This is an All Ears English IELTS episode.
Think you need to speak fast on the IELTS?
It's a myth!
How to bring your best intonation to the test.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 5 million times.
We believe in connection, not perfection.
But today is a special Test Talk episode.
We have Jessica Beck, the examiner of excellence, author of 12 test prep textbooks, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
We are here today to help you get the score you need on your next exam.
So let's get started.
On today's All Ears English IELTS episode, don't leave your heart behind on the speaking test.
If you're taking the IELTS soon, do you know which grammar points you should focus on to prepare for the speaking section?
Well, we can tell you in our downloadable cheat sheet, where you'll find out exactly what the examiner wants on the speaking section of the IELTS.
But to get that cheat sheet for free, you can go right now to allearsenglishcom and download it instantly.
See you there.
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That's allearsenglish.com slash letter B number two.
Hey, Jessica.
Hello, Lindsay.
Nice to talk to you again.
You too.
What's shakin'?
What's shakin'?
Bacon.
I've talked before about my son, who's three, and we're learning a lot about rhyming words now.
Okay.
You'll have to excuse me if I start speaking in rhyme like Dr. Seuss.
That's how I'm used to talking.
I know.
You have a few of those.
I was wondering where you came up with those.
That's fantastic.
It's an asset.
It's an asset.
It's all about the way you deliver it, Jessica, with the right intonation.
You can say anything if you say it in the right way, right?
Exactly.
If you sound confident enough, you can.
If I sound confident enough, I could speak in rhyming words like a Dr Seuss book to a businessman and he will just nod and agree, because I sound like what I'm saying is so important.
Exactly.
So it's all about the way we deliver it.
And that's what we want to help you guys with today, right?
So We know that speaking is a huge issue on the IELTS.
We're gonna focus a lot of our episodes on speaking, but today we're talking about how we can deliver it with the right level of confidence in the right way.
Yeah, there were quite a few questions on the responder about IELTS, that they're worried about their pronunciation or their speed of speech, their accent.
And I think firstly, and Lindsay and I were just talking about this, that we...
We don't expect you.
The examiners don't expect you.
Native speakers don't expect you to sound exactly like an American or a British person.
You don't have to sound like a native speaker.
And that shouldn't. be your goal, really.
Yeah guys, we want to do a little myth busting today, because this myth just I hear it everywhere and it's just not true.
You don't need to speak at the speed of a native.
Actually, natives don't want you to speak that fast if they can't understand you.
So yeah, so it's all about understanding, right, Jessica?
I mean, natives just want to understand you.
They don't want you to feel uncomfortable.
And if you're going and speaking really fast, you're just going to feel uncomfortable.
Yeah.
And if you speak too fast, I think that can make you more nervous also.
And it will make your pronunciation worse because you're not going to be saying things clearly.
Exactly.
Especially when it comes to the IELTS exam, and we don't want to do anything that's going to make us even more nervous.
So let's bust this myth right now Jessica, that our listeners don't need to speak super fast, but they do need to try their best to speak clearly.
And one thing that I like to do is chunk my sentences up and have little pauses between each thought right,
That's one way to speak clearly.
Yeah, and that will give you a better score for pronunciation on the test, too.
As the motto of All Ears English connection, not perfection.
You know the IELTS exam doesn't expect you to be perfect either.
So if you speak with a clear tone of voice and you use intonation in what you're saying, you put some emotion in your voice and do what Lindsay just said with the chunking.
You pause between thoughts or between sentences.
That is going to get you a seven on the IELTS for sure.
Okay, I like this.
So what we're doing here is we're throwing this idea of speaking fast out the window and we're replacing it with intonation and chunking.
Yeah.
And please don't speak fast on the test.
If anything, you should try and speak a little slower than you normally do, because that can give you more time to think of an answer if you're a little nervous.
We talked before about unfamiliar questions.
If you need some time to think of vocabulary or You can speak a little bit more slowly and use some filler phrases like wow, that's an interesting question.
I've never thought of that.
Phrases like that that not only show good sentence structure and vocabulary, but they can also show off some intonation as well.
Yeah.
And we know that when we're in high pressure situations, like one situation where I tend to speak quickly is well, when I'm nervous on the podcast sometimes
And sometimes when I give a presentation in person, I'll speak fast.
So we know that we have that tendency.
So that's why, as Jessica just said, it's good to exaggerate by slowing down more than you think you would normally be doing.
