【31-65天】雅思口语高分秘籍

雅思口语高分秘籍

以下部分内容来自一个在中国做雅思口语考官的英国人的blog

【How to Speak in Part 1】

------------------------------------------------华丽分割线------------------------------------------------------ How to Speak in Part 1

Key Points

(A lot of theinformation below applies to the whole test, not just Part 1.)

In Part 1, the examiner ismainly testing you for two things: i) everyday vocabulary and, ii) basicgrammar.

For almost every answer, youshould give a two-part answer: First, a direct answer( 直接的回答) to the question andthen add more information.

A 'direct answer' does not meanthe same as 'an immediate answer' – a 'direct answer' means 'not an indirect answer'.Indirect answers lower your coherence score.

Here's an example of anindirect answer:

Question: "Do you workor are you a student?"

Answer: "Oh, I've beenworking for five years."

That answer does tell theexaminer that you are working but it does so indirectly. The questionasks you to choose between "A" and "B" and, in order toanswer directly, you should first choose between A and B and then addsome suitable extra information. So, a more suitable answer is, "I'mworking. In fact, I've been working for five years."

There are times in the Speakingtest when it is suitable not to give an immediate answer, for example, whenit's a difficult question and you need to think for a second before answeringor when you want to make a comment about the question. This is natural evenwhen you are speaking your native

language. In the case where you need time tothink, you should tell the examiner that you need a second to consider thequestion; don't sit there silently thinking about your answer.

In other words, you should always start speaking immediately after the examiner asks a question butwhat you say does not always have to immediately be the answer to the questionfrom the moment you start speaking.

However, you should not need to speak this way very much in Part 1 because almost all questions in Part 1 are rather simple, information-seeking questions. (This advice is more suitable forsome Part 3 questions.)

Be very willing to give the examiner a lot of information. ("Information" includes yourfeelings and opinions.)

The best way (butnot the only way) to give new information is to include the information in thesame sentence as your direct answer.

When you do this,you usually use a relative pronoun (关系代词) suchas, "which" to make the whole sentence into a complex sentence. Showing this skill is a key point for getting 6 ormore for grammar and 6 or more for the whole Speaking test. When you give extra information, make sure it is

new information, not information thateverybody already knows.

Here's an exampleof extra information that is not new information: "I study chemistry,which has a lot of experiments." Almost everybody knows that the studyof chemistry (usually) includes experiments. That's almost like saying, "Istudy history, which is the story of the past." But if you say,"I study chemistry, which has a lot of interesting experiments" then you are giving new information to the examiner – theinformation that the experiments are interesting to you. Note that there are times when it is not suitable or natural to use a relative

pronoun to connectthe extra information to your basic answer. For example, if you say, "I'm working, which (is something) I've been doing for five years" then your answer will sound a little unnatural and forced.

Be very willing to speak your feelings about things, (your likes/dislikes, your preferences, youropinions), even if the question did not directly ask you about yourfeelings. In other words, feel free to speak personally.

First give a suitable direct answer to the question and then, if you can'tthink of any other suitable information to add, speak about your feelings onthe topic of the question. Or, even if you can think of more information toadd, feel free to include your feelings in your answer.

Whenever you answera question about your feelings, opinion or your

likes/dislikes, (including your preferences), (almost) always include in your answer at least onereason why you have that opinion or feeling.

The questions in Part 1 will come fast and you will get a total of about 12 questions, in three different topics.

The examiner willquickly introduce each new topic with words such as, "Let's talk aboutmusic now." Listen carefully when the examiner announces the topic becausethat information can help you anticipate what the questions willbe. The examiner will usually say nothing when you answer each question, or

he/she willsay something very short, such as, "Ah!", "Mmm!","OK", "Thank you", "Good!", "That's interesting." etc. The examiner will not(or should not) discuss the question with you.

If the examiner asks you torepeat what you just said because he or she did not understand, be carefulabout repeating exactly the same words – try to change

some of your words when you repeat youranswer. If you repeat exactly the same words, sometimes the examiner will still not understand you! This is because the problem is often not just apronunciation problem but a combination of two things–imperfect pronunciation and an unsuitable choice of words.

