Speaking Strategies For Oral Exams
Regardless of the awarding torso as well as certificate y'all are sitting an exam inward (IELTS, Cambridge CPE or FCE/ First for Schools, ECPE or ECCE, MSU CELP or CELC, LRN, TOEIC, ESB, PTE), y'all volition receive got to notice ways to expand your answers to demo that you tin speak English without needing anyone's help. To produce this, y'all demand to hold the examiner from having to inquire y'all one or 2 follow-up questions inward club to elicit a longer response from you. In other words, if a chore requires a candidate to speak for nearly 2 minutes on a topic, as well as the candidate manages to speak for a minute as well as 10 seconds only, the examiner will receive got to inquire some other interrogation to larn more information from the test-taker.
In the mind of the examiner, having to ask that extra interrogation or 2 translates into ane of the next 2 things:
a) the candidate simply doesn't receive got ideas to limited (which can't be penalized)
or
b) the candidate simply doesn't receive got the vocabulary to maintain conversation on this topic (which most definitely is peanlized)
If the examiner sees that brusk answers are the norm as well as non the exception, they volition conclude that the candidate isn't comfortable speaking the language because of lexical gaps (gaps in the arrive at of vocabulary).
Therefore, what tin endure done? The telephone commutation to creating a longish reply to oral exam questions is to follow a strategy that mimics the organization of essays. In this way, y'all strength yourself to produce an extra 2 to 3 sentences y'all usually wouldn't say if y'all were talking amid friends inward a to a greater extent than relaxed atmosphere (even though candidates should process oral exams as exactly some other casual conversational environment amongst only one or two added twists that display meliorate cognition of vocabulary as well as grammar). In improver to this, y'all strength yourself to follow a train of thought that gradually exposes your response to the interrogation asked instead of coming out amongst a forthwith reply which but states the basics.
This postal service centers on three telephone commutation tasks that oral exams may require candidates to bargain with, so the strategies that follow are for questions that require y'all to
- describe
- narrate
- give your sentiment on a topic
Description
Examples of the type of interrogation y'all may receive got to speak about:
- a identify (restaurant, school, home, monument, shopping place, vacation resort)
- time of day
- film / mass / vocal / band / singer
- person / animal
- object (gift, your favorite photograph, your origin toy)
- an activeness (hobby, going out amongst friends, meal, morning time routine)
Strategy
- repeat the question
- My favorite beach is …
- state the topic
- ... ane located in the northward of Hellenic Republic inward Chalkidiki, to endure to a greater extent than precise.
- talk nearly time / identify / people involved
- It's just nearly an hour’s drive away. I go at that spot every summertime for a month, but also go whenever I tin at the weekend throughout the year. It’s as good mutual coldness to go during Christmas, but if Easter Lord's Day falls belatedly inward leap as well as the atmospheric condition isn’t as good cold, I go at that spot for nearly iv or 5 days amongst friends as well as family.
- state details
- It’s a broad beach but y'all can’t tell anymore when hotels as well as cafés create total it amongst Sun beds and umbrellas inward the summer. It gets really crowded as well as there’s a lot of noise as well as fifty-fifty the H2O sometimes isn’t crystal clear, but I go on to go at that spot because nosotros run across friends who come upwards from abroad at that fourth dimension of yr as well as inward the eve when everyone leaves, the beach is placidity as well as hence nosotros receive got it all to ourselves.
- state feelings
- Even though things receive got larn as good noisy as well as crowded, I nonetheless cannot imagine going anywhere else, because it’s the beach that feels similar home. It relaxes me as well as takes the stress away.
- close your answer
- So, that’s all I receive got to say nearly my favorite beach, fifty-fifty though I could go on talking nearly it for hours.
Narration
You are usually asked to narrate an number y'all experienced, such as a
- recent visit to a
- relative, doctor, zoo, theatre
- time when you
- had to lie, allow sb down, got lost, had to produce sth difficult, lost sth, did badly on a test, had a fight, did sth dainty for sb, got into trouble, were treated rudely
Strategy
- repeat the question
- When I lately had to see a relative’s solid …
- state the topic
- …it was my aunt as well as uncle’s house.
- talk nearly the time / identify / people involved
- I went at that spot this Christmas amongst my solid unit of measurement because nosotros had been invited as well as my parents had accepted. So nosotros left at around half past times twelve because if nosotros wanted to larn at that spot at around two o’clock, nosotros needed to start early, because my aunt as well as uncle alive a piffling over 100 kilometers from Thessaloniki, as well as hence it takes a land to larn there.
- state details
- I didn’t desire to go but had to because my blood brother as well as sis get along as well as hence well amongst our cousins as well as e'er receive got a non bad fourth dimension when nosotros go over to their house, as well as my parents naturally enjoy my aunt as well as uncle's company. I’m the alone ane who is bored every fourth dimension nosotros go at that spot seeing as I don’t receive got anything to do. My cousins are much younger than me, as well as hence they play amongst my blood brother as well as sister, but I notice their games to childish as well as hence I sit down at that spot fidgeting with my prison house mobile telephone band all the time, chatting amongst friends or watching videos, and this is what happened at Christmas as well.
- state feelings
- It was actually boring, fifty-fifty though I receive got to acknowledge that the repast was lovely as well as everyone was dainty to me.
- close your answer
- All inward all, I can’t actually complain, but this see to my relatives was similar all the other ones I’ve had as well as hence far, important boring.
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Opinion Questions
- topics vary
- law (voting, driving, smoking, working inward a dissimilar country, helping elderly people)
- education (studies, books, schoolhouse subjects, schools, teachers, homework, shape excursions)
- sports
- art / culture
- health
- the surroundings (pollution, animals, recycling)
- the future
- technology (cell phones, computers, social media, video games, the internet)
- tourism / travel
- human qualities (honesty, determination, loyalty)
- hobbies
- city & province life
- celebrations / traditions
- parents & children (chores, deciding nearly studies)
Strategy
- repeat the question
- My view on living inward the metropolis versus the countryside
- state the topic
- … is somewhat unclear. I hateful both sides offering as convincing arguments.
- state arguments in support of the first side of the declaration amongst explanations and/or examples
- If y'all alive inward the city, y'all receive got a diversity of facilities that tin brand life tardily as well as interesting for you. For instance, y'all receive got large stadiums which agency y'all tin sign upwards as well as develop amongst a team or exactly picket matches, or y'all usually receive got large supermarkets which receive got everything y'all demand including convenient parking space. This is something y'all in all likelihood won’t notice as easily inward the countryside. There mightiness endure a modest moving painting solid or ane or to smaller grocery stores, but inward full general your choices are limited. There's also the question of aid facilities. Larger cities receive got larger, meliorate equipped hospitals.
- state arguments for the other side of the argument
- However, if y'all alive inward the countryside, the air is much cleaner as well as you’ll in all likelihood endure living inward much nicer surroundings, amongst houses that aren’t large blocks made of cement as well as bricks that all await alike. You’ll endure able to run across charming cottages, or smaller-scale storey buildings that won’t brand the town await as good ugly. There’ll endure parks or woods areas amongst trails for y'all to ride your bike or hike. Of course, the downside is that people who alive inward smaller towns inward the countryside experience as if they don’t receive got much to produce inward the evenings or the weekends.
- state your opinion to unopen your answer
- So, having said all this, I call upwards it would endure preferable to alive inward the city. Actually, the best affair would endure to alive inward a metropolis as well as endure able to larn away for the weekend to the countryside. Then you’d receive got the best of both worlds.
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