Simon’s Advice on Speaking Part 1

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Simon
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IELTS Speaking
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Friday, March 17, 2017 
IELTS Speaking: slow down! 
I talked about 'speed' in this week's reading and listening lessons, so let's now consider speaking 
speed. 
In my experience, many students speak too quickly and this causes several problems. If you speak 
too quickly, you're more likely to make grammar and pronunciation mistakes, and you'll probably lose 
clarity and coherence. If you slow down, you'll have more time to think, to pronounce words clearly, 
and to correct yourself if necessary. 
One more tip: Have you ever practised pronouncing words 
very very
slowly? For example, can you 
pronounce every individual vowel and consonant sound in the word "slowly" (s...l...ow...l...y)? I've 
tried this with students and they are not usually very good at it - they find it easier to rush the 
pronunciation of words. Native speaker children, on the other hand, love pronouncing slowly and do it 
very well, so maybe it's something that adult language learners should practise more! 
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Friday, April 07, 2017 
IELTS Speaking: not academic or formal 
People doing the academic IELTS test are often misled by the word 'academic'. They think that they 
need to speak in a formal way using academic words. 
But look at the following speaking questions / tasks: 
- Do you like music? 
- What's your favourite colour? Why? 
- Describe a café you have been to. 
- Describe a present you gave someone. 
- Do you think it's more important to love your job or to earn a good salary? 
I hope it's clear that these questions are not really formal or academic. Instead of trying to use 
academic words, just aim to speak in a "normal conversation" style. This is the style that I used in my 
sample answer in last week's 
lesson
. 

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