Welcome to Speaking Training Course

In this course introduction we hope to give you an overview of how the IELTS Speaking Test works?

In the Speaking test, you will have a discussion with an examiner that will last 11-14 minutes long and will be in three parts. 

The Speaking test is the same for both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training tests.

Below is a typical test for you to listen to. The pauses are for your answers:

Once you’ve taken the test, we will give you a list of lessons that will help you get the score you need.

This Speaking course has 4 modules one for each of the marking criteria.

• FC – Fluency and Coherence
• LR – Lexical Resource (or Vocabulary)
• GRA – Grammar, Range and Accuracy
• Pron – or Prononciation

Please click here or here to view the public band descriptors.

Below, we’ll explain in a bit more detail what each of these means.

But to achieve a B6 overall for speaking, you need to achieve at least a B6 for each element.

Below is a detailed breakdown of how those score works in reality:

• BAND 9
• Fluency and coherence
• Speaks fluently with only rare repetition or self-correction;
  Any hesitation is content-related rather than to find words or grammar
  Speaks coherently with fully appropriate cohesive features
  Develops topics fully and appropriately
  
  Lexical resource
  Uses vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics
  Uses idiomatic language naturally and accurately
  
  Grammatical range and accuracy
• Uses a full range of structures naturally and appropriately
  Produces consistently accurate structures apart from ‘slips’ characteristic of native speaker speech
  
  Pronunciation
  Uses a full range of pronunciation features with precision and subtlety
  Sustains flexible use of features throughout
  Is effortless to understand
• BAND 8
• Fluency and coherence
• Speaks fluently with only occasional repetition or self-correction; hesitation is usually content-related and only rarely to search for language
  Develops topics coherently and appropriately
  
  Lexical resource
• Uses a wide vocabulary resource readily and flexibly to convey precise meaning
  Uses less common and idiomatic vocabulary skilfully, with occasional inaccuracies
  Uses paraphrase effectively as required
  
  Grammatical range and accuracy
• Uses a wide range of structures flexibly
  Produces a majority of error-free sentences with only very occasional inappropriacies or basic/non-systematic errors
  
  Pronunciation
• Uses a wide range of pronunciation features
  Sustains flexible use of features, with only occasional lapses
  Is easy to understand throughout; L1 accent has minimal effect on intelligibility
• BAND 7
• Fluency and coherence
• Speaks at length without noticeable effort or loss of coherence
  May demonstrate language-related hesitation at times, or some repetition and/or self-correction
  Uses a range of connectives and discourse markers with some flexibility
• Lexical resource
• Uses vocabulary resource flexibly to discuss a variety of topics
  Uses some less common and idiomatic vocabulary and shows some awareness of style and collocation, with some inappropriate choices
  Uses paraphrase effectively
• Grammatical range and accuracy
• Uses a range of complex structures with some flexibility
  Frequently produces error-free sentences, though some grammatical mistakes persist
• Pronunciation
• Shows all the positive features of band 6 and some, but not all, of the positive features of band 8
• BAND 6
• Fluency and coherence
• Is willing to speak at length, though may lose coherence at times due to occasional repetition, self-correction or hesitation
  Uses a range of connectives and discourse markers but not always appropriately
• Lexical resource
• Has a wide enough vocabulary to discuss topics at length and make meaning clear in spite of inappropriacies
  Generally paraphrases successfully
• Grammatical range and accuracy
• Uses a mix of simple and complex structures, but with limited flexibility
  May make frequent mistakes with complex structures though these rarely cause comprehension problems
• Pronunciation
• Uses a range of pronunciation features with mixed control
  Shows some effective use of features but this is not sustained
  Can generally be understood throughout, though mispronunciation of individual words or sounds reduces clarity at times
• BAND 5
• Fluency and coherence
• Usually maintains flow of speech but uses repetition, self correction and/or slow speech to keep going
  May over-use certain connectives and discourse markers
  Produces simple speech fluently, but more complex communication causes fluency problems
• Lexical resource
• Manages to talk about familiar and unfamiliar topics but uses vocabulary with limited flexibility
  Attempts to use paraphrase but with mixed success
• Grammatical range and accuracy
• Produces basic sentence forms with reasonable accuracy
  Uses a limited range of more complex structures, but these usually contain errors and may cause some comprehension problems
• Pronunciation
• Shows all features of band 4 and some, but not all the positive features of band 6

BAND 5

• Fluency and coherence
• Cannot respond without noticeable pauses and may speak slowly, with frequent repetition and self-correction
  Links basic sentences but with repetitious use of simple connectives and some breakdowns in coherence
• Lexical resource
• Is able to talk about familiar topics but can only convey basic meaning on unfamiliar topics and makes frequent errors in word choice
  Rarely attempts paraphrase
• Grammatical range and accuracy
• Produces basic sentence forms and some correct simple sentences but subordinate structures are rare
  Errors are frequent and may lead to misunderstanding
• Pronunciation
• Uses a limited range of pronunciation features
  Attempts to control features but lapses are frequent
  Mispronunciations are frequent and cause some difficulty for the listener
• BAND 3
• Fluency and coherence
• Speaks with long pauses
  Has limited ability to link simple sentences
  Gives only simple responses and is frequently unable to convey basic message
  
  Lexical resource
• Uses simple vocabulary to convey personal information
  Has insufficient vocabulary for less familiar topics
  
  Grammatical range and accuracy
• Attempts basic sentence forms but with limited success, or relies on apparently memorised utterances
  Makes numerous errors except in memorised expressions
  
  Pronunciation
• Shows some of the features of band 2 and some, but not all, of the positive features of band 4
• BAND 2
• Fluency and coherence
• Pauses lengthily before most words
  Little communication possible
• Lexical resource
• Only produces isolated words or memorised utterances
• Grammatical range and accuracy
  Cannot produce basic sentence forms
• Pronunciation
• Speech is often unintelligible
• BAND 1
• Fluency and coherence
• No communication possible
  No rateable language
• Lexical resource
  No communication possible
  No rateable language
• Grammatical range and accuracy
• No communication possible
  No rateable language
• Pronunciation
• No communication possible
  No rateable language
• BAND 0
• Did not attend