雅思考官想告诉你的关于听力和口语的21条重要信息！（英文问答）

雅思考官想告诉你的关于听力和口语的21条重要信息！（英文问答）

Listening

1. How to effectively capture the key points in listening materials?

One of the most important things to do is to focus on the questions. In each test you will have time to read the question paper before you listen.

While you read, I would recommend writing suggestions in English or Chinese as to what the answers might be. This could be like: “date” “地点”. Listen for these words during the test.

2. I am poor at matching types of questions which I found extremely difficult to even keep up to the audio in listening test. Are there any tips?

The IELTS test can be difficult for listening when they speak quickly. The best advice for this is… Lots of listening practice! In particular, get used to the kinds of questions that they often use in the test.

Also, make sure you analyse the question so that you can listen out for individual words. If you know the answer is, for example, a day of the week, you might be able to hear the word “Tuesday” even if you don’t understand the rest of the dialogue.

3. I found it's difficult to understand British accent but I think my listening is good enough to understand the daily conversation. Is there any shortcut which can make me transfer American accent into British accent quickly?

I’m not sure what your question means… If you are asking how to speak with a British accent, then don’t try! An American accent is fine, if you already have one.

If you are talking about making listening easier, the best way is to practice listening to English accents, such as on the BBC. You can also try watching British English TV, though this can be harder to understand.

4. In listening part, how can I distinguish a pronunciation is a word, two words or words with -? For example, under sea, undersea or under-sea.?

Often you can’t distinguish just by listening. I would say all these three words in exactly the same way.

However, you can make sure you listen clearly to what kind of word it is. Sometimes words will be spelt differently if they are used as an adjective or as a noun, for example. The only way to be correct is to make sure you know which words are spelt in one word, like undersea or in two, like ice cream/ice-cream.

5. I have some trouble in Ielts listening part, is it necessary for me to listen the same section again and again until I understand every word and sentence when I take the Cambridge ielts serie books 5-9 ?

You won't be tested on your ability to understand every word. Rather you are tested on your ability to listen and identify facts and details, listen and identify the main ideas or speaker opinions etc. Also Cambridge books are there to help you get familiar with the assessment tasks used in the listening test. You won't hear the same samples in your actual test. Our preparation tool Road to IELTS has more advice about listening skills and the IELTS test.

6. How can we prepare the text, especially listening and writing part, more efficiently?

You need to make decisions about what is most important. Many students try to do everything or focus on those parts of an exam that they are best at or prefer. It can be a good idea to work out which skills (listening, reading, writing, speaking) you are best at and which you need to improve. Then spend your time working on the those areas you need to improve. A good English teacher will be able to help you identify the areas you need to work on. Good luck!

Speaking

1. How to improve oral English without a partner just by myself？

It really is better to find someone else – a classmate, friend, someone on the internet…

If you can’t, you can use this as a good opportunity to practice part 2. Prepare a number of topics and time yourself – make sure you can speak for 1 minute, then 2 minutes, then 3, without stopping or pausing too much.

2. What kinds of materials that I can use to improve my speaking ability?

I think one of the most important things is to create a number of different topics and kinds of speaking. For example, you need to talk about lots of subjects (both in life and in the IELTS test), so try to look for materials that cover many different topics.

Then, make sure you are doing lots of different things – making speeches, arguing, explaining, asking questions… Try to create suitable ways of speaking with the material you have. Don’t just do what the textbooks say – try to use the material in the way that best helps you.

3. Many people say that it is not good to memorize the answers. But what is the right way for speaking test preparation?

Those people are right. The Examiner in the speaking test could ask you hundreds or thousands of different questions. You can’t prepare for all of them!

What you can do is prepare to do different things – practise explaining, describing, arguing, disagreeing, etc. The best way to prepare is by talking, though. Make sure you speak as much as you can, so that you feel comfortable and natural speaking in English.

4. Does my answer must cover all the three or four sub-questions of one topic card in speaking part 2?

The simple answer here is: no! The important thing is that you talk about the main topic, not something else. You should think of the sub-questions as something that can help you: if you don’t know what to say, these can give you some good ideas.

However, a good answer to most of the questions will include some, if not all, of the sub-questions, too.

5. In the Speaking Test part 2, what should I do if I am not familiar with the topic and do not have too much to say?

This is a problem! You must MAKE yourself talk, and keep going for the full 2 minutes.

One way to do this is to go into more detail for each part of your answer. For example, if you start part 2 by saying, “I went with my friend to Hainan last summer on holiday.” You can talk for at least 1 minute about this sentence! Who is your friend, what does she look like, how do you know her? Why did you choose Hainan, what was it like there, the weather, the people? What do you usually do in the summer? Where do you normally go on holiday?

By adding lots of detail, you can fill up 2 minutes very easily!

