Oh my god! Can you stop!? You're so immature!
Oh my god, can't you sit still for five minutes!? Well... this will be interesting.
In part three of the Cambridge First Certificate speaking exam, you must talk
to your partner. Oh... Sounds difficult? Well no it's not, if you know what to do. My
name is Toby, I am a Cambridge speaking examiner. This
is SMASH English, and here is how to pass part three of the Cambridge First
Certificate speaking exam. So what do you need to do? Part three is
four minutes if you have one partner or five minutes if you have two partners. In
most situations you will have one partner but in some circumstances you
could have two. Now it is time to talk to your partner. Eww! Oh my god. I don't
wanna talk to him he's such a loser! The examiner will give you a sheet of
paper with a question in the middle for you to discuss. Around the question will
be five prompts. These are there to help you answer the question but remember you
do not need to talk about all of them. You have two minutes to do this. Then the
examiner will ask you another question about the topic. This usually involves
you and your partner selecting one or two of the prompts to answer a question.
For example "which of these activities do you think is most difficult?". You have one
minute to complete this. So then shall we begin?
Ok, I guess I could do that for you... First I would like you to talk about something
together for two minutes. Here are some things that people often think will make
their lives happier and a question for you to discuss. First you have some
time to look at the task. I'm sorry! This is actually a common problem. No one wants to go first
and so at the beginning of the exam we have an awkward ten seconds:
"will you go first shall I go first", so here is what to do: The very first
thing you do when part three starts is turn your chairs inwards, facing your
partner. That way you are initiating contact and also demonstrating to the
examiner that you know you are talking to your partner in this part of the test.
So, come on then! Turn your chairs inwards! Monica! You are looking very nice today! Eww! Shut up! That's gross! Monica, I was
joking! Yeah... You look disgusting! Excuse me, Bruce! I'm
hot... yeah? Monica! You look like a boy! Yeah?
You've got a beard! Do you have any idea how offensive that is! Oh my god, Bruce! you're
so rude! ... Just like that... After the examiner has
invited you to start talking I want you to take control of the situation. Look at
your partner in the eye and say "should I go first or would you like to?". Make sure
you're smiling when you do this. Urrr, Monica, should I go first or would you like to?
Urm, you can go first! No, Monica I was just saying that to be polite! Right, you
are gonna go first, alright!?. Urr, no! You can go first! Forget it. Oh my gosh, Toby,
Bruce won't talk! Maybe I could talk to you instead!? Not this again. Again, what a fantastic example. Monica, please just begin! Thank you. Well, like, meeting new
people often makes me happy because, like, people usually, like, really love me when
they first see me because I'm really outgoing and sociable. So when I meet new
people I feel like totally happy! Bruce? I can
already see three things wrong with this. Number one: Monica
you are far too personal. It's okay to be personal sometimes however remember the
question was about people not about you. Also, the more personal
you are the more difficult it is for your partner to contribute, so try to
keep things general. However you can talk about your personal experiences to
provide examples of your point, just don't let your own experiences become
your point. Number two: Bruce, your body language is terrible. When you are not
talking and your partner is it is very important to listen and listen actively.
That means maintain eye contact from time to time,
that means nod your head when you agree or shake your head when you disagree,
that means make some noises: "mm-hmm", "yeah", "absolutely". This lets your partner know
you are listening to your partner and it lets the examiner know that you are
listening to your partner. Very important stuff! And Number three:
Bruce you look very depressed. This is a problem. Now, I know the exam is not very
fun but do your best to have fun and it will improve your marks. Here is why: when
you are happy your intonation naturally rises and lowers. This makes your
pronunciation more natural and as a result you will score higher marks for
pronunciation. If you are very bored and you don't want to be there then your
intonation will be very flat and it will ruin your marks for pronunciation. So
Number one: do not be too personal not only anyway. Number two: remember to
listen and listen actively to your partner. And Number three: try to be happy.
Meeting people could make people really happy because like if they're
sociable and outgoing people then they'd really love it. For example, I love
meeting new people, I'm a really personable person and I really enjoy
spending time with others, you know? yeah... Yeah, I agree. And moving to a new area
could make people very happy because sometimes life could be boring if you
always followed the same routine. Yeah... Bruce, did you, like, ignore everything I just said? Very good job, Bruce boy! Brilliant! Great! The vocabulary here was great! The
grammar was perfect! The interaction was TERRIBLE. In the exam the Assessor marks
you on something called "Interactive communication". The two most important
things that you need to know are this: Number one: make sure you link what
you say to what your partner said before you. And Number two: make sure you
negotiate: You work with your partner to answer the question. To do this I want
you to never say "I agree". Never say "I disagree". Instead, use your language to
demonstrate to your partner if you agree or disagree. The first thing you should
do is rephrase what your partner said before you. This demonstrates to your
partner and to the examiner that you've heard what they said; that you were
listening. Then you must link your contribution to
what your partner said. This is to demonstrate if you agree or disagree
without actually saying it. And lastly, when you move on to your next prompt,
your next topic, make sure it is linked. For example: Monica has spoken about how
meeting new people can make people happy. Bruce has spoken about moving to a new
area. Bruce could have linked these ideas together. "Yes,
meeting new people can make people happy, especially if you are sociable, and for
the same reason, moving to a new area can make people happy
because if you moved to a new area you would meet lots of people. Here we have
demonstrated: One: that we understand what our partner was saying. Two: that we agree
with what our partner said. And Three: that we can link our contribution with
the contribution of our partner. This makes the examiners go crazy so
make sure you do it! Don't say "I agree" and definitely don't say "I disagree". So
then Bruce, give your response again but this time don't say "I agree" and please
link it to what Monica actually said. So if you are sociable, right...
