IELTS Energy 1458: Is Conversational English Enough for IELTS Speaking?
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1458. Is conversational English enough for IELTS speaking?

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

Today we answer an amazing listener question about whether daily conversations can improve your IELTS speaking score. Find out what the examiner is listening for and strategies for boosting your scores. Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life.

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Aubrey, I have a question for you. Let's hear it. In your daily conversation, right? Would you say that you pretty much stick to talking about easy topics like weather, shopping, exercise, or do you like to dive in to complicated stuff like social issues, politics, philosophy, what have you?

- Good question. I stick to the easy stuff usually. I like for conversations to be pretty fun and lighthearted and funny. I'm always aiming to be funny. Every now and then I'll get deeper with someone, but it's pretty rare. What about you? - I get deep a lot. I'm always so curious about people's motivations and experience and opinions. And I think, well, okay, I know because James tells me that I get a little too personal with people sometimes.

I do that too. Too quick. Okay, guys. So we are talking today about how the IELTS speaking exam is different than what most people experience in English daily conversations and how it might be the same. So we got this question, actually. It was pretty interesting from a listener. Aubrey, can you read that question?

Yes, this is from Layla said, I've already taken the exam and scored a seven overall a month ago. Going to retake the exam at the end of February because I was not expecting such a low score of 6.5 on the speaking test. My question is, I have heard that speaking with people in English cannot be enough for improving speaking. Is this right?

Ooh, what a good question. Great question. First of all, Layla, amazing. You already got a 6.5 on the speaking test. And often when people get a 6.5 and they're surprised by that,

It's usually just a matter of learning the IELTS specific things the examiner is looking for. And that's what we're talking about today, guys. Just speaking English with other people on the daily, it's not enough, right? It's enough for a 6.5, but not higher than that. So let's talk about why. First of all, let's talk about part one. Aubrey, can you

Can you let us know how part one is the same or different than daily speaking? Yeah, part one is probably the most similar to your daily conversations because you're likely to be asked about friends and your weekend and, you know, they're more informal. Because of this, the examiner is looking for more informal vocabulary, slang, idioms.

And you know, you might be asked what movies did you like when you were a kid? So this will likely be things that you that would come up in conversations. But there are some differences as well. Yeah, I think I think the main difference in part one is in the grammar that we use. When we're just chatting away with another person in English.

There are a lot of incomplete sentences. We pause, we start over. The sentence structures are often pretty simple. You know, there could be some compound sentences in there. But the grammar in daily speaking is pretty easy and sometimes incorrect, right? And on IELTS, we can't do that, right?

Right. And we're more likely to be repetitive. Like in one conversation, I might say, for sure, or totally 10 times. And on IELTS part one, you can't do that. You have to switch it up, use a variety of vocabulary too. Exactly. Exactly. And not only that, guys, there are

some weird questions in part one that you would never be asked that would never come up just in daily life like i the one that always struck me as the weirdest that i'll never forget is what are the favorite colors of your friends at the moment like what who would even think about that let alone i don't know because i'm not asking my friends their favorite colors imagine what's your favorite color does i have no idea no one cares

Exactly. That's not something that adults talk about anymore. Six-year-olds talk about that. My favorite color is blue. As an adult, you're like, I don't care. I don't know. I don't think about it. Yeah. And you can't just say, that's a weird question. I don't know. You have to have some kind of answer. Whereas in a conversation, you could say that. That's weird. I don't know. Exactly. Exactly.

On this podcast, we are all about your IELTS score. What the examiner is looking for in speaking and writing. What tricks to watch out for in listening and reading. And what strategies you need for all four sections. We want you to get the score you need on IELTS and be done with this exam.

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all ears english.com/my score. All right, guys, so part two, I really think part two is the biggest difference. Right? Like, what do you think? Yeah, I agree. Right? Rarely in a conversation, will you just speak for two full minutes? In fact, you're not a very good conversationalist. If ever you just speak for two minutes and don't ask a question or let the other person talk. So it's not a lot like conversation. Exactly. I

I could see this happening in real life if you just got back from vacation or you just had a traumatic experience. There's a big story that you're telling your friends at the moment. That's really the only time it could be similar to something that we do in real life.

But again, that's only if you're a person who is good at telling long stories in a conversation. I don't think people, even in their first language, I don't think everybody is good at telling stories. Yeah, this takes practice, right? For whether you're talking to friends or whether you're answering a part two question to keep it interesting and engaging, vary your tone, avoid a monotone over the course of two minutes. That takes practice.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So part two, I think is the most important part of the exam to learn

what the examiner is looking for and how to accomplish those things, right? It really is strategic in part two. The chronological linking words you use, right? The time markers. What kind of descriptive vocabulary you should be learning that can work on a variety of topics. How do we introduce our answer? How do we go off on side tangents, right? All of this is

strategic towards impressing the examiner. Yes, and not repeating ideas just to fill the two minutes, right? Adding new interesting details, new vocabulary. You've got to time your answers so you can feel how long two minutes is to describe something for that long. Practice telling a story. We've shared that strategy. It's really going to help. But again, you have to practice how do you build that story? How do you transition between ideas? Totally.

Totally, exactly. All right, and that brings us to the last part of the test, part three. Aubrey, do you think this is similar or different to daily convos?

So it does depend on a person's daily conversations. You might be talking about the kinds of things that come up in part three questions and Jessica does sometimes. I do very rarely. I'm not going to ask someone in a conversation like, "What do you think about the environment? What do you think about crime in our town?" I'm looking for lighthearted and fun and funny. So part three would be harder for me. These are things that I honestly don't think about on the daily.

I don't think a lot of people do think about these things in their first language, let alone English, right? So part three really does require a lot of preparation on the part of students. What should students be preparing for in part three that they cannot get from regular conversation?

Yeah. So one thing is the examples, right? You're going to need to share details and examples for every answer you provide. And the more this can be real stuff that you have heard on podcasts or seen on a show, the more vocabulary you'll know, the more detail you can provide. It is difficult to just make something up about a complicated issue if you haven't thought about it a lot and if you haven't been listening to a lot of English and hearing about a lot of different topics.

100%, 100%. So the main takeaway today, guys, is yes, speaking to other people in English

On the daily is fantastic for your speaking and your fluency, right? And it will help you on the speaking test because again, fluency, practice, confidence. However, as you've heard today, there are some big differences that affect your score that do not come up in daily conversation.

Yeah, and it's really vital that you understand the scoring system because if you scored a 6.5, you may have no idea why. Was it vocabulary? Was it fluency? Was it grammar? You really need to know what you're being scored on and what you're lacking. The best thing you can do is do a mock speaking test with

you know, an IELTS expert, like we do these mock tests where we can give you your score for each section and your overall score and then specific details about what you need to improve, what is pulling down your score so that you know how to study to get the score you need.

Exactly. Exactly, Aubrey. So if you're interested in that private coaching, go to allearsenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S and you could see the options there. Otherwise, guys, we will be back on the mic soon. Thanks for chatting, Aubrey. Awesome. Thanks, Jessica. See you next time. Bye.

Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.