Quite a few of my students are taking IELTS again over the next few months as part of their preparations for taking a Master’s course. (I would have thought that graduating from a British university would be proof of a student’s English ability, but it seems that some universities want students to take another IELTS course as well!) A student came to me for some speaking practice saying “I can practice the other skills on my own but I can’t do speaking on my own.” I’d like to point students preparing for IELTS to the materials on UsingEnglish.com written by Alex Case. The materials here are excellent. If I was preparing for IELTS I would print out Alex’s IELTS part 2 speaking materials. I would paste them onto card and cut them up, so I had lots of different cards with different sets of questions on each card. Keep the cards in your pocket. Whenever you have a spare moment, pull out a card and answer the questions out loud (under your breath if you are in public!). Practice speaking with Alex Case’s materials on UsingEnglish.com.