” okay so Rachel I'm an IELTS teacher and I want your help with connecting words

because I want to recommend your app to my students so can you test me some connecting

words that I can use for the IELTS speaking test for possibly adding information or concluding

or start my answer” “yeah sure, so you know we obviously have all the different categories

of linking words, so we have like the ones that can summarize, so yeah we could start

with maybe additionally, okay maybe if you want to add you could say like, additionally,

moreover, however” “could you make a sentence with ‘additionally’ please?” “okay,

sure let me just think quickly of ones that I have at the top of my mind so, let's just

say we were talking about your favorite holiday and you would say so, we, for my recent holiday

we were able to go to Cape Town, where we were able to see so many amazing things, such

as table mountain, boulders beach, camps bay, additionally, we were also able to actually

go to see the V&A waterfront which was really amazing, in particular it was nice to see

you know the amazing selection of shops” “right so you also use the word, ‘such

as’ and this is also a linking word if I'm right?” “yes yeah yes” “yeah perfect,

and could you just give me one for concluding if possible?” “yeah definitely, so let's

think of conclusion, so you could have in conclusion you could have to sum up, we could

have to reiterate so we could say, let's say we're talking about you know, ‘why teenagers

should have jobs?’, so we could say, I really do think that it is important for teenagers

to have jobs because they are able to learn important tasks etc. so in conclusion I really

do think that there's so much value in teenagers having jobs as they are able to learn responsibility

and they're able to earn additional money and they really are able to learn valuable

skills for the workplace.” “Perfect, thank you so much, thanks for your help, have a

good day.” “You too, bye” So friends how did you find this app? I'm sure you enjoyed

the conversation I had with Rachel. Well guys this app is not free, but as you are Let's

Talk subscriber, you can avail a discount of 32% on a three month plan and apart from

this there are multiple plants available on CAMBLY and you can choose the one that suits

your requirement and your learning needs. So I'm leaving a link for you in the description

with the discount code. So make sure you use the app and let me know in the comments how

did you find it. Well in my conversation with the trainer you learned some connectors, now

let's look at a few more connecting words, so to introduce your answer you could say,

‘certainly’, ‘definitely’, ‘doubtlessly’ or you could say, ‘undoubtedly’ and ‘of

course’. Okay, apart from this there are some more connecting words but for now we'll

only look at these, so let's look at a question, “do you like playing sports?” So if the

examiner asks you this, you could start with, “of course, I love playing cricket.” Another

question, “do you have a healthy diet?” You could say, “yes I'm very conscious of

what I eat, without any doubt I follow my diet plan made by my dietician.” Now if

you want to give your opinion you could start your answer with something like, ‘in my

opinion’, ‘from my point of view’, ‘as far as I'm concerned’ or ‘I believe that’.

So let's look at a question, so the examiner asks you, “what do you study?” You could

say, “I study science” then they'll ask you a further questions, “do you enjoy studying

science?” You could say, “science is vast, in my opinion it is interesting because you

can relate to it and I particularly like biology.” So here I used a phrase for giving my opinion.

So if you want to agree with the examiner, what would you say? Well if you want to agree

with the examiner you could start with, ‘I quite agree’ or you could say, ‘I could

not agree more’ this means you agree 100% or else you could say, ‘you're absolutely

right’. On the other hand for disagreeing you could say something like, ‘I don't quite

agree with that’ or you could say, ‘I don't accept that’. Now let's see one of

these in an example, so if the examiner asks you, “do people from your country think

fashion is important?” You could answer it like this, “yes I think people in my

country think fashion is important and I have recently noticed this, but I strongly disagree

that fashion is more important than comfort.” So here I use the phrase but ‘I strongly

disagree’. Now let's look at some connecting words to add information. You could use ‘moreover’,

you could use ‘besides’, ‘furthermore’, ‘in addition’ and ‘what's more’. So

let's look at an example, “how many hours do you spend reading?” “I usually read

before sleeping in the night, besides this I like reading while traveling.” So here

I used ‘besides this’, to add information. Let's look at one more example, “do you

think it's important to be punctual?” “Yes, it's very important to be on time in life

as it is one of the basic manners, moreover I don't like to keep people waiting” and

now finally let's look at some words for concluding your IELTS in the speaking test, so for concluding

your answer you could say, ‘lastly’, ‘in the end’, ‘to sum up’ or ‘in conclusion’.

Now let's look at a question, “is there anything you would like to change about your

flat?” You could answer it like, “I would love to have a big balcony where I can put

some chairs and sit in the evening while having tea, lastly I like to decorate it with plants.”

So what I can say is that you must never forget connectors in order to get a good score in

the criterion of fluency and coherence. The third point that I have for you is that ‘yes’

and ‘no’, are never satisfactory answers. Remember this is a test and you have to show

the examiner how good your English is and if you give very short answers you don't give

them enough opportunity to hear you and give you a score, that's why it's important to

add explanations, reasons and examples. Let's look at good and bad examples for a question,

so the question is “what are the causes of traffic jams in your city?” “the causes

of traffic jams are narrow roads and overpopulation.” So this is an example of a bad answer because

it's too short and it gives minimum information. Now let's look at an example of a good answer,

“the causes of congestion are narrow roads and overpopulation this is because our roads

were designed a long time ago when the population of the city was much lower, for example the

road near my house was built in the 1960s when the population was about a third of what

it is today.” So here the answer is detailed, it's explained and it gives the details that

are expected and on top of that it also has an example, so this is a good answer and that's

why I will tell you that it's important to expand your answers in the IELTS speaking

test. My last tip for you is if you are unsure about how to answer the question you can give

yourself a bit more time to think by using some “filler sentences” like “this is

a very tricky question” or “that's an interesting question…” So this way you

will have some extra time to plan your answer. You can also repeat the examiners question,

but in your own words. For example if the examiner asks you, What was your favorite

book in the childhood?” “Umm, what book did I like as a child, ah… let me see…”

okay, so this is an example of how you can paraphrase the examiners question. Some more

examples of filler sentences would be, “it's very hard to say for sure, but I would guess…”

or else you could start with, “it's difficult to say, I believe…” or else if you're

not sure about the answer you could say, “I don't really know for sure, but I believe…”

and then you give your opinion. Okay now with this tip comes a warning, if you begin every

sentence like this then the examiner will think that you have memorized your answers

and memorized these phrases, so be very careful when you use this tip, you should use it on

and off and not for every sentence that you speak. So here are my top tips for the IELTS

speaking test I hope these tips will give you a chance to calm your nerves before you

take the IELTS speaking exams and that you would be able to break a leg with these strategies.

Thank you so much for watching this lesson with me, I will see you soon in another IELTS

lesson till then, take care and break a leg, bye-bye.