Organising ideas logically Camilo’s first response was effective in that he spoke fluently and used all of the prompts on the topic card to develop his ideas. However, the following problems were identified in terms of organisation:

Poor organisation: He did not really follow the same order of the prompts given on the topic card . He provided extra information about two of the prompts after he had already covered them.
Irrelevant ideas: Camilo talked about his sister, but this did not relate to any of the prompts on the topic card and he did not logically connect this to any of his other ideas.
Failure to meet time requirement: He did not develop his ideas enough and failed to speak for two minutes (he speaks for 1 minute and 35 seconds).
Coherence is determined by how ideas are organised and connected. You should aim to provide logically organised answers across the three parts of the test in order to achieve a high mark for Fluency and coherence.

Sequencing ideas logically is particularly important in Part 2 as you are required to speak on your own for up to two minutes. You can achieve this by:

• Using all the prompts on the topic card: Using only 1 or 2 is not enough to develop an entire, coherent answer.

• Following the same order of the prompts: These are presented in a logical and sequential order.

• Adding your own prompts: As you plan your answers, include 2-3 new prompts (i.e. points) with information that is relevant to the general topic of the question.

• Developing each prompt: Include 2-3 ideas per prompt. This will guarantee that you have enough content to speak for two minutes.

• Planning properly: Use the 1-minute planning time to write down the ideas you want to include in your answer. You are allowed to read from your planning sheet as you give your answer. @LanguageStuff

This is an effective plan because it:

• is well organised (using a grid divided into four),

• is easy to follow (following the prompts clockwise),

• uses all the prompts on the topic card,

• avoids full sentences and only includes key words,

• uses abbreviations to save time (e.g. convt for convenient, W-ing assign for writing assignments)

• uses bullet points (which you can tick as you cover that point when you speak). @LanguageStuff

@LanguageStuff speaking part2 advice

@LanguageStuff Speaking part3 Meet Ari

@LanguageStuff part3

What are signposts? A key part of the criteria for Fluency and coherence is using signposts accurately.

Signposts are words which help organise ideas. They are critical in helping listeners understand ideas and avoid confusion. Without signposts, speech, especially long stretches of speech, can be difficult to follow and understand. Common signposts are words such as:

firstly and secondly, which show sequence of ideas;
however, which shows contrast;
because, which shows reason.
In Ari’s responses, he spoke quite fluently, but often failed to use sufficient signposts. This meant that it was difficult to understand the links between his ideas. There were a number of issues that Ari had due to his lack of signposting.

Confusing links between his ideas: Ari’s failure to properly use signposts means that sometimes his ideas seemed separate and unlinked. This was quite problematic when he tried to list reasons why students drop out of university. The links between these reasons were not clear. In his second attempt, he added signposts and this helped make the different reasons clearer.

Signposts
Signposts have different functions and can help you to clearly show that you are going to:

sequence your ideas
give an example
add another idea
introduce an idea that is different
summarise ideas
give a cause
give an effect
emphasise a point
generalise
clarify a point.
Below is a signpost handout with a list of signposts appropriate for each function.

The IELTS Public Band Descriptors considers the use of signposts as part of coherence in all bands. At a Band 6, a range of signposts (connectives and discourse markers) are used but this is not always appropriate. At a Band 7, they are used appropriately and at a Band 8 speech is coherent and appropriate.

Discussion
Choose a signpost from the list above and write a sentence using it. @LanguageStuff

Complex structures One of the main aspects you are assessed under Grammatical range and accuracy is the use of complex structures.

This is an area in which Ari did not perform well in his first set of responses. Most of the sentences that he used were simple sentences. These are sentences which only contain one clause (i.e. one subject + one verb). For example:

Many universities do this now.

In his second attempt, Ari added a range of more complex structures, which would help him achieve a higher score. For example:

It is true that many universities do this now but in the future, I think that the online content will become more integrated.

Let’s learn more about complex structures and see how you can integrate them into your responses in all parts of the speaking test.

Complex sentences
As we saw in the example above, a simple sentence contains one clause; that is, one subject paired with one verb. Complex sentences, on the other hand, contain two or more subject + verb combinations. Look at Ari’s sentence taken from his improved response. How many subject + verb combinations (or clauses) can you identify?

If you said three, you are correct. The clauses used are: It is…, I think… and the online content will become…, and they were connected using subordinators and coordinators (e.g. that, but).

Complex sentences are key to achieving a high score for Grammatical range and accuracy. If you only speak in simple sentences with a limited range of complex structures, you cannot get more than a Band 5. For a Band 6, you need to use a mix of simple and complex structures. A Band 7 requires a range of complex structures, while for a Band 8 you need to use a wide range.

There are three types of complex sentences:

Adverb clauses: These work as adverbs and they can show a number of different relationships between the clauses in the sentence (e.g. contrast, time, reason).
Noun clauses: They function as nouns, and as such, they can be subjects or objects in sentences.
Adjective clauses: These function as adjectives and provide extra information about a noun.
The table below shows the different types of complex sentences and some examples. For more detailed information, download and keep the complex sentences document below.

