IELTS Speaking Part 2: Questions and Answers

- How do you handle IELTS Speaking Part Two?

I think there are two ways that work really well.

Let me show you both,

with a couple of Part Two questions and answers.

(lively music)

You know, the other day,

a student said to me, he said,

"Keith, what do you think of the PPF Method

for Part Two of IELTS speaking?"

And I said, "The PPF Method?".

Now, as it happens,

I had actually seen a video about this

and there is a teacher on YouTube

who proposes the PPF Method.

It's tell a story in the past,

tell a story in the present and a story in the future.

Past, present, future

for IELTS Speaking Part Two.

And I said, "You know it's hard enough telling one story,

nevermind three stories.

I think maybe it's over complicating the matter.

I would keep things simple."

I said to this student and I say to you,

I think, there are two simple, very good approaches

to Part Two.

One, the structured approach,

and two the free-flowing approach.

So, in this video I'll show you how each one works

through a couple of Part Two questions and model answers.

That way you can learn the approach

and some really useful language as well.

In addition, I will tell you about my plans

for Black Friday, this November 2022.

Also, there is a PDF of today's lesson.

You can download that.

So, watch to the end of the video.

I'll tell you more about it.

Or just go down to the description now and get it.

And by the way, if you don't know me, my name is Keith.

I have the YouTube channel, English Speaking Success

and the website the Keith Speaking Academy.

So listen, let's get cracking with the first approach,

the structured approach.

Okay, to show you the structured approach,

let's take a Part Two question, right?

Here's a task card or a cue card.

Describe a positive change that you made, okay.

Now here the approach would be,

first you have a minute to prepare, right?

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Get a general idea of what you want to talk about, right?

What's the positive change?

Then follow each bullet point in your talk, okay?

In your one minute you'll get a brief idea

of what you want to say for each bullet point.

If you've got time, only one minute,

try and prepare your first sentence.

So, you start confident with a bang, right?

And remember, right in IELTS Speaking Part Two,

you can keep the task card and your notes

and refer to your notes when you're speaking, right?

You don't have to memorise it.

Look at your notes.

In this structured approach, coherence is really important.

The way you're connecting each block or bullet point

that you're going to talk about.

This is a great method.

It's simple, it's structured, really good to do.

Let's have a look for this question at my notes.

This is what I did in one minute, right?

I decided to talk

about walking in the morning, every morning.

Why? Because doctor's advice and who I did it with,

well, alone actually.

Although, my wife encouraged me and I felt great about it.

So, all that in a minute.

Now, let's have a look at what the model answer

or my answer actually looks like.

So, the positive change that I would like

to tell you about is when I decided

to start getting up really early in the morning

and going for a brisk walk.

The reason I made this change, well,

it's because previously I was under a lot of strain at work.

I mean, I had a lot on my plate.

I felt stressed out, even burnt out a lot of the time.

And I noticed my physical health

and mental health were deteriorating.

So, I went to see the doctor

and the doctor gave me some advice.

He said basically, it's not so much your physical health

is the problem, it's your mental health.

And one of the best things you can do

is to go out into the countryside for one hour every day,

get out of the kind of rut that you're in at work,

get out of that environment into the countryside

and just do some simple exercise, walking or cycling.

So, following the doctor's advice,

I decided to make this change.

When it comes to who I did it with,

well, I do it alone actually.

I mean, I must admit my wife was very supportive

and she encouraged me to do this.

She said, "You know, I'll do the school run."

"I'll look after the kids."

"You go and do your walk in the morning," which I did.

And yeah, when it comes to how I feel about it,

I felt absolutely great.

I mean, it was really beneficial.

I noticed a marked improvement in my health and wellbeing

and my mental health.

I wasn't lazy all the time, I just had more energy.

So I felt really good about this change.

Great, so that's the model answer.

Now, what I'm going to do is,

this is something I do in my online courses,

is I'm just gonna analyse that model answer

to show you some really useful vocabulary,

some grammar and even coherence

so that you can also give much better answers

in your IELTS Speaking, okay?

So, let's have a look at what I said.

I'll start first with coherence

and these kind of sign posts

that are indicating what I'm going to say next.

'Cause this is a structured approach.

