In this tutorial we look at recent IELTS Speaking questions (reported by students).

I answer the questions, give reasons for my answers, share vocabulary, and techniques used in my answers.

Below I wrote out my answers and pasted the recent questions seen. I also highlighted some of the useful vocabulary and techniques used.

At the end of the tutorial I share two useful websites, one is great for generating ideas relating to the topics, you can also find useful vocabulary and terms too. Go to this site (www.answerthepublic.com), type in your term, and see what happens!

The second site looks ugly but is useful, especially for finding collocations, you can find it here: www.freecollocation.com

Below are the cue-cards and questions, in italics are my thoughts / tips. In bold are useful terms and techniques.

Listen to the full tutorial here.

SPEAKING EXAM ONE

IELTS Speaking Part 2

Describe a thing that you purchased recently. You should say:

– What it was

– What it looks like

– How you bought it

And explain how you felt about it.

I will talk about something I really like! Technology! I can geek out, share technical terms, and talk a lot about it.

I recently bought online some bluetooth headphones, with noise cancelling technology (details!). It was an impulse purchase, I saw it and thought I had to have it. I convinced myself I needed these because (a simple word to expand answers) I can use them for work, and watching films while travelling, especially on the plane. I was saving up but then I saw a special offer. I bought them online, it wasn’t easy, I bought them from an Amazon warehouse deal. (mini story) There was some huge complications regarding the delivery address….. Quite a mix up, but eventually I got them. I’m quite pleased with this purchase, I’ve used the headphones a lot, I think they will last a long time.

– What would you do if you bought something disappointing from the internet?

First I would contact customer service to find out the procedure for returning an item, then I’d evaluate if it is worthwhile (mini story). I once bought a phone from a Chinese website, it turned out terrible, but it cost me half of the purchase price to return it, so I didn’t bother. They were quite sneaky because they insisted I pay for registered or recorded express mail, which was considerably more expensive. In the end I think I just sold it to a friend.

– Why is online shopping so popular these days?

It’s so popular because it’s convenient, and possibly even exciting. I must admit I love receiving packages though the post. I think they are like small presents, and plus sometimes you don’t know what’s inside (mini story). For example I am always buying small stuff from ebay, from water crystals, to magnets, to pencils, cheap random stuff (details!), but it’s fun getting the packages a few weeks later. Usually the delivery time is around three weeks, so I often forget what I bought, and then I open the package, and it’s like tiny taste of Christmas. (Get back on topic!) But going back to the question, I think online shopping is popular because of the cost savings, the speed of modern delivery, the huge range you have online, and the assurance you get a good deal. Nowadays you can price compare almost everything.

SPEAKING EXAM TWO

2.) IELTS Speaking Part 1

What is your full name?

Can I see your ID?

Where are you from?

Do you work or study?

Have you ever been on a boat?

Yes I love sailing,

Has Covid made it the best time ever to pass IELTS? 

Here are seven reasons why it is the best time to take the IELTS exam right now, and move forward in your life.

1. Canada is increasing immigration quotas to more than 400,000 over the next two years. 

In 2020 Canada aimed to allow 341,000 new immigrants into the country, however, because of Covid and travel restrictions this simply was not possible. 

What is the consequence of this? 

In 2021 the quota will increase to 400,000 A YEAR. 

Canada Immigration Policies and COVID-19 In 2020

2. For those already in Canada – THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME… 

Each year the Canadian government has immigration quotas to meet. However, due to Covid and global travel restrictions, new immigrants have not been able to enter. 

Therefore the government had to lower the points needed for those already in the country. 

Take Amandeep for example, he said that before Covid the imigration authorities required around 475 points for PR. 

However, due to the shortfall of new immigrants entering the country they could not hit their targets. 

So, they lowered the points needed to about 455.

Get the full story here: https://www.ieltspodcast.com/student-stories/band-8-5-in-the-reading-for-indian-student/

3. Is the USA Open Again? BIDEN IN  – TRUMP OUT

As you probably know, Trump enacted the executive order, “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the Covid- 10 Outbreak,”. 

This prohibited the issuance of most work visas, with the exception of healthcare and other national

interest matters.

However, with Trump losing the election, there is now a possibility that the new administration will reverse a lot of his policies, including the ban on visas for those coming from muslim countries. 

Definitely time to reconsider the US. 

4. Brexit – How will it help you? 

Britain is closing its doors to EU workers. 

This most likely means a shift to the Australian / Canadian style points based system, and we all know that IELTS is worth a lot of points.

