What to do when you don't know what to say on the IELTS, TOEFL | Go Natural English

Hey Naturals, what's up? I'm your English teacher, Gabby and in

today's episode we're going to talk about

what to do when you don't know what to talk about.

Now this is especially helpful if you're taking a speaking test

like the IELTS or the TOEFL or

another test where you have to speak and impress

your tester or your teacher.

It's also helpful for everyday conversation. Now this episode

is sponsored by ESL Test Prep and they're offering

an awesome offer where you can get

two test prep courses for the price of one.

Now that's through GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLTestPrep

GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLTestPrep

and that includes all the sections, reading, writing, listening, speaking

and a professional, qualified

native English speaker will give you feedback

your teacher will give you feedback on your speaking

and your writing so that's really

valuable and I encourage you to take advantage of that if you're

preparing for a test or if you just want to get feedback on your

English skills in general. Ok so let's talk about what to do when

you don't know what to say. It can be really

nerve-wracking when you're not sure how to

respond to a question when you're supposed to speak English and

impress your rater or your teacher

or your tester. Ok so, number 1

Outline. Make an outline maybe on paper

or mentally of what you're going to say.

Now don't write down every single word. That's a

big mistake. That's just going to waste your time. Just quickly

think of 3 interesting points related

to the question. Maybe 3 reasons or

3 examples or 3 things that would be

interesting in your response. I like the number 3.

It's a solid number. It's not too little, not too much

for your time given. So that mental outline will really

save you. And actually if I can tell you a secret, that's what I do for every

single Go Natural English lesson like this one. I make a

mental outline. I write it down first but then I keep it in

my mind and refer to that outline. Well also

I have the outline written right behind me. But, let's see if I can do

the rest of this video without looking at it. I have my

mental outline right up here. So first,

outline. Second you

have to be able to have tools - yes

I got it - tools to help you buy time.

If you for some reason forget your outline

or forget what you want to say. So for example

you could buy time not with money to try

to give money to your tester, but buy time with phrases

like "Let me think.." or

"Let's see" or "Hmm... That's a good

question... Let me see... Let me think"

"How can I answer that."

So that buys you time. When you're saying these things it makes

you seem like you're not hesitating because you are speaking

and you lose points if you hesitate, so it's better to use a phrase

like this to buy time. Next, try

expanding on those points

that you're brining up. Those interesting points that are in your

mental outline. Expand on them. Ask yourself "How?"

or "Why?" or "What reasons can I give to

support these points?" So expand

could be with examples too, personal, or things that

you've heard of, things you've read, or made up! You could create

your own examples. And finally, describe.

Try using descriptive vocabulary. Descriptive language.

Try to avoid using the same vocabulary over and over.

Instead of saying, "There's a really nice

restaurant." You could say, "There's a

luxurious restaurant with delicious gourmet

food!" See, when you use a variety of vocabulary

you're going to get more points on your test. So those are four

ways to say what you need to

say to get points, to communicate clearly when you're not

sure what to say. So for example

say the question was, "Tell us about your

favorite restaurant. Why is it your favorite?"

First of all I'm going to make a mental outline and

let's see... let me think of my favorite restaurant. It's actually

a restaurant is new and I like it

because the manager is friendly, the

food is really good and

it's affordable. Those are my three points. That's my mental

outline. When I speak I might say something like

this: My favorite restaurant is

a new Polish restaurant

called Kazinsky's. I really like

it for three reasons. I met the manager

and he's really nice. Every time

I go there he greets me. He knows

my name. He pays attention and asks me how my

day was and I really appreciate that and he can make recommendations

for good items to try

on the menu that I haven't tried yet. But speaking of menu

items I've tried a couple things there and

they've, everything has been really delicious. I've

really enjoyed the hamburger and

the french friends. I thought it was the best one that I've had

in New York city, actually.

The manager is really friendly, the food is delicious

and it's affordable. It's important

to me to not spend too much money when I eat out, especially

if I'm just eating out by myself. I think it's

important to go to restaurants where I feel comfortable

spending maybe around

$15-$20, that's pretty normal

pretty good actually for a meal in New York City.

So for those three reasons, the friendly manager, the delicious food

and the affordable prices, that's

my favorite restaurant. That's just an example. I did that

off the top of my head and it's a really

good way to wrap up when you can repeat

your mental outline. That's why a mental outline is so

important because you can use it to summarize at the end, to

remember what you're doing to say and actually to buy time too.

Did you notice when I kind of forgot what I was going to say? I

used my outline to remind me and get myself back

on track. So I hope that these points are helpful

on your next speaking test. I almost

forgot the last point! Don't go crazy!

I mean two things by this. Don't go

crazy. Don't get nervous. And also

don't go crazy trying to say too

much. Don't go crazy trying to use

new grammar that you're really not comfortable with or

words that you've never used before. So don't

go crazy. Do what feels comfortable

to you but use these tips to give your

speaking test structure and to give yourself

the confidence you need for a good score. Alright

did I hit all the points.

I did it! Awesome. Alright thanks so much for watching

and get your 2 practice

tests for the price of 1 at GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLtestprep

GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLtestprep

they have IELTS tests, TOEFL tests, they have several

other preparation courses and they have

real qualified, native English speaker teachers who will give you

feedback. Super valuable! So I recommend that! Thanks so much

for watching and subscribe to Go Natural English to keep watching

awesome lessons like this one. Thanks for being an awesome part of our community

here. I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now!