This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1582.
Don't let spelling kill your IELTS score.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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Does spelling matter for your score on IELTS?
You bet it does.
Find out where it matters and how to improve it.
You can be technically correct in English and still not sound natural.
Maybe your sentences are grammatically right, but something feels stiff, a little robotic.
Not quite how a native speaker would say it.
That's nuance.
Fluency lives in collocations, phrasal verbs, and word choice, not just grammar rules.
If you keep using the same safe phrases, it may be time to stretch.
Find out your level and what vocabulary skills you're missing in our free two minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.
That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E.
Doing good.
Bria, I'm excited to talk about IELTS today.
What are we talking about?
Yes, we're talking about spelling.
Are you a good speller, Lindsay?
I think I'm actually probably a good speller.
I'm a decent speller.
Yeah.
Nice.
Me too.
I'm a pretty good speller.
And you know why?
Because we're both readers.
That makes a huge difference.
So we're going to talk about that some today.
But spelling definitely matters on IELTS much more than it matters in your daily life out there, right?
If you're sending a text message in email.
It's not the end of the world if a word is spelled incorrectly, but on IELTS it really matters.
So this is true for the listening exam, right?
What happens if you spell something incorrectly again, Aubrey, on the listening exam?
What happens?
Unfortunately, your answer is marked wrong.
Even if the word is correct, if it is spelled incorrectly, it's just wrong.
You don't get any partial points.
Nope, unfortunately.
Oh my gosh.
And what about the reading exam?
I mean, where do we need spelling for IELTS reading, right?
Because some question types are multiple choice, but you have sentence completion, summary completion, note completion and then table flow chart completion.
All of those you're having to write words and they must be spelled correctly or the answer is wrong.
Oh, and then on writing, the bad news just keeps coming up.
I know.
On writing, incorrect spelling can actually affect your vocab score.
Is that right?
Exactly.
It affects the lexical resource score, your vocabulary score.
Occasional minor typos will not drastically affect your score, but frequent errors or misspelling common simple words will bring down your band score because that shows limited control over vocabulary.
Okay, so we want to make sure that we take spelling seriously.
Because we can see that the stakes are high here.
So then, if we feel like maybe we're not the best speller and spelling is not always an indication of competence, right?
It just means you're a language person if you spell well.
Exactly.
It's a lot more about the attention to detail, right?
There's a lot.
Sometimes it comes more naturally to some people, but you can train this.
You can become a better speller so that you can increase your IELTS scores.
Yeah.
So what can we do, Aubrey?
What would be a couple of suggestions that we can give our listeners today of how to improve?
Yeah, we have three things you can do to be improving your spelling.
The first one is reading.
If you read often, you will be able to spell anything you need to spell on the IELTS exam.
You'll be seeing these words spelled correctly.
As you're adding words to your vocabulary notebook, you're seeing them spelled, right?
So really the best way to improve spelling is to see words spelled correctly often.
Yeah, yeah.
But you do have to read attentively.
You have to pay attention to what you're reading.
You have to actually notice not just the story, but how the words look, not just what they mean.
It's kind of like building a bit of a photographic memory while we're taking in a story.
Exactly.
It's not enough to be reading for the gist, the content, right?
You also do need to be observant, paying attention to how words are spelled, noticing when spelling is surprising.
Maybe there's a double letter you wouldn't have expected to be there.
Take note of that.
Recognize, like you said Lindsay, sort of that photographic memory, paying attention so that when you write it you can spell it correctly.
Yeah, the value of just stopping and thinking, huh, I thought that was two.
I thought that was one L, but it's two.
That actually creates a bit of a bookmark in your brain, like a dent in your brain.
That will help you on testing.
All right.
Exactly.
Yes.
And you've heard this from us before, but you need to be interested in what you're reading.
You need to be reading a variety of materials.
So yes, read the news, but don't just read the news.
Find a novel that you love, a page turner that you'll be excited to read, so that you look forward to reading and your brain is more engaged.
Yeah Michelle, and I have talked about this lately on All Ears English.
How great it is when you have a novel that you really look forward to coming back to before bed or something.
It's just the best feeling, isn't it, Aubrey?
It really is.
I love looking forward to reading, staying up later than I should, because I can't wait to find out what happens next.
It's so fun.
It's great.
It's the best.
So reading is our number one recommendation, but there's two other things we would recommend to improve our spelling.
