No time to go to class or not enough cash to pay a teacher?
My 30-day Part 2 Speaking Challenge will encourage you to practise a little each day to get you totally ready for your IELTS test.
How 2 minutes of speaking every day can dramatically improve your IELTS score.
Last year I set myself a challenge for November – could I run every single day? Even if it was just a couple of miles? How difficult could it be?!
Well it wasn’t really difficult and I learnt a lot – I realised that although it was dark and cold when I went out, it wasn’t actually that bad.
But if I hadn’t set myself the challenge I would never have got out of the door.
I also told my friends and family what I was doing and announced it on Facebook! So the embarrassment of feeling a failure was enough to push me outside every evening.
The best thing about that month though, was that I recorded my fastest running time ever. And as soon as I stopped my daily run, my speed got slower and slower again. It’s amazing how a small change on a regular basis can make such a huge improvement.
So why am I telling you all this?
Because if it could make such a huge difference to my running, then it could make a huge difference to your speaking.
The challenge
I set up a free IELTS Speaking challenge on Facebook and Instagram: ‘30 Days to dramatically improve your IELTS Speaking Score by yourself’.
It wasn’t too difficult. Every day my students had to
- speak for 2 minutes on a topic
- record yourself
- listen to your recording
That’s all!
The aims were to:
- help you get used to speaking for 2 minutes non-stop
- give you plenty of ideas for when you do the real exam
- help you notice some things about your speaking that you could improve
- build your confidence and fluency
- increase your vocabulary
- improve your grammar
I did all of the Speaking Topics myself every day too and posted them on my Podcast (see below), so that everyone could hear my examples (they were certainly NOT MODEL EXAMPLES!).
With the transcript and video versions, I thought this would be an added bonus for the challenge – listening and pronunciation practice too!
The results
I think the biggest thing we all learnt is that it really doesn’t matter if you don’t answer the question exactly as it is.
I certainly learnt some things about my own speaking. I use far too many ‘ums’ (although this is a totally natural feature of native speaker speech, so don’t worry about it as long as it’s not too long. If you say ‘uuuuuuummmmm’ for a long time it looks like hesitation).
Also, I realised I could use better vocabulary – more adjectives would definitely help.
But no-one likes to hear their own voice, and I think at first I just didn’t like recording myself. By Day 7, I felt more relaxed about that, so my Speaking definitely improved. Another bonus! And so will yours!
How to do the challenge by yourself
- Print off the PDF of all the questions from the 30-Day Challenge here.
- Put it somewhere visible so that you get a daily reminder.
- Get an App for recording on your phone. I use Voice Recorder but there are plenty of others, or just record on your phone.
- It really helps if you tell someone what you’re doing so that they can give you support.
- Cross off the days/tasks as you go through them, so that you can feel a sense of progress.
- Listen to your recording and write down one mistake you made.
- You could ask someone to listen for you.
- Try not to make the same mistake twice!
- Ask in the Facebook group if you have any questions!
What to listen for
I know it’s not easy to listen for your own mistakes but here are a few things that are easy to spot and improve:
- Repetition – how can you say something different?
- Hesitation – how can you fill the gaps when you’re thinking? (Use fillers like ‘well’ ‘you know’ ‘anyway!’ ‘so’…)
- Grammar – check Past Tenses, 3rd person ‘s’, plural ‘s’
- Natural speech – use contractions e.g. ‘I’m’ rather than ‘I am’
- Vocabulary – could you choose more interesting adjectives e.g. ‘freezing’ rather than ‘cold’?
- Linking words – are you just using ‘but’ and ‘so’? Could you try ‘even though’ or ‘Anyway…’?
- Pronunciation – are there any sounds you have difficulty with? (read this article for more advice on how to improve your pronunciation)
Getting Feedback
I totally believe that you can listen to your own speech and make improvements, but in an ideal world, there would be someone who could listen and give you some ideas on what you can improve.
So no more excuses!
Watch the first week of videos here:
About those bullet points...
Nobody cares about the bullet points in IELTS Speaking Part 2!
Least of all the examiner.
The examiner DOES NOT CARE if you use them or not.
There is NO BAND CRITERIA for TASK ACHIEVEMENT in the Speaking Test.
Don’t believe me?
Listen to my chat with another ex-IELTS examiner on the All Ears English Podcast.
I hope it helps!
Need more help with Speaking?
How to get off to a great start with Speaking Task 1: The 30-Day Task 1 Challenge!
Get the full set of videos (Days 8 – 30) in the Members Academy.
What to expect in the IELTS Speaking Test.
Find a list of the best websites and apps to help you prepare for the Speaking test by yourself.
How to use the phonemic alphabet to improve your pronunciation for IELTS (my YouTube video).
Get my full suite of courses and more in the Members Academy - everything you need to prepare for IELTS in one place.
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