Introduction

Who is this book for?

Get Ready for IELTS Speaking has been written for learners with a band score of 3 or 4 who want to achieve a higher score. Using this book will help you improve your pre-intermediate speaking skills for the IELTS Academic Speaking test.

You can use Get Ready for IELTS Reading:

• as a self-study course. We recommend that you work systematically through the 12 units in order to benefit from its progressive structure.
• as a supplementary speaking skills course for IELTS preparation classes. The book provides enough material for approximately 50 hours of classroom activity.

Get Ready for IELTS Speaking

• This comprises a book and a CD.
• The book contains 12 units. Each unit focuses on a different topic and these topics are ones that often appear in the IELTS exam.
• After every three units, there is a Review unit which helps you to revise the language and skills covered in the previous units.
• At the end of the book the Practice test gives you the opportunity to take an IELTS-style test under test conditions.
• There is also a full answer key at the back of the book so you can check your answers. Here you will find suggested answers for more open-ended questions and model answers for the exam practice questions in Part 3 of the unit.
• The glossary at the back of the book lists the useful words from each unit with their Cobuild dictionary definitions.

Unit structure

Part 1: Language development introduces vocabulary related to the topic, as well as phrases and language that can be applied to any topic. The vocabulary exercises give you the opportunity to express complex ideas and opinions so that you are able to do so in the IELTS Speaking test. In addition, each unit covers one or more pronunciation and grammar points. The pronunciation and grammar exercises help you to develop accurate pronunciation, and grammatical range and accuracy to enable you to succeed in the IELTS test.

Part 2: Skills development teaches you exam skills. The information and exercises help you to understand what a good IELTS answer is and also provide you with strategies on how to achieve this. Skills include making notes for Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test, developing your fluency, and improving the length and quality of your answers to Part 3 of the test by using news articles.

Part 3: Exam practice gives you the opportunity to practise the new language you have learnt by attempting questions from Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the IELTS Speaking test. These test questions increase your familiarity with the exam format and help build your confidence.

Finally, a checklist summarises the key points covered in the unit.

Other features

Exam information boxes in each unit provide key background information about the IELTS Reading exam.

Exam tip boxes provide essential exam techniques and strategies.

Watch out! boxes highlight common errors in the exam.

Study tips

• Each unit contains approximately three hours of study material.

• Try to answer the questions without looking at a dictionary to develop the skill of guessing the meaning of unknown words from context. This is important because dictionaries cannot be used during the actual exam.

• Use a pencil to complete the exercises, so that you can erase your first answers and do the exercises again for revision.

• Try to revise what you have learnt in Parts 1 and 2 before doing the practice IELTS questions in Part 3. This will improve the quality of your answers, and using the new language will help you to remember it.

• It's recommended that you try and complete all questions in the unit as the skills needed to do well at the IELTS test can only be improved through extensive practice.

• Read the answer key carefully as this provides information on what kind of answer is awarded high marks.

• Listen to the sample answers on the CD and practise reading these out loud as you listen, copying the native speakers' pronunciation as closely as you can.

• Record your answers if you can. It will develop your self-awareness: you will be able to hear what you are good at and where you need to improve. Also, hearing how your speaking has improved over time will increase your confidence. Remember that there are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers to the exam questions: the examiner is interested in your English, not in testing the validity of your opinions.

• It is very important that you do not memorise entire sentences or answers. IELTS examiners are trained to spot this and will change the topic if they think you are repeating memorised answers.

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