Are you preparing to take the IELTS speaking exam? Do you know what four aspects of your speaking are covered in the marking scheme, and how you could improve your performance for each of them?
In this free lesson from Oxford Online English, you will listen to examples of a candidate doing the three parts of the IELTS speaking exam, and consider what to practise for the four areas of the marking scheme.
The IELTS speaking exam has three parts. In parts one and three, you answer the examiner’s questions, while in part two, you speak by yourself for up to two minutes. You will hear examples of all three parts in this lesson, and you can find out more on the IELTS website.
In this listening lesson, there are three parts — one for each part of the exam — and a total of 30 questions. In each part, you will hear five pairs of questions, each time focusing on a different aspect of the marking scheme. The first question in each pair illustrates a problem, while the second question shows how the issue could be resolved. Your job is to identify the problem and solution each time.
The marking scheme covers fluency and coherence, lexical resource (which means vocabulary), grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. You can see the IELTS marking scheme here. The tips in this lesson are for candidates who need band 7, which is a typical requirement for universities and professional organisations. If you are aiming for less than band 7, it is still useful to practise the ideas in this lesson. You’ll get one score for fluency and coherence, another score for pronunciation and so on. Your final total is an average of all four.
This lesson will help you recognise and address some common difficulties in the IELTS speaking exam, but it is not intended to be an introduction to the exam. If you haven’t yet seen our free video guides to the three parts of the IELTS speaking exam, click on the following links:
IELTS Speaking Exam Part One — video lesson
IELTS Speaking Exam Part Two — video lesson
IELTS Speaking Exam Part Three — video lesson
You can also see our free video demonstration of the full IELTS speaking exam here. The target score in this video is band 7.
When you’re ready, click Start Quiz in the three parts below, and listen carefully!
IELTS Speaking Exam Part One
In part one of the IELTS speaking exam, the examiner asks you questions about your life and experiences.
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Question 1 of 10
1. Question
Question 1a
Listen to a candidate starting the IELTS speaking exam.
What is the problem with these answers?
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Question 2 of 10
2. Question
Question 1b
Listen to a new version. This time, the candidate uses full sentences.
Which of these statements are true? Choose two answers.
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Question 3 of 10
3. Question
Question 2a
Listen to a part one question and the candidate’s response.
What is the problem with this answer?
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Question 4 of 10
4. Question
Question 2b
This time, the candidate answers the question, including both meanings of the word ‘home’ – the building and the city.
Listen to how she connects the ideas and write the linking words that you hear.
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“When you say ‘home’, I’m not sure if you mean my flat or my city, but I live by myself in a small first-floor apartment on a quiet street near the centre of Bucharest. I love having my own space there’s plenty going on in the neighbourhood, the city doesn’t feel very much like home anymore a lot of my friends have moved away.”
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Question 5 of 10
5. Question
Question 3a
Listen to this answer to the same question, which includes a lot of detail about the speaker’s flat.
What is the problem with the grammar this time?
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Question 6 of 10
6. Question
Question 3b
Listen to the same answer, this time with complex sentences.
Write one linking word in each gap, as used by the speaker.
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“Actually, I’ve only just bought my own place. It’s a two-bedroom apartment, is one more bedroom than I need most of the time, I thought it would be good to have a spare room that my friends came to stay, they’d have somewhere to sleep. it’s right in the centre of Bucharest, it’s the ideal location.”
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Question 7 of 10
7. Question
Question 4a
Listen to another answer to the question “Tell me about your home”.
What type of problem occurs with this answer?
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Question 8 of 10
8. Question
Question 4b
In this version of the answer, the speaker still doesn’t know the word she wants to use. It describes what type of apartment she lives in.
How does she explain her meaning?
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Question 9 of 10
9. Question
Question 5a
Now the speaker has a problem with pronunciation.
What does she do wrong? Choose two answers.
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Question 10 of 10
10. Question
Question 5b
Listen carefully to the words ‘bedroom’, ‘lounge’, ‘kitchen’, ‘downstairs’, ‘upstairs’ and ‘guests’. The speaker is using correct intonation – which means the rise and fall of the voice.
