Speaking Test Criteria

IELTS Speaking Test Criteria
Fluency and Grammatical range

Band Lexical resource Pronunciation
coherence and accuracy
• Speaks fluently • uses vocabulary • uses a full range of • uses a full range of
with only rare with full flexibility structures naturally pronunciation
repetition or self- and precision in and features with
correction; any all topics appropriately precision and
hesitation is content • uses idiomatic • produces subtlety
related rather than language naturally consistently accurate • sustains flexible
to find words or and accurately structures apart use of features
grammar from ‘slips’ throughout
9
• Speaks coherently characteristic of • is effortless to
with fully native speaker understand
appropriate cohesive speech
features
• Develops topics
fully and
appropriately
• speaks fluently • uses a wide • uses a full range of • uses a wide range
with only occasional vocabulary resource structures naturally of pronunciation
repetition or readily and flexibly and features
self-correction; to convey precise appropriately • sustains flexible
hesitation is usually meaning • produces use of features, with
content-related • uses less common consistently accurate only
and only rarely to and idiomatic structures apart occasional lapses
8
search for language vocabulary from ‘slips’ • is easy to
• develops topics skilfully, with characteristic of understand
coherently and occasional native speaker throughout; L1
appropriately inaccuracies speech accent has
• uses paraphrase minimal effect on
effectively as intelligibility
required
• speaks at length • uses vocabulary • uses a range of • shows all the
without noticeable resource flexibly to complex structures positive features of
effort or loss of discuss a with some Band 6 and
coherence variety of topics flexibility some, but not all, of
• may demonstrate • uses some less • frequently the positive features
language-related common and produces error-free of Band 8
7 hesitation at idiomatic vocabulary sentences, though
times, or some and shows some some grammatical
repetition and/or awareness of style mistakes persist
self-correction and
• uses a range of collocation, with
connectives and some inappropriate
discourse choices
markers with some • uses paraphrase
flexibility effectively
• is willing to speak • has a wide enough • uses a mix of • uses a range of
at length, though vocabulary to discuss simple and complex pronunciation
may lose topics at structures, but features with mixed
coherence at times length and make with limited control
due to occasional meaning clear in flexibility • shows some
repetition, spite of • may make frequent effective use of
self-correction or inappropriacies mistakes with features but this is
hesitation • generally complex not sustained
6
• uses a range of paraphrases structures, though • can generally be
connectives and successfully these rarely cause understood
discourse comprehension throughout, though
markers but not problems mispronunciation of
always appropriately individual words or
sounds
reduces clarity at
times
• usually maintains • manages to talk • produces basic • shows all the
flow of speech but about familiar and sentence forms with positive features of
uses unfamiliar reasonable Band 4 and
repetition, self- topics but uses accuracy some, but not all, of
correction and/or vocabulary with • uses a limited the positive features
slow speech to limited flexibility range of more of Band 6
keep going • attempts to use complex structures,
• may over-use paraphrase but with but these usually
certain connectives mixed success contain errors and
5
and discourse may cause
markers some
• produces simple comprehension
speech fluently, but problems
more
complex
communication
causes fluency
problems
• cannot respond • is able to talk • produces basic • uses a limited
without noticeable about familiar topics sentence forms and range of
pauses and but can only some correct pronunciation
may speak slowly, convey basic simple sentences but features
with frequent meaning on subordinate • attempts to control
repetition and unfamiliar topics and structures are features but lapses
self-correction makes frequent rare are
4
• links basic errors in word choice • errors are frequent frequent
sentences but with • rarely attempts and may lead to • mispronunciations
repetitious use of paraphrase misunderstanding are frequent and
simple connectives cause some
and some difficulty for the
breakdowns in listener
coherence
3 • speaks with long • uses simple attempts basic • shows some of the
pauses vocabulary to convey sentence forms but features of Band 2
• has limited ability personal with limited and some,
to link simple information success, or relies on but not all, of the
sentences • has insufficient apparently positive features of
• gives only simple vocabulary for less memorised Band 4
responses and is familiar topics utterances
frequently • makes numerous
unable to convey errors except in
basic message memorised
expressions
• pauses lengthily • only produces • cannot produce • speech is often
before most words isolated words or basic sentence forms unintelligible
2 • little memorised
communication Utterances
possible
• no communication possible
1
• no rateable language
0 • does not attend

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IELTS Speaking Test Criteria

Fluency and Grammatical range

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