₦airaland Forum

ladymarshall:
, you just described me welcome to my world of speaking. I am a very eloquent speaker but I have been cursed with "you know" and "and so" So I understand very personally your struggle! But yet I am very fluent, so do not be worried.

Discourse markers or fillers as they are called are normal as they show you are not a robot or that you crammed a script. They are signs that your brain is actively processing the ideas as you speak. Not all of us have brains that are gifted in quickly processing our thoughts seconds before we utter the first word. Some chronic users of fillers are excellent speakers so do not be worried.

Popular advice is to be well-prepared to limit them. But preparation only makes sense for a rehearsed speech like a job interview or seminar presentation or meeting where you can predict the questions. How prepared can you be for ielts speaking questions which you don't even know beforehand? Even for rehearsed speeches, you can rarely eliminate them. I practiced for all kinds of questions for speaking, but never in my wildest imagination would I think I would be asked about global trade and business sustainability in part 3, it totally threw me off balance for the first few seconds

My advice is to be as natural as possible. In fact, forget you are saying those fillers and focus more on making your points and answering the questions. Do not try to eliminate them else you will be over-conscious of them,and in turn, you'll lose your thought process and confidence. Because I am plagued with chronic use of fillers, I tend to speak with a lot of personal stories and examples even for formal occasions. You know why? Because I have noticed that people love stories and very personal experiences because it activates Area 47 of the brain, they want to know what happened, they sympathize with the story, their brain is emotionally connecting it to something they can relate to, this distracts them a bit from language technicalities like fillers. During my speaking exam, I used so many personal examples, experiences and stories to answer the questions. That made me comfortable because it relaxed the mood quite a bit and didn't feel so formal to me so I didn't use those fillers much, except for part 3.

Also, confidence is important. When you confidently speak, people even hardly notice those fillers since confidence, they say, is attractive . It is also ok to let your listener know you know. For instance, when I was asked about business sustainability in part 3, I used those fillers so badly initially because I was seriously struggling with the concept and trying to connect with a relevant example, so I paused and told the examiner "Pardon my occasional use of fillers, but I hope you are getting my point. Stay with me, I got this", (and the examiner gave that very quick repeated nod, like yeah yeah, I know, I know, continue speaking) and I continued with the example Actually I crammed that apology phrase while practicing to include in my exams in case I lose control, and it was helpful as I got an 8 I didn't think I deserve .

I hope the above helps. All the best for you in exams, you will conquer it.

Scandinavian02:
I scored 7 in speaking and I never for one day say I was practising speaking. In my opinion, I believe this is the cheapest module. It lasts between 11 and 14 minutes.
All I saw was just a discussion between I and a middle aged woman. Even when she offered me a pencil to jot down, I didn't have anything to write down as I kept talking until she stopped me.

Maybe, because my wife says I talk a lot and brands me a noisemaker all the time, so I decided to use it to my advantage.

Just put it at the back of your mind that you are going to have a conversation with a new friend.

I wish you the best.

ceyrahtlk:
THE STORY SO FAR

Hey guys!

It has been a long while since I visited this thread (or is it called trend?), and today, I felt I should share what has been going on at my end with the hope of encouraging someone.

So, when I started this journey November, I was so excited, and I felt passing IELTS and getting ITA was going to be a breeze until IELTS 'jammed me'.

My first attempt was January 19, and I was so sure of getting nothing less than 8 in writing, but, alas, I had L-9, R-8.5, W-6.5, S-7, and I didn't even stop there because I asked for EOR, but it came back unchanged.

However, I didn't give up, and I booked the next available date, April 9th, and the test was computer delivered, and yay! I passed!
L-9, R-9, W-7, S-7, but it did not end there, and in fact, that is where my story begins because I asked for EOR again. Actually, at this point, my score was 444, and I had been hoping to at least get 450.

You see, after my first attempt, I came to this forum for assistance, and I joined Wasseynewest's writing group to familiarise myself with the essay structures, @bunmioluwa also introduced me to writeandimprove.com, a wonderful site for IELTS. Furthermore, I downloaded Grammarly app on my laptop, from the Microsoft store, and that made me realise some of my writing mistakes, and I worked on these by watching some youtube videos.

When I started practising with writeandimprove.com, my score was 6.5, but, before the test, I was consistently getting 8, sometimes 8.5, under examination conditions. So, that prompted me to ask for a remark when my results came out because I badly needed 3 extra points at least.

Fortunately, as God would have it, I got 6 points extra because I received my EOR report today.

L-9, R-9, W-7.5, S-8. Halleluyah somebody!

I guess what I am trying to say is that you should seek assistance when you need it because in this journey, being full of yourself isn't going to help you one bit, and secondly, even if you 'pass' the test, and you need extra points, consider asking for a remark first before rewriting the test. You might be surprised!

Thank you @wasseynewest @bunmioluwa and every other person that dropped one tip or the other when I needed it most.

I wish you all the best.

MumofTwins2017:
Only Masters in these degrees. Kindly read page 1.

joshuachuks93:
Ah Ah....Doc so its you hw fr na?

joshuachuks93:
Lol......I'm in Bauchi camp...which platoon are you? I rep. platoon 5.

Ollams:
Same here lagos to bauchi...... Pls add me to the bauchi corpers for stream 2 tanks.

abbay19:
Same here.

Jameek:
Travel by aircaft? But I thought the only craft they have in Benin na witchcraft?! No be me talk am o, na wetin I hear... Say "pilots" even plenty for Benin with "crafts" such as plantain leaf, etc.