The positive change I would like to tell you about is,

right, the dee dee dee,

I would like to tell you about is.

It makes it so clear what you're going to say.

And then later, the reason I made this change is again,

the examiner knows you're going to be explaining

and giving a reason.

Makes it so much more coherent.

Talking about vocabulary, I said a brisk walk

which is a nice collocation, meaning a quick walk

and then lots of phrases meaning to feel stress.

I said I was under a lot of strain at work.

To feel stress

To have a lot on your plate.

I had a lot on my plate.

I had a lot of activities that made me stressed

or stressed out, burnt out.

All of these mean the same.

Notice, I repeat the same thing

two or three times with different words.

In speaking, that's fine.

You wouldn't do that in writing,

but in speaking you can.

Finally deteriorating,

just means getting worse.

Okay, lovely.

Moving on.

Here, I've just picked out some grammar items in green.

Okay. So, I went to see the doctor and he gave me

some advice.

He said,

"It's not so much your physical health, that's the problem."

"It's your mental health."

Now, this structure, it's not so much A,

that's the problem

it's B, it's just emphasising.

So, really you are saying the problem is not A, it's B.

But we can make it more emphatic, right?

It's not A, that's the problem,

it's B and then much more natural.

It's not so much A, that's the problem.

It's B.

Lovely simple structure.

You can use it in many contexts.

Not only talk about problems,

but here let's just focus on talking about problems

which is really useful, right in IELTS Speaking.

And then, I said one of the best things you can do is,

so instead of saying right advice, you should do this.

You ought to do this.

One of the best things you can do is, right,

it's much richer language.

One of the best things you can do and get the rhythm,

dee, dee, dee,

dee, dee, dee, dee.

One of the best things you can do.

Great. So one of the best things you can do is

practise your English.

Lovely bit of grammar.

Moving on, we then, so following the doctor's advice,

I decided to make this change.

When it comes to who I did it with.

So, I'm sign-posting because I've moved

onto the next bullet point.

When it comes to this,

ba, ba, ba, ba.

Vocabulary. We can talk about the school run.

My wife said I'll do the school run.

That means to take the children to school.

Great natural expression.

And then, finally this grammatical bit, she said,

"I'll do the school run."

"You go for a walk," which I did.

Now, I could say, and I did it,

but here again,

this is when somebody advises us or recommends

or asks or tells us to do something, we can just say

which I did at the end, right?

She told me to go for a walk

which I did.

Instead of, and I did.

And that reference the which referring back to go

for a walk.

It's lovely, it's such natural English

which will make your examiner go,

oh, that's nice.

He advised me to go, which I did.

She told me to leave, which I did.

She asked me to help, which I did.

So, when you've got that structure with a advise,

help to to do something, which I did, in the past tense.

Lovely, lovely grammatical structure.

Finally wrapping up, just something, picking out vocabulary.

Emphasising to you the importance of collocations.

I noticed a marked improvement in my health, right?

Is I noticed a big improvement.

There are different collocations, right?

We can say a significant improvement, a marked improvement.

The key message to you is,

don't just think about complex words.

Think about collocation, right?

Improvement. It's not a complex word,

but a marked improvement that'll make your examiner go,

oh, nice.

So, there we go.

That is looking at the model answer.

So, there we've seen the model answer, some coherence,

some nice vocabulary and grammar

that can help you improve your spoken English.

There's more.

Let's have a look at some more

to make you an even more confident English speaker.

Now, you may be thinking, Keith, this is great.

Where can I find more model answers like this?

Well, good question.

And my answer is, you could find these in my online course,

"IELTS Speaking Success - Get a band 7 plus GOLD.

What you get there is ideas, model answers,

language analysis, quizzes, the full Monty, lots of stuff.

And the good news is Black Friday is coming

and I'm celebrating.

Yes, on the 25th of November, 2022.

There will be discounts, free live lessons.

On Saturday the 26th,

I'll be doing some live lessons

with free PDFs, games, quizzes, some free prizes.

You can even win a mock IELTS speaking test

with me one on one with feedback.

Lovely. So, what you can do is if you download the PDF

to this video in the description below,

you can get on the mailing list

and I'll let you know more about the Black Friday deals.

If you don't want emails and I know they can be a pain

in the (indistinct) sometimes.

