Get a High Score in IELTS Speaking Part 3

- If you think IELTS Speaking Part 3 is easy,

don't watch this.

However, if you think part three is a challenge,

keep watching and find out the secret

to getting a high score in IELTS Speaking Part 3.

(upbeat music)

Hello, this is Keith from English Speaking Success

and the website the Keith Speaking Academy

here to help you speak better English, give better answers,

and get a higher score on the IELTS speaking test.

To be honest, I hesitated about making this video.

Erm.

Erm.

Because I thought I might be helping you too much,

giving too much away, not only English phrases,

but also new ideas too.

I might be making your learning too easy,

too much fun, (laughs) but do you know what?

I thought, "Hang on. That's why I'm here."

So here you have it.

Everything you need to know about IELTS Speaking Part 3.

So, Keith, how do I get a high score

in IELTS Speaking Part 3?

Well, great question.

There are many things you can do, right.

There are teachers on YouTube who'll tell you,

yep, improve your fluency.

Yep, use more grammar, more accurately.

Broaden your vocabulary. Improve your pronunciation.

The band descriptors.

Yes, Yes, Keith. Yes, I know.

But, you know, that's just too general.

Give me something more specific I can work with.

Well, there is something that I think is key to part three

and very few people are talking about it.

Now, hopefully, you understand that in part three

you need to develop your answers, right?

Nod your head.

Right. Good.

But how do you do that? Well, this is it.

And this, for me, is hugely important.

It's all about HOTS. H-O-T-S.

What does that stand for? Higher order thinking skills.

These are critical thinking skills at a higher level,

different from lower level thinking skills

which includes things like memorising, reciting,

repeating, rote learning, right?

The higher order thinking skills are things like analysing,

reasoning, justifying, evaluating,

speculating, or predicting the future, right?

All of these things,

these are your higher order thinking skills

and this is exactly what you need

in IELTS Speaking Part 3.

If you're a teacher you'll probably know about these, right?

If you don't, go and check out Bloom's Taxonomy.

It's so important to get your students thinking critically.

So, in IELTS Speaking Part 3 it's not enough to say,

for example, let's take a question, right?

Should we let children use mobile phones?

It's not enough to say,

"Yes, I think so, that's a good idea,

with the advancement of technology in modern society

mobile phones are much more prominent," right?

Low level, not so good, right? Bit of memorization.

So, we need to be reasoning and synthesising ideas.

For example: I'd say so, yes, for one,

they can help them do their homework better,

on top of that, mobile phones can help keep children safe.

Also we can be evaluating:

Of course, students can be distracted by social media

on their phones and that's a hugely important issue

we need to address.

Maybe we can be speculating about the future:

But mobile learning is going to become more popular

and so I think we do need to move with the times, right?

So there are lots of different

higher order thinking skills we can be using.

Of course, you need the English to do this, right?

When we focus on the English needed

to describe these skills,

we often call them functions.

In this video the main functions I'm gonna show you

are giving opinions, reasoning,

justifying, evaluating, and speculating.

I'll give you some simple phrases

and more sophisticated ones as well,

so you're not always giving the same old, same old.

And what's more, I'll explain which questions

might match which functions.

This is not mathematics and you're not gonna use

all of these functions all of the time, right?

But as you start practising them

you will get familiar with them

and start building up your confidence.

On top of that, towards the end of the video,

I'll also tell you about an app

where I've put all of these functions

so you can listen to them, practise your pronunciation.

It's one of my favourite apps. It's ELSA Speak.

And I'll tell you about a little challenge

you can do on there in a short while.

Right now, right now, let's get started with some HOTS.

Okay, let's begin with giving opinions,

which is a nice and easy place to start.

Okay, the kind of questions you may get here, obviously:

Do you think, da, da, da, da?

Do you agree that, da, da, da, da?

Is it a good idea to? Okay.

Now, some of the functions or the language

you could use for giving opinions:

I think that, di, di, di, di.

I think so,

or, I reckon that, di, di, di.

Based on my experience, da, da, da, da.

It seems to me that. Okay.

Different expressions we can use.

Let me give you an example for the question,

do you agree that books are better than films?

Well, based on my experience

the book is usually better than the film.

I mean, directors often give a narrow interpretation

of the story and it's really hard

to capture the spirit of the original book.

Okay. So you can see some different examples here.

Now, a word of warning.

Some students say to me,

"I mustn't use I think, 'cause it's too simple.

I must always use more complex phrases,

like based on my experience."

Yes and no, actually, no, not true.

Native speakers use a combination

of simple phrases and complex phrases, right?

We do not use complex phrases all the time.

If we did, we would sound like Shakespeare.

And if Shakespeare were alive today,

he would fail IELTS Speaking.

Sorry, Will, you got a band five?

(whistle blowing)

It's true. Oh, dear.

I'm gonna get into trouble with this.

The Shakespearean Society of England

will be knocking on my door, "Oy."

But no, in all seriousness, right,

to speak natural spoken English you need to use both, right?

Simple, sometimes, I think, I guess, I suppose.

