How to Ideate for IELTS Speaking

The IELTS Speaking section follows the same format for both IELTS General as well as IELTS Academic.

Speaking at length is a skill that you will need to develop in due course of time. The best way of achieving this is by talking to people around you in English and holding conversations with them about different topics, be it the weather, their health, the recent events that occur and the like. This will improve your fluency in the language and also equip you with the oratory skills that you need to deliver a speech.

The Speaking section is further divided into three parts

PART 1 : Here, the examiner will ask you personal questions about yourself , such as the members of your family, your educational background, your work experience and so forth. This lasts for around 4 minutes.

PART 2: In this round, you will be provided a cue card which contains a topic. You will then be allowed a minute to jot down some pointers related to the topic. Those cues will assist you in building your speech. You will then have to speak on the topic for 2 minutes without taking a break. After you’re done speaking, the examiner will ask some relevant questions related to your speech.

PART 3: This lasts for another 5 minutes and the examiner will ask you more questions related to the topic. You can express your opinion and your thoughts on the topic that’s raised and the examiner assesses your capability to think in broad terms.

In all these rounds, you will need to speak coherently and in an organized manner. Structuring your thoughts well before the speech is advised. Also, your thoughts and words should flow naturally instead of seeming forced and monotonous. You should appear like someone who has a strong command over the language and will be able to conduct meaningful discussions with the native inhabitants of an English speaking country.

We will be listing down a couple of pointers that you can refer to before your main IELTS Speaking test.

Going through these will shed more light on how you can ideate better for the Speaking round

• Do not remain fixated on giving incorrect and correct answers. The examiner will only evaluate your ability to express yourself properly in the language and so, he is not judging you for your actions. 
• Be mindful of these four parameters- Lexical Resources, Grammatical range, fluency and coherence and pronunciation
• Always answer questions in the tense in which it is asked. For instance, if someone asks you “How was the cake that you’d eaten last night?” your reply should be “The cake that I ate last night was delicious” instead of “The cake that I have at night is quite delicious.”
• Fillers make you sound less confident and may also lead to reduction of points. Fillers such as ‘umm…, like…, say…, well…, you know…. should be avoided at all costs.
• Practice speaking about all those topics that had come during the previous years. This will familiarize you with the speed that’s needed and the manner in which you should be speaking in front of the examiner.
• Do not repeat the question that the examiner asks. Rephrasing the same question does not make you look good. Start your speech directly with the answer.
• Instead of replying in just Yes or No, give detailed answers. Elaborate upon each sentence and provide answers that are complete and satisfactory.

Speaking is a skill that is just like any other skill and can be developed well if one practices it enough.