Ielts speaking Matclark

IELTS SPEAKING – MAT CLARK Preface During my 5 years as an IELTS examiner in China, I have seen thousands of Chinese IELTS candidates perform OK in the speaking interview. Most people would agree that an OK score in speaking is 5 or 6. Many students now realize that a score of 5 or 6 for speaking is not enough for their study requirements and this is why I wrote this book. Many students spend months preparing for the IELTS speaking test and still find it difficult to score 7 or higher. In fact some candidates actually score lower than they potentially could have scored. There are a few reasons behind this poor performance and these will be discussed in detail throughout this book, but one major factor is the lack of quality material available for IELTS speaking preparation. As an IELTS examiner, I am able to precisely separate the differences in spoken English ability resulting in different IELTS speaking scores – this knowledge provides the basis for this book. There are a number of IELTS speaking books on the market but this book aims to break new ground by focusing on how to prepare for and achieve a speaking score of 7 (or maybe higher). All of the skills and strategies presented in this book are typical of a high scoring speaking candidate. This book is intended for anyone who intends to take the IELTS test; it will also help learners of English improve their speaking skills. It is suitable for both classroom use and self-study

TABLE OF CONTENTS The Speaking Test in China .................................................................................................................5
1. Chinese Performance and the Reason ........................................................................ 5
2. The Real Reason ................................................................................................... 6 Two Different Speaking Systems.........................................................................................................9
1. The Economics of Language ................................................................................... 9
2. The Location of Key Information ............................................................................. 9
3. Summary of the Differences between Spoken English and Spoken Chinese .....................12
The Marking System..........................................................................................................................13
1. Fluency and Coherence (Scored 1~9).......................................................................13
2. Lexical Resource (Scored 1~9) ...............................................................................16
3. Grammatical Range and Accuracy (1~9)...................................................................18
4. Pronunciation (1~9)..............................................................................................20
5. A Summary of the Marking System .........................................................................23
The Speaking Test Format.....................................................................................24
1. Part One of the Speaking Test.................................................................................25
1.1. Possible Topics for Part One.............................................................................26
1.2. Question Type 1: ―Basic Description‖ Questions..................................................28
1.3. Question Type 2: ―Liking‖ ...............................................................................33
1.4. Question Type 3: ―Disliking‖ Questions .............................................................36
1.5. Question Type 4: ― Types of‖ Question...............................................................38
1.6. Question Types 5: ―Wh-/How Often‖ Questions...................................................42
1.7. Question Type 6: ―Yes/No‖ Questions................................................................45
1.8. Question Type 7: ―Would‖ Questions: ................................................................48
1.9. Part one topic list ...........................................................................................52
2. Part Two of the Speaking Test.................................................................................92
2.1. Part Two Problems .........................................................................................92
2.2. Part Two and the Making System ......................................................................92
2.3. Part Two Topics.............................................................................................94
2.4. Strategies for Part Two ....................................................................................95
2.5. Producing a Good Quality Part Two Talk .......................................................... 100
2.6. Part Two Topic Analysis................................................................................ 110