One of the most fun and important ways to improve your IELTS speaking score is with new vocabulary.

But this means improving your active vocabulary – using it as well as knowing it!

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So you want to improve but you never get around to practising or you just don’t know the best way.

Sounds familiar? Well, you’re not alone. But luckily help is at hand. Try out these tips:

Five Steps for Improving your Spoken Vocabulary

1. First choose some natural vocabulary that you want to use more – this could be a phrasal verb, a linking phrase or some academic vocabulary.

2. Next, write them down, maybe on your hands or on a post-it note and stick them on the wall. Maybe on the fridge, near the kitchen sink, next to the bed, anywhere where you can build them into your daily routine.

3. Every day make different kinds of sentences using the phrases. So for ‘hang out’, I like to hang out with my cat. Yesterday I was hanging out at the park and I ran into an old friend.

4. The next step is to practise the whole question. At first, make some notes to help you but then later ditch the notes, and do it without them. Don’t worry if your answer changes over time. That’s what you want – make it more natural.

5. Practice as often as you can – on the toilet, in the shower, on the way to work. Try it out, let me know how it goes.

Now it’s your turn! Put your answers in the comments.

How do you improve your spoken vocabulary?

Which new words have you learnt recently?