IELTS VIP Podcast Episode 13: How Can I Improve my Fluency in the IELTS Speaking Test?
Summary
TLDRIn this IELTS Advantage podcast, Chris addresses a VIP student's question on enhancing speaking fluency. He likens the brain to a computer, suggesting that multitasking, like opening too many tabs, slows performance. To improve fluency, he advises focusing on three main aspects: ideas, grammar, and vocabulary. By making grammar and vocabulary usage more automatic, reducing perfectionism, and being relaxed about ideas, students can significantly boost their fluency. Chris emphasizes that the IELTS speaking test is about effective communication, not the complexity of ideas, and recommends practicing grammar and vocabulary actively to achieve fluency.
Takeaways
- 🧠 The brain, like a computer, can slow down or crash when too many processes are open simultaneously, which is similar to what happens during the IELTS speaking test when one tries to focus on too many aspects like grammar, vocabulary, and ideas.
- 🚴♂️ To improve fluency, automate grammar and vocabulary use through practice, akin to riding a bike or tying shoelaces, which become second nature over time.
- 💡 Focusing on producing perfect sentences can hinder fluency; it's more important to communicate effectively rather than striving for linguistic perfection.
- 🌐 There's a balance between grammar, vocabulary, and fluency; improving the first two will naturally enhance the latter.
- 🤔 Overthinking ideas can reduce fluency; the IELTS speaking test is not about the content of ideas but the ability to communicate in English.
- 🗣️ Practicing using vocabulary actively, rather than passively learning or reading, helps in fluently incorporating it into speech.
- 🎯 The key to fluency is not about having impressive ideas but about the ability to answer questions and develop thoughts in a coherent manner.
- 💭 Reducing the cognitive load during the test by not overthinking can lead to more fluent responses.
- 🌟 Accepting that minor mistakes are part of the learning process can help in reducing hesitation and improving fluency.
- 🌱 Long-term solutions for fluency involve continuous practice and real-life application of language skills to make them more automatic.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the IELTS VIP podcast?
-The main focus of the IELTS VIP podcast is to address questions from VIP students in depth to improve their IELTS preparation, specifically focusing on areas such as fluency in the speaking test.
Why do students often struggle with fluency during the IELTS speaking test?
-Students struggle with fluency because they are trying to manage multiple cognitive processes simultaneously, such as thinking of ideas, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, which can overload their cognitive capacity and slow down their responses.
How does the analogy of a computer with too many open programs relate to the IELTS speaking test?
-The analogy suggests that just like a computer slows down or crashes when too many programs are open, a student's brain can become overwhelmed during the IELTS speaking test if they are trying to process too many language elements at once.
What are the three principal things that students typically think about during the IELTS speaking test?
-The three principal things students think about are ideas for the question, grammar, and vocabulary.
Why is it important to make language use automatic when preparing for the IELTS speaking test?
-Making language use automatic is crucial because it reduces the cognitive load during the test, allowing students to focus more on communication and less on individual language elements like grammar and vocabulary.
How does the speaker suggest improving grammar and vocabulary for better fluency?
-The speaker suggests improving grammar and vocabulary by practicing and using them until they become second nature, similar to how one learns to ride a bike or drive a car without consciously thinking about each step.
What role does perfectionism play in fluency issues during the IELTS speaking test?
-Perfectionism can hinder fluency as students may overthink to produce perfect sentences, leading to hesitations and pauses. The speaker advises relaxing about grammar and vocabulary mistakes to focus more on fluency.
Why should students not focus too much on the content of their ideas during the IELTS speaking test?
-Students should not focus too much on the content of their ideas because the speaking test assesses communication skills, not the depth or correctness of the ideas. The focus should be on effective communication rather than impressing with ideas.
How can students reduce the number of fluency errors they make in the short term?
-In the short term, students can reduce fluency errors by relaxing about making grammar and vocabulary mistakes and not overthinking their ideas.
What long-term strategies does the speaker recommend to improve fluency in the IELTS speaking test?
-Long-term strategies include improving awareness and active use of grammar and vocabulary, and practicing to make their use automatic, as well as accepting that some mistakes are natural and focusing on fluency over absolute accuracy.
