IELTS Speaking Part 1: All my best tips for success

hi i'm rebecca from engvid in this lesson i'm going to show you how to get the highest marks possible in part 1 of the IELTS speaking test now there are a number of general strategies which you can use on the entire test but in this lesson we're going to go step-by-step through some of the typical questions that you will be asked in this first section and we'll look at some answers which are not very good and we'll look at some excellent answers and we'll also examine these answers from the points of view of how you can improve the grammar how you can improve the vocabulary and the pronunciation as well as the overall fluency because these are the four areas in which you are actually scored okay so let's get started this can make a big difference in your score so keep watching okay so we'll start with part 0 now what is part 0 part 0 is the part where you come in you sit down and the examiner is just greeting you and asking your name and asking for your identification and even though it's strictly speaking it's not corrected or graded it's still part of the experience right and it's the first part of the experience for you so you want to make sure that you're feeling comfortable that you come across very well and that first impression is a nice positive strong one okay so what are some ways to do that that's what we're gonna look at alright let's get started so let's say the examiner you come in you sit down the examiner says good afternoon and you need to respond now what I've done is I've divided the board into two on this side is what a weaker student would say and on this side is what you're gonna say which is what a stronger student would say now one one that's going to get higher marks let's look at the differences so the examiner says good afternoon the weaker student says nothing just noise maybe smiles just nonce horses yes now the proper greeting if someone says good afternoon to you what should you do you should say good afternoon okay and that's what you're going to do so when the person says good afternoon the examiner you smile you repeat the same greeting good afternoon all right good eye contact all of that alright next the examiner says my name is Susan Williams what's your name now one possibility is if someone said my name is Maria Flores but in this part right in the entire first part of your IELTS exam speaking exam it's really more of a conversation okay it's not formal and in an informal conversation we don't usually say my name is Maria Flores okay we just say my name is Maria Flores so to say my name is is artificial it's not exactly fluent so let's just say my name's Maria Flores and what's important there is my name's make sure that s is actually strong and heard okay because if you're s that contraction is not heard it's going to sound like my name Maria Flores and that's not right that's actually grammatically incorrect right so you don't want to start like that so you want to say my name's Maria Flores and if you have a complicated last name one possibility is to say my name's Maria Flores clear and the examiner also knows oh good I got a student who's gonna speak clearly what a pleasure okay even though technically your exam hasn't begun yet but these are all good impressions that will get you far next the examiner asks to see your ID he or she says could I see some ID please yeah you could just say yes and give it but it's better again to keep showing off your English what could you say instead yes of course here you are okay you take it out say yes of course here you are keep smiling keep showing you're confident you're relaxed you know what to say alright and these little extra words make such a difference because they are judging your English speaking and everything you can do in those 11 to 14 minutes to show your to show off your English to showcase your English will get you the higher marks you're looking for okay so that was part zero now the exam actually begins okay they start recording it also so when you're speaking you know there are lots of tips that I've given actually in another general IELTS lesson about the speaking test general tips that you can follow how to sit how to talk and all of these things which you should do but now let's work through the practical parts okay I'll give you links to the other lessons later now so the exam begins and the examiner asks you where are you from a weaker student would just say Madrid or from Madrid but you know better because what should you do you should give a full sentence whenever possible always give full complete sentences give as much information as you can give as much content good vocabulary doesn't mean go on for a long long time but answer in full sentences so the examiner can grade you that okay yes he or she knows how to speak well and speak correctly and fluently so instead of saying Madrid or from Madrid say I'm from Madrid again be very careful of the contraction you should use the contraction because it's more natural than saying I am from but make sure you you're enunciate clearly so that it can be heard I'm from Madrid okay good now here's another student this student said when asked where are you from the student said from Roma or from Italia why is that not good because in your IELTS English test trade they want to hear you using the English names for these cities so you should say I'm from Rome the capital of Italy for example okay even if you said one word which you should not say it should be Rome and Italy but don't just say that use the opportunity to give a full sentence by saying I'm from Rome the capital of Italy now you're showing off your good English and you're using the English names for your cities if you're not sure what they are find out what they are okay next suppose you're from a place which is maybe people are not as familiar with that name alright or that the name of that city so then you're going to be saying a word which is a little bit unusual for people's ears so how can you prepare them to hear the name of your city if it's onion if it has an unusual sound so here's one way suppose this student is from Bordeaux okay now they could say from Bordeaux where are you from from Bordeaux but what did you say very fast Bordeaux would put what was that maybe the examiner didn't catch it and whenever the examiner doesn't catch or cannot catch what you're saying that's an indication not about the examiner but about you you needed to speak in a way that was more clear and and fluent and and strong so how can you do that you can do that by saying something like this I'm from a city in southwestern France