IELTS Speaking Part 2 - Strategy 1

hi my name is Kara in today's lesson we're going to look at part 2 of the IELTS speaking section I'll start by explaining what happens in part 2 then later we'll look at one strategy for answering questions in part 2 ready let's get started so in part 2 the IELTS speaking section you'll be given a question card pen and paper once you have the question card you'll have one minute to take notes and think about how you're going to answer then when that one minute is up you'll need to speak for two minutes straight a lot of students actually consider part two to be the hardest part of the speaking test that's because this part is not a dialogue so you must be able to talk for two minutes all by yourself so having a strategy is really important we'll talk about that later first let's take a look of what a question card might look like here is a sample question card describe a piece of electronic equipment that you have you should say what it is how long you've used it what you've used it for and describe why it's important to you as you can see you'll be given a topic that the examiner will expect you to talk about and there are also bullet points included to help guide you to give you a few more examples the question might ask you to describe someone who has had an important influence in your life or a website you often use an important decision you've made in your life or a country you'd like to go to in the future these questions can be about almost anything luckily there are some part two questions that we already know show up often on real IELTS exams so to score higher on part two it's definitely important to practice these questions but don't worry you can find all 80 of these common test questions on our website at best my test.com / IELTS feel free to check them out okay now let's get to the strategy part when you were given a question card you'll see there are bullet points provided for you these bullet points can give you clues about what to talk about in your answer technically speaking you don't have to stick to them if you have something else related to the question you want to talk about but we recommend that you use them as much as possible to form your answer so now that you've got these bullet points and you've got one minute to prepare you'll need to think about how you're going to structure your response next I'd like to teach you about the ways to structure your answers really there are two ways to do this and that's because sometimes you might find one works better for you than the other it all depends on what kinds of questions you end up getting on the test I recommend that you practice both of these ways and then decide which one works most naturally for you in this lesson I will talk about the first way in the first way the structure of the response is divided into three parts in the first part you'll give an introduction in the second part you'll include the main points and in the last part we'll talk about how you feel or what you might do in the future with this structure you can easily fill up the two minute time frame we'll talk about just a simple introductory phrase like I'm going to talk about or I would like to talk about will work just fine for example well I have many pieces of electronic equipment at my house but I'm going to talk about my laptop or I'd like to talk about my laptop or you can say something like hmm that is an interesting topic my first thought is or that's a tough question for me but here are some more examples hmm this is an interesting topic my first thought that I find a lot of electronic equipment useful but I'm going to talk about the laptop I have hmm that's a tough question for me but if I had to choose I choose to talk about my laptop okay so the introduction usually takes up around 10 seconds then you'll want to move on to talk about the main points the section covering the main points is the most difficult part so make sure you listen up and pay attention let's discuss the most important part the main points when you decide what you want to talk about the first thing you want to do is think about question words like who what where when then you could start coming up with basic responses to these questions let's try this what my laptop it is HP it has good configuration oh and it's Windows 8 when did I get it on Black Friday a few years ago where did I get it I bought it from Best Buy who was there with me my mom it was a present from my mom as you can see this information should take at least 15 to 20 seconds here is what I would say my laptop is manufactured by HP this laptop is a good configuration and it supports most of the latest software it came with Windows 8 operating system and a warranty for three years I remember my mom bought it for me as a present we bought it at Best Buy I remember it was Black Friday so the computers were on sale and we got a great discount next you can start looking at the bullet points and then choose two of them to talk about again you can write down a few ideas for each bullet point on the car for example it might look like this what I used it for I use there to study too take notes and I used it for entertainment to watch movies and listen to music how long I have used it I've used it for one year but I want to upgrade these are just some notes that help you remember what you need to talk about the most important thing is to look at these notes and think about your life experiences as you talk it'll make it easier for you to discuss the topic more naturally okay now let me show you how to introduce