Foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten

R – give the reason why you think that

E – expand with an explanation or example

A – answer again. This time your answer should be slightly better expressed  than your first answer as you have been thinking about the question for 30 seconds or so while you have been speaking. [You can try this in part one too but it’s not normally necessary]

When you get a tougher question, you may want thinking time.

QU – repeat the question to give yourself some thinking time. There are different ways to do this, as you will see in this  lesson on thinking time .

O – outline the different options – i.e. say what some possible answers might be. This is still coherent as it will link to the question. You don’t need to commit to an answer.

T – say which option you think might be the best answer. Again, you don’t need to be too exact here. IELTS is a speaking test not an IQ test. All you need to do is make sure that what you say you think links to the question.

E – explain why you might choose that answer.

If that sounds complex, look at this example.It may be short but is a workable answer that is quite coherent.

Qu: How do you think public transport will change in the future?

An: I’m not sure how public  transport will change in the future (QU). It’s not something I’ve thought about before. I guess it may become slightly cheaper and more popular. I suppose there might also be new forms of transport like flying taxis! (O). But on balance I think I’d say that more people will use public transport than they do today (T) because it’s getting more and more expensive to run a car (E).

The general idea is that I arrive at an answer by the end of what I say using QUOTE and that all the parts link together.

Read more: Coherence in IELTS speaking - some approaches | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-speaking/coherence-in-ielts-speaking-coherence-approaches/#ixzz3hduOZgvK

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The language of academic caution can be extremely helpful in IELTS in two ways. Naturally, it can help extend the range of your writing and speaking vocabulary by being more “academic”. More importantly, perhaps, it can help improve coherent answers in part 3 speaking especially when you have a difficult question to answer.