IELTS Speaking Test Fluency Tips – Part 1

I think most people who prepare for the IELTS Speaking Test know that one of the things that is going to be assessed is their fluency. But, what does “fluency” mean? Most of my students understand what this means, even if it is difficult sometimes to put it into words and come up with an exact definition!

Without complicating things too much, and based on the IELTS Speaking Band Descriptors  for Fluency and Coherence, I would say “fluency” simply refers to your ability to maintain a natural flow (think of a river or a waterfall) when you speak, or, in other words, the ability to keep on going:

Sounds simple enough, right? But, how can we actually improve our fluency, our flow? In this three-part blog series, we’re going to introduce you to some fluency tips: simple strategies that you can use to boost your fluency across the three parts of the IELTS Speaking Test, and, as a result, also hopefully boost your IELTS Speaking band score.

In this blog, we’re going to focus on Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking Test.

“But, Part 1 is so easy!”

As you probably already know, in Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking Test, the examiner will ask you basic questions about familiar topics. Now, because the questions are relatively simple and because a lot of test takers think that Part 1 is designed simply to ease them into the Speaking Test, they take Part 1 very lightly. In fact, a lot of learners don’t even practise for Part 1 at all!

I think this is a mistake because, even though Part 1 might seem basic, it’s still part of the test and you’re still being assessed using the same criteria! If you don’t practise for Part 1, there is a danger that you won’t be able to produce answers that showcase your fluency and maximize your potential Speaking band score.

What do I mean? Take a look at this response:

Examiner: What do you like to do in your free time?

Test taker: Play basketball.

On the surface, the answer is fine, but, you’ll notice that it’s very short and, from the point of view of the examiner, the test taker has not really produced enough assessable language. Basically, the only thing the test taker has demonstrated is that they understood the question.

The response is not wrong, but, clearly, the test taker did not take advantage of the opportunity to show the examiner that they could keep going.

“Help! Is there a strategy I can use?”

Now, you might be thinking “If only there was a simple but extremely effective strategy I could use to help me to keep going in Part 1!”. Well, luckily, there is, and it is simple AND extremely effective! What I like to call the Question Words strategy will allow you to develop and expand pretty much any answer that you produce in Speaking Part 1.

“Great! How does the strategy work?”

Simply use the question words we are all familiar with (What? Where? When? Who? Why? and How? – also known as the 5Ws and 1H) to generate ideas and content that will allow you to keep on speaking.

I think the best way to understand how this strategy works is to see it in action.  Let’s take the same response we looked at earlier, plug it into the Question Words framework, and see what we come up with:

What?         Basketball

Where?      Court near my house

When?        Evenings (after work)

Who?           My friends

Why?           To keep fit

How (often)?  2-3 times a week

As you can see, even though the question was very basic, there’s so many different options in terms of what we can use to develop our response!

We do need to be a bit careful here, though: I used all of the question words to show you what is possible, but that doesn't mean you should use ALL of them for EVERY Part 1 question on your test day. That’s because, if you do, you’ll probably end up with an answer on the other extreme: instead of too short, a response that is too long and which might not sound coherent (remember, the other part of this particular assessment criteria), or even memorised!

“What do I do in the actual test?”

What we’re looking for, then, is balance, and I think the simplest way to think about this is in terms of number of sentences. If we consider that 1 sentence is probably going to be too short and 4 sentences too long, the ideal balance for a Part 1 response is 2 to 3 sentences. What does that mean for our Question Words framework? We don’t need to use them all – just the 2 or 3 that are the most relevant.

So, turning back again to the original question we looked at, we might end up with something like this:

Examiner: What do you like to do in your free time?

Test taker: In my spare time, I enjoy playing basketball because I think it’s an excellent way to keep fit. There’s a court near my house and I try to play 2 or 3 times a week.

What do you think? Do you notice the difference? Not too short, not too long, a demonstration of the ability to keep going and a much more interesting answer, right?

So, all you need to do is practise for Part 1 of the Speaking Test using the Question Words strategy and producing fluent, developed answers that flow naturally will become second nature in next to no time!

Make sure you come back next week for the second part of our Improving your IELTS Speaking Test Fluency Tips series where we’re going to focus on Part 2 of the Speaking Test.

Why not check out our on-demand IELTS Speaking Pack and get access to our webinar lessons to learn more about improving you band score in Fluency and Coherence and Lexical Resource?