IELTS Speaking Part 1: All my best tips for success

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to get the highest

marks possible in part one of the IELTS Speaking Test. Now, there are a number of general strategies

which you can use on the entire test, but in this lesson, we're going to go step-by-step

through some of the typical questions that you will be asked in this first section. And

we'll look at some answers which are not very good, and we'll look at some excellent answers.

And we'll also examine these answers from the points of view of how you can improve

the grammar, how you can improve the vocabulary, and the pronunciation, as well as the overall

fluency, because these are the four areas in which you are actually scored. Okay? So,

let's get started. This can make a big difference in your score, so keep watching.

Okay, so we'll start with part zero. Now, what is part zero? Part zero is the part where

you come in, you sit down, and the examiner is just greeting you and asking your name

and asking for your identification. And even though, strictly speaking, it's not corrected

or graded, it's still part of the experience, right? And it's the first part of the experience

for you. So, you want to make sure that you're feeling comfortable, that you come across

very well, and that first impression is a nice, positive, strong one. Okay? So, what

are some ways to do that? That's what we're going to look at. All right? Let's get started.

So, let's say the examiner - you come in, you sit down, the examiner says, "Good afternoon",

and you need to respond. Now, what I've done is I've divided the board into two. On this

side is what a weaker student would say, and on this side is what you're going to say,

which is what a stronger student would say, one that's going to get higher marks. Let's

look at the differences. So, the examiner says, "Good afternoon." The weaker student

says nothing, just nods, maybe smiles, but just nods, or says yes. Now, the proper greeting

if someone says, "Good afternoon" to you, what should you do? You should say, "Good

afternoon." Okay? And that's what you're going to do. So, when the person says, "Good afternoon",

the examiner, you smile, you repeat the same greeting. "Good afternoon." All right? Good

eye contact, all of that. All right, next. The examiner says, "My name is Susan Williams.

What's your name?" Now, one possibility is if someone said, "My name is Maria Flores",

but in this part, right, in the entire first part of your IELTS exam, speaking exam, it's

really more of a conversation. Okay? It's not formal. And in an informal conversation,

we don't usually say, "My name is Maria Flores." Okay? We just say, "My name's Maria Flores."

So, to say, "My name is" is artificial. It's not exactly fluent. So, let's just say, "My

name's Maria Flores." And what's important there is "my name's", make sure that "s" is

actually strong and heard. Okay? Because if your "s", that contraction, is not heard,

it's going to sound like, "My name, Maria Flores." And that's not right. That's actually

grammatically incorrect. Right? So, you don't want to start like that. So, you want to say,

"My name's Maria Flores." And if you have a complicated last name, one possibility is

to say, "My name's Maria Flores." Clear, and the examiner also knows, "Oh, good. I got

a student who's going to speak clearly. What a pleasure." Okay? Even though technically

your exam hasn't begun yet. But these are all good impressions that will get you far.

Next, the examiner asks to see your ID. He or she says, "Could I see some ID, please?"

Now, you could just say, "Yes", and give it, but it's better, again, to keep showing off

your English. What could you say instead? "Yes, of course. Here you are." Okay? You

take it out, say, "Yes, of course. Here you are." Keep smiling, keep showing you're confident,

you're relaxed, you know what to say. All right? And these little extra words make such

a difference because they are judging your English speaking. And everything you can do

in those 11 to 14 minutes to show your... To show off your English, to showcase your

English will get you the higher marks you're looking for. Okay? So, that was part zero.

Now the exam actually begins. Okay? They start recording it also. So, when you're speaking,

you know, there are lots of tips that I've given actually in another general IELTS lesson

about the speaking test. General tips that you can follow, how to sit, how to talk, and

all of these things, which you should do, but now let's work through the practical parts.

Okay? I'll give you links to the other lessons later.

Now, so the exam begins and the examiner asks you, "Where are you from?" A weaker student

would just say, "Madrid" or "From Madrid", but you know better because what should you

do? You should give a full sentence. Whenever possible, always give full, complete sentences.

Give as much information as you can. Give as much content, good vocabulary. Doesn't

mean go on for a long, long time, but answer in full sentences so the examiner can grade

you that, okay, yes, he or she knows how to speak well and speak correctly and fluently.

