I teach conversation for student who are taking English tests. These tests (TOFEL, TOEC,IELTS, PET, KET, FCE) all have a speaking component. You are marked on your ability to talk on a subject and to have a conversation.
Some students find the speaking part of the exams to be the most stressful and difficult.
There is one tip I give my students that helps them relax and do better on their exams.
And this tip to improve your speaking score?
Don’t Say anything.
This tip of don’t say anything can be broken down into 2 parts… one for the beginning of your answer and the other during your answer and conversation parts of the exams.
Stop and think before you speak
Most standardized English tests have time limits that you should speak for, but you are not penalized for taking time before you start. A pause at the start of an answer is acceptable. It gives you time to formulate an answer.
If you are doing a question answer section ( such as FCE) You can also use phrases to start your answer to give you more time to think. Phrases like “that is an interesting question”.
Add pauses in your speech.
We all need to think as we are speaking. To give us time to think we add “umm” or “awww” to fill the gaps while we think of the word or phrases we want to say.
An answer full of Umms and awws and hummms does not come across as being very coherent. It seem like the speaker is not very good.
On the other hand if the speaker put pauses in their speech, the speaker comes across as more confident, professional and a better speaker.
So if you want to improve your test score learn when and how to NOT SAY ANYTHING
These are a couple of youtubes I found that talk about how to use Pauses.
This next video is aimed more for teachers, but the information is still important, if you can understand what she is saying.