Which rule about intonation is correct? Choose one answer.
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IELTS Speaking Exam Part Two
In part two of the IELTS speaking exam, you speak for one to two minutes by yourself. There is one minute of preparation time before you say your answer. Open the tab to see an example task.
You should say:
• What the celebration was for
• Where it took place
• What other people were there
And explain why you liked or disliked the event.
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When you’re ready, continue to the quiz about the IELTS Speaking Exam Part Three.
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Question 1 of 10
1. Question
Listen to the instruction that the examiner gives at the start of part two. The minute of preparation time has been omitted from this recording:
Question 1a
Now listen to a candidate’s answer to the part two task above.
What is the problem with this answer?
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Question 2 of 10
2. Question
Question 1b
Now listen to part of a full answer, which covers the first three points of the task above.
How does the speaker give more detail this time? Choose the two things that she does.
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Question 3 of 10
3. Question
Question 2a
Now listen to part of an answer which covers the fourth point in the task.
What is the problem with this answer?
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Question 4 of 10
4. Question
Question 2b
Listen to the same answer, this time with the ideas in a coherent order.
Look at the cohesive devices below, and put them in the order that the speaker uses them.
When you have submitted your answer, read the feedback to check the purpose of each device.
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'undoubtedly'
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'as for' + clause
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'having said that'
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'I do' + main verb
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'even'
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'plus'
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'so on reflection'
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'of course'
View Answers:
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Question 5 of 10
5. Question
Question 3a
The previous questions focused on the coherence of ideas. Now let’s look at the other parts of the marking scheme: vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Listen to five sentences adapted from the full answer.
What is the problem with the vocabulary?
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Question 6 of 10
6. Question
Question 3b
Listen again to the correct versions of the sentences from the last question. Write the collocations in the gaps, exactly as the speaker says them.
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“It’s quite unusual for someone in my family to celebrate their birthday, so this was a .”
(three words)“My aunt’s a member of a sports club in London, and she hired the clubhouse for her birthday, which is a overlooking the River Thames.”
(three words)“There were about 25 of us who’d all .”
(five words)“We had a fabulous , plus there was a free bar.”
(two words, including a two-word adjective with a hyphen)“I did feel a sense of melancholy when it was .”
(two words)
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Question 7 of 10
7. Question
Question 4a
Now let’s concentrate on grammar. Listen to four sentences adapted from the full answer you heard earlier.
What is the only tense used by the speaker in all four sentences?
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Question 8 of 10
8. Question
Question 4b
Listen again to the same sentences, this time with the correct/improved grammar.
Write the verb forms in the gaps, exactly as the speaker uses them, including contractions. You should always write something other than the past simple.
When you’ve submitted your answers, read the feedback to review why each verb form is used.
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“There weren’t any of the restrictions that not long afterwards.”
(two words)“ never certain what sport she .”
(one word in each gap; one is a contraction)“I in Spain at the time, so I got the train up through France.”
(two words)“It was wonderful to spend some quality time with my relatives, some of whom I seen in years – and there were even one or two that never even before.”
(one word in each gap; two are contractions)
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Question 9 of 10
9. Question
Question 5a
Finally, listen to five sentences and think about the pronunciation.
What makes the speaker’s pronunciation unnatural this time?
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Question 10 of 10
10. Question
Question 5b
Listen to the same sentences, this time pronounced naturally. Pay attention to the words that are underlined in the transcript.
“I’m gonna tell you about my aunt’s 75th birthday party, which was in 2019.”
“My aunt’s a member of a sports club in London, and that’s where it took place.”
“Hardly any of us lives in London, in fact.”
“It was one of those family gatherings where you say ‘oh, we should do this more often’.”
“You know deep down that when you’ve finished the celebrations and you all go back to your lives in different places, the likelihood of doing it again is absolutely tiny.”What do all these underlined words have in common? Choose two answers.
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IELTS Speaking Exam Part Three
In part three of the IELTS speaking exam, you have a conversation with the examiner about issues that affect other people and society in general.