Complex at other times, so don't stress out, right?

But use this video and the language I give

as an opportunity to practise and just build up

your flexibility and your confidence.

Okay, let's move on to the next one.

Okay, next let's look at giving reasons.

Clearly, this will be the function you use

for questions that ask why, right?

Common questions might be, why is this so popular?

Or, why do some people do this? Okay.

Now, simple answers could be simple phrases.

It's because, da, da, da.

Slightly more complex. The main reason is, da, da, da.

Notice the stress, right? Stress main.

The main reason is, nice.

Or, there are a number of reasons, firstly, da, da, da.

There are a. There ra, ra.

There ra, ra. There ra ra number of reasons.

Try it.

There ra ra number of reasons, firstly.

Smashing. Another.

It all boils down to this.

This is a lovely expression, right?

It boils down to, or it all boils down to,

means that this is the most important thing, right?

What's the secret of life? It all boils down to money.

Meaning money is the most important thing.

Not true. Just an example.

Or, finally, one cause could be da, da, da.

A cause is a reason, right?

One cause could be da, da, da.

An example. Here's a question.

Why do parents let their children

use the internet at such a young age?

So, you could say, "Well, it all boils down to time, right,

"parents are too busy to look after their children

so they use the internet as a kind of babysitter."

Or, "I reckon the main reason is parents are too busy.

So they don't have time to look after their children

and they use the internet as a kind of babysitter."

Great. Let's move on.

Right, now the next function

or higher order thinking skill is justifying.

This is closely connected to giving a reason.

I mean, justifying, it's kind of giving a stronger reason.

So some of these phrases you can use

for both giving a reason and justifying.

They can be connected.

You can kind of combine them together, sometimes.

So again, we're looking at questions with the why, right?

Why is ba, ba, ba so popular or so important?

You know, why do some people do this? Da, da, da.

So again, simple phrases you could say, for example, here,

I think this is true because,

or, this seems to be the case because, da, da, da, da, da.

This is down to the fact that, da, da, da, da, da.

The reason I think so is, da, da, da, da, da.

Let's look at an example.

I'll give you a question here.

You might find a question in part three

something like this.

Why do young people like studying in a coffee bar

rather than at home?

You could say, "I'd say this is down into the fact

that coffee bars can provide a relaxing atmosphere

that is conducive to better study,

at least that seems to be the case because chain stores

like Starbucks," right, " with their comfy sofas

and soft music are full of students studying."

Okay, so we've give even the reason

about the relaxing music, the atmosphere,

and then justify by saying,

"at least that seems to be the case

because we can see Starbucks is full of students."

Okay. It's an example.

Again, remember to combine, mix up.

You can use these different phrases,

especially for reasons and justifying.

Let's move on.

So, time for a break. You know what they say, right?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Hey, you're good, very good at English.

So, hmm, actually maybe later.

Let me show something else.

I've talked a lot about practising English

and practising these phrases.

A lot of students don't have people to practise with,

but you do have mobile phones

and apps like this one, ELSA Speak.

ELSA Speak is a great app to practise on your own.

It's a pronunciation app

but also helps you build vocabulary and confidence.

So it's using really cutting edge artificial intelligence

and voice recognition software,

so it listens to you and it gives you feedback,

where you're right, where you're wrong,

so you can get better and better

and get closer to a proficient or native speaker.

So let me give you a little tour inside.

When you begin, look at this, this is new.

Oh, this is great.

You know, one of the things I love about ELSA

is that they're not only continually updating the content,

which is great, but also the customer experience,

the student experience.

So to give you an idea, right?

In ELSA you can practise you, can choose different sounds,

dropping consonants, ending sounds, the schwa,

and you can practise those individually.

But also there are different topics

and for IELTS students there's a whole IELTS area.

And look, we've got here, IELTS speaking test, collocations.

You can practise part one, two, or three.

You can actually choose the level that you're focused on.

Let's say a band seven. Great.

We are looking at part three, right?

So let's do some practise in part three

and I'll show you how it works.

Let's take places. Why not?

And we'll do some collocations at the start.

- [ELSA App] Historic sites.

- Thanks. So you listen and you have to repeat.

Now, I can actually play that again.

I can even play it slowly.

- [ELSA App] Historic sites.

- Or normally.

- [ELSA App] Historic sites.

- Then I repeat.

(bell dinging)

- Historic sites.

(bells dinging)

- Hurray, excellent. I sound like a native speaker.

Now let's move on and make it into a phrase.

- [ELSA App] We visited some historic sites.

- But listen to my mistake.

(bell dinging)

We wisit some historic sites.

(bells dinging)

Now, it says excellent. But here's the thing.

Let's go on the Advanced tab and you'll see

the Advanced tab actually breaks down

and tells me where the mistake was.

If I click on the word visit,

it tells me the V, I made a W sound.

And also the ed.

The it ed, visited, wasn't right.

I can play back what I said.

- [Phone] Wisit.

- [ELSA App] Visited.

- And what it should be, visited. Visited.

So let me try again, Regular.

