IELTS SPEAKING STRATEGIES; FLUENCY AND COHERENCE

Many students assume that if they speak English well, it would simply give them a good band in the speaking exam of IELTS. This is not completely true because there are specific descriptions that an IELTS examiner is looking for and if a candidate does not respond to the questions in a more systematic way, they may lose marks. Here are the band descriptors for speaking. All the descriptors are considered for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the speaking test. We will discuss how to deal with part 1, part 2 and part3 in detail later. Take a look at the descriptors.

Sample 1

1. Fluency and coherence
2.  Grammatical accuracy and range
3.  Lexical resource
4. Pronunciation

1. Fluency and coherence

Fluency

Fluency DOES NOT mean you speak fast. It simply means the quality of being able to speak easily in a skillful way.

Some candidates speak English fast in the exam because:

• a.       They also speak their first language fast
• b.      They think speaking fast will impress the examiner to get marks
• c.       They think if they speak fast, the examiner will not notice the errors
• d.      They think that speed is fluency and they want to show they are fluent

All these concepts are wrong. The examiner WILL NOT request you to slow down and if they miss what you’re saying, you will lose marks. Notice that the examiner is not a computer to be able to listen to all your words without losing any. Make it easy for them to analyze your language and give you marks.

Sample 2

Students normally lose marks in fluency because of too many ‘Pauses’. Interestingly, candidates are allowed to make short pauses for the following reasons

• a.       The candidate is self-correcting
• b.      The candidate is searching for a correct tense or noun use

However, if the pause is because of the lack of ideas, the candidate loses marks.

Cohesion

Answer these questions,

• Are you speaking in a way where you follow the order of questions?
• Do you responds to all the prompts in speaking part 2 and not miss any?
• Do you use the verb from each prompt to respond?
• Do you make sure that examiner does not think you have missed a prompt?!
• Do you use connectives such as Firstly, secondly, then, after that, although, but, in those days, nowadays, at the moment etc.?

  

  Sample 3

If your answers are ‘YES’ you will definitely score high in fluency and cohesion.