So, instead of saying "Madrid" or "From Madrid", say, "I'm from Madrid." Again, be very careful

of the contraction. You should use the contraction because it's more natural than saying, "I

am from", but make sure you're enunciating it clearly so that it can be heard. "I'm from

Madrid." Okay? Good.

Now here's another student. This student said, when asked, "Where are you from?" The student

said, "From Roma" or "From Italia". Why is that not good? Because in your IELTS English

test, right, they want to hear you using the English names for these cities. So, you should

say, "I'm from Rome, the capital of Italy", for example. Okay? Even if you said one word,

which you should not say, it should be "Rome" and "Italy", but don't just say that. Use

the opportunity to give a full sentence by saying, "I'm from Rome, the capital of Italy."

Now, you're showing off your good English, and you're using the English names for your

cities. If you're not sure what they are, find out what they are. Okay?

Now, suppose you're from a place which is... Maybe people are not as familiar with that

name. All right? Or the name of that city. So then, you're going to be saying a word

which is a little bit unusual for people's ears. So, how can you prepare them to hear

the name of your city if it's... If it has an unusual sound? So, here's one way. Suppose

this student is from Bordeaux. Okay? Now, they could say, "From Bordeaux. Where are

you from?" "From Bordeaux." But what did you say? "Very fast. Bordeaux." What was that?

Maybe the examiner didn't catch it. And whenever the examiner doesn't catch or cannot catch

what you're saying, that's an indication not about the examiner, but about you. You needed

to speak in a way that was more clear, and fluent, and strong. So, how can you do that?

You can do that by saying something like this. "I'm from a city in southwestern France called

Bordeaux." Now, what did you do? By explaining first, and then using the word "called", you

are preparing the listener that, oh, I'm going to give the name of something. And then it

doesn't actually matter if the person, you know, exactly understood the name or not,

but at least they know that that word and that sound that you made was the name of a

city, and now it's understandable, which is going to get you much higher marks. Okay?

"I'm from a city in southwestern France called Bordeaux." All right? Prepare your listener

for what you're going to say. Let's go on to some more strong tips.

All right, so let's start by looking at some typical questions and answers related to home,

family, and work. All right? Let's go. So, a weaker answer would be, when asked, "Where

do you live?", a weaker answer would be, "I live in house." What's wrong with that? You

tell me. It should be in correct English with correct grammar, "I live in a a house", right?

So, you need that article here. Whenever we're talking about one thing in English, we need

to say "a" or "a". All right?

Now, suppose you're asked to describe the house a little bit, and you say, "It's a three-bedrooms

apartment." So, that's a mistake. We cannot say, "It's three-bedrooms apartment." We would

need to say, "It's a... It's a three-bedroom apartment." Why? You're saying to me, "That

doesn't make sense. There are three, it's more than one, it's plural." Right. So, if

you said, "My apartment has three bedrooms." Okay? Then it's enough to say "three bedrooms",

period. Like, end. Right? But here, "three bedroom" became like an adjective for the

word "apartment", and in that case, you need to drop the "s".

Now, it's very good for you to actually use this kind of expression if you have a chance,

if there's the right kind of question. Don't just put it somewhere if it's not... Doesn't

make sense, but if you're asked about your apartment, you can say, "I live in a two-bedroom

apartment. I live in a three-bedroom house." And that little difference with no "s" and...

With an "s" and no "s" actually shows that you speak a much more advanced level English.

Okay? These little mistakes, these little corrections can make all the difference, and

that's what I'm pointing out to you here. Okay, let's go on.

Suppose you're asked to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of living somewhere, so

you start to explain. Now, there is a difference in good English between the word "the" and

"the". Okay? Same word, spelled the same, but sometimes we say "the" and sometimes we

say "the", but how do you know? It's very easy. You look at the word that comes after

that. If the word that comes after "the" or "the" starts with a vowel, then we usually

say "the", like T-H-E-E. Okay? "The advantages", "The advantages of living in an apartment

are", or "The disadvantages of living in an apartment are", okay? "The advantages", "The

disadvantages", because "advantages" starts with a vowel. So, try to remember that. These

little sophisticated changes show that you are more comfortable English, you're more

familiar with English, you're more fluent in English, and you deserve higher marks in

English. Okay? All right.

Now, you might be asked, you know, "Do you enjoy living in an apartment?" So, a weaker

answer - and actually, in this case, not just weaker, but incorrect - would be to say "I

enjoy to live in an apartment because", whatever. But what's wrong with saying "I enjoy to live"?

We can't say, in correct English, "I enjoy to live". Some verbs in English are followed

by an infinitive, like "to live", and others are followed by a gerund, like "living", the

verb with -ing. And "enjoy" is one of those very common words which you're quite likely

to need to use in your IELTS exam, which needs to be followed by a gerund, and not by this

infinitive. So, "I enjoy living", "I enjoy reading", "I enjoy watching movies", not "I

enjoy to watch". That's actually incorrect.

Now, how do you know which verbs require a gerund and which verbs don't? Well, you have

to listen, you have to read, you have to pay attention, and that's how you learn. There

are no hard and fast rules. For example, if you just use the verb "I like", then you could

say either way. You could say it, "I enjoy to live", sorry, "I like to live", "I like

living". Either way would be okay with the verb "like", but not with "enjoy". And "enjoy"

is actually a higher level verb than "like", so it's better if you use this one, okay?

"I enjoy living", remember that.

Next, suppose you're asked about family. "Tell me about your family", and you start to talk

about, you know, "I come from a large family" or "I come from a small family", "I live with

my brother", but instead of saying "brother", you pronounce it "brudder". So, now it's a

pronunciation issue. These are some of the points you're graded on, right? Pronunciation,

grammar, expressions, and overall fluency. So, pronunciation matters. If you say "brudder",

"budder", "mudder", that's not good. You should be saying the "th" properly, like a "th".

"My brother", "my father", "my mother", okay? When we say that "th" sound, the tongue comes

out a little bit between the teeth and goes back. And if you have this kind of mistake,

then work on that pronunciation, okay? It will sound much more refined.

Next, this person said "My brudder economist", okay? Lots of grammar mistakes there, right?

Many mistakes. It should be "My brudder is an economist" or "My brudders an economist",

right? You can contract it also. But you need to have the verb "to be", you need to have

the article, and if it's "economist", you need to say "an economist", right? "An engineer",

"an accountant", not "a economist", because that would also be incorrect. Because we use

"an" when, before a word that sounds like a vowel, okay? Not just that it starts with

a vowel, but that sounds like a vowel.

Next, the weak answer would be "He work in bank", alright? Grammar mistakes again. Nope.

Should be "He works", alright? Third person, present simple, "He works in a bank", alright?

Again, the article, the third person, the "s", and make sure even if you know this,

that "He works", that it should be "He works", make sure you're pronouncing it in a way that

I can hear the "s". Don't say it so fast that the examiner can't hear the "s", okay? Make

sure you do say the "s". "He works in a bank", "He lives here", alright? Get used to that.

Next, there are often or almost always questions about your work. "What do you do?" Now, when

they ask "What do you do?", what does it mean? It means what kind of job do you have, what's

your occupation, okay? Now, maybe you're not actually working right now, maybe you're a

teacher, so then you could say that too, but let's look at some possibilities. So, a weak

answer would be "I am engineer". It's weak from so many points of view. First, because

it says "I am", and again, in conversational English, we would probably say "I'm". Second,

it's missing the article "an", right? So, a correct answer here would be "I'm an engineer",

alright? Got it? Next, here, "I am student". Again, same issues, should be "I'm a student",

okay? Or, let's say what happens if you don't have a job, you're not a student and you're

not working, you could... First of all, you decide what you share, okay? No one is following

you home to see whether you told the truth or not. So, you decide what to say, decide

in advance what you're going to say for this question, which is almost always asked. So,

you could say something like "I not working", but that's incorrect in terms of grammar.

So, it would be... Need to be "I'm not working currently", okay? Or, "I'm between jobs",

that's a very nice way to say that you don't have a job right now, but you're going to

get a job, okay? So, you decide what you want to say, but whatever you want to say, make

sure that you're saying it in this manner.

So, let's see how it sounds now if someone were speaking in this way throughout his exam.

Where do you live? "I live in a house." Or, where do you live? "I live in a three-bedroom

apartment." The advantages of living in an apartment are that... Or, the advantages of

living in my apartment are that it's very convenient, it's affordable, and it's spacious.