Meeting new people could make you very happy.
Also then, so could moving to a new area, because if you moved to a new
area you would also meet new people. Yeah totally, Bruce! That's a really good point! Thank you! Urm, eww... But also
people want to move to new area because they think their lives will be better,
but sometimes don't you think that like it's better to accept what you have? Yeah,
yeah, like for example: I am perfect and I accept that and I'm very
happy about this situation. It's great! Well, yeah but in some situations accepting
what you have could like be a really bad thing. Like if you're really ugly and
you've got terrible fashion sense and you've got no friends then maybe you
should, like, work to like improve yourself and, like, learn new skills, like how to dress
or something? What are you trying to say, Monica!? Thank you. And now you have
about a minute to decide which two things would make the biggest difference
to people's lives. Um should I go first or would you like to? You can go first.
OK no problem! Um, I think meeting new people makes the biggest difference like
I said before, oh and also getting more money. I love money because with
money people can have more freedom to do what they want to do. Um? I've got nothing
to say to you. OK, so yeah making money and meeting new people for me... yeah...
You may have a partner that is very shy and doesn't want to talk. Maybe that
person is you. Remember the examiner cannot ask you questions in part three.
If you don't talk, then you don't talk. This is a problem for you, but also for
your partner. If your partner doesn't talk then you must ask them questions,
ask them questions, and ask them questions. If they give you one word
answers then expand their answer! Take their answer, put it into a sentence, say
"is that what you meant?", and demonstrate to the examiner that you are interested
in what your partner has to say. Especially for part two of part three
where you have to choose one or two of the prompts to answer a question. This
demonstrates that you can negotiate with your partner towards an outcome that you
can take a problem and try to solve it with other people in English. Oh my gosh,
Bruce! I'm really sorry about what I said so like, what do you think? Well I think that
making money, getting more money, is important, like you said. But we need two
things so can you think of another one? Yeah well like money's totally
important but like you can't have money without other people, can you? So like
money comes from other people. Yeah, so you can't have money also without a
skill... so maybe we should say "meeting new
people" and "learning new skills"? Yeah yeah! That's really great idea, Bruce! So we
say learning new skills and meeting new people. And that's what we want to see! So let's
go again, but this time using all eight pieces of my advice. Number one: when part
three starts turn your chairs inwards. Number two: as soon as you are invited to
talk ask your partner "should I go first or would you like to?". Number three: don't
be too personal. Number four: listen actively. Nod your
head, shake your head, make sounds. Demonstrates to your partner that
you are listening. Number five: be happy because being happy improves your
intonation and therefore your pronunciation. Number six:
never say "I agree" never say "I disagree". Number seven: always link your
contributions to what your partner said before. And Number eight: ask your partner
questions. Ask what their opinion is! Demonstrate to the examiner that you are
negotiating with your partner towards a result, towards an outcome. So then, are
you ready for round two? Yeah okay... yeah... I guess we could do
another one. Now I'd like you to talk about something together for about two minutes.
Here are some situations in which some people always say exactly what they
think and other people don't, and a question for you to discuss. First you
have some time to look at the task. Now talk to
each other about whether it's a good idea to always say exactly what you
think. Should I go first or would you like to? Don't worry, Monica! I will go
first this time! So I think that
it's really important to say what you think in shops and restaurants because
you're paying for a service! If the service is not good enough then I think you have
a right to complain. Yeah, yeah, like, if you pay for something and it's not got
enough then you definitely should complain and be honest, but like what
about friends and family? You're not paying them, right? If one of my
girls is wearing a really ugly dress I definitely tell them because I don't
want them to go out and be laughed at or anything. Yeah well Monica, I haven't got any friends, but
at University, usually, I often complain. I think it's important to be
honest. For example one of my philosophy professors, he clearly misunderstood
Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrence right so I had no choice but to complain.
Wow, Bruce! You go to university!? yeah I didn't even know why didn't I know that! But like, you really should be careful being honest in class
discussions because remember the teacher gives you your grades. That's true, that's true. I guess it's a bit similar
to at work you know yeah because you're boss gives you your money, so you don't
want to argue with them too much, do you? Yeah! That would be a really bad idea. But the
internet is different to that because it's so anonymous like you can say
anything you want and no one knows it's you. Yeah I say anything I want on the internet. I'm always completely honest. I even post on this stupid YouTube channel SMASH
English. Ahaha, SMASH English, that sounds so lame! It's a joke!
Thank you. Now you have about a minute to decide in which situation people should
be most careful about what they say. Well as we said before I think that the
classroom and at work are the places where you need to be most careful. Yeah
you're right like we said before. But, where is it more dangerous to be honest. Like,
if my professor gets angry with me, he can't fire me.Yeah you're
totally right like, if your professor is really angry at you you can't really do much! Yeah so, we agree then, that at work sometimes you should be careful about what you say
yeah? Oh totally! Yeah! Oh my god! we were like a really good team together! And with that, we are finished. Now you know what to do to pass part three of the Cambridge First Certificate speaking exam. If you liked
the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't
already, and leave a comment down below. My name is Toby and this was SMASH
English
