IELTS Speaking Success

Gary Harder is an IELTS preparation specialist with over twelve years of experience helping international students and professionals achieve their target Speaking scores. He has taught English in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Colombia, working with learners from more than thirty language backgrounds. This international experience gave him deep insight into the specific pronunciation, grammar, and fluency challenges that speakers of different first languages face when preparing for the IELTS Speaking test.

Gary holds a Cambridge CELTA certification and a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Queensland, where his research focused on second-language assessment and oral fluency development. He has served as a speaking examiner for the British Council and has conducted examiner training workshops in Southeast Asia. His practical understanding of how examiners apply the band descriptors informs every strategy and technique in this book.

He is the author of four previous IELTS preparation guides and has contributed to the development of official preparation materials for both the British Council and IDP. His online preparation program has enrolled over fifteen thousand students across 120 countries, with an average improvement of 1.5 bands across all four skills. In addition to his IELTS work, Gary trains ESL teachers in speaking assessment methodology and speaks at international language education conferences.

Gary currently divides his time between Sydney, Australia, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he continues to teach, write, and develop new resources for IELTS candidates worldwide. He maintains an active YouTube channel featuring free weekly speaking practice sessions and analysis of real candidate recordings.