That's fine, you don't have to do that.

You can also just check out my Facebook page

and find out about Black Friday deals coming up there.

Either way is good.

Okay, more model answers.

Let's have a look at the second approach

to IELTS Speaking Part Two.

Okay. So, the free-flow approach, as you can imagine

is just speaking freely and flowing like a river, right?

You just focus on the main question

at the top and you forget the bullet points.

Forget the bullet points.

Yes, it's a common myth, right?

You actually don't have to follow the bullet points.

No, really you don't.

So, long as you're following that question

at the top, for example, let's look at a cue card here.

Describe a time someone asked for your opinion.

You can ignore who, why, what?

Just focus on the time someone asked for your opinion.

Absolutely fine.

And this allows you to speak more freely.

There's less structure.

And as ideas come to your head, you speak out.

Of course, in your one minute preparation,

you want to be thinking of two

or three main ideas or details you want to talk about.

And if you have time, prepare that first sentence.

So, you start with a bang confidently,

but then you just go with the flow.

That's me going with the flow.

What you'll find when you speak is when it comes

to coherence, you'll be saying things like

and, then, and then, so, and, and then, so, finally.

That is perfectly fine.

That is also natural spoken English.

That's how we speak.

So, you don't need to overthink, right?

You don't actually have to overthink complex vocabulary.

Fancy vocabulary.

Your focus is on the fluency.

Part two is a great opportunity to show your fluency.

The structured approach is good

and I think it's slightly better

for slightly lower levels.

'Cause you've got structure.

This is good for slightly higher levels

and it allows you to just go

because I've seen students when they get

on a roll and they're not thinking too much.

The most beautiful language can come

out and it can really, really help you.

In part two, you can take care

of fancy vocabulary in part three, right?

Okay, so let's take a look at this particular question.

This is what I prepared.

Someone asked for your opinion.

I was gonna talk about my dad.

He was asking about a present for my wife.

It's a very common situation, right?

And I said, no clothes, earrings are good.

And he asked me to buy the present.

So I've already decided the things I want

to talk about, right?

Notice, I'm not following the bullet points.

It's prepared,

but there's lots of room to flow.

Okay, let's have a look what this model might look like.

And then, after I'll analyse some

of the language to give you some really useful phrases.

Let's do it (laughs).

So, I'd like to tell you

about the time that my father asked me

for my opinion and it was about my wife's birthday present.

So, this is a very run-of-the mill-situation, right,

where my wife's birthday is coming up.

And my father just doesn't know what to buy her.

This is made doubly complicated because we live abroad

so he can't keep track of what she has

and what she doesn't have and maybe her tastes have changed.

And also, you know, my dad's getting on,

I mean he's 80-odd, right?

So it's hard for him to get

out and buy presents and be creative and so on.

So, what happens every year.

We go through this routine.

He calls me up and says, what should I buy for your wife?

So, this year I said, well listen,

don't buy clothes because there's always a problem

with the size getting the wrong size

and her tasting clothes changes like the weather.

So, that's difficult.

I said earrings are a winner.

You can't go wrong with earrings.

'Cause it's always the same size and different styles

match different clothes

and she loves earrings.

So, he said, that's great, excellent.

Could you go and buy them for me?

And that makes me laugh because then I go out

and buy them and wrap them up and I present them and say,

of course this is from my father.

I think, this is quite a funny situation.

I mean, we go through this rigmarole every year.

It's the same phone call.

It's the same answer and it's quite comical.

But I guess I feel flattered.

I mean, flattered that my dad is asking for my opinion,

but it's quite amusing also.

So yeah,

that's the time that my father asked for my opinion.

Great. So, a nice model answer.

My dad.

He's so funny, right?

Great. So, can you go and buy them?

What? Lovely.

So, what I'm gonna do now, again very briefly,

just give you an analysis of the answer

so that you can pick out the most useful vocabulary

and grammar and coherence

to help you improve your spoken English

and give better answers.

So, this is exactly what I do

on my online courses to help you get better and better.

So let's have a look.

I begin.

Again, notice the sign post.

I'd like to tell you about the time that direct

to the point.

My father asked

for my opinion about my wife's birthday present.

This is a very run-of-the-mill situation.