In other words, if your pronunciation is clear and accurate but you use an unsuitable choice of words,the examiner will usually not ask you to repeat your answer because they willhear you clearly. Similarly, if your choice of words is suitable but your pronunciation is not perfect (but not too bad), the examiner will usually knowwhat you said and will not ask you to repeat your answer. So, if the examinerasks you to repeat a sentence, try to guess which words were unsuitable and tryto change them when you repeat your sentence.

If you are asked to repeat asentence, (and you use a different word or two), also try to clarify yourmeaning by giving an example.

Alternatively, you could repeatyour sentence using the same words that you spoke originally, but also includean example and, as well as that, say something such as, "In otherwords, ..." or "What I mean is, ....".

------------------------------------口语Part 3 分割线-----------------------------------------

为什么从第三部分开始说起呢~~因为Part3往往是口语考试里让考生最为惶恐

的部分！也是最后决定你口语分数上限的部分~~比如通过第一部分和第二部分的口语基础技能考察，考官觉得给你6分是没问题的，但是还不确定你有没有拿到7分的实力，这个时候，考官往往会在第三部分抛出一些棘手的话题来让你回答~~考官想要了解的是：你所掌握的most advanced vocabulary, grammar 和coherence skills~~~ 换句话说，he/she wants to see where your upper limits are!!!

知己知彼，百战不殆！第一步，我们先需要了解第三部分考试形式是什么？内容是什么？考察的目的是什么？【什么？你已经很清楚了？那么请移至How to speak in Part 3】

【Part 3题型】

Part 3的话题往往是和part 2一脉相承的。区别在于，part2是询问你的个人经历，

而part 3,则是people or life in general~~或者说society in general，是关于社会现象或社会情况的~

当然，你也可以在讨论时，加上你自己的个人经验或感受~~ 但是，你必须先回答这个“总体情况”：the question about people in general.

比如，Part 2的问题是：

Describe a piece of good news that you received by phone.

You should say：

–what the news was

–where you were when youreceived this news [Or: What you were doing when you received this news]

–who gave you this news

–and explain why you felt thiswas good news.

那么进入part 3之后，考官可能就会就以下问题和你讨论：

Telephones

–Do you think telephones areimportant for communication?

–【高频】Do people in China usetelephones (including cell-phones) very much? (Give examples of the uses of telephones)

–Does everyone in China use atelephone?

–Which do people in China usemore, cells phone or fixed line phones (= landline phones)?

–【高频】Which do you think is better,cell phones or fixed line phones? (Why?) –How important do you thinkmobile phones are in modern society?

–【高频】What changes has theintroduction of cell phones brought to people's lives (or, to society)?

–Why do you think so many peopleuse their cell phone in a public place, where other people can hear whatthey're saying?

–Do you think people like listening to other people's cell-phone conversations in public places?

–【高频】Some people don't liketelephones (both cell-phones and fixed line phones). Can you suggest some reasonswhy they feel that way?

或者：Communication Methods/Tools

–Do you think communication isimportant in a relationship?

–【高频】Do you think people todaycommunicate with others more than before?–How have communication methodsin China changed in the past 20 or 30 years?

– What about family members; doyou think they communicate more with each

other than before, or less thanbefore?–What effects have modern communicationtools had on society?

–【高频】Compare the benefits andshortcomings of using different communication methods (or, tools) such as face-to-facecommunication, letters, emails and phones.

–How do text messages (on a cellphone) compare to phone calls on a cell phone? Which do you think is the bettermeans of communication?

–【高频】Compare (the advantages &disadvantages of using) emails as opposed to cell-phones (= mobile phones) as ameans of communication.

–【高频】Compare (the advantages &disadvantages of using) emails as opposed to (hand-written) letters as a meansof communication.

–Do you think the skill ofhandwriting might one day (more or less) disappear?

–Do you think there are timeswhen a handwritten letter is preferable to an email?

– How do you think people will becommunicating with each other in the future (e.g., 30 years from now)?

