IELTS Energy 1484: IELTS Speaking Forum Questions and Answers
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1484, IELTS Speaking Forum, Questions and Answers.

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

forward slash my score. Do you know how your IELTS speaking score is affected by stuttering or pauses? Find out today as we answer common IELTS forum questions in this final installment of our series.

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Offer valid in US and Canada. Exclusions apply. See details online. Aubrey, we get to talk about IELTS speaking today. Yes, and this is part four of a four-part series, which is very rare. This might be our only four-part series. I can't think of another one. Can you? No, no, this is it.

So guys, if you have missed the other parts of this, we'll tell you quickly. What we're doing right now is looking at the most common questions on different IELTS forums and bringing you the insider answers that you can trust. So, so far we've tackled listening, reading, and writing. Scroll up guys to these recent episodes and listen if you have not. And today we're tackling the hottest speaking questions.

Yes, and if you missed any of those episodes, you might not be following. So be sure to hit follow here on IELTS Energy. We have two new episodes every week. You don't want to miss any of them. So hit follow. Awesome. All right, let's get to it. Aubrey, what is our first speaking question? All right. I want to ask, in part three of the speaking test, I couldn't answer a question and I was silent for a moment.

So the examiner gave me some examples and I said exactly yes. And then the examiner asked me why these examples are important and I answered, how would that affect my score? Oh, I feel really sad for this student. I can imagine being there and having this happen and feeling like knowing that it's a problem because this would be pretty devastating for your fluency and coherence score.

Yeah, I mean, remember you are graded on all three parts of the exam, right? Overall. So having just a little bit of silence in part three, depending on how you do in the rest of the exam, let's say that the student just performed magnificently and the examiner was thinking like, oh, definitely a seven or eight, right? But then in this part three question to be silent for a minute, right?

You can't get a seven for fluency and coherence. So again, depending on how they did in the rest of the exam, probably tapped out at a six, right, for fluency because of that silence. What should a student do instead of having that silence?

Yes, there are so many things that you can do. If you feel yourself stuck for an answer or for a word, narrate your thoughts. Just say aloud what you're thinking, even if it's just like blatant honesty saying like, wow, I just really don't know what I think about this. I haven't ever thought about this issue before. That's okay. It's all right that you haven't thought about that issue before. You're saying something. You do not want to have enough silence go by that the examiner has to prompt you. Yeah.

Yeah, not great. And if the question is confusing, because there are some confusing questions and the examiner knows this. So if it's confusing, don't be silent. You need to ask for clarification immediately because it is a speaking test. You must speak. And if there is silence, your fluency score goes down. So if the question is confusing, just say, can you give me an example of that?

and then the examiner gives you an example, and then you understand, and then you answer, right? That's not going to affect your fluency score, right? Again, if you do well in the rest of the exam and just have some momentary confusion about one question, but you tackle that directly and you're like, can you give me an example? No silence, no hesitation, then you'd be fine, right?

Yes, exactly. Or if you just didn't hear correctly, you're not positive you heard the question, you can also ask the examiner to repeat the question. Don't hesitate to do that. Much better than just allowing silence to lapse. Exactly, exactly. All right. What is the next question? All right. The next question is, please, I need some clarification about some mistakes I made during my speaking test in December.

There was a section where I was asked to talk about what can be done to make people develop interest in art.

I found myself stuck with the pronunciation of a particular word, subsidizing. I kept saying, subs, subs, subsiding. Eventually, the examiner coughed, stopped the tape, and repeated the question, but the same mistake occurred. Now I am afraid this might affect my score badly. Other sections of the test went well, but I was depressed all through the test. There are a few things that are so devastating for me here, but especially the end. I have been in that situation. We have solidarity here. When you know you've made a big mistake, it would

be really difficult to finish the exam and not let that really affect how you feel about it. Oh my gosh.

Like what if this had happened? I mean, it sounds like this is a part three question, right? But what if this had happened in part one and then you spend the whole rest of the test just like deflated? You've lost all your confidence. Like, oh God, that's so sad. Yeah. So just quickly guys, practice a lot. Practice so much that you will not lose your confidence and you could bounce back if something like this happens. But would this affect their score, this stuttering over that one word?

Well, there's one thing you can do to make sure it doesn't affect your score at all. If you kind of stutter on one word, you don't have to say that word correctly. Come up with a synonym or a paraphrase. Just skip it. Move on. This happens to native speakers, too. Sometimes they'll be saying a word or like, for some reason, I can't get it to come out of my mouth. We'll just say it another way. And that would not lower your score.

