Lexical Resource in Speaking: Why Paraphrase Is a Scored Skill

Most advice for this criterion is a list of impressive words to memorise. The descriptors reward something quieter: what you do when the word you want does not arrive.

IELTS defines Lexical Resource as the range of vocabulary you have available, which shapes both the range of topics you can discuss and the precision with which you express meaning and convey attitude. Range is in there. It is not the only thing in there, and it is not what separates most candidates.

Paraphrase is on the scale, band by band

Almost every band in this column says something about paraphrase, which makes it one of the most explicitly scored skills in the whole Speaking test and one of the least practised.

At band 4, a candidate rarely attempts paraphrase. At band 5, they attempt it but not always successfully. At band 6, they are generally able to paraphrase successfully. At bands 7 and 8, paraphrase is used effectively as required.

Read that ladder as a description of behaviour rather than knowledge. The band 4 candidate stops. The band 5 candidate tries and the attempt does not land. The band 6 candidate gets there. Nobody on that ladder knew the missing word.

This is also where Lexical Resource and Fluency meet. IELTS describes paraphrase as getting round a vocabulary gap by using other words, with or without noticeable hesitation. So the thing that rescues your vocabulary score is the same thing that protects your fluency score, because the alternative is a mid-sentence search for a word, which is exactly what the fluency descriptors mark down.

The practical version: when a word will not come, describe the thing. If you cannot retrieve "windowsill", the ledge under the window is a perfectly good answer, and it scores better than four seconds of silence.

Band 6 to band 7 is about appropriacy, not size

Put the two descriptors side by side.

At band 6, your resource is sufficient to discuss topics at length, and vocabulary use may be inappropriate but the meaning is clear. At band 7, your resource is used flexibly across a variety of topics, and there is evident awareness of style and collocation, though inappropriacies still occur.

Notice what does not change. Inappropriate word choice is allowed at both. The band 7 candidate is not the one who stops making mistakes. They are the one whose choices show awareness of which words go together and which register a situation calls for.

That reframes what to practise. Learning fifty more nouns adds range you may never need. Learning which verbs a noun you already know actually takes, and whether a phrase belongs in a chat with a friend or an answer to a Part 3 question, moves the thing the descriptor is measuring.

Idioms count only when they land

Less common and idiomatic language does appear, at the top of the scale. At band 7, there is some ability to use less common and idiomatic items. At band 8, that use is skilful, despite occasional inaccuracies in word choice and collocation.

But an idiom used wrongly is not neutral. It is an inappropriacy, and the same descriptor line that rewards idiomatic range is the one that counts inappropriacies against you. A memorised phrase deployed in the wrong place is worse than the plain sentence it replaced, because the plain sentence would have been accurate.

So the honest advice is narrower than the usual advice. Use the idioms you have actually heard used, in situations like the one you heard them in. Do not import a list.

The indicator almost nobody prepares for

IELTS names four things vocabulary has to be adequate and appropriate for: labelling things and concepts correctly, style, collocation, and indicating the speaker's attitude to what they are saying, whether favourable, neutral or unfavourable.

That last one is worth sitting with. Part 3 asks what you think about things. Saying a policy is "good" conveys an attitude at the resolution of a light switch. Saying it is reasonable, or overdue, or well meant but clumsy, conveys a position. The vocabulary of stance is doing assessed work, and it is rarely on anyone's revision list.

Where this sits in your Speaking band

The four Speaking criteria carry equal weight, so Lexical Resource is one quarter of your Speaking band and one sixteenth of your overall. How IELTS Speaking is marked sets out how the four combine, and the band score calculator shows what any set of section scores produces.

Writing has a criterion with the same name and a different emphasis. Lexical Resource in Writing is judged on a text you can revise before you hand it over; this one is judged on words you chose in real time and cannot take back.

Two rules printed on the descriptor document apply here as they do to every criterion. You must fully fit the positive features of a band to be given it, and you are rated on your average performance across all parts of the test rather than on any single answer.

Next in the series: grammatical range and accuracy, and how errors are actually counted.

The descriptor wording above comes from the public IELTS Speaking band descriptors and the Speaking key assessment criteria on ielts.org, last checked in September 2026. Neither document carries a revision date.