【考官想要听到什么？】

Vocabulary and Grammar in Part 3

在这个部分，考官期待你所用的词汇，应该比part 1和part 2中所使用的词汇稍微正式一些！（大家可以参见Connie关于part 1和part 2的介绍帖，这两个部分更像是一些家常聊天问答，everyday things in your life!所以，我们应该选用一些亲民口语化一些的词汇和句型）。OK，那什么样的句型和词汇适用于Part 3~~ Connie会另外开贴介绍~

Coherence in Part 3

“Showing coherence skills in Part 3 isespecially important” 这是在中国的一位雅思考官的原话！大家知道第三部分所探讨的话题都是比较复杂而且抽象的话题，在进行长段的讨论中，请大家务必要注意话语之间的逻辑关系~the logic of the interconnection between several ideas!

简单来说，语言应该具备如下的结构：

【Statement A + logical connection toStatement B + logical connection to Statement C +…】

常用的这些逻辑关系词，比如: “therefore,…”, “So,…”, “As a result,…”, “On the other hand,…”, “AlthoughtX,…Y”(亲！不要把although和but 连用，初中英语老师会桑心滴~~) "In contrast to that, ..."; In other words,..."; "As well as that, ..."; "For example, ...";"As I mentioned before, ..."; etc.

举个栗子，如果题目问的是what sorts of music do young people prefer to listen to? 你可能会说，现在的年轻人大多都爱听什么摇滚啊，流行乐。这个时候你还想继续话题，你可以说说你自己呢~你想说你和别的小年轻不一样，你是爱听古典音乐的小文艺！

回答的结构大致应该是“I guess most young people enjoy listening to pop or Rock, but personally, I prefer classical music.”

在这个回答中，but personally,就是一个转折的逻辑关系词！如果没有这个结构，statement A 和statement B 就会显得不够连贯流畅，比较唐突。

【HOW TO SPEAK IN PART3】

【端正态度】

在【General】贴中，Connie反复强调，Part 3其实是考生与考官的讨论部分。OK，想想讨论的时候是什么情况？双方都对这个话题感兴趣，才会讨论~~所以，表现出你对这个话题的兴趣！所以，当考官抛出一个话头，即便心里觉得”that’sa silly idea”, 嘴上说的也是，That sounds interesting一类的话语！(就像英国的教授倾听学生们谈论他们的毕业设计一样).

【说多长时间？】

一般来说，第三部分每一次的回答都应该略长于第一部分的回答，但是不要像第二部分那样，give a “speech”, 时间控制在25秒钟左右，但是不要长于30秒。记住，在回答中，have enough details, sothe examiner could form a new question based on one of the points in youranswer!

【该说些神马】

那么，进入第三部分的时候，考官提出的问题，比如，"Do boys and girls in China (generally) play the same kinds ofsports?"并不是”questions only”, 更多的是” invitations to talk about that topic”, 所以你的每一次回答都应包含以下两个部分：

1）Answer (or try to answer) the examiner’s question

2) Extend your answer with suitable extramaterial!

所谓的extramaterial，就是要尽可能多地说你对这一话题的观点啦，以及为什么有这样的观点啦（WHY），或者你个人的感受啦，亲身体验啦~~~~~~注意，这个和@托福很不一样，托福的题目通常会明确指示考生“explainthe reason…” “ include details” “use examples”, 而在雅思考试第三部分的时候，考

官往往都是单纯抛出个简单问题，并不会要求你阐述自己的观点的理由或个人的感受、经历！考生需要全凭自己的语言习惯接话茬！！！！从这一点上说，天生话痨的孩子有福了！！但是注意，千万不要为了延展内容而硬生生地跳到另一个不相干的话题上！比如突然说，你知道吗，隔壁家新开的包子店味道不错（当然这是一个极端的例子……）

【如何讨论和拓展话题】

可以从以下几个方面来拓展话题：

?What’s the importanceof this? /What (social) problems are associated with this?

这个大家可以参加下文Connie举的那个政府帮助穷人买房的例子！

?Make comparativestatements!

这一招很好用！用得好还是加分的亮点！比如讨论的话题是：Whatkinds of magazines are available in China? 不要干巴巴地speaka list。That’s all… 要在列了几个杂志之后，add a few extra piecesof information! 比如，你可以作比较，从而开始新的discussing points: but fewer people buy magazines thannewspapers because magazines are more expensive than newspapers.