called Bordeaux now what did you do by explaining first and then using the word called you are preparing the listener that oh I'm going to give the name of something and then it doesn't actually matter if the person you know exactly understood the name or not but they know that that word in that sound that you made was the name of a city and now it's understandable which is going to get you much higher marks okay I'm from a city in southwestern friends called Bordeaux alright prepare your listener for what you're gonna say let's go on to some more strong tips alright so let's start by looking at some typical questions and answers related to home family and work all right let's go so a weaker answer would be when asked where do you live a weaker answer would be I live in a house what's wrong with that you tell me it should be incorrect English with correct grammar I live in a house right so you need that article here whenever we're talking about one thing in English we need to say a or aah all right now suppose you're asked to describe the house a little bit and you say it's three bedrooms apartment so that's a mistake we cannot say it's three bedrooms apartment we would need to say it's a it's a three bedroom apartment why you're saying to me that doesn't make sense they're three it's more than one it's plural right so if you said my apartment has three bedrooms okay then it's enough to say three bedrooms period like end right but here three bedroom became like an adjective for the word apartment and in that case you need to drop the S now it's very good for you to actually use this kind of expression if you have a chance if there's the right kind of question don't just put it somewhere if it's not doesn't make sense but if they're asked about your appointment you can say I live in a two-bedroom apartment I live in a three-bedroom house and that little difference with no s and with an S and nois actually shows that you speak a much more advanced level English okay these little mistakes these little Corrections can make all the difference that's what I'm pointing out to you here okay let's go on suppose you're asked to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of living somewhere so you start to explain now there is a difference in good English between the word the and the okay same word spelled the same but sometimes we say V and sometimes we say them but how do you know it's very easy you look at the word that comes after that if the word that comes after the or thee starts with a vowel then we usually say V like th EE okay the advantages the advantages of living in an apartment are or the disadvantages of living in an apartment are okay the advantages the disadvantages because advantages starts with a vowel so try to remember that these little sophisticated changes show that you are more comfortable English you're more familiar with English you're more fluent in English and you deserve higher marks in English okay all right now you might be asked you know do you enjoy living in an apartment so a weaker answer and actually in this case not just weaker but incorrect would be to say I enjoy to live in an apartment because whatever but what's wrong with saying I enjoy to live we can't say incorrect English PI and joint to live some verbs in English are followed by an infinitive like to live and others are followed by a gerund like living the verb with ing and enjoy is one of those very common words which are quite likely to need to use in your IELTS exam which needs to be followed by a gerund and not by this infinitive so I enjoy living I enjoy reading I enjoy watching movies not I enjoy to watch that's actually incorrect now how do you know which verbs require adjourn and which words don't well you have to listen you have to read you have to pay attention and that's how you learn there are no hard and fast rules for example if you just use the verb I like then you could say either way you could say it I enjoy to live high in sorry I like to live I like living either way would be okay with the verb like but not with enjoy and enjoy is actually a higher level verb then like so it's better if you use this one okay I enjoy living remember that next suppose you're asked about family tell me about your family and you start to talk about you know I come from a large family or I come from a small family I live with my brother but instead of saying brother you pronounce it brother so now it's a pronunciation issue these are some of the points you're you're graded on right pronunciation grammar expressions and overall fluency so pronunciation matters if you say brother father mother that's not good you should be saying the th properly like a th my brother my father my mother okay when we say that th sound the tongue comes out a little bit between the teeth and goes back and if you have this kind of mistake then work on that pronunciation okay it will sound much more refined next this person said my brother economist okay lots of grammar mistakes there right many mistakes it should be my brother is an economist or my brother's an economist right you can contract it also but you need to have the verb to be you need to have the article and if it's economists you need to say an economist right an engineer an accountant not a economist because that would also be incorrect because we use an when before a word that sounds like a vowel okay not just that starts with a vowel but that sounds like a vowel next the weak answer would be he working Bank all right grammar mistakes again no should be he works all right third person present simple he works in a bank all right again the article the third person the S and make sure even if you know this that he works that it should be he works make sure you are pronouncing it in a way that I can hear the S don't say it's so fast that the examiner can't hear the S okay make sure you do say the S he works in a bank he lives here alright get used to that next there are often are almost always questions about your work what do you do now when they ask what do you do what does it mean it means what kind of jobs do you have what's your occupation okay now maybe you are not actually working right now maybe you're a student so then you could say that too but let's look at some possibilities so a weak answer would be I am engineer it's weak from so many points of view first because it says I am and again in conversational English we would probably say I'm second it's missing the article and right so a correct answer here would be I'm an engineer all right got it next Here I am student again say me shoes should be I'm a student okay or let's say what