During the IELTS Speaking test, it’s acceptable to make mistakes and subsequently correct them. This demonstrates to the examiner that you’re aware of your errors. Nonetheless, excessive self-correction can detract from your fluency score. Mistakes may include linguistic errors (grammatical, lexical, etc.) or instances where you express something unclearly. In this article, we’ll explore some straightforward methods for self-correction.
How To Correct Mistakes?
Native speakers also make and correct mistakes in their speaking. Mistakes can include things like accidentally using the wrong word, giving the wrong phone number, stating the wrong time, etc. When they correct themselves, they often use a short expression such as:
1) I mean …
2) What I mean is …
3) What I meant to say was …
4) Sorry I meant
5) I am Sorry. I meant
Examples
1) get to home every day at 5 o’clock pm…I mean 5pm.(NOTE: we cannot say ‘o’clock’ and ‘pm’ together)
2) I live in a house for students…I mean a student hall of residence.
3) I’m going to…I mean I go to…work every day.
4) I cannot watch TV, go to the cinema or play sports. What I mean is I don’t have much free time.
Minor Grammar and Vocabulary Errors
You should definitely ignore these errors. You won’t get extra points for correcting your mistake. You will only show the examiner that you struggle with fluency and need to keep stopping to correct your English. This shows a weakness of English. It is best to keep talking and get a strong score on fluency.
I am concerned that people seem to think you get a better score if you correct a grammar error. This is not true. IELTS-making does not work that way at all.
Mistakes in Meaning
If you have made a mistake in the meaning of what you have said, then it is fine to correct yourself. Meaning is not marked in IELTS Speaking and if you correct the meaning in the right way (without causing much fluency disruption), you will be fine.
But you should not repeat what you have just said word for word – you need to re-phrase and continue to show flexibility in English.
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