作比较的实用句型有哪些？How to make comparative statements? 这个请大家猛戳语言功能贴【Languagefunctions in IELTS speaking test--- Comparing and Contrasting Two Things】

【如果我不了解这个话题肿么办？】

比如讨论的话题是the high price of new apartments in the bigger cities of China! (筒子们，雅思口语里是会有时事讨论的！)考官问：What’s the government doing to help low-income people buy their own home?” 或者问”Is the government doing anything to help low-income people buy their own home?” 某些比较关注时事的筒子们可能会知道一两件关于政府解决贫困人口住房问题的措施，可是如果你真的不知道呢，坑爹啊！

千万不要说一句“Sorry I have no idea” 然后长时间不安的沉默！

在雅思考试时，咱们应该说的是“I have no idea BUT…”然后开始讨论这一话题。筒子们！怎么讨论？

?你可以说，你为啥不知道这一话题？比如一高中孩纸，他说，学校课业繁重啊，bla bla，每天都是复习看书啊bla bla，所以没有多少时间了解事实；

或者你可以说，你对这些政府措施向来不太感兴趣啊，因为有措施没成效啊，bla bla bla的。

?或者你还可以说，我虽然不知道政府是怎么做的，但是如果我是政府官员，我会bla bla bla…

"I have no idea but, if I were the government, I'd build many

small,cheap apartments on the edge of the city where the land is cheap and I'd sellthem to the low income people at a low price, possibly even below the cost ofconstruction because, after all, the government doesn't need to worry aboutmaking a profit."

?或者你也想不到有什么措施，但是你可以谈谈这个话题的重要性和必要性嘛！

"I have no idea but, you know, I do agree it's a serious problemright now. For example, in Beijing, the average new apartment costs ___ but theaverage Beijing resident only earns about ___ per month."

"I have no idea but, you know, I do think the government has a responsibilityto do something because, after all, China's government is a socialist governmentand the purpose of a socialist government is to look after the interests of thelow income people more than the interests of the high income people."

筒子们~~ 回答没有对错之分，只要你表达自己的观点就好了。The information is not really about the topic; it’s about you.

所有烤鸭都知道练习雅思口语最好的方法就是说出来！不过这听起来简单，做起来却很难~很多烤鸭说着说着就没激情了，练着练着就没头绪了。。怎么让你的口语练习更有效率呢？下面给大家介绍10条小方法，让你能变着法儿地提高口语哦！

Improve your IELTS speaking skills – 10 tips

The aim of this lesson is to give you different practice activities for the speaking test. While most of the activities are based on IELTS speaking questions, the idea is to improve your skills and not just practise answering questions. The reason for this is that practice tests are not enough by themselves; if you want to get better, you need to improve how you speak and that means thinking about speaking as a skill.

1. Record yourself and then write down your answer 自己录音再写下答案This is something everyone should try. It is almost certainly a bad idea to write your answer first and then speak it. This is because we speak and write in very different ways and it is a mistake to try and train yourself to speak in the way you write. But you can learn a lot from recording what you say and then writing that down word for word.

这个方法每个人都要试一下！先写答案再说出来绝对不是个好方法！因为说话和写作是不一样的，用写作的方式来训练口语是行不通滴~但是你可以通过录下自己的答案，再一字一句地听着写下来，这样会进步很多~

Things you can learn are:

这样你可以了解到：

?Do you say enough? Do you give very short answers? In parts 1 and 3, you should say at least a couple of sentences in answer to every question.

你说够了吗？答案会不会太短？在Part1和Part3，回答每个问题至少要说几个句子。

?Is what you say organised? Can you see a structure to your answer? Is it possible to put in sentences and paragraph breaks? Do you have some organisation language like “The first point is..”

你是如何组织的？答案中看得出结构吗？能把句子和段落放到这个结构中吗？有没有结构性的语言？

?Do you speak too slowly or too quickly? Try counting the words in your part 2 answer. Most of my answers as a native speaker are about 240 words long. You should probably aim for around 200 or so. Less than that and you are speaking too slowly, but if you have more than that, it may be that you are speaking too quickly.