Outlines
🧠 Improving Fluency in IELTS Speaking: The Brain as a Computer Analogy
The speaker, Chris from IELTS Advantage, introduces a podcast episode focused on helping VIP students improve their fluency in the IELTS speaking test. A common issue raised by students is the struggle with fluency due to excessive focus on grammar and vocabulary, leading to self-corrections and hesitations. Chris uses the analogy of a computer to explain how overloading the brain with too many tasks, like thinking about grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and even考官's reactions, can slow down or 'crash' performance. He suggests that students need to streamline their thought processes during the test to enhance fluency.
📚 Balancing Grammar, Vocabulary, and Fluency in IELTS Preparation
Chris emphasizes that many students mistakenly believe they have a fluency problem when it's actually a matter of grammar or vocabulary. He advises that improving grammar and vocabulary proficiency is key to enhancing fluency. The speaker also touches on the idea of moving vocabulary from passive to active use through practice. Furthermore, he addresses the issue of perfectionism, suggesting that striving for perfect sentences can hinder fluency. Chris notes that different teaching approaches to English can lead to varying levels of fluency, with some educational systems producing more fluent speakers despite potentially lower accuracy.
🌟 Overcoming Perfectionism and the Importance of Communication in IELTS Speaking
In the final paragraph, Chris discusses the importance of not overthinking ideas during the IELTS speaking test. He suggests that students should speak as naturally as they would in a conversation with a friend, rather than trying to impress with complex or extensive answers. The focus should be on effective communication rather than the depth of content. Chris reiterates that the IELTS speaking test assesses pronunciation, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and coherence, not the creativity or complexity of ideas. He concludes by encouraging students to relax, reduce the cognitive load during the test, and improve their language proficiency through practical use rather than just studying from books.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fluency
💡Grammar Mistakes
💡Vocabulary Mistakes
💡Self-Correct
💡IELTS Speaking Test
💡Brain as a Computer
💡Perfectionism
💡Active Vocabulary
💡Idea Generation
💡Coherence
Highlights
The podcast focuses on helping IELTS VIP students improve their speaking fluency by addressing common issues like grammar and vocabulary mistakes.
An analogy is made comparing the brain to a computer that can slow down or crash when overloaded with too many processes, similar to the cognitive load during the IELTS speaking test.
The importance of managing cognitive load during the IELTS speaking test is emphasized to improve fluency.
Students are advised to focus on three main aspects影响IELTS speaking fluency: ideas, grammar, and vocabulary.
The need to make grammar and vocabulary use more automatic, akin to riding a bike or tying shoelaces, is discussed to reduce cognitive load.
The podcast suggests that many students actually suffer from grammar or vocabulary issues, not fluency issues per se.
The balance between improving grammar and vocabulary is highlighted as key to enhancing fluency.
The concept of moving vocabulary from passive to active use is introduced to improve speaking fluency.
Perfectionism is identified as a barrier to fluency, with advice to relax about making minor mistakes.
The idea that fluency is more important than absolute accuracy in the IELTS speaking test is presented.
The notion that the speaking test is not an ideas test is clarified, urging students to focus on communication rather than impressive ideas.
Advice is given to speak to the examiner as one would to a friend to reduce the pressure of coming up with perfect ideas.
The importance of not overthinking ideas during the test is stressed, as it does not contribute to fluency scores.
Long-term solutions for improving fluency include becoming proficient with grammar and vocabulary through regular use.
The podcast concludes with a summary of strategies for both short-term and long-term fluency improvement.
An invitation for students to seek further help on the website is extended for those looking to enhance their IELTS speaking skills.
