IELTS Speaking: Mirroring Grammar
When answering IELTS Speaking questions, it is important to pay attention to the verb tenses used in the question and mirror them in your response. This technique, known as "mirroring," helps create natural and fluent answers. Let's take a look at an example:
Question: What do you do when you have some free time and you’re at home?
Answer: When I have some spare time at home, I listen to relaxing music.
In this example, the question uses the present simple tense, so the answer mirrors the tense by using the verb "listen" in the present simple form.
A Common Mistake
Last week, many people made a common mistake by not mirroring the verb tense in their answers. Let's examine some examples:
Question: What do you do when you have some free time and you’re at home?
- When at home, I will definitely be spending my spare time in the back garden.
- If I had time I could spend freely with full of energy, I would read exciting books.
- I guess I would watch a documentary online.
- Whenever I have spare time at home, I will be pottering around the house.
- I like reading, and will take some time for it after work every day.
- When I have some free time at home, I would like to play video games.
While it is not completely wrong to change the tense of your answer, it is not the natural choice. As a native speaker, I expect the question "What do you do?" to be followed by an answer in the present simple tense.
If you choose to change the tense and not mirror the question, you must do so skillfully in order to sound natural. Otherwise, your answer may come across as unnatural, and the examiner is likely to notice.
Homework
Your homework is to improve the six sentences from the box above by mirroring the verb tense used in the question. This will help make your answers more natural and cohesive.