Type of complex sentence Example sentence
Adverb clauses Doctors save lives while the sportspeople only entertain.
Noun clauses I am not sure how university education will change in the future.
Adjective clause I would study medicine and then become a doctor who helps children around the world.
There are other ways in which you can show complexity in your ideas:

Comparative structures
It is common to be asked questions that prompt you to use comparative and superlative forms. If the examiner asks you to compare and/or contrast something, it is important to use these forms in your answer as they give you chance to show grammatical range. Let’s have a look at some of these.

(not) as + adjective + as: This structure can be used to compare and contrast:

My sister is as tall as me.

Many people prefer not to walk as far as they used to.

Comparative adjectives: These can be used to compare one noun to another noun. In these instances, only two items are being compared.

I think being a doctor is a better job for me than teaching.

Superlative adjectives: These are used to describe the noun that is at the highest or lowest limit of the group of nouns.

I think that being a doctor is the best job for me.

Passive voice
Passive voice allows you to show grammatical range. It is formed using the verb to be and the past participle of the verb. It focuses on the results of the action rather than who performed the action. Here are some example passive voice sentences that Ari could have used:

Sports equipment shouldn’t be paid for by the government.

More online content will be integrated into courses by universities.

It isn’t fair that sportspeople are paid more than doctors and nurses.

Modal verbs
Modal verbs (i.e. can, could, should, must) can show a range of information and they can help you produce complex structures. Here are some examples:

Because of this, they can’t keep up with the assignments.
I don’t think that they should pay for this. @LanguageStuff

@LanguageStuff speaking part3 about sport

Common grammatical mistakes Grammatical accuracy refers to the number of mistakes made when producing a spoken answer, and this is a key factor which examiners consider when determining a score for grammar.

Many of these mistakes are influenced by the grammatical structures in your native language and you may find that you make certain types of mistakes because of this. Understanding the errors you make is the first step in working towards correcting them.

There are a number of grammatical errors which are commonly made by candidates in the IELTS speaking test. Let’s have a look at some of these.

Subject-verb agreement
In some tenses in English, the subject must agree with the verb. This means that you need to select the correct form of the verb depending on if you have a single or a plural subject. For example:

The student is studying English.
The students are studying English.
Mistakes often occur when the subject is a long noun phrase. For example:

The students who often study late at the library are postgraduate students.

Singular and plural nouns
Nouns in English can be countable (e.g doors) or uncountable (e.g. water), singular or plural (e.g. house - houses), and also irregular in their plural form (e.g. child - children). Not understanding this can lead to mistakes related to subject-verb agreement and quantifiers. For example:

There is many children here (it should be ‘There are’)
I know much people in my class (it should be ‘many people’)
Incorrect or missing articles
Articles (i.e. a, an, the and the zero article) are often used incorrectly because there are a number of exceptions on how they are used and also because they are not part of grammatical rules in some other languages. Using the incorrect article may lead to an unclear or wrong meaning. For example, can you tell the difference in meaning in these three sentences?

My sister bought a car.
My sister bought the car.
My sister bought cars (zero article).
Comparative and superlative adjectives
Some of the questions in the IELTS Speaking test will ask you to compare different things. To compare things in English we often use comparatives and superlatives. Mistakes with comparatives and superlatives often include double comparative or superlative forms with short adjectives:

Doctors are more smarter (it should be just smarter)
The most biggest city in my country is Sao Paulo (it should be the biggest)
Word order
The standard word order for sentences in English is subject + verb+ object. Adjectives, adverbs and other words can also be added. However, structures can be more complex and when sentences are longer, there is a higher chance of word order mistakes. For example:

I always am early (it should be ‘I am always early’)
My brother little rode carefully his bike (it should be ‘My little brother rode his bike carefully’)
I also can speak French (it should be ‘I can also speak French’)
Prepositions
Prepositions are short words such as in, on, at, before. They are commonly used to show time, place or direction, but can also be used to link nouns to verbs and to other parts of sentences. Some common mistakes are:

I’m travelling to Melbourne on next Monday (it should be ‘next Monday’)
My sister is married with a lawyer (it should be ‘to a lawyer’)
I graduated of university on 2005 (it should be ‘I graduated from university in 2005)
Tense
Tense is the verb form that shows the time of an action. There are sixteen different tenses in English, so making sure your verbs are in the correct tense is an important part of grammatical accuracy. Using the wrong verb tense can change the meaning of your idea and can be confusing for the listener. Look at the example below. What is wrong with the verbs?

When I lived in Italy, I often eat dinner at a small restaurant near my house.

In this case, the verbs are not consistent, one is in the past form (lived) while the other one is in the present (eat). This is a common mistake and you should avoid it. Other common mistakes are:

I will go to sleep when the movie will be over (it should be ‘when the movie is over’
I didn’t drank enough water yesterday (it should be ‘I didn’t drink’)
I living in Sydney for two years (it should be ‘I have lived/have been living in Sydney for two years. ) @LanguageStuff

@LanguageStuff speaking part3

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Dear teachers
HERE👉 You can obtain
⚠️ English cards, games, decor
⚠️Only for English language Teachers 😍 Share 🔄our link🔗 with other 👩‍🏫teachers https://t.me/LanguageStuff
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Dear teachers
HERE👉 You can obtain
⚠️ English cards, games, decor
⚠️Only for English language Teachers 😍 Share 🔄our link🔗 with other 👩‍🏫teachers https://t.me/LanguageStuff
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