When the doors open to the rest of the world you probably want to have passed IELTS already so you can focus on other parts of the immigration process. 

5. Big Demand for Healthcare Workers Globally

If you want to practice in the UK or Australia the door to enter has never been more wide open. 

Current healthcare workers in the UK are getting their visas extended, source.

https://workpermit.com/news/home-office-u-turn-uk-visa-extensions-migrant-nhs-workers-20201121

Get your IELTS exam, PLAB and start working in the UK while there is demand. 

Australia needs an extra 205,900 healthcare workers. Where will they come from?

In this tutorial, Ellen deciphers the language of the public band descriptors for the Speaking test. She covers bands 6, 7 and 9 so that IELTS test takers can understand what is needed at each of these bands and prepare accordingly.

You will learn:

* The four criteria you are scored on

* What it means to be a band 9 speaker and what kinds of errors even native speakers make

* How different a 7 is from a 6

* What errors you have to watch out for, and

* What resources you can use to improve your speaking score

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

You can also watch the full tutorial here:

Take a look at more tutorials for the IELTS Speaking here

Click here to Subscribe to the Youtube Channel.

READ THE TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Ben: Hello there IELTS students. Welcome to IELTS podcast. You no longer have to worry, fret or panic about IELTS because we are here to guide you through this test jungle. Enjoy these IELTS tutorials and if you need more help or want to access the famous online course, you can visit us at ieltspodcast.com

Ellen: Hi there IELTS test takers. This is Ellen and I’m back with another podcast today. This one will deal with speaking. What I have done is I have pulled up the band descriptors for speaking and the goal to this podcast is to kind of clarify for you what is graded and how you are scored in your speaking test.

What we have here in front of us is clearly the public version as it says here in parenthesis, but I’ve spoken to a number of IELTS examiners and they assure me that what we have available as the public is really very similar to what the actual IELTS examiners have the day of the exam in front of them. Maybe theirs has one more bullet or it’s a little more detailed in certain areas, but on the whole, we can use this and gauge where we are in speaking.

So, this is what I want to cover today. Many of you may have seen this before, but I’m also pretty sure that a lot of you haven’t seen this. These are available all throughout the internet. All you really have to do is just type in your favorite search engine ‘IELTS speaking band descriptors’ and you’ll find them.

Also, you can easily find the writing band descriptors for Task 1 and for Task 2. That’s just for your future reference if you want to see them on your own you can look them up. It’s really easy to find them.

Let’s talk about what we have. We all pretty much know that there are nine bands. You can ignore band 0, but essentially it’s bands 1 through 9 and of course, there are four criteria that we are graded on: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation.

Marry Anne is a nurse in the UAE and wanted to start working in the US. 

She took the exam three times because she was stuck at 6.5. 

After taking our IELTS course her band score jumped to 7 in the writing and she could start the process for working in the USA. 

Have listen to find out, you will also discover:

* a great strategy for coming up with ideas for the essay* a tip on how to structure your essay* a technique to improve your speaking -even if there are no native speakers around.

Listen to the entire interview here:  

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

Sign up here to our newsletter and you will get access to the same feedback service Mary used. 

 

Studies have shown that listening makes up about 45% of the time people spend communicating, followed by speaking (about 30 per cent), reading (about 15 per cent) and writing (about 10 per cent). That’s right: listening is the skill you will use the most in English, or any other language you learn.

In this podcast I will:

* share common problems experienced in the test

* give you a detailed overview of the test, the format and the types of questions. 

* share 3 great preparation strategies that will probably surprise you. 

* give you the chance to win a free course in December! Listen to the full podcast for more information – only valid for 2020!

Take a look at our massive new vocabulary list to help you prepare for your IELTS exam.

 

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript

You may be asked questions about the Environment and Pollution. Read the following IELTS style questions and answers below and pay attention to the words or phrases in bold. Use the ‘Definitions’ section at the bottom of the page to check any meanings you are unfamiliar with.

Make a note of any new vocabulary and the best way to learn it is to use it!

IELTS Speaking Part 1 – STYLE QUESTIONS.

Examiner: Has there been an increase in pollution where you live?

Georgio: Yes, there has been a dramatic increase in recent years as many of the most productive factories are built on the outskirts of large towns and some are even in quite central areas so very near where people live. Air pollution, as a result of factory emissions and toxic fumes has become a real problem.

Examiner: How has this pollution had an impact on daily life, do you think?

