SPEAKING TEST

In order to get better at speaking English especially for IELTS, it is essential that you feel confident. Here are a few things that you can do to become more confident with speaking English. Practice them in your daily life and by the time you are ready to take your IELTS speaking test you will be, both, confident & fluent in speaking English.

Fake it till you make it!

When you get a chance to speak in English, grab it! Go ahead and jump into conversations with friends, family and even perfect strangers and speak as if you're completely fluent. Don't worry about making mistakes. As you continue and build your English speaking skills, your fake confidence will be replaced by real confidence.

Avoid long pauses

Another common problem that many English speakers have is that they fill pauses between words with junk sounds, such as um, ah, you know, kind of, like, so and well. These habits make speakers look unpolished, unprepared, and unprofessional. To overcome them, start correcting yourself in casual conversations and enlist the help of friends, family members, and colleagues to point out when you slip up.

Make eye contact

If there is one thing that can make you appear instantly confident to others, it is making good lasting eye contact. Hold your gaze on your listener for about 10 seconds before briefly moving your gaze to another person or a distant object. Lingering eye contact builds rapport by giving your listener the feeling that they are engaged in an intimate one-on-one conversation. However don't stare blankly at a person for too long to avoid being labelled creepy.

Speak loudly

Fill the room with sound.

Sit or stand with your shoulders straight and your chin up. This will open up your lungs so that you can project your voice by speaking from the diaphragm and not the throat. This will also ensure that your voice is grounded, or on the low end of its natural range. A well-grounded voice allows you to project without straining or becoming hoarse.

Watch for your listeners' reactions to gage whether you are too loud or too low. If they are constantly leaning forward then speak louder... on the other hand if they are constantly leaning back then tone down your volume a bit.

Smile, relax & have fun

Smiling not only makes your voice more pleasant to listen to, it also conveys confidence. So show those pearly whites as much as you can. Even if you are terrified, no one will know if you have a smile on your face. Rest assured, smiling throughout your IELTS speaking test wont make you look cheesy. You will appear friendly, approachable, and composed. Just relax, enjoy and have fun with English. Just a word of caution ... smiling is not the same as giggling.

Practice, practice, practice

The best way to quickly boost your confidence is to prepare ahead of time for specific situations .... and practice practice practice . Learning specific vocabulary for that situation will make you feel a lot more prepared and confident.