有没有说得过快或过慢？试着数一下Part2 你的答案的字数，一般native speaker能说到240字左右，烤鸭们一般要写到200

字左右。如果字数少于这个值，那说明你讲话太慢，如果超过了，说明你讲话太快~~

?How long are your pauses? You can pause, but your pauses should generally come between sentences/paragraphs and they shouldn’t be more than 2/3 of seconds

你停顿多久？一般应该在句子和段落间停顿，而且不超过2-3秒。

?Did you answer the question?

你回答清楚问题了吗？

?Is your pro nunciation okay? If you can’t immediately understand what you say, the examiner won’t either!

你的语音可以吗？如果你不能听懂自己在说什么，那考官也不会听懂。

?Are there some words you repeat a lot? You probably shouldn’t worry too much about content words such as “television” – native speakers will repeat those a lot when speaking. Rather you should look at more functional words/phrases such as “I think”. It’s very easy to repeat these a lot and it is also quite simple to train yourself to use more variety.

有没有重复很多词？不要担心重复实义词，即使是native speaker也会一直重复，因为你讲的就是这个东西~不过，你应该

重点检查功能词汇，比如“I think” ，烤鸭们很容易老师重复这些词，不过让自己练习用不同的词也不是难事。

This is an exercise I use a lot in my own classroom and I find that most everyone has a telephone that records and the quality on that is just fine.

2. Do it first in your own language 先用母语说

This is perhaps an unusual piece of advice. In the speaking, you should aim to be thinking and speaking in English as much as possible and not translating from your language to English. It can, however, sometimes help to practise the long turn part 2 in your own language first:一般来说，最好是能用英语思维思考，并用英语回答。但是像Part2这种比较长的题目，先用母语说可能会好一点。

?some people struggle to speak in their own language for 2 minutes: they prefer short/concise answers and not longer more discussion type answers.

So before you try it in English, make sure you can do it in your first language.

有的人就算用自己的语言说，也会很困难，他们会说一些短句子，而不是讨论型的长句子，所以，在你用英语表达之前，

先让你自己用母语能够说清楚。

?it helps you understand how long 2 minutes is and how much you need to say to fill that time

这会帮你了解2分钟有多长，能说多少东西

?if you record and listen to yourself in your first language, you will probably find yourself using quite a lot of “structure” language such as “As I mentioned before”. This is a lot of the language you need for part 2.

如果用母语录音然后听，你可能会发现自己用了很多结构性语句，比如“像我之前说到的”，这就是在第二部分你需要用

到的！

3. Don’t practise the whole part 2, do it bit by bit 不要一口吃成胖子，练习第二部分，慢慢来！

Some people find part 2 frightening because they are worried they can’t speak for 2 minutes. Relax. You don’t have to. It’s much easier than that, you need to speak for不要担心2分钟很长，其实你要说的不过是：20秒+20秒+20秒+1分钟！

?20 seconds

?20 seconds

?20 seconds

?I minute

This is because there are always 4 points for you to talk about on the cue card. You want to try practising talking about the first 3 points on the cue card for about 20 seconds each (the who, where, what type questions). Make sure you don’t say “last year”, but you extend that a little . Then all you need to do is talk for 1 minute on the longer question at the end that is almost always about explaining something.

因为在题目卡上总是会有4个要点，你可以先练习前三点分别说20秒，不要太简略，稍微扩展一点。然后用最后一分钟来解释。

4. Practise by describing photographs 通过描述照片来练习！

In the exam of course you don’t get any photograph to help you. It would probably be easier if you did because when you have a photograph, you can see what you need to talk about. The idea is here that if you learn to see pictures as you are speaking, you find more things to say. I suggest:

考试时，并没有照片给你提示，如果有的话可能会容易一点，因为你就知道要说什么了~所以平时可以拿照片来练习，让自己找到更多可说的！以下是几个建议：

?find a picture about an IELTS topic e.g. a picture of a wedding –describe what you see 找一些跟考试题目相关的照片

?then try talking about the same topic without the picture 然后不用照片试着将同样的事情

?in the exam itself, all you need to do is imagine a picture in your head 在考试中，自己想想一张图片

