here are some challenging topics my students reported in recent exams you voted to have a
look at the first one about a talk you gave to a group of people I can see why so I've prepared for
you a sample answer and some advanced vocabulary to help you elevate your answers we'll also
discuss one particularly dangerous trap you should avoid in part two it's Asiya let's get started
here is default task describe a time when you talk to a group of people you should say when
it happened who you talk to why you gave this talk and explain how you felt about the talk probably
the most common piece of advice would be spend your one minute preparation time studying the
bullet points noting the when who why and how and then talk about each of them in your answer
let's do just that have a look at this example you asked me to talk about a time when I presented to
a group of people well this happened about two years ago I just started a new job at
this advertising company I still work there in fact we're working on a campaign for an American
film and I had to give a presentation about it to a group of their executives
the presentation had to be in English I was really nervous because it never given such
an important talk in English before and I was worried about making mistakes in grammar or
pronunciation there were around a dozen people in the audience and at the beginning it was terrible
but luckily I had my PowerPoint presentation slides to help me and the more I spoke the
more confident I felt when it was over they asked me a few questions which I managed to answer and
later that day my boss told me I'd done a good job so in the end my talk was a success how do
you like this answer it covers all the bullet points there is some background information
about the job and campaign in fact it's pretty good the use of grammatical tenses is excellent
the sequence makes sense the vocabulary is good notice the collocations working on a campaign
give a presentation do a good job but how long was this answer well clearly not long enough
problem is if you simply follow the bullet points without adding much you'll be over in 60 Seconds
and the examiner will be waiting for more and probably just starting to show you that you should
continue talking it's still potentially a band 7 score if and only if I can go over some points
again and complete those two minutes right how can I carry on so um yeah this campaign was for
this American car manufacturer and they wanted us to promote this new Jeep you know a 4x4 and I was
part of the team working on that it wasn't easy because in our country the Japanese had about 75
percent of the market share and the campaign had to be really effective here we're giving a little
more background on the campaign and some good vocabulary use market share promote a new Jeep
effective campaign and we're giving more details about why you gave this talk but we need to be
careful there is the danger of going off topic what if we continued like this because as you
may know the Japanese car manufacturers were the first to produce this 4x4s or SUVs for the growing
number of urban middle class customers whereas the American Jeep models were associated with
military uses and so that was the main reason why it was difficult at first to persuade people here
to buy them the examiner may be thinking yes but how did you feel on the day of the talk
it's a mistake to spend too much time talking about the background to the talk
yes you can mention it but from examiner's point of view each bullet point requires more and more
complex vocabulary and grammar talking about when and who is easier than why and how you felt which
should give you the chance to use more complex language try and put some of these ideas together
here is my sample two minute talk pay attention to the expressions and idiomatic language I use
actually this happened to me last year no it was the year before in fact it was odd because
I've never had what we might call stage fright I work in marketing and we often have to you
know give short talks or presentations at work to report on some campaigns you are working on
I mean the idea of standing in front of people talking about a topic I know well with all the
visual and technological AIDS we have nowadays it's part of what I do well that's what I thought
before I started the job I have now for a couple of years the thing is that um one of my first
tasks was to provide an update on an advertising campaign we were launching for an American company
and for the first time in my professional career the talk had to be in English to a group of
Executives or Managers from the American company as well as some senior staff from where I work
at first during the preparation stage preparing the PowerPoint slides I didn't feel nervous at all
I mean my English isn't perfect but it's good enough for a 20 minute presentation I thought
but only morning of the big day as soon as I walked into the conference room and saw all
of them waiting for me I went into a state of panic my heart was racing my hands were shaking
and the only thing on my mind was nothing my mind went blank so there I was there was no going back
somehow I managed to introduce myself in the longest 20 minutes of my life began once I got
going when I was on familiar ground showing them how we'd set up the campaign and the progress we
made all the nerves disappeared my talk went well and later that day my boss gave me a big pat on
the back so everything turned out all right in the end this talk is around two minutes speaking in
real test conditions is never going to be exactly the same but it gives you a good idea of how much
you need to say in part two right let's do a quick check did I cover the four bullet points yes
was my talk coherent did it make sense and follow a logical sequence yes today effectively join my
