How To Teach The IELTS Speaking Test

It is no use just starting an IELTS speaking class and treating it like any other English-speaking class.

IELTS speaking classes are not conversation classes where you help the student practice speaking about a variety of subjects. The students have to talk about different topics under certain conditions.

They do the IELTS test to show off their English skills — show the examiner they can use English under all the criteria laid out by the British Council.

You need to help them reach this goal in your own classes.

I have laid out a few tips below to help you create better IELTS speaking classes.

Let’s dive in.

Avoid Using Textbooks

I hate using ESL textbooks in any English class, but you should definitely avoid them in an IELTS speaking class.

The reason for this is that firstly IELTS textbooks are usually a load of garbage, in my opinion, but mostly because it makes the entire class extremely passive.

It is too easy for the teacher to just tell the class to turn to page 35 and do exercise 4 while he stares out the window, thinking about what to have for dinner.

The students, in turn, do all the exercises on auto-pilot. No one is involved in the class, no one is connected.

Use textbooks as a basis for what you do in the class by all means, but do not rely on them.

Make your own lesson plans and get the students to make eye contact with you and each other.

The emphasis should be on activity. The students think and do and speak for themselves.

This will help them when it comes to the test.

Do Lots Of Pair Work

This is common sense really.

The IELTS speaking test takes place between two people — the examiner and the candidate — so what better conditions in class than having pair work?

You have to create as realistic a setting as possible for the students.

If you are teaching a large class, this may present a small problem. But you should avoid too much class discussion or debates as that does not happen in the test.

Put all the students in pairs and get them to ask and answer questions related to the test and the topic at hand. Then each pair of students asks and answers questions in front of the class as a kind of presentation.

The rest of the students can provide peer review and make comments. They also see what the candidate was doing well and not so well.

The only time you might have a whole class activity is if you are practising presentations for part two. You can do this one student at a time in front of the class — the rest of the students doing peer review.

But for the most part — pair work all the time.

Make Them Listen

If you are using textbooks (and you really shouldn’t) then there is the risk that the students will just read the questions off the page.

This is not helpful to them at all.

The reason for this is that a common problem for IELTS speaking candidates is to answer the wrong question — or answer it incorrectly.

Many candidates simply don’t listen to the question that the examiner asks.

They only hear half the question — or one or two words — then think they know what it is and answer something completely different.

The students need to practice listening for the right information and the right keywords, so they know exactly what is being asked of them.

Put them in pairs and instead of just reading off the page of the textbook, get the students to pay attention to each other and listen to each other. Or — shock horror — have eye contact with each other.

All of this is very useful for them as it creates a realistic environment for them to practice doing the IELTS speaking test.

Ban All The Repeated Words

In many IELTS classes I did with Chinese students, I found that many of them used the same words to talk about things.

This was especially true when describing their hometowns. If the students were to be believed, I would think that every single town and city in China was beautiful and famous.

My hometown is called LiuXingTang. It is very beautiful and very famous.

Of course, this comes down to the cultural concept of face. The students don’t want to lose face, so they tell me and the entire class that every town and city is both beautiful and famous.

But this is not good for them in the test.

I used to write the words beautiful and famous on the board and then tell all the students they could not use these words. They looked back at me all freaked out and terrified, but it forced them to think of other words to describe their hometowns.

You should also do this.

No matter where you are in the world, you will find students repeating the same old words to talk about every subject under the sun.

Stop them from doing this and make them use other words. This will bode well for them in the IELTS test.

Ban The Catch-Phrases

And while we’re banning things, let’s ban all the commonly used catchphrases too.

IELTS students often use certain phrases they have picked up from textbooks, off the internet or from their own teachers. The problem with this is that they often have a really cool phrase to use but with nothing of any substance to back it up.

One phrase I heard from Chinese students all the time was to broaden my horizons. I imagine they learnt this from school and it stuck.

It’s not that bad — but when you hear every single student use it in the same class, you know there’s something wrong.

So I would ask: Why do you want to study abroad?

And the same answer like a chorus: To broaden my horizons.

I imagined entire ships, filled full of students, all going to England, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, all arriving on the shore to have their horizons collectively broadened.

Another problem is that students use these phrases thinking it is some kind of magical get-out-of-jail-free card.

All I have to do is say this phrase and the examiner will give me a Band 7 — at least!

If you hear these kinds of phrases being thrown around in your own class, make a sin list and ban them. Give the students other useful phrases or ways of saying the same thing.

They will thank you for it on the day of their IELTS test.

Get The Students To Use Natural English

The students don’t need to speak English in great convoluted sentence structures using words that are rarely ever said out loud.

They just need to speak clearly and coherently.

They do need to avoid overly simplistic English.

So, for example, they might say:

I don’t like the rain because it makes me feel sad.

Instead, they could say:

I really can’t stand the rain. Sometimes my hometown has heavy showers, and it puts me in a bad mood.

As the teacher, you need to constantly push them to use more complex English language structures in their answers. It need not be highly advanced vocabulary, just the kind of English that a native speaker might use.

Think about collocations and using conjunctions as often as they can.

Check my links below on how to use these:

A broad range of vocabulary is good, but not enough. They need better sentences and phrases.

And you are there to give it to them.

Methods To Make The Students Speak In More Interesting Ways

In the IELTS speaking class, you will often hear very simple sentence structures or answers.

I like playing basketball because it is good fun.

I am good at English but poor at maths.

While it is good that students are using conjunctions, these are very simple phrases. Students often use these easy linear answers. You need to get them to move away from that and into newer territory.