What I strongly suggest is that you look at your own photographs, as what you will need to speak about are your own memories. 而且强烈建议看你自己的照片，因为你需要说的是你自己的memories

5. Read then speak 先读再说！

It helps to practise reading and speaking together because reading gives you words and sometimes ideas. This idea is a very simple one. When you read a passage in English, you should then try and summarise what it says speaking. The ways this works is: 先读英语，然后试着用自己的话把它复述出来。这可以训练你：

?to summarise a reading text, you are going to need to use some of the words used in it 总结阅读文本，抓住关键词

?if you say the word aloud, you have learnt that word better and are more likely to us fit for yourself in the future

当你大声说出来，能能学好这个词，并且以后自己用着更顺口?if the text is longer, you should find yourself having to list the different points it contains. This should help the coherence of your speaking as you will need to use language like “Firstly…then… next …”etc

如果文章太长，那么应该自己找到几个要点，如果用一些逻辑联系词会让你说起来更连贯

Two extremely good sources for this type of reading is 6 minute English and my favourite Words in the News. It sometimes helps to choose 5 words from the text you are reading that you want to use when you speak.

6. Improve your memory – write your life history 提高记忆力，写自己的故事

Parts 1 and 2 of the speaking test are personal questions about who you are (part 1) and what you have done (part 2). One reason why some candidates have problems is not the language, but that they can’t think of things to say. The solution is simple – refresh your memory about important events in your life before the test.

Part1 和Part2 主要是关于你自己的一些问题，有些烤鸭的问题不在于用什么语言说，而是他们根本想不到要说什么。。那么就在考试前重温一下、回忆一下你生活中的重要事情吧！

The idea is not so much to practise exam questions (it’s hard to predict those), but to practise speaking about your memories of people, events, places and things. Do that and the exam should be simpler as you have memories you can use. Write down some personal memories and then try speaking about them. Some ideas here are:

这不是要练习考试题目，只是练习说出自己记得的人、事、物、地方。如果你能这样做，考试会容易很多。

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?think of important/interesting people in your life: Ask yourself: When did you meet them? How long have you known them? Why are they important/interesting? Can you remember something you did together?

What about a conversation you had with them?

?think of important events in your life: Ask yourself: What it was? Where did it happen? Who were you with at the time? What else was happening in your life then? What one thing stands out in your memory about it? How well do you remember it?

?think of places you have been to: Ask yourself: Where it was? How did you get there? In what detail can you describe the place? Can you describe the general area it is in? Would you want to go back there?

?think of your possessions: Ask yourself: How long have you owned it?

Where did you get it? Is it special or something normal? How often do you use it? Do you associate with someone else?

7. Practise saying “I don’t know” 练习说“I don’t know”

Another reason why some candidates go wrong in the exam is that they feel they have to give a complete answer to very question and they think of IELTS as s ome academic test. It isn’t. It’s simply a test of your language. In parts 1 and 3, you may well be asked questions that you have very little to say about. That’s not a problem, there’s always another question coming. The big mistake is to try and give a full answer when you have nothing to say. What happens is that your language becomes confused and so do you, with the result that things get and worse and worse.

All you need to do is say you don’t know and explain why and then wait for the next question. This may take a little practice. You want to build a set of phrases such as:

Q. What colour is your favourite room and why did you choose that colour? A. I’m not sure what to say about that. It’s not a question I’ve ever

thought about before. I suppose yellow is just my favourite colour and so I painted my room yellow?

8. Talk to a mirror

This is another strange sounding piece of advice, but it can be very practical –especially if you don’t have a speaking partner. The idea is that when you practise speaking, you should sit in front of a mirror and speak to yourself. It can work because:

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?eye contact is extremely important in all parts of the test. As a former speaking examiner for other exams, I can promise you that examiners are influenced by candidates who make eye contact - even though they may not be aware of this. Typically, the candidate who makes good eye contact gets a more generous mark because they seem to be communicating better as body language is around 70% of all communication.

?the other point is that, for most people, sitting and looking at themselves in a mirror is an uncomfortable experience. After that, the exam will seem easy!