What is number two, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So number two is to train your visual memory.
So this is envisioning words in your mind while you speak, because it's not just about reading.
If you have seen these words before, as you're speaking, you can be visualizing those words.
Picture the way they are spelled.
You're creating a mental connection in your mind between the word and how it's spelled.
Yeah, this is something, for some reason, my brain is quirky.
I do this when I speak foreign languages without even saying, like, I'm going to do this now.
I just do it.
It helps improve your writing and spelling, for sure.
It helps improve your writing and your understanding of the structure of the language, too.
But I've asked, like friends, you know when you're speaking Spanish, speaking for whatever language, do you do that?
And they've said, no, I have no idea what you're talking about.
I think it's kind of a weird quirk, but I'm telling you, it's great advice.
It works.
It helps to solidify fluency and it will help with spelling 100%.
Yes, exactly.
And, when you are able, follow along with either the transcripts or, if it's an audio book, listen to it and follow along with it written so you can make that connection between speech and pronunciation and what the words look like.
And, as we were saying, this is where part of training your visual memory is noticing problem letters or unusual spellings.
So a good example is the word accommodate.
You will look at that and it probably looks strange.
Take note of the double C and double M when you see it, just that fraction of a second to note.
Okay, double C, double M, so that when you write it you spell it correctly.
This is why we need these activities, because that word would give native speakers a little bit of challenge, I think.
Definitely.
Native speakers should be doing this as well.
Absolutely.
For sure.
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All right, Aubrey, we are back from break.
The third tip here is use spellcheck tools wisely.
What do we mean by that?
Yeah, this is really interesting because if you are going to, whether you're handwriting your essay or using the computer, if you are relying on spellcheck, it's going to burn you on test day because you won't have a spell checker on your essays, right?
But spell checking can be used wisely to help you prepare.
So when you're working on improving your spelling, you will use spell check.
First proofread your essay without any tools to practice this skill for test day.
You need to be able to proofread without a spell checker.
But then when autocorrect fixes a word right after you proofread it, put it in Grammarly, put it in a spell checker and any words that are corrected that you missed pause, take note.
How did you spell it?
What was wrong so that you can spell it correctly on test day?
I love that idea.
So we are being very intentional about the tools we're using and exactly when we're using them, knowing what tools we're going to have on test day and won't have on test day.
So smart.
So exactly.
Yes.
And you do not want to take big risks on test day.
Maybe you think of a new word that you've heard before that you want to include in an essay.
If you've never seen it written before and you're not confident that you can spell it right.
Test day is not the time to do that right.
These risks you want to take while you're practicing, while you're writing practice essays.
That's when you want to use this vocabulary, so that you have a chance to proofread it.
Double check the spelling, then you can use it on test day.
Yeah, take those risks in practice essays when you're going to have a teacher who's qualified in IELTS review it and give you feedback.
Right?
And that's something we do include in our course Three Keys IELTS.
The practice exams is part of some of the packages.
Right Aubrey.
Yes, and it's so useful, right?
It's one thing to put your essay in a spell checker and find out which words were spelled correctly, or some of the grammar that maybe should have been changed.
But it's another thing to get your scores for each scoring section.
What would I have scored on task response, vocabulary, cohesion, coherence, and why?
What do I need to change in order to increase those scores?
Getting that feedback from a teacher is invaluable.
Yeah, that's how we get super granular.
And then we're actually preparing for IELTS, right?
We're not preparing for academia or some other test.
We're preparing for the IELTS exam, right?
Guys, go back and check out IE IELTS Energy 1580.
What should you include in your task one overall trend?
That was just a few days ago.
So don't miss it.
If you are preparing for academic task one, do not miss that episode.
You need to know how to do this overview of your essay.
What should be in your overall trend?
Good.
Any final thoughts?
I mean, I feel like we've covered it quite nicely here, Aubrey.
Spelling does matter.
It matters on three out of four of the places of the exam.
Yes, it definitely matters, but there is a lot you can do ahead of time to make sure you are spelling these words correctly, that you can catch errors right.
You need to practice proofreading.
You need to use today's tips to be improving your spelling ahead of time.
All right.
Really good stuff today, Aubrey.
Guys, hit follow if you love our show.
And check out our course, Three Keys IELTS, over at allersenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S.
All right.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
See you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
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