Run of the mill.

Run of the mill, link them together, run of the mill.

Great. Meaning ordinary, usual, right?

This is a run-of-the-mill house.

This is a run-of-the-mill cup.

Very ordinary.

I know it's a mug, but there you go.

So a run-of-the-mill situation.

My wife's birthday is coming,

father doesn't know what to buy.

This is made doubly complicated.

Doubly complicated.

Super complicated or extra complicated

because we live abroad.

He can't keep track of.

To keep track of is to follow the progress

or changes of something.

You know when you buy something on Amazon

and you can follow the progress of the delivery, right?

You can keep track of it.

And then, my dad's getting on, right.

To be getting on.

Phrasal verbs are such an important part of spoken English.

So, this is nice to be getting on means to be getting older.

Not to get on.

No, to be getting on, right?

He's getting on.

My grandma is getting on, my dad is getting on.

He's 80-odd.

So, when you put odd after a number,

it means approximately or more or less, right?

I've got 20-odd students waiting here.

More or less approximately.

Lovely. Let's move on.

Here, just looking at some grammar

of the middle part of my answer.

It's nice to use emphasis

and to emphasise things in English.

'Cause it shows off a richer sense of grammar, right?

So, instead of saying every year we go through this routine,

I can say what happens every year is,

we go through this routine, right?

You can see emphasising every year we do this.

What happens every year is we do this.

That is you can drop and I do.

I say,

so what happens every year we go through this routine.

He calls me up and says,

da, da, da.

Okay, calls me up.

Phrasal verb, 'call up' someone. Same meaning

as to phone or to call.

And then, just notice as I go through,

this becomes an anecdote.

Now, remember this is a free-flowing answer, right?

So, this is very common I think when you're giving

an anecdote, this is like a short personal story.

I said this and then he said that,

and then she said, and then I replied, right?

It's very normal to have that.

I said, I said, he said, she said.

If you look at this written,

you probably think it's too simple,

it's too repetitive, but no.

That's your mistake

because this is not written English, right?

It's spoken English, so it's fine.

What's important is the flow and the fluency.

Okay? It's a really important point.

If you try and give every answer

with great fluency, complex vocabulary, complex grammar,

you can't do it in every answer.

Some answers will just have some complex vocabulary,

everything else, simple.

Other answers like this one, free flowing,

simple vocab, simple grammar,

but lots of fluency and flow.

So, you need that balance, right?

Let's look at the final bit.

Here, just picking out a couple of words

that came up, right?

We go through this.

Rigmarole. Rigmarole.

Can you say? Rigmarole.

Di, di, di.

A rigmarole is a complicated

and annoying routine or procedure, right?

You know when sometimes you go

to the bank and they ask you to fill

in a form and then you have to fill in another form.

It's a rigmarole, it's complicated, it's annoying.

So, we go through this rigmarole every year.

Here, it's a bit funny, right?

But it is a bit annoying.

But you know, dad, it's not annoying, it's just a bit funny.

It's a rigmarole.

Every year he asks me, I answer, same answer.

To be flattered, I feel flattered

which means I feel honoured or pleased

because somebody has said something nice to me, right?

I feel flattered, I'm flattered.

He's asking for my opinion.

Great, okay?

Again, you'll notice some of the connectors here

and, but, but, so, yeah, very simple,

but fluency is excellent.

Okay, that's it.

That's the analysis, the model answer

to help you speak better and better English.

Let's move on.

So, there we have it.

The structured approach and the free-flow approach.

I hope this has been useful for you.

If you've liked the video, do like it, subscribe,

turn on notifications,

and remember, you can download the PDF

of this lesson down in the description

and then you'll also get on the mailing list

to find out about the Black Friday offers coming next week.

I'll be doing Black Friday and also the Saturday the 26th,

I'll be doing some live lessons sessions

on YouTube and Facebook.

So, keep an eye open for those.

There are prizes, discounts, free PDFs.

You can even win a mock test

for IELTS Speaking with me one on one.

How nice would that be?

Great. In the meantime, well you may want to go

and watch another video to improve your IELTS Speaking.

Thank you so much for watching this.

I've really enjoyed it and I will see you soon.

Take care, my friend.

Bye-bye.

(gentle music)