1 | IELTS Tip | Speaking Part 2
Updated: Jun 22, 2021
Recounting is the most important skill for the second part of the IELTS speaking test. To feel confident during the long turn, you need to practice recounting everyday events.
So what can you do? Here are some ways you can practice:
Take note of new experiences during work, school, or your time off. For example, you might be at a coffee shop trying out a new drink. Observe your thoughts and feelings throughout the whole process. If you're with other people, notice their reactions or ask them about it.
When you're back at your desk, write these observations down in bullet points. Then, make sentences with these points verbally. Try not to write the sentences down - train your fluency and spoken accuracy by verbalising them.
Keep to 2-3 sentences when you're first starting out. Once you're more confident increase them.
Do this as often as you can, I encourage students to do this 2-3 times a week to quickly improve their ability to do long turns confidently.
Keep a diary. I don't mean a journal where you process your emotions! (Which is a great exercise, just not for the IELTS Speaking part 2)
At the end of each day, write down 5 sentences about 5 different things that you did. Then, arrange those sentences in chronological order and use time-related connective words (i.e. first, then, after that, before that, in the meantime, subsequently, etc).
Once you're done with that, try to read the sentences aloud like you're telling a good friend what you did that day. Be as natural as you can be.
Then, without looking at the sentences, recount those 5 things that you did.
Notice that I didn't tell you to memorise those sentences. Please don't memorise.
The point of reading your sentences out loud is to help you recall what you did more quickly. This is similar to what you will do during your 1 minute in part 2.
Do this everyday before your IELTS speaking test, and you'll definitely see an increase in your fluency and confidence levels.
Want to increase the difficulty?
After finishing this exercise, you can do two additional tasks:
Consider what you would change about your day. This will allow you to add more complex grammatical structures, i.e. conditionals, modal verbs, present /past perfect, continuous tenses, etc. For example, If I had more time, I would have helped my sister with her homework.
Think about tomorrow! Use future tenses to describe what you might do next.
Additional Tip: Write your recounts in the comment section below and I'll comment on them. You've got this (This means: you can do this!)
