IELTS🐎🐲💪 -- How to Improve Vocabulary Score

Ok, let’s talk about vocabulary, which is another of the 4 scoring criteria in the speaking test.

Table of contents

Methods to help you use more vocabulary.

And the main thing to remember is that the examiner can only judge you on what they hear. So even if you know a lot of English words, if you don’t use many in your speaking test, then your vocabulary score won’t be so high. So try and use as much vocabulary that you know as possible.

And there are a few methods that you can use to help you with this.

First of all, try and use variety, as much variety as possible. So in other words, not always using the same words. And I’ve noticed in China, many speakers here like to use the word “very”. So if you’ve just used that in one answer, then the next answer you could use a word like “quite,pretty,or really,super,extremely”, all these kinds of words. Another word that many Chinese speakers like to use is the word, “maybe”. So if you’ve used that in once or twice already, then the next time you could use a word like “perhaps,probably,possibly or I guess”. So try and use as much variety as possible.

Another thing you can do is, when you’ve used an adjective, like, “the traffic is very bad”, you can then explain that in more detail. So for example, if I’ve just said “the traffic in my homwtown is very bad”, I can then contiune by saying something like, “so it always takes age to get anywhere.” Another example, let’s say I’m talking about shopping online, and I’m saying “it’s very cheap”. I can then contiune by saying, “for example, you can get a good pair of jeans online for about 100 RMB”. So a very good method to use when using adjectives.

A lot of students are worried if they only use a basic adjective, like “good” or “nice”. But that’s ok, and what you can do in this case is to put a high-level adverb, before the adjective. So let’s say I’m describing my friend, and I want to say “he’s nice”. What I can say is put the word “incredibly” before that, and say “He’s incredibly nice”. or “He’s extremely nice”, “He’s unbelievably nice”. And then I’ve already raised the level of my vocabulary here. Another example, if I’m talking about the food, “好吃”, instead of just saying, “the food is good”,“the food is delicious”, I can say “the food is unbelievably good”,“the food is super good”. Another example, if I’m talking about the traffic, and I’m saying “the traffic is bad”, I can add a word and say, “the traffic is unbelievably bad”, “the traffic is incredibly bad”.

Ok, another thing you can do is use both the positive and the negative when you’re describing something. (即用肯定句又用否定句), or opposites, to describe something. So, let’s do an example. If I’m saying “my friend’s a really nice person”,“he’s a really noce guy”, then I can then continue by saying things he’s not, or things he doesn’t do. So for example, “He’s a really nice guy. I mean, He never gets angry or shouts at anyone.” Let’s do another example. If I’m talking about the buses:“The buses are really crowded, so there are hardly ever any free seats on them.” One more example: If I’m talking about the weather in my hometown, I might say, “The weather’s really nice in my hometown, cos it’s sunny most of the time and it doesn’t rain a lot.” So I’m talking about things it is, and things that it isn’t.

Ok, another thing you can also do is make a comparison. So let’s say I’m describing my mother’s cooking, I’m talking about my mum, and I say, “she’s a really good cook”. So what I can now do is make a comparison, and say something like, and I’d say “her cooking is a lot better than most of the restaurants I’ve been to.” And that will also help your grammar score as well. So those are the main things to remember.

Methods to help you remember vocabulary.

One final point about learning and remebering vocabulary, because I’m aware the students in China spend a lot of time learning new words, but many find it difficult to actually remember therm. So, try to remember, when you’re learning a new word, try and use that word and speak it as much as possible. This has been proven to be effctive. So don’t just read it in your head. Try and use it and say it as much as possible. So making sentences. You could even make a story out of a group of words that you’re trying to learn, cos stories tend to be memorable.

Another thing you could do is use cards, so for example, you could buy a box of blank cards, and then you can actually write the word or phrase that you want to remember on one side of the card, And then the Chinese translation on the back. And then take these cards with you wherever you go, and test yourself, look at them as much as possible. And this is much easier than carrying a book around with you everywhere. You know, you can just stuff a load of cards into your pocket, and take out when you’re waiting for the bus or something. And this is actually somthing I did learning Chinese. There are thousands of Chinese characters, as you know, and I would take a stack of cards with me everywhere. On one side of the card was the Chinese character, on the other side was the English meaning and the pronunciation in pinyin. And that really helped me learn all the differen characters in Chinese, and I’m sure this will help you in your learning of vocabulary for the IELTS test. So yeah, that’s pretty much it.