Yeah, I think the biggest pitfall of the exam as far as pronunciation is concerned is letting your nerves make you into a robot.
You know because that if you don't have the intonation and the pauses and some more interesting rising and falling in your voice, then you're in danger of getting a five for pronunciation.
You know, if you sound like this and it oh, like that's going to get you, that's going to lower your score.
Yeah, be a human.
And it's hard because other languages maybe have different intonations or less intonation than English, right?
I mean, I'm thinking of Japanese right now.
And I think that I could be wrong.
But I think with Japanese, there's a different kind of intonation.
It's slightly less emphatic.
Oh, yeah.
English sounds very dramatic when...
Listen to against some other languages.
But again, you know, it's it's not about being perfect.
And intonation is there aren't any hard and fast rules regarding intonation.
Everybody has different intonation.
You know different accents in English have different intonation.
So don't worry about that.
Just let your own emotion come through.
If you think it's something important, your voice is going to go up.
You're going to, you know, accent it or focus on it.
Yeah.
So one thing that I've learned over the past few weeks of episodes is that there seems to be a lot of room for creativity on the IELTS, a lot of room for self-expression.
You know when you're actually taking the test.
You know, intonation is a good example of that.
And coming up with your own ideas if you don't know the answer is another good example of that.
Yeah.
And use this knowledge to help your practice as well.
If you know that these two things are going to help you on the exam, then focus on that intonation and actually expressing yourself with your tone of voice.
I think it's a really good idea to – you can watch clips on YouTube or full episodes online of sitcoms and short TV shows like that, where these actors have really dramatic intonation or soap operas.
Yeah, that's a good idea, and then you could like watch a little bit and just let yourself relax, just be silly it's okay to be silly and then watch it, pause it and try and sound exactly like that dramatic actor that you just heard.
Try to mirror them.
Yeah, More than 300 All Ears English listeners have already downloaded their All Ears English IELTS cheat sheet to find out what the examiner wants on the speaking section.
So if you haven't downloaded yours yet, go ahead and do that now at allearsenglishcom.
Slash evaluation.
And so what does it take to get a 7 or a 6 on the exam in terms of the pronunciation, the speaking?
Yeah, good question.
So for a six or higher, firstly, the examiner has to be able to understand what you're saying.
It's totally fine if you have a couple phonemes or a couple sounds that you don't say correctly.
Like, Maybe the R's and the L's or the TH sound.
That's okay.
If you have just a couple little sounds like that, that's fine.
As long as the examiner can understand you.
Also...
Intonation is important.
Intonation and chunking.
Your voice has to go up and down a little bit.
You have to express some emotion in order to get a six or higher.
If you sound like a robot, it goes down.
It goes down to a five.
Wow.
Isn't that interesting?
Okay.
So that's another good reason to consume the listening materials where people are actually alive.
Human beings are expressing their emotions.
Please listen to alive people in your practice.
Yeah, for sure.
You know what I mean, right?
There's a lot of resources out there that unfortunately it sounds like the person behind the microphone or the video is dead.
Oh my gosh, totally.
Yeah, totally.
Um, in doing some research for in preparation for our podcast, I listened to um a lot of other podcasts out there where I'm pretty you know it's just teachers trying to do their best and really good meaning, but I think they get nervous too, maybe or they're like taking it too seriously or something.
I'm not sure, but it's just...
It kind of sounds like that.
Right.
That's right.
And so listening to that might be good for other things like grammar or something.
But if you're preparing for the speaking section of the IELTS, you need to learn how to put feeling into your words, guys.
Yeah, totally.
And just as a small anecdote, I did have a student this was years ago in Taiwan and she, let's say, intermediate.
You know lots of grammar problems, not huge vocabulary, but she
She had so much fun when she was speaking English that she had just had so much intonation and feeling in her voice.
She ended up getting a seven on the speaking test.
How cool is that?
That's a success story.
I like it.
So I really think that being relaxed and showing some emotion and personality is going to make you get a better score than just studying.
You know, having perfect grammar.
A little emotion goes a long way in other words.
Totally.
Yeah.
Oh, that's a perfect note to end on.
I like it.
I like it.
So guys, put your emotion into it.
Don't leave your heart behind when you walk into the room on the day of the test.
I like that.
Yeah.
That could be the title of this episode, Jessica.
All right.
Thanks for joining us today.
My pleasure.
Enjoy your evening.
Bye.
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