each bullet point what I usually recommend for students is to try using phrases like with regards to this I'd say or ask for this I'd say to get started for example as for what I use it for I'd say it is useful in virtually all aspects of my life including studying in entertainment or with regards to how long I have used it well I had my old laptop for over five years but I finally decided to upgrade and bought my current one a year ago finally you want to focus on questions that start with why there is usually a why question on the question card in this case the question is why is the laptop important to you okay let's review how you can answer the main points part first consider the answers to who what where or when questions then spend time talking about two or the bullet points and finally provide reasons explaining why you have an opinion so that's the main points part if up to this point you still have not used all two minutes of your time you can extend your answer by talking about how do you feel overall and what you might like to do in the future in regards to the topic doing that should help you add another twenty seconds you can always start with sentences like Oh overall I feel this way and in the future I think I will do this all right ready let's try a full answer this is an interesting topic my first thought is that I find a lot of electronic equipment useful but I will talk about the laptop I have my laptop is manufactured by HP it is good configuration and it supports most of the latest software it came with Windows 8 and a warranty for three years I remember my mom bought it for me as a present we got it at Best Buy I remember it was Black Friday so the computers were on sale and we got a great discount as for what I use it for I'd say it is useful in virtually all aspects of my life including studying and entertainment for instance I used my laptop to take notes I used to take notes by hand in high school but it was extremely time-consuming now with my laptop I could type notes directly into a document it's just much easier and faster I also use my laptop for entertainment for example when I get home from school I listen to music on my laptop on the weekends I like watching my favorite TV shows on Netflix if I didn't have my laptop I would have to use my phone to watch videos and I think the phone screen would be too small for me to really enjoy it but regards to how long I've used it well I had my old laptop for over five years but finally decided to upgrade and bought my current one a year ago finally I want to talk about why the laptop is important to me as I said earlier the soft-top has become an essential piece of equipment for me in almost every aspect of my life I used it to watch movies listen to music and take notes I even use it to write a blog and play games occasionally overall I feel I'm a bit emotionally attached to this laptop as it became a part of my life I think in the future I will continue to use it as long as I can it's really valuable to me let's try another question this time it'll be your turn to practice your answer remember you have one minute to prepare and two minutes to talk go ahead and practice yourself I will come back in three minutes to give my answer here is the question okay how did you do let's hear my answer this is an interesting topic my first thought is that I got injured multiple times in my life but today I'm going to talk about my experience of breaking my leg three and a half years ago before I broke my leg I had never been seriously injured before in my life my leg injury was the result of a slightly embarrassing accident that happened while I was riding my bicycle and not paying close attention to where I was going I remember that I got a phone call looked down at my phone and then I accidentally crashed into the curb next to me that's when I fell off my bike and landed directly on a hard bone in my leg near my ankle as for what happened next I think it is kind of a blur to me now but I recalled being in quite a bit of pain and feeling very helpless regarding how I handled it I remember I called a friend to come pick me up and take me to the doctor right away luckily I didn't need to go to work that day when we arrived at the doctor's office my friend helped me walk into the office because I couldn't walk at all finally the doctor took an x-ray and put my leg into a cast I had to wear the cast for the next six weeks while my leg healed my friend helped me go to the doctor and drive me places it was humiliating and painful but at least I'm okay now overall I feel I was very lucky to have friends who helped me out as well as good medical care no one wants to get in an accident but my in my opinion I was actually very fortunate to have such great support in the situation okay that's the end of today's video and remember practice makes perfect you can go to our website at best my test comm slash IELTS to practice more IELTS part 2 speaking questions and to improve your speaking by listening to sample responses by native speakers I hope you enjoyed this video feel free to leave comments and don't forget to subscribe to our You Tube channel and follow us on social media for even more in our next video I'll be talking about the second way to structure the IELTS speaking part to answer thank you for watching and see you soon

Channel: BestMyTest

Views: 28,132

Keywords: IELTS, IELTS Speaking, IELTS speaking part 2, IELTS speaking test, IELTS test, IELTS speaking part 2 strategy

Id: WdXrRDjEDa4

Length: 13min 58sec (838 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019