IELTS Speaking: How to talk about a book or film

Welcome back to a rather scary engVid.

In today's lesson you are going to learn two things: Firstly, how to tell a scary story

full of suspense and tension; and secondly, how to talk about a book as you might be required

to do in an IELTS speaking test.

So, what I have put up here on the board is different groups of words, so we've got adverbs,

nouns, we've got verbs, and then phrases which you could use in a story of this type.

So, I'm going to demonstrate how to use these words; and hopefully, you'll feel inspired

to go off and write your own short story afterwards.

I'd love to hear about it on the engVid Facebook page or just on your comments under this video.

Okay.

So, we're going to link the verbs with the adverbs.

I should first off explain what exactly these types of stories are.

So, we're looking at suspense stories.

This is a story in which something, something dangerous, something scary remains hidden.

We don't quite know what it is, but there's something out there in the dark that may do

something scary.

Okay?

So, in a story like this, people are going to be "holding their breath".

Yup.

"The boy held his breath", if I was to write that in the past tense.

Okay?

"Held" in the past tense.

"The boy held his breath.

He trembled silently because he was on his own.

He trembled silently, and shuddered."

Okay?

So, let's explain these words.

"Tremble" means to shake.

Okay?

"Shudder" basically means the same thing.

So, if I say it twice but in a different way, it just adds to the effect.

Okay?

"He trembled silently and shuddered with the thought of what lay next door."

Okay.

If I say exactly what is next door; that there's a yellow, spotted lizard, then the story becomes

not scary.

I need to keep the idea that we don't know exactly what is next door.

"He crept", and now let's add another adverb.

"He crept"-that would work well-"nervously".

So, "nervously", he's full of nerves; he's, like, biting his teeth about what's going

to happen when he steps out into the corridor.

"He crept nervously out into the corridor."

Okay, so I've used my verbs; let's see which other adverbs I could use.

Okay.

What about "cautiously"?

So, "caution" is about taking care.

So, if you are being cautious, then you're being very careful.

If you're acting cautiously, you're doing the same thing.

"He cautiously looked from left to right."

Okay, so we've done "cautiously", we've done "silently", now let's do "suddenly".

"Suddenly a bat flew past him", so one of those black, nasty, scary bird-like animals

flew past him.

That's going to be quite scary; we'll have that in there.

"Unexpectedly".

Okay.

So, prefix "un" means not; "expect" - something we think is going to happen.

So, suddenly something we don't think is going to happen happens.

Unexpectedly what could happen?

A door opened.

Dunh-dunh-dunh.

Okay.

So, we've managed to use these adverbs, we've managed to use these verbs.

These are the types of nouns that would be good in a story like this; in a scary story.

"Unease".

Okay?

So, "ease", you can see the word "easy".

"Everything's cool.

Yeah, we can do it.

10 out of 10 in the quiz after the lesson."

A feeling of unease is: "Oo, what's happening here?

How am I going to get 10 out of 10 in this lesson"?

"Unease", it means discomfort.

"Distress".

Worry is what "distress" means, and you can add an "ed" to turn it into an adjective.

"The distressed young girl."

Okay?

"Fright", this means fear.

Obviously if I wanted to turn it into an adjective, I would put: "ened.

Frightened".

"Panic" is: "Ah!

Help!

What's going to happen?

Ahh"!

"Panic" - fear again.

"Dread", this is a sense of not liking what is going to happen in the future; being really

quite scared.

So, you've got lots of different words here to express fear.

A "cold sweat".

So, that is a physical...

That shows on the body how scared the person is that they're starting to sweat; that the

sweat is cold.

I should have a blue pen for this; a cold sweat.

So, "sweat", when we're very, very worried and anxious and stressed, we may start sweating.

A "draught", okay?

A "draught" is when we have air blowing through under a door, for example.

Okay?

It's sort of the wind coming through.

"A cold draught of air blows through."

It just helps to set the scary atmosphere.

Phrases.

Now, these are all phrases that you would put at the start of a sentence.

"Without hesitation, the boy strode into the next door room.

He opened the door, and he saw", whatever he saw.

"Without hesitation".

"From the shadows", when we're going a little bit more slowly.

Sorry.

I'll just explain this: "Without", so that means no; "hesitation" means waiting.

So: "Not waiting anymore, the boy decided to go and find out what was out there".

"From the shadows".

So, if we have a light, so there's a light there and I'm here, my shadow is that sort

of dark thing that's kind of like a reflection of me.

Anything in the shadows is something unknown; slightly spooky.

"From the shadows, what was happening?"

Something unknown.

We just don't quite know what is behind the door.

"Out of the corner of his eye".

So: "Out of the corner of his eye".

So, this is the idea that the boy half-sees something, but he's not quite sure exactly

what.

"All of a suddenly"...

"All of a sudden".

Okay?

"Suddenly", it just means that, but it...

"All of a sudden", it's just another way of saying: "Suddenly", but with four words instead

of one.

"In alarm", okay?

This means scared, fear, worried.

Yup.

"In alarm".

You know what an alarm clock is?

An alarm, it's like the boy's got an alarm clock going off in his head.

Right.

Let's work out how to talk about a book that would satisfy the IELTS speaking test, too.

Back in a moment.

Here we have a sample question for talking about a book.

"Speak for 1-2 minutes about a book you have enjoyed reading recently."

These are the kinds of things...

So, these bullet points are what you must include when you're doing one of these speaking

tasks.

"What kind of book is it?

What is it about?

What sort of people would enjoy it?

And explain why you liked it."

What I've done is I've put up some useful phrases here that you could use if you were

talking about a book, and then you could change them slightly if you were talking about a

film or television program.

"This book is in the genre of"... "genre" means: What type of book is it?

So we were, earlier in this lesson, looking at suspense writing.

So: "This book is in the genre of suspense", but you could have horror, romance, detective,

war, childhood; all sorts of different book genres out there.

"It's about..." then roughly say what the book is about.

For my story: "It's about a woman who gets fed up with her husband."

"The main character is..."

Say something about the main character.

"The main character is called Mary Maloney.

She is a very particular...

She is a very careful type of character, but eventually she erupts into violence."

Okay?

Like a volcano, she erupts.

"The plot is as follows"...

"Plot" means what happens in the story.

"As follows" means I'm about to tell you what the plot is.

"Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh".

Okay?

You put in there the story that you are talking about.

"Anyone who likes..."

Well, what type of other sort of book genres might someone who likes this book be interested

in?

Are they going to be people who are interested in detective books?

Are they going to be people who read biographies?

Maybe you can list a particular book that...

That you enjoy.

"...would enjoy this book".

"I loved this book because..."

What's...?

What's the most interesting thing about this book?

Is it the plot?

Is it the character?

Is it where it's set?

Is it the language that is used?

I don't know; you'll have to decide that.

"The..."

Now, what you need to put here is either: "The beginning", "The middle", "The end".

Okay?

I'm going to talk about a Roald Dahl short story.

"The beginning was particularly...

Was most effective because it really made you question: What is going to happen next?"

Okay.

So, I hope you've got some useful phrases for talking about a book, there.

A couple of good suspense stories for you to read: Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart

or the Roald Dahl short story, Lamb to the Slaughter.

Both are excellent.

And good luck if any of you are doing your IELTS speaking.

See you very soon.

Have a go at the quiz.

Until next time, bye.