Yeah, I mean, this happens all the time, right? Like, if I'm trying to explain something, and I mentioned a movie, right? And I can't think of the name of the movie that I have to explain the plot until someone else can guess the name. Like this happens all the time, right? Nobody's perfect. So yes, exactly. Like Aubrey said, if you're

stuttering over a word, just like skip it, paraphrase, use a different word. And for this word subsidizing, you could just say paying for, right? I'm trying to say the, you know, the government should be paying for these programs, right? Just say it another way.

Exactly, exactly. And I do want to say that this is, this shouldn't happen, that the examiner stopped the tape. That should not happen. The examiner is not allowed to stop the recording at any time during the speaking exam. So if that does happen to you, you guys need to complain to the test administrator because that is not a valid exam and you could take it again.

Yeah, that's a really good point. So if ever you see the examiner stop the tape, say something before you leave because that's a problem. Mm-hmm.

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My question is, which part is the most important among the three parts of the IELTS speaking test? Like, is part one playing an essential role in the speaking test? And is it okay if I had a pause during the exam if I was not sure of the answer?

We'll attack the second question next. There's a lot here already. Yeah, totally. So I feel like we have addressed these in the other answers already, which just goes to show you that these are really common questions, right? So yeah.

Which part is the most important, Aubrey? Yeah, all three parts are equally important. Your score is being determined through all three parts. You aren't given a separate score for each one. One is not weighted more highly than the others. So all three are equally important.

There may be things that are more difficult for you about other sections, so you may focus more on preparing for part three, for example, getting lots of ideas about these more challenging questions, but it's not scored higher.

Exactly. We can see this reflected in the vocabulary descriptors, right? In order to get a seven or higher for vocab, you need to show a range of vocabulary, which means you have to provide informal vocabulary, part one, for these informal questions. Whereas part three, more academic questions, right? So more academic vocab. So yes, they are all equal in the eyes of the exam.

Yes, and we did sort of already answer this question about pauses during the exam. Keep in mind, this happens to everyone. It might be you're trying to think of vocabulary, not sure of your answer. Be ready with filler phrases. Be ready to paraphrase to try to avoid those pauses. And then I'll read the rest of the question.

The second question is, do you think it would help me to improve my listening and speaking by listening to the BBC or VOA? Do you have any other suggestions for improving my listening? Okay, nice. Yeah. What do you think, BBC or VOA?

Oh, I mean, I love the BBC. There are so many good BBC podcasts and some of them are made for English learners, but a lot of them are made for native speakers. So no matter what topic you're interested, you could find a great podcast through BBC for sure. What do you think, Jessica? Yeah.

Yeah, and Voice of America is also great. They're not as they don't have as big of an output as the BBC. Also, the the person in control of Voice of America has changed recently. And I'm not sure what direction that will take that material.

So I have had a lot of students use VOA and they really liked it. I never got into it myself. It's fine. If you like it, listen to it. Okay. It doesn't matter. It's not like one is more geared to IELTS. You shouldn't just be listening to test prep videos.

material. If you're going to do well on IELTS, you need to have great overall fluency and you won't get that by just preparing for the test. So yeah, BBC, awesome. Tons of great podcasts, but don't just stick to one media outlet, right? You need to seek out as many different voices as you can.

Yes. I love that this listening question came up on our speaking section of this series, because not only do you need to be, you know, practicing listening for the listening exam, you also have to be able to understand every question on the speaking exam as well. Sure. So there are strategies if you're asked a question you're not clear on, but in general, you want to make sure that your listening skills are good enough that you understand those questions during your speaking exam.

Exactly. And remember that listening to podcasts is not speaking practice. Listening to anything is not speaking practice. You can turn it in to speaking practice if you are mimicking the people. But there have been a number of students I've had who we do a speaking test and I'm like,

It doesn't sound like you're speaking English that often because, you know, your fluency is not better than a five. How are you preparing for the speaking test? And they're like, oh, I listen to a lot of podcasts. So that's not listening is not speaking practice. It's a different skill.

Right. One thing that you can do is when you are, every time you listen to something in English, immediately afterward, speak aloud, summarize what you heard, but out loud so that you are making sure to practice both skills a lot.

Exactly. Exactly. All right. Awesome. Well, that wraps this series on IELTS Forum questions up, but we'll be back again with another amazing topic next time. So don't miss it. Hit follow right now. Awesome. See you next time. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.