IELTS Speaking Tips: Boost Your Score With a Good Introduction
- SpeakAnglo
- 13 minutes ago
- 3 min read
In today’s article, we are going to unpack what a good introduction for Part 2 looks like and why it is necessary. A finely honed introdcution will improve your speaking score. While a small part of the whole answer, it can boost and impact your final score. Why? Because a well-crafted story has a good, cohesive intorduction.
First, let’s discuss what a good introduction does for your Part 2 answer. It gives your response structure and cohesion. As you may know, one of the four core scoring criteria for IELTS Speaking is Coherence and Cohesion. Cohesion means the answer is logical and makes sense or flows logically. So, a good introduction will boost your cohesion score. This may seem like an insignificant tip, but each tweak to your part 2 will help create an answer that is fluent, logical and uses native-style vocabulary.
You’re probably thinking, ‘Okay, what is a good introduction?’ Here are four introductions you can start practising with today. Pick one that suits your speaking style and that you can remember easily.
The question: Describe a time you were in a noisy environment.
Intro 1: I’m going to talk about a time I experienced a noisy environment. I was at…
Intro 2: I’m going to tell you about a noisy place I went to. So, I had gone to...
These two above are basic but absolutely okay to use and have been used by students of mine who went on to achieve 6.5, 7, and higher in Speaking. However, after teaching IELTS Speaking for more than eight years, I have seen my students achieve success with practising slightly more advanced structures too, using ones like the two below.
The Question: Talk about a new food you tried.
Intro 3: The food that comes to mind is when I ate Miso soup. It was in…
Intro 4: I’ve tried a number of new foods over the years, but I’d like to tell you about the time I tasted Chengdu Hot Pot...
Both of these are versatile and can be changed to fit whatever topic is on the cue card. For example, if the question is ‘Describe a peaceful place you like to visit’, then you can simply start with ‘A peaceful place I love visiting is…’.
While memorised answers are not permitted, you can absolutely memorise phrases for your introduction, linking words, and other useful expressions. Therefore, our suggestion is that when you practise, you use the same introduction each time. This way, you can perfect it and the intro will sound natural on the day.
Plus, another bonus to practising in this way is that you don’t have to think about how to start the answer while in the exam. You can use the 1-minute prep time to focus exclusively on keywords and planning out your story, rather than fretting over how to begin and getting stuck. A number of students I’ve coached over the years have sometimes got stuck in the second sentence from nerves. This practice has helped them get the intro out smoothly and then seamlessly move to the next part of the answer: the main theme.
In summary, a polished introduction will help you sound conversational, natural, and fluent. You will feel more confident knowing that whatever the question is, you know how to begin. Ultimately, it will boost your score when you include a brief and well-practised introduction.