If you have a job or do a course where the technical language is in English, use it in your IELTS vocabulary. Steer your answers to talking about your work or studies as much as possible. It isn’t always possible, but with a little practice, it gets much easier.
IELTS Students can have a huge range of jobs, such as surgeons, programmers, researchers, and lawyers. As students, who were trying to improve their IELTS speaking, they were ok, nothing special. But when they used language, such as:
Making an incision
Developing a procedure
Narrowing it down to an error in the script
Using C++ rather than Python to enable the parameters
Using emotion dysregulation strategies
Being exposed to insurmountable affective obstacles
Assigned to the Creditors, their respective executors and the administrators
Exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute
It made an incredible difference to their confidence, and especially their language.
One student was a doctor from Japan, who had a stutter in his own language too. When he talked about his work, the children he had saved, his superiors and mentors and the operating procedures, he talked fluently and precisely with no problems at all.
If you are studying or work in one of the following professions, think about how you can use that English to really boost your vocabulary score.
Accountancy
Architecture
Business
Dentistry
Economics
Finance
Medicine
Programming
Law
Pharmacy
There are many words and phrases you could use, but think about Who, What and where especially.
In IELTS Speaking, you are often asked to describe a person, a place or a time when something happened. If you use vocabulary from your other studies or work, then that will sound much more impressive than that from your English learning.
| Career | IELTS Vocabulary Suggestions (I am sure you will have better ones) |
|---|---|
| Accountancy | auditor, spreadsheets, ledgers, tax office |
| Architecture | On-site architect, load bearing walls, blueprints, site visit |
| Business | Office manager, deadlines, debt fulfilment, the boss’s office |
| Dentistry | Dental surgeon, root canal treatment, extraction, x-ray room |
| Economics | market analyst, a rising market, a crash, trading desk |
| Finance | Financial consultant, investment broker, risk assessment, percentage return |
| Medicine | Pediatric surgeon, appendectomy, operating room, invasive procedure, keyhole surgery |
| Programming | Full stack programmer, error procedure, |
| Law | Solicitor, judge, head of practice, affidavit, legislation, defendant, prosecutor, courtroom |
| Pharmacy | Pharmacy, laboratory, experiment, test-tubes, microscope, |
You know your work or studies better than I do, so these are just some examples.
If you lean your answers to each question in each of the three IELTS Speaking parts, then your IELTS vocabulary score should improve significantly.
If you describe a person, talk about someone from your work, or a teacher/tutor from university, if possible.
If you have to describe a place, talk about the place where you work or study in your answer, if possible.
If you have to describe a time when ……, then talk about when something happened at work if possible.
Conclusion
If you use English at work or in your studies, think about how you can bring some work-related language into your answers. Doing so will improve your vocabulary score and will probably improve other parts too, because of the improvement in your confidence. Give it a try.