How IELTS Speaking is marked?
IELTS Listening test is a one to one interview with an examiner who is trained and certified IELTS examiner. They hold a relevant teaching qualification and have extensive teaching experience to become an IELTS examiner. This exam checks your ability to communicate in English is checked. The examiner gives you number in the form of band scores for your spoken English-language skills. Your Speaking results are given as band scores which range from a band 0 to a band 9. Each whole and half band score corresponds to a level of English-language competence. When assessing your performance, they work with clearly defined criteria to assess your Speaking test. So, today in this article we will learn How IELTS Speaking is assessed?
To know more about the assessment criteria used by examiners let’s check the below given details-
There are 4 criteria on which your speaking is assessed and these are –
1. Fluency & Coherence (25%)
2. Lexical resources (25%)
3. Grammatical Range & Accuracy (25%)
4. Pronunciation (25%)
Here is the detailed information about them
1. Fluency & Coherence: Fluency is considered as how fluently you can speak at length, without any pause or hesitation and without any self-correction. Your fluency will drop when you do self correction and your scores can be deducted, so avoid it.
The art ofconnecting your ideas with each other is known as coherence. To get good score for coherence you must add good connectors, conjunctions and pronouns to make your modules tempting. But keep in mind that you should not overuse the linking word as it will make you sound unnatural so your scores can be deducted.
Here are some examples of cohesive devices:
* Adding ideas: Furthermore, In addition to.
* Contrasting ideas: However, on the other hand.
* Stating Example: For instance, for example.
* Providing explanation: because of, due to.
2. Lexical resource: In this criterion, the examiner checks that whether you can use a wide range of vocabulary or not. You should try to convey your message in different words and use less common vocabulary. The usage of collocations and paraphrasing at proper place are also taken into consideration. You must avoid errors while speaking.
This criterion focuses on the range of vocabulary. The thing is that you should use a wide range of vocabulary to better your score. Try to add useful vocabulary in the IELTS exam that is unusual and uncommon. For example, instead of “modern technology”, we can use “cutting – edge technology”.
You must know these tips to impress your examiner.
* No repetition of words
* Don’t copy words directly from talk
* Learn topic-related vocabulary.
Achieve your desired band with the practice and show that you know how to use words effectively to make a proper sentence.
3. Grammatical Range: In this criteriayour formation of sentences i.e. sentence structures and proper application of grammar is determined. You should make a sentence accurately that it sounds natural and appropriate while you talk.
Grammar is extremely important in IELTS speaking test so to score high band scores your answer should not only be grammatically correct but also it should be varied.
There are generally 3 types of sentences:
* A simple sentence
* A compound sentence
* A complex sentence
To get higher score, add mixture of these sentences in your speaking module.
4. Pronunciation: Your ability to use intonation (i.e. rise and fall of the voice while speaking) and the way you pronounce any word is taken into account. Your accent must be such that it is clearly understood by the examiner.
In IELTS speaking module you should be able to use the following features:
* Individual sounds
* Intonation
* Sentence stress
* Weak sounds
* Linking words
