Knowing the assessment criteria for your Speaking test is the first step to achieving a high score. Let's take a look at the details.
IELTS Speaking Assessment Criteria
| Band | Fluency and Coherence | Lexical Resource | Grammatical Range and Accuracy | Pronunciation |
9 | - Speaks fluently with only rare repetition or self-correction; - Any hesitation is content-related rather than to find words or grammar; - Speaks coherently with fully appropriate cohesive features; - Develops topics fully and appropriately. | - Uses vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics; - Uses idiomatic language naturally and accurately. | - Uses a full range of structures naturally and appropriately; - Produces consistently accurate structures apart from ‘slips’ characteristic of native speaker speech. | - Uses a full range of pronunciation features with precision and subtlety; - Sustains flexible use of features throughout; - Is effortless to understand. |
8 | - Speaks fluently with only occasional repetition or self correction; hesitation is usually content-related and only rarely to search for language; - Develops topics coherently and appropriately. | - Uses a wide vocabulary resource readily and flexibly to convey precise meaning; - Uses less common and idiomatic vocabulary skilfully, with occasional inaccuracies; - Uses paraphrase effectively as required. | - Uses a wide range of structures flexibly; - Produces a majority of error-free sentences with only very occasional inappropriacies or basic/non-systematic errors. | - Uses a wide range of pronunciation features; - Sustains flexible use of features, with only occasional lapses; - Is easy to understand throughout; L1 accent has minimal effect on intelligibility. |
7 | - Speaks at length without noticeable effort or loss of coherence; - May demonstrate language-related hesitation at times, or some repetition and/or self-correction; - Uses a range of connectives and discourse markers with some flexibility. | - Uses vocabulary resource flexibly to discuss a variety of topics; - Uses some less common and idiomatic vocabulary and shows some awareness of style and collocation, with some inappropriate choices; - Uses paraphrase effectively. | - Uses a range of complex structures with some flexibility; - Frequently produces error-free sentences, though some grammatical mistakes persist. | - Shows all the positive features of Band 6 and some, but not all, of the positive features of Band 8. |
6 | - Is willing to speak at length, though may lose coherence at times due to occasional repetition, self-correction or hesitation; - Uses a range of connectives and discourse markers but not always appropriately. | - Has a wide enough vocabulary to discuss topics at length and make meaning clear in spite of inappropriacies; - Generally paraphrases successfully. | - Uses a mix of simple and complex structures, but with limited flexibility; - May make frequent mistakes with complex structures though these rarely cause comprehension problems. | - Uses a range of pronunciation features with mixed control; - Shows some effective use of features but this is not sustained; - Can generally be understood throughout, though mispronunciation of individual words or sounds reduces clarity at times. |
5 | - Usually maintains flow of speech but uses repetition, self correction and/or slow speech to keep going; - May over-use certain connectives and discourse markers; - Produces simple speech fluently, but more complex communication causes fluency problems. | - Manages to talk about familiar and unfamiliar topics but uses vocabulary with limited flexibility; - Attempts to use paraphrase but with mixed success. | - Produces basic sentence forms with reasonable accuracy; - Uses a limited range of more complex structures, but these usually contain errors and may cause some comprehension problems. | - Shows all the positive features of Band 4 and some, but not all, of the positive features of Band 6. |
4 | - Cannot respond without noticeable pauses and may speak slowly, with frequent repetition and self correction; - Links basic sentences but with repetitious use of simple connectives and some breakdowns in coherence. | - Is able to talk about familiar topics but can only convey basic meaning on unfamiliar topics and makes frequent errors in word choice; - Rarely attempts paraphrase. | - Produces basic sentence forms and some correct simple sentences but subordinate structures are rare; - Errors are frequent and may lead to misunderstanding. | - Uses a limited range of pronunciation features; - Attempts to control features but lapses are frequent; - Mispronunciations are frequent and cause some difficulty for the listener. |
3 | - Speaks with long pauses; - Has limited ability to link simple sentences; - Gives only simple responses and is frequently unable to convey basic message. | - Uses simple vocabulary to convey personal information; - Has insufficient vocabulary for less familiar topics. | - Attempts basic sentence forms but with limited success, or relies on apparently memorised utterances; - Makes numerous errors except in memorised expressions. | - Shows some of the features of Band 2 and some, but not all, of the positive features of Band 4. |
2 | - Pauses lengthily before most words; - Little communication possible. | - Only produces isolated words or memorised utterances. | - Cannot produce basic sentence forms. | - Speech is often unintelligble. |
1 | - No communication possible; - No rateable language. | |||
0 | - Does not attend. |
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