IELTS SPEAKING - STUDENTS’ NIGHTMARE

Due to the event of internationalism, English has become the global language and is also the key to globalization. As for that, IELTS is becoming increasingly familiar to all , and also the certificate that most students are aiming for. Most of the students were born in Vietnam, making Vietnamese the familiar language that they use in their daily life. However, not every student is capable of mastering their mother tongue. Therefore, for learners, it will not be easy learning to speak a new language. This is also the reason why IELTS Speaking has become a “nightmare” to students themselves. Let’s look into the difficulties of IELTS Speaking with us!

1. Lack of Speaking environment

It is known that in order to make the most out of studying, students have to combine theories with hands-on experience. Many spend time going through the theories, forms and vocabularies but lack the environment to exercise what they have learned. When students take the exam, they will usually be in a state of confusion and start to mumble the words, resulting in undesirable band scores. IELTS Speaking is based 1-1, meaning one contestant and one judge, which requires students to practice their speaking. Or else, they would be at a disadvantage, as they will experience lack of confidence and slow in reflexion.

1. Lack of vocabulary to develop ideas

Vocabulary shortage is also one of the reasons many students find it difficult to gather ideas for their speech. The topic of the Speaking task is board, which means that students cannot prepare for this at home. Therefore, it is completely normal if test takers are caught up in the topics they haven’t prepared for. In that case, every hope for your Speaking performance depends on your logical reflexes and your vocabulary to quickly develop ideas. Unfortunately, when test takers are given the topics beyond their understanding, even though they were filled with vibrant ideas, they usually lack the vocabulary to present them. Not only should students be familiar with popular topics in the test, they should be improving their vocab as well, in order to become more confident.

1. Lack of coherence when answering

One thing that few learners may attend to is the coherence in a speech. One’s performance is not only graded in terms of ideas, but also the “nativeness” in their speech. Many Vietnamese students experienced overlapping anxiety, leading to lack of confidence in their speaking and anxiousness when taking the test, including mumbling the words or mispronouncing the words. Even though students can pronounce like the new-released Cambridge 16, the unnaturalness will put students at a disadvantage. Imagine having a conversation with a friend but that friend had their eyes elsewhere and talk politely and formally, will it be natural? The same feeling goes for the judges when students are taking the test!

1. Illogicalness in students’ answers

Moreover, contestants’ speech is also graded based on your creativity and logic. No matter how fluent students' speech or the complexities of the words they use, it won’t be a benefit if students had trouble arranging the sentence, making the whole speech fall off. With the pressure of test-taking, most students experienced a thought-to-speech process, without carefully arranging ideas for their speech.

All in all, there are so many reasons as to why IELTS Speaking has become a “nightmare” to students. Do you, the reader, find difficulties in achieving a high band score in Speaking? No worries, as Intelligo Project is proud to introduce our workshop “ACHIEVING IELTS 8.0” - an ideal workshop for those who are experiencing mishaps in their path to conquer this exam, as well as the Speaking task. In this workshop, our “qualified” speakers will answer all of the questions asked by the guests, as well as giving out tips for more efficient studying.

If you have any questions for our speakers, feel free to ask in the comments below to help us organize a more efficient and educational project for all!