happens if you don't have a job you're not a student and you're not working you could first of all you decide what you share okay no one is following you home to see whether you told the truth or not so you decide what to say decide in advance what you're going to say for this question which is almost always asked so you could say something like I not working but that incorrect in terms of grammar so it would be need to be I'm not working currently okay or I'm between jobs that's a very nice way to say that you don't have a job right now but you're going to get a job okay so you decide what you want to say but whatever you want to say make sure that you're saying it in this manner so let's see how it sounds now if someone were speaking in this way throughout his exam where do you live I live in a house or where do you live I live in a three-bedroom apartment the advantages of living in an apartment are that are the advantages of living in my apartment are that it's very convenient it's affordable and it's spacious okay now because you know in advance that they are going to probably ask you a question about your home it's good for you to prepare some vocabulary to describe your home or your apartment or your family don't learn the whole sentence by heart right just pick some words three good strong vocabulary words two or three and try to weave them into your answer okay that will help to raise your score because you're using higher-level vocabulary as well okay so the person says he had the advantages the disadvantages okay I enjoy living in an apartment because of several reasons my brother is an economist he works in a bank I'm an engineer or I'm not working currently I'm between jobs okay so you see that this this size these answers sounded so much more fluent so much more relaxed so informal and of course correct in terms of grammar pronunciation expressions and fluency all right now let's look at another very common area hobbies okay now let's look at some simple sentences that you might use on the IELTS when asked about your hobbies for example I like sorry I like watching movies okay that's what the student wanted to say but even with that simple sentence let's look at some things that might be said which would actually be completely wrong when you are trying to just say I like watching movies the person could say instead of like they might not say the word fully and clearly if you don't enunciate it clearly it sounds like I lie I lie watching movies no top I lie watching movies I like watching movies instead of I like a mistake would be to say I likes right that's just bad grammar this one is incorrect pronunciation here sometimes students don't realize that there's a difference between present simple and Present continuous and when you're asked in general you need to use present simple so it would be wrong to say I am liking watching movies because that's present continuous and also because like is actually something called a stative verb and you cannot use it in this way you can't use it in a continuous form so that's wrong I liking is wrong so these are some of the ways that this simple sentence might have been completely messed up okay so let's look at the correct one next another example the student wanted to say I really like to watch movies or I really like watching movies okay they wanted to be more enthusiastic so they said really this would be the correct form of that sentence but let me share with you some variations that I've heard when I'm coaching students for this and these are incorrect so for example to say I like really watching movies that's wrong because there really is in the wrong place the grammar is wrong I very like watching movies is wrong because we can't use very in that way and I very much like watching movies this is a popular mistake I'm sorry I hear this all the time but it's incorrect to place very much in that position if you want to use very much you need to say I like watching movies very much okay why because in English English is a SVO language right subject for a project I like watching movies so we can't put other words like very much every day every week any other details in the middle of it okay those words have to go at the end all right another possibility the student wanted to say I enjoy reading simple write simple sentence how might it be messed up by saying something like I enjoy to read again and joy is a verb where you need to have the gerund after that and not the infinitive do you see how even simple sentences that you might be saying right now when you're practicing might or might not be right and these are some of the things to watch out for which is why I put down for you lots of the errors that I have heard students make and which I've helped them to correct and I'm so happy to be able to help you with that before you go for your exam okay so where do you go from here this was like a practice test for you through some of the examples all right there are other topics they can ask you about and so on and what you should do is to practice them as much as possible if you can get a good teacher to practice with who knows the aisles who understands what the needs are for the IELTS exam not a general English teacher it's very different when you're preparing for an exam then when you're just improving your English in general okay very different kind of goals so as much as possible look for the right teacher and I'm also going to give you links to a few of my other videos which are specifically for improving your IELTS score or your TOEFL score or other exam related scores and have a look and if that addresses some kind of an issue that you have then by all means check all of that and correct all of that and empower yourself before you go for your exam okay in addition please do a quiz on this just to make sure that you've really got it you can do that at our website wwlp.com there you'll also find more than 1,200 lessons that we have on English in general and many of them are about the IELTS exam or the TOEFL exam okay now the other thing you can do is subscribe I'd love to see you again and share more of my experience with you about how you can really master the English language in general and also for exams like the IELTS okay so all the best with your English bye for now and thanks so much for watching

Channel: Learn English with Rebecca · engVid

Views: 195,100

Keywords: IELTS, IELTS speaking, exams, learn English, English class, English, native speaker, ESL, English grammar, vocabulary, English vocabulary, engVid, phrasal verbs, TOEFL

Id: 25Fk610XaIY

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2019