Problems with Grammatical Range and Accuracy Grammar is a very important part of the English language. In spoken English, basic
meaning can be communicated using basic grammar. Many IELTS candidates focus on
―communicating‖ the answer to the question and as a result they produce basic grammar.
Another problem is the lack of perfect and continuous tenses. Native speakers of
English produce quite a lot of these tenses when the speak. In general, Chinese speakers of
English neglect these important tenses.
The next problem is the actual sentence type. Many candidates produce too many
basic sentences, eg:
―I come from Chongqing. Chongqing is a mountain city. It is located in on the
Chang Jiang River.‖ (three basic sentences)
―I come from Chongqing which is a mountain city located on the Chang Jiang
River.‖ (one complex sentence)
To score 7 in this section the majority of sentences should be complex sentences.
Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking
20
There is a section later in this book which gives advice and activities on tenses and sentence
structures.