IELTS Speaking | How to answer the question when you DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY

hi there it's asiya imagine a situation you are in the middle of your ielts speaking exam the examiner asks you the next question and you really don't know how to answer or you're giving your answer you're speaking and then suddenly you fall silent because you can't get this word it's on the tip of your tongue but you still can't get it in this video i'm gonna share with you five ways to get out of these situations without losing either your fluency or your confidence the sponsor of today's video is cambly an online learning platform where you can practice your english skills with native speakers at any time of the day or night it's a great place to improve your ielts speaking and listening skills and i have a special discount for you in the description and now let's get started first of all let me explain what my advice is based on ielts examiners assess your fluency and fluency is not just your ability to speak in english quickly we may run out of ideas or forget what we wanted to say or forget a word and that can happen in any language what shows your fluency is how you react to these situations if you freeze if you fall silent if you say oh i don't know that's problematic so i'm gonna show you what you should do instead i suppose when you can't say anything that happens for one of the two reasons you either can't find the right word or you simply don't know what to say so here's what you can do when you can't find the right word either you don't know it or you simply forget it use placeholders these are nouns you can use to replace either unknown or forgotten nouns the first one is this thingy like a thing this thingy could you give me this thingy once i bought a charger for my phone which turned out to be fake the first time i plugged it in i couldn't take it out so i had to run to the nearest two shop and luckily they had this thingy to open my phone perhaps in this story this thingy is a screwdriver another placeholder is what's its name all this is one word what's its name let me give you an example last night i came home and i couldn't open the front door because i'd forgotten what's its name at home so what's its name in this situation is a form when you can't find words to express exactly what you want to say use kind of kinda sort of and like these phrases are very common in spoken english please don't use them in ielts writing they serve two purposes first of all they make what you're saying softer and less direct if i say he was kinda rude it's softer than saying he was rude but these phrases can also be used when you can't find precise words let me show you an example my favorite color is sort of a light blue but with a hint of green in it or it's turquoise i could say i bought this beautiful ceramic plate it's kind of round but a bit long on one side or it's oval these phrases help you hide words you don't know but they sound very natural another thing you can do when you can't find the right word is to describe it instead of naming it for example you know this big car with an open boot that should be used by farmers it's very popular in the united states yes a pickup you see i didn't name the car i just described it and that's fine you can do it in ielts speaking the key to all these solutions is to incorporate them into your speech quickly without making a big pause and that's something that comes with practice a great place to work on your speaking skills is cambly on this platform you can choose one teacher you like or book lessons with different teachers and get used to various accents you can suggest your own topic for the lesson or take their ielts speaking lessons or even a mock speaking test lessons start from 15 minutes a day twice a week and you can take them at any time that suits you i regularly get asked why we don't offer face-to-face lessons ourselves and i want to say that we would never be able to offer them at cambly's prices i also have a special discount for you too and all the links are in the description box below please check them out now what can you say when you don't know what to say first of all remember in ielts speaking you're not required to have any specific knowledge if you don't know about something if you have no interest in something you will not be marked down for that but if you simply say oh i don't know this answer is not gonna bring you any points because it's simply too short to assess your english skills when we get a tricky question we usually think i don't know much about it i don't know anything about this subject i don't have any opinion about it or i'm not sure what i think and here is what you can do give this honest reaction give your answer even if it's short but then explain why to extend your answer let me show you an example what is your favorite painting i'm not sure i have one you see i grew up in almaty even though it's quite a large city it doesn't have any renowned artists and their works are never exhibited there for this reason i'm afraid i have a big gap in my arts education in this answer i gave my reaction but i don't have a favorite painting and then explained why and this answer is as good as if i picked a painting and described it here is another example this question was emailed to me by one of my students who said that she got it during her exam and she really didn't know what to say because she's never worked she's still a student the question is do you think it's important for office workers to wear suits let's imagine that i don't have any opinion and then i could sing to be honest i find it really hard to answer this question i still study at university and i have never worked at the office for this reason i don't know if employees should wear suits and those are important or maybe they could wear something less formal let's say something smart casual again i gave my reaction and then i explained why and maybe by that point you will find an idea then you can add it on top i suppose um there are different kinds of offices if employees face clients perhaps they should wear suits but if this is an office of game developers then surely suits would only harm them when you don't know how to answer question you can buy yourself some time to think start your answer using one of these phrases this is a difficult question or this is an interesting question this is a tricky question i've never thought about it before but i guess or i don't know much about it but i suppose and if you need you can even combine and use two phrases together that's a tricky question i've never thought about it before but i guess and hopefully by that moment you will find what to say just make sure you don't start every answer by saying that's a tricky question attempt to answer each question directly but when you really need some time use these phrases there is one more way to buy yourself even more time this is to ask the examiner to repeat the question you could say sorry i didn't get a question could you say it again please or sorry would you mind repeating the question please or sorry could you repeat the question please remember this one is for emergency situations only ideally you should not ask the examiner to repeat the question at all but if you really need some time then this one will buy you some particularly in part 3 where questions are long so you will have quite a few seconds to think oh yes and if you really didn't get the question you should ask the examiner to repeat it it's much better than answering the wrong question let's summarize when you can't find the right word say this thingy or what's its name use phrases kinda kind of sort of like to indicate that your words are not very precise simply describe the word instead of naming it if you don't know how to answer the question buy yourself a little bit of time by beginning your answer with phrases this is a tricky question i've never thought about it before or similar phrases and in a real emergency ask the examiner to repeat the question if you want to expand your vocabulary for ielts speaking learn these 25 idioms for common situations and all the links to cambly are in the video description box below thank you for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye

Channel: Fastrack IELTS

Views: 141,021

Keywords: ielts, ielts exam, ielts test, ielts exam preparation, ielts preparation, how to prepare for ielts, ielts tips, ielts writing, ielts writing task 2, ielts writing academic, Fastrack education, fastrack ielts, fastrack asiya

Id: A17qwoDj3dE

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020