Jing Wen asks:

"So I have always noticed students struggling with spoken English and as an IELTS speaking teacher, I find it quite hard to really help improve their spoken English within such a short time (usually they take a 7 class-course and each class lasts for about 2hours). Some students cannot speak much because they have limited vocabulary whilst some students do not know how to talk logically. Those students who cannot speak with a clear logic are sometimes quite good at English, they just do not have a clue of what to say. It is difficult to give them hints for the reason that people have their own thoughts and I do not want to force them to accept how I think. I would really appreciate it if you or some experts could offer some advices or solutions to solve this problem. Thanks for your time."

Colin Says:

Thank you so much for this question about learners and learner differences.

It's important to remember that the IELTS tests language proficiency. IELTS is a good test to identify what English proficiency level a person has. If a student has the proficiency level of Band 5 then the test will be able to certify that. If a student needs to demonstrate a higher proficiency level, say band 6.5 and above, then they really should be spending time on improving their language proficiency.

Some research suggest that to move from proficiency level of band 5 to band 6.5 requires some 200 - 300 hours of study. Study here means increasing English language knowledge and, crucially, improving ability to use that knowledge. It's important to remember that IELTS is a test of a person's ability to process English that they see and hear (reading and listening) and communicate their ideas (speaking and writing). We have to help our students, and sometimes their parents, be realistic in the time required and the communicative practice they need to do. There are no short cuts.

For those students who have the required language ability but lack the ideas, one thing we need to check is what is really stopping them from talking. A simple way to do this is to give them a mock-IELTS speaking test but ask the student to talk in their first language. Asking a student to talk in his/her first language will allow you to identify if the block is language related or not. If the student can't produce ideas in their first language then developing this skill might be a good place to start.

Please keep sending me your questions and let me know how things go.

Best,Colin