6. Is intonation important in the speaking test?

The answer is, of course! We use intonation to show our opinions, to ask questions, to stress words… It is important and it is also difficult, because Chinese intonation is very different to English intonation.

I recommend listening to MP3 of foreigners speaking sentences and trying to copy their intonation. However, you must be natural – trying too hard to use different intonation can make you sound very strange!

7. how to make a conversation as fluent as a native speaker?

Fluency comes when you are thinking only in that language. For example, I’m very fluent in Chinese because when I speak in Chinese, I’m thinking only in Chinese, too. I may make many mistakes, but I’m very fluent!

To do this, you must open your mouth and talk. Don’t worry about making mistakes or saying exactly the right word. Also, don’t allow yourself the time to translate English into Chinese. Make yourself think in English and then use the words you think.

8. How to overcome the tension in IELTS speaking test especially when talking to a foreigner?

There is no tension from the examiner! Examiners are all experienced teachers and have often been examining for many years. They want you to speak well. They want to have an interesting conversation and they want to give you a high mark.

For me, the best way to overcome tension is to do something many times. Talk to foreigners if you can. If you can’t, talk to Chinese friends or classmates. Ask them to give you a mock IELTS test, with all three parts of the test. Do this again and again. If you have done the test 10 times at home, it will be much easier in the real exam.

9. How much influence does speaking slowly in oral English have on the score of IELTS?

It can have a big impact. If you speak VERY slowly, your pronunciation will probably be bad, you will only be able to answer a few questions (there will be no time for more!) and you won’t have the time to show how much English you know.

However, some people speak faster than others. This does not mean the fast ones always get the high scores! If you speak slowly naturally, then don’t worry too much about it.

In IELTS it is important why you are slow. Are you slow because you are trying to find words or grammar? Or are you slow because you are thinking about the answer? If the slowness is from thinking about the answer, that is probably ok. If you are slow because you are translating from Chinese or are trying to remember words, that will be a problem.

10. I always feel frustrated and confused, because I think these questions are quite hard to generate answers in part 3, Could you give me some tips?

Always remember that the IELTS test is about your English. As long as you answer the Examiner’s questions, you can decide exactly how you want to answer.

Listen to the questions and give your answer. As you do this think about what else you can say: You can explain your answer, perhaps with examples. You can expand your answer with more details. You can rethink your answer, giving the other side of the question.

There are many ways to generate answers, but the only important thing is to keep generating good English!

11. In what degree is the accuracy more important than fluency in speaking test? How can I behave better although I don't have a huge vocabulary?

First, your second question. IELTS is about communication. You don’t have to have a huge vocabulary to communicate – if you have a reasonable vocabulary but use it well, that will be fine.

talks about the band descriptors. It shows that fluency and accuracy are both important. Your first question is difficult to answer. If your fluency is good but you are making many bad mistakes, of course it will be better to slow down and focus on accuracy. If you are speaking very accurately but with very bad fluency, it will be better if you ignore accuracy and just speak!

For most Chinese students, fluency is more of a problem than accuracy. For those “哑巴英语” students, they must just open their mouths. However, you should focus on that part of your English that is the weakest.

12. What are the basic requirements if I want to make the speaking grade above or equal to 6?

Make sure you know what is needed to get a band 6.

I don’t have the space to go through these descriptors in detail here. I would say that for a band 6 you need to be able to talk about many different topics at some length, talking for the full 2 minutes of part 2. You must be able to communicate your ideas, so your grammar and vocabulary must be good enough to do this.

13. is chinglish speaking style a problem in speaking test？

The answer to your question is “Yes, but.”

Yes, it’s a problem. Chinglish is not English, and if you want to get a band 9, then you will have no Chinglish in your speech. But… for Chinese candidates, almost all will use some Chinese pronunciation and grammar. That means you can have a little Chinglish and you can still be band 8!

You are Chinese and you will probably always have some Chinglish when you speak English, just like I will have some Englese (!) when I speak Chinese. Just try to minimize it, and make sure that it doesn’t affect communication.

14. Do you think it is more important that a student has a good intonation in speaking part or a well organised thought? Will intonation and pronunciation influence too much on the score?

Your speaking score will be 1/4 based on pronunciation. Your grammar is 1/4, vocabulary is 1/4 and fluency and coherence are 1/4. Having “well organized thoughts” is important and will affect your score for fluency and coherence.

However, you should always focus on your English. What is your problem? Is it pronunciation or coherence? Make sure you focus on your weakest area, so if your intonation is poor, it is more important that you focus on that than on organising your thoughts.

15. How to improve coherence in speaking?

Firstly, you just need more practice on speaking. The more you speak, the more you will get used to organising your thoughts coherently.

You should also try to use as many different connectives and cohesive features that you can. But, however, nevertheless, having said that, as I told you earlier, although… Make sure you can use a variety of these accurately, and practice using them in your speech.