Helena: I think there are two key areas which have been most affected – firstly, our health, as air pollution is terrible in the city centre because too many workers commute and rely heavily on their cars rather than travelling by public transport and there are many traffic jams. Secondly, on the quality of crops and in rural areas, where the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in farming has contributed to a dangerous amount of pollutants in foods.

Examiner: Are residents in your town good at recycling? 

Sara: Sadly, in my opinion, not nearly good enough. I know in many European countries, the mantra of reuse and recycle plastics and cardboards has become automatic but here there is still a culture of throwing everything away and most domestic as well as industrial waste is incinerated. Obviously, this policy just contributes to worsening air pollution and to plastic being thrown into the sea.

IELTS Speaking Part 2 – STYLE QUESTIONS.

Describe a time when you have caused pollution,

You should say:

* When this was

* What it was

* Where it was

And the impact which you think this might have caused.

Zoe: I would like to describe a moment when I was on holiday a few years ago in a really beautiful part of India on holiday with a group of friends. We had been travelling around India for a month and I think I had adjusted to seeing a huge amount of waste on the streets. Not surprisingly, there were very limited facilities for recycling – this is not really part of the culture and it would require a huge investment to put in place the equipment and education programme needed.

We were travelling on a train and had been sleeping as it was a very long journey and early the next morning when we pulled into the station, everyone leaned out of the window and purchased bottles of water, cups of tea and hot food from excited street sellers on the platforms. I was happy to join in with the locals and without even thinking drank my water then threw the bottle back out of the window which is something I would never have done back home. It wasn’t until later that I understood the consequences of this action.

After winding through the countryside for hours, the train finally reached the coast. I was stunned – rather than a beautiful, clear blue stretch of ocean, all I could see was plastic waste – bottles, bags, food packaging as well as larger items of industrial items were just floating, interspersed with a few seabirds who looked utterly confused and were not really able to swim.

I could clearly see the impact of my careless action on the train and the problem of plastics in the ocean became horribly evident. With no other way of disposing of rubbish, the temptation, indeed, the default had become to simply throw bottles and bags on the ground or into the sea,

For your IELTS Speaking part 3, the IELTS examiner will ask a range of questions based on the topic that you had in part 2.

This gives you an opportunity to expand and develop your answers and there is no set number of questions that you can be asked to answer. 

In this tutorial we look at some recent topics that have been asked in the 2020 IELTS exam.

If you need help preparing for your IELTS speaking exam, take a look at our feedback service here: https://ieltspodcast.teachable.com/p/speaking-feedback-service-bundle

Below are the questions we will look at in this episode:

Let’s talk about travelling by planes more generally.

* What are the advantages of travelling by plane?* Why do some people prefer to travel by train?* What are the disadvantages of living near an airport?* How is working at an airport different from working in other places?

Let’s talk more about friends and friendship.

* Do you think it’s strange to make friends online?* Why do some people have few friends?* Which is more important, new friendships or maintaining old ones?* How do companies welcome their new employees in your country?

Let’s talk about photography.

* What are the advantages of taking photos with smartphones?* Do you think photographers are artists?* What are the benefits of children learning to paint?* Can anyone become a famous artist through hard work?

 

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

Meet Babur,

He is from Pakistan but is now working in Saudi Arabia and soon Canada!

He had taken the test twice before and scored just 6.5.

Why was he stuck at 6.5?

He was:

*  correcting his own essays….

* researching how to pass IELTS online (and getting more confused)

* he got a little depressed / unmotivated from the first 6.5 he scored

Babur could not understand why he was getting 6.5 again and again, despite putting in so much effort! 

Feeling very frustrated he joined our online course and started getting feedback on his work.

The difference was night and day!

Babur quickly learned that he was previously preparing the wrong way, and his IELTS essay answers were completely wrong also.

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

After taking the IELTS exam 5 times, Jolan, was starting to lose hope!

Until he invested in our Jump to Band 7 or It’s FREE course and received valuable feedback to help him improve.

In this latest podcast, Jolan shares:

* How our online course helped him get over his confusion of writing essays!* Why he recommends that you get feedback from a qualified tutor* How he improved his reading score after getting 5.5

 

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

Meet Benny! 

Benny runs Fluent in 3 Months – an invaluable site for learning languages fast! 

Benny has learnt over 6 languages to B2 level (fluently able to talk to a native about a range of subjects), and around 6 other languages at a basic level. 

In this podcast I ask our Irish polyglot friend the following questions: 

* Which was the easiest language to learn? (It wasn’t Spanish). * How does he get to “speaking level” the languages?* How to get passionate about a language? 

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |