IELTS Speaking Topics and Sample Answers in this tutorial, we're going to look at three
topics that have been seen recently so let's have a look: Something Interesting Your Friend
has Done, A Decision You Made with Someone's Help, A Family Business that You Know so in
each of these examples, I'm going to give you a sample answer I'm going to explain the
strategy I was using and then hopefully you can use the same one, same strategies in your
IELTS exam let's jump straight into it so I did prepare these earlier, just a few bullet
points as though we were in the exam this is just to help you have an idea about what
you'll be including and also so you can follow along also I recommend you turn on the transcript
or the captions and this way you'd be able to understand even better so that's -- let's
go I would like to describe something interesting my friend has done her name is Melanie and
she's an air hostess she started at Germanwings, then I think it was Eurowings, then Emirates
and the reason I'm telling you this is because now she is working for a private airline like
a corporate jet or something like that for the rich and famous or the ‘high flyers’,
so to speak and just a few years ago, she was traveling with the U2 singer, called Bono
and there was just him on the plane and then a few of his business associates I think she’s
told me, which I thought was quite interesting, that she's not allowed to do selfies, ask
for autographs, she's not allowed to sort of like interact or ask questions about the
job she's supposed to just treat him like or treat the person just like any normal human
being basically ignoring the fact that it might be famous or she might be famous and
yet she told me that they got talking and that he was a very pleasant person and he
was very polite he had what -- he was well-mannered and he was really treating her and the rest
of the staff with a lot of respect and so much so that he even offered her some free
tickets now, it's important to say that she's not allowed to ask, but if offered, I think
it's a slightly different dynamic and so yeah, and she got the tickets we went to the concert
together because she got about four tickets in the end yeah and it was I think it's quite
interesting that she gets to meet all these famous people, these high flyers it's like
a completely new world so that's something interesting my friend has done now, I just
want to analyze this a little bit so one, I started off with “I'd like to tell you
about something interesting that my friend has done” so I start off with the title
it's like my introduction as though I was writing an essay it's my introduction and
I do this for two reasons one, it will keep me on track and two, just like the writing,
it's good to introduce your topic it's like logical as well but recently I've been tutoring
a lot of students and what I find is that sometimes they may have just glanced at the
question and then jumped in and started their answer and not really read it properly and
this will make them go off on a tangent and this is so sad because they'll start talking
about something that's broadly related now in my case, it was slightly off, but it's
the job it did something that she's doing so and I justified it and I was constantly
making it interesting and expressing my interest in it so I think I'm pretty justified with
talking about the job because it is an interesting job now, the second thing is I set the scene
I didn't sort of like go off and talk about air hosts, air hosting and you know, air hostesses
and air hosts I said well she used to work here, she used to work there, and now she's
doing this which is much more interesting so now I kind of like make this connection
and I set the scene, and I'm going into a little bit more detail than necessary here,
but I wanted just to make it sort of like relevant and coherent I don't just jump in
and say, yeah, she went to a U2 concert that's how the interesting story about who she met
and how she met them okay so it's like it's coherent all of it together now, the next
point and I'm using good vocabulary, high flyers, the rich and famous, and I was also
quite positive about Bono and what happened there and then I finished I finished with
“And that's my brief description about something interesting my friend has done” so I'm kind
of closing it and I'm making it easier for the examiner also there's some you know there's
some constructions there it’s like she said he was surrounded by yeah of course I’m
forced to use like talking in the third person because it's something interesting your friend
has done, but still it's important to get that across and to communicate the whole point
so that was my small description or my brief description about something interesting my
friend has done let's move on to the next one: A Decision You Made with Someone's Help
so we've got my notes straight down there and here’s a very important point now, I
remember this situation I remember I was talking to my dad and he's sort of like decisions
was don't do it because you'll end up spending money and then I kind of justified the opposite
I was like okay I should be spending money I need to spend money to get to -- to go where
I want to be in to experience new things I don't want to live like my dad and be in the
same place all my life I would like to move around so I kind of took the reverse of what
my dad gave me, and what I'm saying is that it's just too complex, there's just no point
telling the whole complex story behind it so even though it's in my notes I'm not going
to mention it and I'm just going to keep it simple because at the end of the day, this
is a communication exam it's not an exam about how I make decisions all about my relationship
with my dad so I'm just going to skip that part I'm just going to go for the straight
and more direct easier concepts and beliefs to describe so let's jump into it so -- a
decision I would like to tell you about the decision I made with someone's help that someone
was my dad and I really admire him because he's made a lot of important decisions that
have ultimately had a positive effect on my life also so the decision I had to make was
where I want to live, and I have a lot of friends in Asia and they were espousing all
the benefits of living in Asia you know, the low costs, the beautiful weather, beautiful
people, always very kind and very friendly however, I was quite happy in Spain where
I was living although I'm originally from England at the time I was living in Spain
and so I ran with my data I bounced some ideas off him, and he really made me think about
where I want to be and he gave me some really thought-provoking questions that helped me
readjust my thinking and see it from different perspectives basically, with the help of my
dad I could take a step back, and I could sort of like see it on a long-term basis and
in the end, I did decide to go to Asia, and I don't think I would have been able to make
that decision without the help of my father and that's my brief description about an important
decision I made with somebody's help, my dad, thank you so here once again, I've done the
introduction two, I didn't exactly follow my notes word-for-word okay I kind of went
off on a different argument, but I knew I could express it clearly so it wasn't a problem
and secondly, you know, I used some good vocabulary there for decision making, you know, thought-provoking,
perspective, long-term perspective, taking a step back all of this kind of vocabulary
is very useful in trying or describing the whole situation, and that's another path I
described the actual conflict you know I used a contrast I was living in Spain at the time,
but I knew that Asia had lots of benefits so we're using these contrasts it shows the
examiner that I've got a good linguistic dexterity, and I can bounce between these and that was
another phrase, as well I can bounce ideas off my father yeah and like I said I didn't
go into the whole emotional relationship you know, I didn't explain what I explained before
I just kept it simple and this is like I said I'm just communicating information to the
examiner the examiner doesn't want to know about the relationship in my family you know
he just he or she just wants to know if I can communicate what I want to in my mind
and what I want to communicate are straightforward, easy to grasp thoughts, not complex psychological
relationships so let's move on to the next one: I would Like to Describe a Family Business
that I know about well this family business happens to be my own it belongs to our family
and it's my dad who runs it he's the owner, he's the manager, and basically he does everything
in that shop so I should have guessed it's a supermarket it's in my small village and
he specializes or my dad specializes in like exotic foods from Europe, from Asia, and he
buys like niche products that the normal bigger supermarkets cannot justify buying in larger
quantities so yeah, I think my dad's been in this business now for about almost 40 years
I think he's a bit tired to be honest, and as I said before, he's on the cash out, he’s
on the cash registers, he's carrying potatoes on his back, he's talking to the customers,
he's doing wine tasting events he’s very, very active in fact, I used to work there
when I was a kid too I think I started at 11 there and it was good fun, and I got a
lot of memories and a lot of experience and skills from my time working in the shop so
that's my small description of a family business that I know inside out thank you so there
we go again like I'm telling a small story and telling an anecdote quite a few anecdotes
you know about my dad carrying potatoes, doing wine tasting, all the vocabulary is there
as well like cash, cash register, in a warehouse, just words that you're only going to use if
you're talking about this topic also I used a very useful construction, ‘I used to’
yeah I used to work there too I used to sweep the warehouse and also carried products from
one end of the shop to the other etc, etc yeah? so I'm giving personal anecdotes and
it told the examiner our family shop but my dad owns it I tell them where it is it’s
in my village, my hometown and I tell them how long my dad's been there, what he does,
and just really trying to answer all the questions like the who, the what, the how, the when,
all of these points and I think you should do this as well if you want to give expansive
answers and another technique and I've been using this technique with a lot of success
with my online students in the online classes and this is giving the description sort of
like introducing your talk then saying because, then possibly given an example and then if
you're stuck for something to say you start using the how, the what, the how, the where,
the why all of that and if you do this enough times and if you're getting feedback, then
it's a very effective way to prepare and the last point which I’ll just mention and you
if you are practicing online with a tutor and they pick up on certain grammar points
maybe it's your tenses, then don't let it run away and what I've been doing with my
students that’s been very effective is that we do lots of exercises around that exact
grammar point, and I won't let it go until it's perfect and we do this with lots of repetition,
lots of exercises, and we keep coming back to it and this is why I've been getting a
lot of success with the students so if you're in a situation that you want to improve your
speaking maybe you've taken the test quite a few times and you’re fed up, then have
a look at the Intensive IELTS Fluency Course and it's basically as I was saying, a fast
improvement in speech recognition so you can understand the examiner, you can respond to
the right questions, and you can respond quickly and automatically so have a look in the link
below and yes, all the best and thank you for watching have a great day!