9. Write your own questions

This is another activity that I suggest everyone should try at least once. You should of course practise with “real” exam questions too, but there is a lot to be learnt from writing the questions first and then trying to answer them. The way it works is that if you write the question yourself,:

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?you are more likely to try and answer it properly and give a full answer because you understand what the question is asking – good practice

?you learn to add details to your answers by thinking of more question words. So when you answer the question “Are you a student or do you have a job?”, you are more likely to say “I’m a student at Wuhan University and I have been studying there for the last 3 years” – adding information by thinking of the question “How long” even though you weren’t asked it.

10. Improve your coherence and fluency – easy as 1-2-3 0r 3-2-1

This is another of my favourite classroom speaking activities. Ideally, you need one or two more people to practise this with, but you can do it by yourself. The idea is that you don’t just practise speaking for 2 minutes. Rather, you s tart off by speaking for 3 minutes about that topic, then you do the same thing for 2 minutes, then for 1 minute. In the perfect world, you would also speak to a different person each time.

How does it work? The first time your answer is probably slightly incoherent and lacks fluency. The next time you speak though, you know what you want to say and, if you have listened to someone else speak, you now have more ideas. The result is that when you speak, you answer becomes more fluent and coherent. Then when you do it for 1 minute, your answer needs to become even more coherent because you now have lots of things to say but not very much time to say it.

I should add that this activity works best if you have different people to speak to. It works because each time you speak to someone different, it becomes a different conversation – even if you are talking about the same thing.

口语考试中会出现一些问题，征求烤鸭们的意见？问你怎么看待一个事情，或者问你觉得...怎么样？这种时候烤鸭们应该给出自己的意见，并给予适当的解释~

Opinion vocabulary for IELTS speaking

The language of opinions is vital in IELTS speaking. This post gives you some practical advice in a 3 step programme so that you can use it better.

Step 1 – know when you can use opinion vocabulary – think 知道什么是询问意见的题目！

Sometimes it’s not immediately obvious the examiner is a sking you for your opinion. The question will not always contain the words “Do you think…?”. Look at these examples:

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?“Would you say it’s an easy job?”

?“What’s the hardest part of your job?”

?“Do you like your subject?”

?“Is it easy to travel to and from your home?”

In each case you should be thinking about using the language of opinions. You need to see that the questions could be:

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?“Do you think it’s an easy job?”

?“What do you think is the hardest part of your job?”

?“Do you think your subject is interestin g?”

?“Do you think that it’s easy to travel to and from your home?”

Tip: this needs some practice to get right – not all the questions are opinion questions. I suggest you find some IELTS speaking questions and see which questions you can rewrite with “Do you think?”

Step 2 – learn to extend your answer – why 试着扩展答案，解释“为什么”Of course it’s not enough just to use the opinion vocabulary: you also need to say a little bit more or, as teachers say, learn to extend your answer. The answer here is fairly simple. What you need to do is imagine the questions above are:

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?“Do you think it’s an easy job and why?”

?“What do you think is the hardest part of your job and why?”

?“Do you think your subject is interesting and why?”

?“Do you think that it’s easy to travel to and from your home and why?”

If you hear this in your head, you will almost automatically start to say more by using the word “because” –even when the examiner doesn’t ask you to say “why”.

Step 3 – learn to use varied opinion vocabulary

If you do start to use opinion vocabulary, the trap is that you keep saying the words, normally: “I think” or “In my opinion”. While this is quite natural, you don’t want to do this in the exam as the examiner will be listening to how you vary your vocabulary.

Practice makes perfect

So here’s my practice activity and resource for you. It’s very simple, but often the best things are. The idea is to use this language several times so that it starts to become automatic. That’s important because you don’t want tot stop and think about this language in the exam itself.

Here’s what you do:

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?find some opinion topics/questions

?speak about them

?each time you use one of these phrases, you tick the box next to it

?try and tick as many boxes as possible

You don’t need all the words of cou rse. You should find though that with

practice (and it works best with someone else) you start to use much more varied language for opinion:

Repeat the practice

This is the sort of practice that works best if you repeat it a few times. Once is good: 3 times is more than 3 times as good. Boring as it looks, it can be quite good fun – particularly if you have a study partner – because it gives you a different way to practise the same old, boring old topics.