How to look confident in front of IELTS speaking examiner?
How to look confident in front of IELTS speaking examiner?
Be confident. It sounds too simple, right? But self-confidence just might be your key to beating the IELTS. How? Read on.
IELTS speaking is the exam where you are assessed on different parameters such as fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. Confidence is not a factor here but you cannot imagine how drastically it can help you do well in all the above-said parameters, ultimately leading you to receive a high band score. When nervousness is an obvious emotional feeling inside, how you can sound more confident? Let us get deep into this fearful dilemma situation and know how to crack the IELTS speaking exam with better score.
Preparation is the Key Behind Confidence
You cannot be confident if you are not prepared well. Without practice, you are very likely to look unconfident during your IELTS speaking test. This happens because when you are not prepared, you start focusing on your mistakes on the day of your exam. On the other hand, when you practice a lot and have already worked on a number of your weak points, you would deliver speaking as if you speak without any error.
Take your time and make yourself time:
Not even native speakers can give the perfect answer immediately. Of course, you don’t want to appear as if you are hesitating or lack fluency so here’s a good tip. Paraphrase – or put in other words but with the same meaning – the examiner’s question back to them and then add a small comment like ‘that’s an interesting question’ or ‘that’s something I haven’t really thought about’. This will ‘buy’ yourself extra thinking time and it’s perfectly natural to do as long as you don’t do exactly the same thing for every single question. I certainly wish I had done this for my last interview!
As well as giving yourself time, think about how best to use it. You shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to answer the questions. Take your time and think about what you want to say. Speaking too quickly without taking the time to organize your thoughts can negatively affect your message’s coherence and may make it sound a bit muddled.
Believe in Your Opinions
Do not be nervous about the way you are giving opinions. It’s not the opinion that matters but how you give your opinion really makes the difference in IELTS speaking. Thus, give a fully confident performance by completely believing in your views, opinions, likes, and dislikes. Giving opinions by stating reasons as well would let the examiner know your speaking skills better.
Here are some tips to help you feel more confident when you go for your IELTS speaking test:
– Be prepared: you should know exactly what to expect in the 3 parts of the speaking test, and you should have read the suggestions on this website about how to answer.
– Lots of practice: a student who has practised answering all of the questions in all eight Cambridge books, as well as the questions on this site, will feel much more confident than a student who hasn’t.
– Write it down: when studying at home, you have time to prepare ‘perfect’ answers to practice questions; write your answers down, and ask someone to help you check and improve them.
– Speak aloud: start by reading the answers you wrote down (like an actor uses a script), then gradually stop using the script.
– Record yourself: this allows you to analyze the quality of your answers, as well as your pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
– Focus on ideas: it’s difficult to think about grammar when you are speaking, so I advise students to stop worrying about grammatical structures, and focus on expressing good ideas (which means good vocabulary).