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Well done! You have finished all the questions. You can do them as many times as you like, so if you would like to try them again, click on Restart Quiz. If you prefer to review the answers, click on View Questions.
On our membership pages, you will find many more lessons, each looking at a different skill that you will need in the IELTS exam (reading, listening, writing and speaking). Good luck!
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Well done! You have finished all the questions, with more than half of them correct. You can do them as many times as you like, so if you would like to try them again now, click on Restart Quiz. If you prefer to review the answers, click on View Questions.
On our membership pages, you will find many more lessons, each looking at a different skill that you will need in the IELTS exam (reading, listening, writing and speaking). Good luck!
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Well done! You have finished all the questions, with most of them correct. You can do them as many times as you like, so if you would like to try them again now, click on Restart Quiz. If you prefer to review the answers, click on View Questions.
On our membership pages, you will find many more lessons, each looking at a different skill that you will need in the IELTS exam (reading, listening, writing and speaking). Good luck!
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Congratulations! You have answered every question correctly. If you would like to review the answers and the explanations, click on View Questions.
On our membership pages, you will find many more lessons, each looking at a different skill that you will need in the IELTS exam (reading, listening, writing and speaking). Good luck!
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Question 1 of 10
1. Question
Question 1a
Listen to a part three question and a candidate’s answer.
What is the problem with this answer?
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Question 2 of 10
2. Question
Question 1b
Listen to how the speaker answers the same question and develops her idea.
What does she do to develop the answer?
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Question 3 of 10
3. Question
Question 2a
‘Fluency and coherence’ is the part of the marking scheme that covers ‘speaking at length without loss of coherence’ – in other words, do your ideas make sense? Listen to the candidate giving another answer to the same question.
What doesn’t make sense in this answer?
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Question 4 of 10
4. Question
Question 2b
Listen to an improved version of the same answer, using the example of what children know about a key event.
How does the speaker introduce her invented evidence this time? Write the words she uses in the gaps below.
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“I think it’s quite important to mark history, yes, because it’s a fundamental part of education. interviews with American schoolchildren, and didn’t know about the terrorist attacks on 9/11 – which is one of biggest events in their country’s history. they’d learned about it but didn’t believe it. So, that’s why history’s important – our children need to be able to have a frank discussion so that they can learn from it.”
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Question 5 of 10
5. Question
Question 3a
In part three of the IELTS speaking exam, it’s useful to speculate about why things happen or what other people might think. Listen to the candidate trying to do this.
What problem occurs when the speaker tries to speculate?
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Question 6 of 10
6. Question
Question 3b
Listen to the same answer again, this time with better examples of speculation.
Write the verbs that the speaker uses.
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“That’s a good question. I one reason for marking things like when a country became independent is that those things have defined the national identity. I if everyone has a sense of pride in where they come from, they’ll be more law-abiding.”
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Question 7 of 10
7. Question
Question 4a
Listen to another answer to the same question about marking key events in history.
This time, what problem occurs with the vocabulary?
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Question 8 of 10
8. Question
Question 4b
Listen to an improved version of the same answer and pay particular attention to the last sentence (beginning with the words ‘it’s essential’.
The speaker uses several words which refer back to something already mentioned. Match the words in capital letters with the thing they refer to.
Sort elements
- commemorate the end of the First World War
- servicemen and women
- dying in conflicts
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to do THIS
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THEY made
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THAT sacrifice
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Question 9 of 10
9. Question
Question 5a
Listen to another answer, in which the speaker uses ‘filler phrases’ to give her time to think of something to say.
What is the problem with the pronunciation this time?
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Question 10 of 10
10. Question
Question 5b
Listen to an improved version of the same answer and read the transcript, paying attention to the underlined phrases.
“Hmm … I’ve never given that much thought before, but I suppose that every country has its own occasions when they mark something from history. One example that occurs to me is Independence Day, which is a national holiday in many places around the world. And the reason why that’s important is it’s part of a nation’s identity, and governments want people to feel proud of where they’re from.”
How does the speaker make her speech natural, not mechanical? Choose two answers.
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