(bell dinging)

We visited some historic sites.

(bells dinging)

Great. Advanced tab, 98%.

That's good enough for me. Fantastic.

So, with ELSA you can be practising

lots of phrases, conversations,

and you're not only building up your pronunciation,

you're building up your vocabulary

and you're confidence as well.

It's great. Now ELSA are sponsoring this video.

A big, big thank you to ELSA for that,

very much appreciated from all of us.

There are some discounts for you.

If you want to click and download the app below

to start practising you can get a discount.

For a year membership you get 30% off.

If you sign up for a lifetime membership,

that's a teacher in your pocket for life, 80% off.

Fantastic. Great.

So, go and check it out.

If you like it go and look for the challenge

I'm doing in IELTS Speaking Part 3,

it's inside the app, and start practising .

Right, now back to our HOTS.

So, next up is evaluating.

Now, in IELTS Speaking Part 3

you probably will be asked to evaluate things, right?

Is it useful, important? Is it necessary?

What are the benefits or the drawbacks of things? Okay.

So the kind of questions you may be evaluating things are

how important is da, da, da?

How useful is da, da, da?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of da, da, da?

Okay, right, now, here are some kind of useful functions

and phrases we could use for evaluating things.

Simply, first of all, it's important,

or, it's important because.

Next, it's hugely important.

Notice the stress, right, on hugely.

It's hugely important. It's extremely useful.

These adverbs are very, very powerful in IELTS speaking.

There's another video you can go and check out up here

all about how to use adverbs effectively in IELTS speaking.

Also, another phrase, this is critical.

Can you say that? This is critical.

Great. Meaning extremely important.

Really essential, right.

Finally, it's not as important as you may think.

Notice the rhythm, di, di, di, di, di, di, di, di, di, di.

It's not as important as you may think.

Great.

Which is a lovely expression to express

it's not that important.

Actually, it's not as important as you may think.

Here's an example. Let's take this question.

How important is tourism in your country?

I think it's hugely important, actually.

In recent years, with the pandemic,

fewer and fewer tourists have been coming to my country

and this has really had a devastating impact

on the local economy.

Great. Nice example.

What about you? How important is tourism in your country?

Leave me a comment below.

So, next we are looking at speculating,

which is like predicting, looking into of the future.

Do you remember the fortune tellers

with the kind of the scarf over the head, the crystal ball,

looking all mystic, and telling you the future.

That's what it's like.

So questions in IELTS Speaking Part 3,

like, will we de, de, de, de, de, more in the future?

Or, how will de, de, di, change in the future? Right.

I sometimes wonder how students

don't get really angry in IELTS speaking, right,

because some questions are really hard, right?

How will the world change in the future?

Well, I don't know. Don't ask me.

I don't have a crystal ball. (laughs)

I'm not a fortune teller, but of course, don't say that,

it's just practising your English, right?

Okay. So, how will something change in the future?

Some phrases you can use simply, it will da, da, da, da,

if you're confident.

If you're not sure, it might da, da, da.

It may da da da. It could da, da, da.

Okay. Or, it may be that da, da, da, da.

Okay. It may be that this disappears in the future.

If you're slightly more confident you can say,

it may well disappear in the future.

It may well da, da, da, da, da.

And even more confident,

it's highly likely that it will disappear in the future.

Okay, so different phrases,

different degrees of being sure, basically.

Okay. Let's look at an example.

So, will books, paper books, disappear in the future?

They might well disappear given the popularity of eBooks

and digital books nowadays, but that said,

I still think a lot of people enjoy

flipping through the pages of real books

and so I think it's highly likely we will have

both paper books and digital books in the future.

So, we can combine some of the different phrases

in our answers, okay.

A final point to remember, right?

This is not mathematical.

You don't have to use each phrase

with each kind of question.

You can mix them about.

Also, you are not gonna use all of these phrases

in all of your answers, right?

Different answers, you'll be doing different functions

or higher order thinking skills.

Maybe you're just reasoning and evaluating.

Maybe you're just giving a reason and speculating.

So it's about combining and building flexibility.

That's why I want you to practise freely, naturally,

to build your flexibility.

Don't end up being a lower level,

lower order thinker just memorising.

Be a higher level thinker. Okay.

And most of all, have fun with these.

You can go and practise with friends or other students.

If you like to practise on your own, you can.

I recommend you go and download the mobile app, ELSA Speak.

There are links below. You can start practising .

Look for the challenge by Keith,

IELTS Speaking Part 3 challenge,

and you can be practising all of these words and phrases

to get your pronunciation spot on.

Great. Also click on the link below when you download.

If it's right for you, you can sign up for a year membership

and you'll get a 30% discount.

If you sign up for life, you get an 80% discount.

It doesn't get any better.

ELSA, a teacher in your pocket for life. Great.

Whatever you decide to do, have fun learning your English.

And remember, if you like the video, please do subscribe.

Turn on the notifications

to find out about more upcoming videos.

And I will see you, my friend,

in the next video just around the corner.

Take care. Bye-bye.

(upbeat music)