I have outlined some methods in the next few sections to help you help students talk about topics in more interesting ways.

Tell Me A Story

Using personal accounts or anecdotes works very well in the IELTS speaking test.

The examiner loves to hear stories from the candidate.

This works well for the student as they have to use a variety of verb tenses and other grammar to tell the story. They also have to use a certain vocabulary that is suitable for the context of the story too.

All of this can help the student get a higher score in the IELTS speaking test.

You can — and should — use the concept of storytelling in your classes.

Storytelling As An Example In The IELTS Speaking Test

So, for example, maybe one of the topics you are talking about is traffic in the city.

You ask the question: What do you think of the traffic in your town/city?

And you get the same mundane answers:

There is too much traffic because there are too many cars.

I don’t like the traffic because it is bad for the environment.

But if the students have to consider the question and use a story or anecdote to answer it, you will start to see some really interesting responses.

One time I was on my way to school and I was on the bus. I have to take the bus to school every day and there is often a traffic jam. But this one time there was a really long traffic jam. It went on for miles. People on the bus were getting angry. One man complained to the driver, but he said there was nothing he could do about it. In the end, we had to get off the bus and walk. It was quicker than staying on the bus.

You As The Teacher, Must Use Storytelling In Your Class

Now, of course, you will not get answers like that the first time, but with practice and a lot of help from you, the students will start to produce much better answers than just talking about the traffic.

Try this — it really works. And the students find this exercise more fun than just talking about the subject.

Check out my articles on using stories below.

Tell Me Something You Know

This is much like the story-telling exercise before, but now talking about personal knowledge of things.

Many students are stricken with fear over this — not being able to talk about something because they have no knowledge of the subject.

While this may be true for many students, it is not true for all of them. Most people have some knowledge of one subject or another.

Talk About What You Know

I encountered a student, a young boy of around thirteen years, who had more than a passing interest in insects. He knew some fascinating details about insects and could talk at length about them.

He was pretty shy to talk on any other subject, but by getting him to talk about bees, cockroaches and mosquitoes, he gained a lot of confidence in his ability to speak English.

Encourage Your Students To Do This

You can use this to get students to give more detailed answers too.

You ask the question: Are smartphones harmful to our health? 

And you get all the usual dull answers.

But now get students to use their knowledge about smartphones and you might hear different replies.

The students may recall things they read online — or heard on the news — about smartphones. Then use that as an answer.

Give Me Three Reasons Why

This is self-explanatory.

You raise a topic, ask a question, and the students have to provide three reasons in their responses.

It forces them to talk.

Question: Are there too many shopping malls in cities these days?

And the answer:

I think there are too many shopping malls in our cities these days. Near where I live, there are three large shopping malls all within walking distance of each other. There is no need to have that many for my community.

Many of the shops in the three malls are empty because there are not enough customers. The space is just wasted. It could be used for something for the local community.

Plus, many people shop online these days so they have no need for so many malls in their neighbourhood.

Three reasons. And an answer that would get top marks in the IELTS test.

Yes, it’s hard for the students at first, but it makes them think on the spot and you can also make this into a fun game with larger classes.

Give Me Some Comparisons

Comparing two different things is a great way to talk about a topic in the IELTS speaking test.

The most common — and easiest — comparisons to make are between two different places, or the past and the present.

Let’s say the topic is free-time interests. I’m sure you can already imagine the dull linear answers you would get to this kind of topic. But if you ask the students to compare two aspects of free-time interests, now we can see more interesting answers.

So the students might compare free-time activities between their own country and another. Or their hometown and another city.

Yes, there will be errors.

When I spoke to Chinese students about this, they would talk about England playing basketball or celebrating Thanksgiving (basketball is not so popular in England and we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving). But that doesn’t matter. All you want to see is that the students are talking.

If the students compare free-time activities between the past and now, they can talk about things they do at the weekend and things their parents or grandparents did. It is easy and they can usually talk for some time about this.

Tell Me About The Future

Talking about the future might present some grammar issues.

The students may have to use forms like modals — may, might, could — and future conditionals using if. But good practice for them so no problem.

Essentially, you just get the students to talk about a topic and how it affects the future or what changes it will go through in the future.

The topic could be public transport. An easy subject to talk about in the future.

The students could then talk about what kind of public transport systems we may use in the future. Younger students love this as they get to use their imaginations.

Expect to hear some wild ideas, but that’s all good.

The wilder the better. More things to talk about.

You can throw a spanner in the works by saying that the world runs out of oil. So what kind of public transport would we use with no oil?

More wild answers. One student told me we would all be riding horses.

Sounds legit.

Encourage wild and crazy answers. They lose no points for that in the IELTS test.

Can You Make A Recommendation?

The final exercise you can try is to ask the students to recommend something.

This could present some minor problems, as the student may not have any real-life experience with the topic. But assuming they do, it can give them more things to talk about.

Let’s say the topic is eating out.

Most people have experience in doing this. So it should be easy for a student to recommend somewhere to eat — even if it is the nearest fast-food joint.

You might have to engineer the student in talking about it. Some guidance on how to describe the place they are recommending. If they are making a recommendation about a restaurant, the most obvious thing to talk about is the food.

But you could encourage them to talk about the ambience, the atmosphere, the background music, the lighting, the decor, and the waiting staff. The list goes on and on.

Even better is when you have one student recommending a place to eat and another disagreeing and giving reasons why it is a terrible place to eat.

But making a recommendation provides the student with more things to talk about in the IELTS speaking test.