Transcripts
hi everyone Chris here from IELTS
advantage with another podcast IELTS VIP
podcast so what we do in this podcast is
we have a group of VIP students who we
work with and every week we ask them can
you give me a question so that I can go
very very deep on answering that
question so that's exactly what we're
going to do in this podcast one of our
VIP members asked this question how can
I improve my fluency in the speaking
test and they mentioned that they make
lots of grammar mistakes and lots of
vocabulary mistakes and then they have
to self-correct or think about what
they're doing and they're not lowers
their fluency so this is a very very
good question because it affects a huge
number of you and and I have a way of
helping students and that has really
really worked in the past which I'm
gonna share with you today so what I
want you to think of is imagine your
brain is like a computer
imagine your your laptop or your your
desktop computer at home what happens
when you open your laptop and you to
many programs open at the same time or
you open up your browser and there's too
many tabs open at the same time what
happens to your computer's performance
well you probably notice this when you
open there's too many things happening
especially if you've got and a cheaper
computer that doesn't have great
performances it slows down or it
completely crashes and this is because
they're just too many processes going on
at the same time and this is exactly
what happens in the IELTS speaking test
to your brain so think about how many
things that you are thinking about how
many processes that are going on in your
brain when you were doing the IELTS
speaking test so some of the things that
you might be thinking of our ideas for
the question how to give a grammatically
correct answer so thinking about
different sentence structures and
grammar grammatical mistakes that you
might be making also you might be
thinking of vocabulary and you might be
thinking of meaning and collocations
all these things related to vocabulary
and you might be thinking all sorts of
other things like thinking about your
pronunciation I'm thinking about your
fluency or just thinking about like ah
this this question is really difficult
or I'm about to fail this test or the
examiner is not being nice to me or a
multitude of things that might be going
through your head so what you need to do
is you need to the same way that you
would fix a problem with your computer
if there are too many tabs open or too
many programs open you need to to close
a lot of these things time and so that
there's three principal things that most
students think about in the IELTS
speaking test our ideas so thinking what
the ideas for the question grammar and
vocabulary so you're not going to stop
thinking about ideas or stop thinking
about grammar or stop thinking about
vocabulary but you need to make it more
automatic in the same way that remember
when you were first learning how to ride
a bike you probably really had to think
about it and really have to process all
that information route consciously but
now when you get on a bike you never
forget it is just a process same with
tying your shoelaces when you were a
little boy or little girl you had to you
know think about exactly where the ties
and the loops were going and really
think and concentrate on what you're
doing now you just tie them without even
thinking same as if you're learning how
to drive a car when you're first
learning how to drive a car you might be
like thinking about the mirrors and
thinking about the signal and looking
around you and thinking about the pedals
and the gears and you're consciously
having to think about all of these
things and when you do that you stall
the car or you make mistakes but after
you've been driving a few years it
becomes automatic so this is the
approach that you need to to take for
learning vocabulary and grammar and
using vocabulary and grammar so in order
to improve your fluency you need to
improve your grammar and your vocabulary
until you improve your grammar and
vocabulary you're going to have those
fluency problems because you're going to
be thinking of the correct grammar
structure or thinking about like is that
a countable or uncountable 9 or is that
the definite article or indefinite
article or verb subject agreement how
does that work in that you're just
thinking of too many things whereas when
I'm speaking now as a native English
speaker I don't think about these things
at all not because I'm some sort of
genius or things like or anything like
that it's because that I just used the
language so many times and received it
and produced it so many times that it
becomes second nature to me so a lot of
people will talk about I have a fluency
problem when in reality they don't have
a fluency problem they have a grammar or
vocabulary problem so there's always a
balance between grammar and vocabulary
the the more you improve your grammar
and vocabulary the the better your
fluency is going to become so for many
of you you don't need to work on your on
your fluency as such you need to work on
your grammar and your vocabulary and
improve that and for vocabulary
especially move things from your passive
vocabulary into your active vocabulary
the vocabulary that you can use what you
often hear with students in in the IELTS
test if they have problems with fluency
related to vocabulary is oh I I knew the
word but I just it was on the tip of my
tongue like I could I couldn't use the
word and and that really comes down into
practice and using those words rather
than just learning lists of words or
just reading or listening to it to those
new words so those are the first two
things grammar and vocabulary improving
your awareness and your ability to use
them is going to improve your fluency
related to that is also perfectionism
and a lot of people have a big problem
with fluency not because their grammar
is bad or not because their vocabulary
is bad but because they are trying to
produce the perfect sentence so they're
trying to think of the perfect grammar
structure the perfect sentence the
perfect word the perfect collocation and
a lot of this is related to
then being taught in school that your
grammar must be perfect that your
