In the IELTS test there are several sub-skills that help you perform well, and one of them is paraphrasing. It is a very vital skill that will catapult you to success in each of the four main tasks.
Paraphrasing is a way of expressing a unit of thought spoken or written in different words. Its purpose is to simplify without changing the whole idea. Check this out: “The crowd greeted the speaker with tumultuous applause.” This can also be expressed in a simpler way: “The audience applauded the speaker.”
The IELTS listening comprehension task contains some tricky questions and is designed to challenge your lexical base (vocabulary) and grammatical background, as well as your listening ability. In each section of the test, you need to develop good paraphrasing skills to easily perceive and understand information and ideas. To answer the multiple choice and short answer questions, you should note the slight difference between the keywords in the audio recording and in the question set. More challenging than this are Sections 3 and 4, which contain academic audio materials. The words are no longer very simple, which requires you to be more cautious.
In the IELTS reading task, more paraphrasing is involved. Although you can read the three different passages, you only have one hour to answer all 40 questions. The tasks involve matching items, completing (of sentences, notes, and even the abstract of the given article), labeling, and of course, multiple choice questions. The main problem with paraphrasing here is that all the passages are quite long. This simply means that there are many more words presented. As a result, the number of correct answers you’ll get depends on how well and quickly you can place the answers in the passages. The questions and corresponding keywords in the tasks of each section are not extracted word for word. Therefore, you should spend more time understanding the ideas presented.
The basic paraphrasing to be done in the writing task is found in the introduction and conclusion of the essay. You need to paraphrase the topic and turn it into a good thesis statement to present your main points in the body. Also, if you decide to use the repetition technique to come up with a concluding paragraph, you can simply paraphrase the thesis statement and then have it as your topic sentence (the most important sentence in your conclusion).
Finally, a very useful benefit of paraphrasing is applying it to the Speaking task. In parts 1 and 3, you will be asked about various topics. Each of the topics has a couple of related questions. A good way to do this is to simply paraphrase each question and combine it with your own actual answer, and that’s how you build your first and most important sentence. In part 2, you will speak in two minutes on a particular topic. You can start by paraphrasing the topic and make it part of your introduction. Continue your discussion by answering the three guiding questions. As a result, you will have consistent and smooth delivery.
Understanding how thoughts are paraphrased at different levels of spoken and written discourse (from simple to complex) will help you complete tasks (both the two perceptual tasks) more quickly and accurately. Also, knowing how to apply paraphrasing skills in creating your own written and spoken speeches will definitely make your results (in both productive tasks) excellent.
