Hi. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video I'm going to
talk about IELTS speaking. So, as normal, I'll speak
a little bit faster. For those of you taking the test, you get a
little bit of listening practice as well. Even if you're not taking the test, this is also
very useful for you if you want to practice your speaking skills in English. Okay? So, we're going to talk about
IELTS speaking generally. Okay? I'm not going to talk about any
of the three parts in specific. I want to talk about
fluency in specific. Fluency is one of the categories
that you will be graded on. The interviewer is listening for your fluency
skills when deciding to give you the band out of nine. Okay? Now, first of all,
what does it mean...? What does "fluency" mean? Okay? Fluency has a few things
to consider within it. First, how quick you
respond; a fast response. So when the question is asked to you, when
the interviewer asks you a question in part one or part three, they're
looking to find out... They're paying attention to
how quickly you answer back. If you receive the question and you need to
think about the question, try to translate the question in your mind, then you need to
try to build up an answer before you start speaking - the more time you take to do
this, the less fluent you are in English. Okay? The graders want to make sure you understood
the question quickly, you're ready to start speaking quickly;
that's part of fluency. Another thing:
Connected sentences. They want to make sure that your sentences
flow from one to the next; you're not just throwing out ideas. "I like it. It's good. I did it five times." Like, all of these sentences
individually are not part of fluency. That means you're just throwing out
ideas, but fluency is also how... The flow. The flow of your speech. And, again, especially in parts one and three
when they're asking a question, but also in parts two where you need to
construct the answer completely. They're listening for your
thinking sounds, so: "Um... Well, uh... Um... If I... Um... Mm... " All of these thinking sounds means you're
having trouble with the language, means: Your fluency is not very high,
your score is going down. Okay? Try to minimize or even completely eliminate
thinking sounds from your speech; they don't help you. Now, if you need some time to think about
what to say, you could say: "Well, when I think about this situation, what I usually
think about is..." and then get into your answer. You say: "Well, um... Well, usually it's like this..." Well, that doesn't work. That's not fluency. That means you're having
problems with the language. Okay? So cut out the thinking
sounds: "Ah, erm, er", etc. Now, extend - this is probably the
most important part of fluency. Do not give one-word
answers to any question. -"Do you like swimming?" -"Yes." -"Okay. Why do you like swimming?" -"It's wet." That doesn't work. That's not an answer,
even, right? They want full sentences, they want a few
sentences, and they want to have a few ideas all strung together coherently
and with nice flow. Now, with all these things in mind, what do
most students have the most problems with when it comes to the actual
speaking test of the IELTS? The most common problem is what to talk
about; they just don't have ideas. Right? So here is my major tip, my major piece of
advice to you when it comes to preparing for the speaking section of the IELTS
test: Create an idea bank. Okay? This is what I call
this exercise. In... Essentially, what this means is:
Do your thinking before the test. Don't be in the test room, don't be sitting
in front of the interviewer and trying to think about all these ideas that they're asking
you about, because sometimes they're going to ask you about things
that you have... You just don't think about;
you don't really care about. If they ask you about music and you're
just not a music fan, you don't... You don't listen to music, you don't have an
iPod; you listen to the music when you're with your friends, but generally you don't
really know much, you don't know who the famous bands are, who the famous singers
are - you don't care about music. How are you going to answer
questions about music? Now, keep in mind: You don't really have a
choice in terms of what they're going to ask you about. If they ask you about music,
you have to speak about music. Okay? So, make sure that you have some
ideas about music before test day. Here's what you can do. I want you to make a list. Grab a note... Take a notebook and make a... Start making a list. I want you to write favourites. Favourite anything. Favourite food, favourite restaurant,
favourite book, movie, band, music. Okay? Make a whole bunch
of these lists. And then make another list. Talk... Think about people; friend,
relative, famous person. Okay? Or a hero, or somebody... A bad person. Make a list of people. And then think: Hobby,
activity, game, sport. I can make a whole huge list here;
I'm not going to do that now. You can use your imagination. Think of all the different
topics they can ask you about. Then once you find out... Once you have your list,
start thinking about ideas. Food: What's your
favourite food? Now, you have to think about favourite food
to eat; favourite food to prepare; and then favourite food in terms
of, like, ethnicity. Whoops. Ethnicity. Like, do you like Chinese food? Do you like Italian food? Do you like Greek food? Etc. Think about all the
different types of food. Now, when you think
about food... When you come to the test and they ask you any
question about food, you're going to think and you're going to talk about this particular
dish that you've already thought about at home. So, let's take a lasagna. Your favourite food
to eat is lasagna. Great. Guess what? Your favourite food to
prepare: Also lasagna. Your favourite ethnicity
of food: Italian. Lasagna. Don't think about all
kinds of different foods. One food. Any question that comes up about food,
you're going to talk about lasagna. Okay? Because why start confusing yourself by
thinking about different types of food? Have one ready to go for
any question about food. Now, if the question is about restaurant:
-"What is your favourite restaurant?" -"Oh, my favourite
restaurant is Italian. They make a... I love the one near my house;
makes the best lasagna. The reason I like lasagna is..." Again, food,
restaurant: Lasagna. It doesn't matter what the question is up,
bring it back to lasagna because you already thought about the ideas. Now, once you have your topic, once you have
your specific example of the topic, make sure you make yourself a vocabulary list; a bit
higher-end words so you're not stuck using simple words. Think: "culinary". "I'm a culinary adventurist; I like
to try all kinds of different foods. My favourite, of course, is lasagna,
because I love Italian cuisine. Now, I've had some gourmet lasagnas,
but my lasagna, I think, is the best. The ingredients I use are... I like to prepare it..." Again: "I like to saut� the onions just
so, so I can put them on the top layer of my lasagna." And, again, it's all about lasagna
because your question is about food. So when you come to the test and your interviewer
asks you about: -"What's your favourite food to eat that you don't
eat very often?" -"Oh, I don't eat very often... Hmm. Well, I don't eat
curry very often. Or I don't..." Why? Lasagna. You eat lasagna every day, you eat
lasagna once a year - it doesn't matter. Talk about lasagna because
you already have the ideas. So, again, remember: The
whole point is not to think. You want to answer fast. You want to have connected sentences,
which means you have to have information. You don't want thinking sounds, but you don't
need to think; you already thought about this at home. And you want to extend your answer;
you want to speak more, so... Another thing about the extension, remember:
The more you speak, the less the interviewer speaks. If you speak... If you give long, good answers, they will
have less time to ask you more questions. Okay? So speak at length. Don't go off topic, but make
sure you have full answers. Okay? Now, same thing for
book and movie. Why would you think about
one book and one movie? Think about a book that's
been made into a movie. Any question about book, you're going to talk
about this one book you thought about at home. Any questions about movies, you're going to
think about this one movie that's also the same as the book that you
thought about at home. So, for example: Shawshank Redemption, I think
everybody has heard of this movie at least; it's a great movie. It's also a book. It was written by Stephen King. Read the book at home, make sure you know
the story; be able to talk about it. But any question about books: Shawshank Redemption;
any question about movies: Shawshank Redemption. You've killed two birds with
one stone, essentially. Band, music, all
of these things. As much as you can... Who...? A friend or a relative. Who says that your best
friend can't be your cousin? Right? Why not? One person for two topics. And do as much of this as you can for all
kinds of different topics, so you think less, speak more. Now, very, very important and I know this is
very hard for a lot of students, and I've had experience with this with a lot of students:
Do not be afraid to say: "I don't know." It's okay not to know. This is not a test of your knowledge of music;
this is a test of your knowledge of English. If somebody asks you a question about a topic
that you just don't know anything about, say: "To be honest with you,
I don't really..." Like, okay: -"What's
your favourite...? Who's your favourite musician?" -"Well, to tell the truth, I don't really
listen to music very much so I don't really have a favourite musician, but I like to listen
to, you know, whoever's popular on the radio these days." Say you don't know, but make sure that the
interviewer understands that you understood the question. Say... Show them you understood the question, you
just don't really know about this topic so you don't have much to say. It's not an English problem;
it's a topic problem. Some interviewers will adjust their questions
to make it easier for you to actually speak; some won't, in which case, again, just say:
"Well, you know, I don't really think about this stuff very much, but if I had to imagine,
I would say this, that, or the other." The key is: Speak. Don't panic, don't overthink it. Speak. Have all your ideas ready. Now, another thing you can do: Once you have all
of these things ready-you have your general topic, you have your specific examples and
your specific situations about this topic, you have your vocabulary-practice
part two of the speaking. Create a one-and-a-half-minute
speech... Create one-and-a-half-minute
speeches for each topic. Just practice saying it
for a minute and a half. A) You'll work on your timing, because you're
supposed to speak for one to two minutes. If you speak for one minute, they will make you
speak more or they will ask you more questions. Practice speaking for about
one and a half minutes. Maybe they'll ask you one more
question; maybe they won't. Plus, when you come to the actual
test, it's just like you practiced. You've already practiced it,
and you have all these ideas. Practice making, like, very organized, structured
answers, so again, you get your connected ideas and you get your extensions, and you
eliminate your thinking sounds, and you get a high fluency score. Okay? That is the key to the
speaking section. Now, there are also other videos here on engVid
by Emma, and I think Benjamin has a very good video as well about the speaking
section - go watch those. But, again: Speak, don't
think, get your fluency score. Don't forget to work on the pronunciation of
these words before the test day, that way you're relaxed, you don't panic, you get a
good score, you pass your test, you go on with your life and not
think about it again. Okay? If you have any questions about any of this,
please go to www.engvid.com in the forum section there; you can ask me questions and
I'll be happy to help you out. There's also going to be a quiz just
to review all this information. If you like the video, please give me a like,
and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and come back for more great
tips on how to pass the IELTS test. See you again.