vocabulary must be perfect it's always
interesting when you when you teach in
different countries some countries will
and the in general their students will
be very very very fluent and then you go
to another country and the students are
not so fluent but their accuracy is much
much better and I think this is related
to to perfectionism on how you've been
taught English if you've been taught
English in a very new grammar first
vocabulary first way where it's all
about grammar and vocabulary and being
perfect and never making mistakes then
your fluency generally will suffer but
if you've grown up in a country where
they teach you that you know mistakes
are okay everybody makes mistakes then
your fluency is generally much better so
the second part of improving your
fluency would be relaxed about grammar
and vocabulary mistakes of course we
want to eliminate as many mistakes as
possible and reduce the number of
mistakes that were making but in order
to get like for most of you listening to
this bond seven bond eight someone even
who's at a bond eight level is making
quite a few small grammar mistakes and a
few vocabulary mistakes
nobody even a benign person a lot of
bond nine and people who are getting
benign in the speaking test or making
little slips with grammar and little
slips of vocabulary however if you try
and produce a hundred percent accuracy
at all times
then you you're reducing your chances of
getting a 7 or above for fluency because
there is that relationship you'll often
get students who are speaking and mmm
thinking about the sentence and then
saying something else now mmm you know
these audible hesitations these audible
pauses that's just an audible signal
that they are thinking about the perfect
sentence so don't let perfectionism
creep in the third area that we talked
about that I mentioned was ideas trying
to think of ideas many of the students
who I work with and it's always
surprising when some of them I'm doing
like mock speaking test with them
and their fluency is quite poor because
there when I look at their grammar and
vocabulary when we're working on the
writing the grammar and vocabulary is
great
so one thing I noticed was a lot of
students didn't have a grammar and
vocabulary problem that wasn't lowering
their fluency what was lowering their
fluency was just thinking of ideas they
were trying to think of impressive ideas
or they were trying to think of a you
know an idea that would really answer
the question perfectly and on the
speaking test there are no marks or
ideas its pronunciation nothing to do
with ideas grammar nothing to do with
ideas vocabulary nothing to do with
ideas fluency nothing to do with ideas
and coherence reentrant means that you
do have to answer the question and you
do have to develop your your answers but
it doesn't mean that there are certain
ideas which will get you a high score so
remember that the speaking test is a
speaking test it's not an ideas test
it's not a knowledge test and so for
many of you you can reduce reduce the
number of fluency errors that you're
making and improve your fluency
immediately by just relaxing about ideas
and like a really easy way to do that is
to speak to the examiner in the same way
that you would speak to a friend or a
colleague or something like that like a
good example is you'll ask a student
like where did you grow up or tell me
about your home time in the speaking
test and they'll say they'll tell you
about the history of their hometown the
architecture in their home time the
transport system in their hometown like
would you ever say that to a friend or a
colleague or a teacher who says where
are you from you probably just say on
from blah blah blah and give a little
bit of extra detail and that would be it
you don't need to give an answer it's
not a I got like a PhD thesis or a
master's thesis it's not that that kind
of a test it is a speaking test they
want to know can you speak properly can
you communicate effectively in English
and it's not a a test of knowledge or
your IQ or
anything like that so in summary if you
want to improve your fluency you need to
shut down as many of these programs as
many of these tabs in your brain as
possible and free up that that RAM and
that will allow you to speak fluently so
in summary what you need to do is work
on your grammar and vocabulary the more
proficient you are the more comfortable
you are with the language the less or
the fewer and fluency mistakes you're
going to make because you're not
thinking of all of the words you're not
thinking of the grammar structures
you're not thinking about the different
choices that you have with words and
grammar and the second thing is to
eliminate perfectionism as much as
possible and accept the fact that you
will make little mistakes and focus more
on fluency rather than accuracy on the
third thing is be totally relaxed when
it comes to ideas there's no correct
answer there's no band 9 answer there's
no there's none of that there's no
answer that the examiners are looking
for they're just looking for your
ability to communicate effectively in
English and they're thinking about
grammar vocabulary pronunciation and
fluency and coherence those are the only
things are thinking about not how
amazing your ideas are so those are both
short-term and long-term solutions and
in the short term relaxed about making
grammar mistakes for Cavalieri mistakes
and ideas a long term improve your
awareness of grammar and vocabulary and
you use the grammar and vocabulary and
you know don't study it in a book is a
hundred percent you can't study grammar
and vocabulary you know in black and
white on the page and then but never
actually use it do study the grammar do
study the vocabulary review it often but
use it often as well and and that will
really help you improve your fluency
hopefully Jim were impressed by those
ideas and that you'll use them in the
future and the students that I work with
those those ideas and those techniques
have really really helped them improve
their scores and improve their
fluency as well so if you need any more
help feel free to go to our website
alton vantage calm and that's it for now
thank you very much guys bye-bye
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