ideas using cohesive devices and referencing yes I think so how about the grammatical structures
a good mix of simple and complex sentences and my pronunciation and intonation remember examiners
don't Mark you down for your accent they pay attention to pronunciation and intonation
so that leaves vocabulary I see this topic as a great opportunity to use idiomatic expressions
phrasal verbs collocations and speaking at Natural Way using typical Expressions we
may not use informal written English let's go over each expression and I'll give you a short
explanation of the meaning and use let's start with the idiomatic expressions on the morning of
the big day a very important day the big day my heart was racing my heart was beating fast going
very fast because I was nervous my mind went blank I forgot everything I was going to say again used
to show extreme nervousness there I was that was the situation I found myself in it's good to use
in storytelling for example so there we were at the bus station with no cash and no phone
there was no going back it was too late to stop I had no choice but to continue
once I got going to get going is to start something and begin to feel comfortable with
it a talk or a journey I was on familiar ground in this case I'm talking about something I knew
well the opposite would be I wasn't unfamiliar ground and kept hesitating to give a big pat on
the back to congratulate someone by touching them on their back now some phrasal verbs in
spoken English there is never a bad time to use a phrasal verb or two a campaign we were working on
to work on something means to be actively working to achieve some goal went into a state of panic
to start feeling extremely nervous to start to feel panic perhaps more formally we would say to
enter into a state of panic set up the campaign to set up something means to establish the basis for
it everything turned out all right in the end the final result was good despite some problems on the
way we often say I hope it turns out alright if a friend has a problem now collocations these are
frequent word combinations adjectives with nouns verbs with nouns and they're important to learn
in any language of course the phrasal verbs we've just seen are also good examples of collocations
here are some more stage front these two words are often used together to compare
how nervous we feel to how actors may feel when they appear in the theater on the stage
give talks the verb give is usually used with talk she gave a talk on the history of Art
a campaign we were launching will launch a campaign where officially
started conversation discourse markers or sometimes we call them linking words
I've taken some words and short Expressions that are all very typical of spoken language
they are marked in blue and the first word was actually when we speak it's a way to establish a
relationship between the speaker and listener or maybe hear the topic and the answer it's
used a lot especially in British English to mean something like what I'm gonna tell you now is true
we can also say in fact although part 2 is called the long term by The Examiner when the test taker
talks uninterrupted for up to two minutes that doesn't mean there is no interaction maybe the
examiner will not or smile to show that he or she is following you can use expressions like you know
to establish a kind of shared experience with the examiner I think it's very important to do that
notice where I put it sometimes or when we speak we hesitate we look for words we think
about what we're gonna say and we say um well I used well to introduce the main part of the story
and I mean later on I mean my English isn't perfect so here I'm using it more as a way to
give extra detail to explain what I'm saying similarly when I say the thing is that it's
a way to say that what I'm gonna say next is important it's one of the main points I want
to make of course informal written English we're always advised to avoid the word thing because
it's too General backtracking no it was the year before in fact you can't erase what you say in a
face-to-face conversation but you can backtrack or rephrase something to correct a mistake
the mistake can be factual as in this example it wasn't last year it was the year before that
it might be grammatical mistake you notice immediately and want to correct if you say
I've been there last month oh sorry I went there last month in the test the examiner will recognize
that you're aware that you make mistakes and can correct yourself don't be afraid to correct
yourself if you can do it quickly while continuing your thought but don't repeat your sentences
all the time to correct mistakes as it breaks fluency you need to maintain the flow of speech
the simple answer and vocabulary are available on our telegram channel the link is below and
if you don't have telegram on your phone you can either download it or use the computer
Where Do We Go From Here what's the best way to learn from listening to and looking at samples
first of all prepare and give your own talks time yourself was it two minutes or less
you can share what you do with others and then from the feedback you receive on our telegram
we publish a post every month to help you find a speaking partner and it gets a thousand replies
next make use of all kinds of sources and resources for example there are some great
online dictionaries you can consult such as Oxford Cambridge and Longman all Linked In the
description you can also check out our IELTS speaking Library where we've compiled over
40 difficult IELTS topics into a single ebook so you could choose the topics that look more
challenging to you and prepare them one by one at your own pace the link is in the description
to get an extra Taste of what's inside watch this video where we're covering
several challenging part one topics with sample answers and useful vocabulary
and thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye