Being examined on your speaking skills can be a scary experience,
but knowing exactly what you have to do can make it easier,
so watch this video where I tell you all you need to know about the OET speaking role play.
Hello, I'm Jo from Specialist Language Courses, we are OET Premium Preparation Providers,
which means we know how to help you succeed in the OET exam. Don't forget to subscribe
to our YouTube channel so you are the first to know every time we upload a new video,
so what happens in the OET speaking role play? Let's take a look. After a brief warm-up section
you are given a role card with information about a patient and some tasks to complete.
You have three minutes to prepare and you then complete a five minute role play with
an interlocutor who plays the role of the patient or carer; you then repeat with another role card.
Here is an example role card, which looks the same for all professions. You will find
information about the setting, and also some information about the patient and context,
and there are also the tasks which explain what you have to do. Let's take a look at what to do
in the three minutes preparation time. First, read the context and underline key points about
the setting and patient, then underline all the task verbs and think of useful language to use, so
for example, for outline next steps we could say "so what I'd like to do now is..." and for give
information about childhood asthma, we could start by saying "let me explain a bit about asthma..."
and don't forget to decide how you are going to begin the role play. For this task, it's
at a local clinic and we should begin with why we have arranged the appointment, something like this
"Hello, I'm Dr Smith. I've asked you here today to talk about your son's recent asthma diagnosis."
Now your turn, take a look at this nursing role card, it doesn't matter
if you're another profession the process is still the same so it's all good practice.
Read the context and underline key points about the setting and patient.
Okay, great! Now you know the context.
Now underline the task verbs and pause the video for two minutes and think of some useful language.
Okay, here are the verbs, we'll come back to the language in a moment.
Now, finally decide how are you going to begin the role play. So, as you may have noticed it's a
home visit to talk about the person's spouse, so you might begin with something like this
"Hello, I'm nurse Jo, I've come to talk about your husband..." Now let's look at
the tasks paying attention to the verbs and think of what you could say for each task.
Great, and here are some suggestions...
Now finally decide how you are going to begin the role play.
It's a good idea to build up a bank of useful phrases for the OET speaking test
and practice using them in a variety of contexts, let's take a look. Here
are some common verbs from OET role cards, can you think of a phrase to use for each of them?
Okay, and here are some suggestions on what you could use. So for find out you could say "could
you tell me how often you...?", for advice one phrase could be "it's a good idea to...".
When asked to explain you could start by saying "let me tell you a bit more about..."
and for reassuring, you could say "I understand you are worried, but let me reassure you,
it's a very common procedure..." Work on this area by creating a language bank in your notebook with
useful phrases for different tasks. There are many things you can do to improve your score in the
speaking test, here are my do's and don'ts for the OET speaking. Don't wait for the patient to start,
do decide how to begin in the preparation time and begin the role play confidently.
Don't speak for too long for each task, remember you only have five minutes for the whole role
play, do keep explanations short and simple and use signposting phrases to make it easy
for the patient to follow what you are saying. Don't move on to the next task without pausing,
do pause and check the patient has understood, or if they have any concerns for example by saying
"is that okay?" Don't rush and speak too quickly especially as you are likely to be a bit nervous,
do focus on speaking clearly and at a natural speed. Don't go off task and talk about things
not mentioned on the role card, do stick to what's on the card, use the information provided
on it including what's in the brackets. Don't ignore the patient, do listen to what they say,
adapt and respond appropriately, like you would in a real life consultation.
If you want more help with your speaking and to know more about how to improve your score, why not
check out our OET speaking tips playlist on our YouTube channel, or our OET speaking course on our
website, links below. Okay, to recap my top tips for OET speaking... Prepare in your study time,
practice with a colleague or study buddy, use the three-minute preparation time effectively,
be confident and succeed in the OET exam. And what about you? I want to know how you might
introduce yourself in an OET role play, any context, let me know in the comments below,
and if you like this video please like and share with your friends and colleagues so we
can grow our OET community and help more people pass the OET exam, see you next time, bye!