Okay? Now, because you know in advance that they're going to probably ask you a question

about your home, it's good for you to prepare some vocabulary to describe your home or your

apartment or your family. Don't learn the whole sentence by heart, right? Just pick

some words, three good, strong vocabulary words, two or three, and try to weave them

into your answer, okay? That will help to raise your score because you're using higher-level

vocabulary as well. Okay? So, the person says the advantages, the disadvantages, okay? "I

enjoy living in an apartment because of several reasons. My brother is an economist. He works

in a bank.", "I'm an engineer.", or "I'm not working currently. I'm between jobs." Okay?

So, you see that this... This size, these answers sounded so much more fluent, so much

more relaxed, so informal, and of course, correct in terms of grammar, pronunciation,

expressions, and fluency. All right?

Now let's look at another very common area, hobbies. Okay. Now, let's look at some simple

sentences that you might use on the IELTS when asked about your hobbies. For example,

"I like...", sorry, "I like watching movies." Okay? That's what the student wanted to say.

But, even with that simple sentence, let's look at some things that might be said which

would actually be completely wrong when you were trying to just say, "I like watching

movies." The person could say, instead of "like", they might not say the word fully

and clearly. If you don't enunciate it clearly, it sounds like "I lie". "I lie watching movies."

No. Not "I lie watching movies", "I like watching movies". Instead of "I like", a mistake would

be to say "I likes", right? That's just bad grammar. This one is incorrect pronunciation.

Here, sometimes students don't realize that there's a difference between present simple

and present continuous, and when you're asked in general, you need to use present simple.

So, it would be wrong to say "I am liking watching movies" because that's present continuous,

and also because "like" is actually something called a stative verb, and you cannot use

it in this way. You can't use it in a continuous form. So, "That's wrong", "I liking" is wrong,

so these are some of the ways that this simple sentence might have been completely messed

up, okay? So, let's look at the correct one.

Next, another example. The student wanted to say, "I really like to watch movies." or

"I really like watching movies." Okay? They wanted to be more enthusiastic, so they said

"really". This would be the correct form of that sentence, but let me share with you some

variations that I've heard when I'm coaching students for this, and these are incorrect.

So, for example, to say "I like really watching movies", that's wrong because the "really"

is in the wrong place, the grammar is wrong. "I very like watching movies" is wrong because

we can't use "very" in that way. And "I very much like watching movies", this is a popular

mistake, I'm sorry, I hear this all the time, but it's incorrect to place "very much" in

that position. If you want to use "very much", you need to say "I like watching movies very

much." Okay? Why? Because in English, English is a SVO language, right? Subject, verb, object.

"I like watching movies." So, we can't put other words like "very much", "every day",

"every week", any other details in the middle of it. Okay? Those words have to go at the

end.

Alright. Another possibility, the student wanted to say "I enjoy reading". Simple, right?

Simple sentence. How might it be messed up by saying something like "I enjoy to read"?

Again, "enjoy" is a verb where you need to have the gerund after that and not the infinitive.

Do you see how even simple sentences that you might be saying right now when you're

practicing might or might not be right? And these are some of the things to watch out

for, which is why I put down for you lots of the errors that I have heard students make

and which I've helped them to correct. And I'm so happy to be able to help you with that

before you go for your exam. Okay? So, where do you go from here?

This was like a practice test for you through some of the examples, alright? There are other

topics they can ask you about and so on, and what you should do is to practice them as

much as possible. If you can, get a good teacher to practice with who knows the IELTS, who

understands what the needs are for the IELTS exam, not a general English teacher. It's

very different when you're preparing for an exam than when you're just improving your

English in general. Okay? Very different kind of goals. So, as much as possible, look for

the right teacher.

And I'm also going to give you links to a few of my other videos which are specifically

for improving your IELTS score or your TOEFL score or other exam-related scores, and have

a look. And if that addresses some kind of an issue that you have, then by all means,

check all of that and correct all of that, and empower yourself before you go for your

exam. Okay? In addition, please do a quiz on this just to make sure that you've really

got it. You can do that at our website, www.engvid.com. There, you'll also find more than 1200 lessons

that we have on English in general, and many of them are about the IELTS exam or the TOEFL

exam. Okay? Now, the other thing you can do is subscribe. I'd love to see you again and

share more of my experience with you about how you can really master the English language

in general and also for exams like the IELTS. Okay? So, all the best with your English.

Bye for now, and thanks so much for watching. Bye.