Hi, friends, this lesson is all about understanding the speaking questions that are on
the Duolingo English test. So just in case you don't know, there are five different speaking
questions you will have to answer when you take your own test. And they are these ones we have
read aloud, speak about the photo, read, then speak, listen, then speak, and then the speaking
interview, which comes at the end of the test. Let's start by talking about the essential
information of each of these questions. So here are the five speaking questions. For the read
aloud question, you have to answer it in 20 seconds, you will have this between three and
seven times on the test. And it contributes to your comprehension and conversation. subscore
speak about the photo, you have 90 seconds, you only have this once on the test, and it goes
towards your conversation and production. subscores. Read then speak 90 seconds, but you
only have this once on the test conversation and production sub scores. listen and speak is
similar, you have 90 seconds two times on the test. And this contributes to your conversation
and production sub scores as well. And the last one is the speaking sample. You have to speak for
between one and three minutes, you have this one on the test. And this question is ungraded. So it
will not affect your final score on the test. Okay, now I'm going to talk about each of these
questions in more detail. And we'll start with read aloud.
The Read Aloud question looks like this. And your job is to read one sentence aloud. You only have
to read one sentence out loud at one time, which is good, and most of them will be statements.
However, I have seen a couple of questions come up. So pay attention to the punctuation at the
end, does it end in a full stop? Or does it end in a question mark,
you're being assessed on how clearly you can read out a sentence. So using clear pronunciation is so
important. Pay attention to the phonemes. In the words, that is the individual sounds of each word,
the intonation, the stress and the pace and read it just once because you only have 20 seconds, I
get quite a lot of questions in my YouTube comments about this question type. The question
normally goes something like this, can I read it more than once if I make a mistake, and in my
opinion, I don't think you should do that 20 seconds is really short to read out a sentence
like this. So just do it one time. If you make a mistake, just continue on and pay more attention
to the next words as you read in them, you don't really have time to start over again.
Following on from that the timer starts immediately. There is no preparation time here. 20
seconds is really short. But I think you should try to read it in your head before you start
reading out loud and use those punctuation marks to help you. So for example, if a sentence you're
reading has a comma, then that's a really good place to pause. punctuation marks are there to
guide you. And it is important to read out the sentence as naturally as possible. So pay close
attention to those punctuation marks. And the last one is important. Don't panic if you make a
mistake. So those are some guidelines for the read aloud question. Now let's move on to a more
difficult one, which is speak about the photo on the test. You might have a photo like this, this
or this to speak about. And in my experience, this is the speaking question most students struggle
with the most because it's not often we describe photos in so much detail, but you have to for this
test. So let's talk about some guidelines and tips to help you do this well.
Okay, some guidelines, you have 90 seconds in total, but you must speak for a minimum of 30
seconds, but I recommend you try to speak for as long as you can. So that tips really important. If
you want to get the highest score for this question type, you should be trying to speak for
longer than 30 seconds. If we take a look at the scoring criteria for this question type and all of
the other speaking questions, we can zoom in on fluency and fluency is all about the length of
your answer. How much can you speak or write in a limited time. So even though the minimum
requirement is 30 seconds, I recommend you try to aim for 60 to 90 seconds. I'm not saying that's
easy. But if you want to get the best score, that's what I recommend.
Luckily, for this question type, you do have some preparation, you have 20 seconds. So you'll see
the photo for 20 seconds before you begin speaking. So use those 20 seconds wisely. You
can't re record your answer. So just like the read aloud question, you don't have a chance to re
record your answer. Once you start, you should keep going all the way to the end. So if you make
a mistake, do not panic. Just keep going and focusing on doing a better job later on in your
answer. But what should you talk about when you're describing a photo? Well, let me give you some
tips. Now. It's important that you don't just label what's in the photo. Don't just say things
like
I can see a man. There is a bench there is a church. Rather, it's much better for you to
describe in detail what is happening. When you're describing in detail. You want to use descriptive
language. Think of things like action verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions. All of these
are descriptive language and they will help you to give a better answer. And my next tip will also
help you which is to learn a structure. I've talked about a structure in many videos in the
past. Basically, you want to think about different ways of organizing your answer before you take the
test. Learning a structure will give you the confidence to describe any photo easily and a
simple structure could go like this. Step one, give a general overview of the photo. Step two,
talk about what is happening in the photo. Step three, talk about where things are located in the
photo. And step four, speculate about what happened or what is going to happen based on the
photo. And thinking of a structure like that can be really helpful to give you confidence to answer
this question type really well on the test. Now let's take a look at the read and speak and the
listen then speak questions together combined, because they are quite similar. Again, I'll talk
about some guidelines and some tips to help you answer in the best way you can.
So for both of the questions, you have 90 seconds to speak in total, but with a minimum of 30
seconds. However, just like in the describe a photo question, it's important that you speak for
as long as you can for the reader, then speak you have 20 seconds to read and understand the
question for the lesson then speak you have 20 seconds to listen and understand the questions.
And you're able to listen to the question prompt three times within those 20 seconds. So for the
return speak question as you're speaking your answer, you can see the prompt and each of the
three questions. You don't have to memorize it. However, for the listen and speak question, you
were only able to listen to the prompt within the 20 seconds of preparation time after those 20
seconds is up, you are not able to re listen to the prompt. So during those 20 seconds, you have
to listen and remember the questions well, which of course is quite challenging, but I have some
tips. So let's take a look here.
It's important that you answer all of the components of the questions. So for the return
speak one, you usually have three questions, and it's a good idea to answer each question try to
speak naturally about the topic. Do not use a memorized answer. That's really important. You are
not allowed to use a memorized answer for any of the speaking questions on this test. So it's vital
you answer the questions naturally. Do not memorize an answer before the test and use that
this is a test of your natural English not your ability to memorize things in English.
Make sure your answer stays on topic. If your answer goes off topic too much, then Duolingo
might think you've used a memorized answer to keep your ads up based on the questions you've got and
use a variety of words and grammar. So using a variety of vocabulary and grammar is on the
scoring criteria. It's actually the first four points which shows how important it is. Remember,
the Duolingo test is a test of your English and vocabulary and grammar are of course really
essential to having good English so you want to use topic related vocabulary based on whatever
topic you get given. And a mixture of grammatical structures, some simple and some more complex. I
have of course made lots of videos on this you can go through my old YouTube videos to find the next
step we have used transition and linking phrases to help your answer become a lot more smooth and
natural. I have made lessons on this go back and check them and for fluency try to speak for at
least 60 seconds. As I mentioned earlier, fluency is on the scoring criteria. So I highly recommend
you aim for between 60 and 90 seconds. I know that's quite a long time, but you need to do that
if you want to get the best score for this question type on the test. Lastly, let's take a
look at the speaking sample or the interview on the exam. Again, here are some guidelines and
tips. So the speaking sample is ungraded. It will not affect your final school. However, the video
is sent to the university or institution you're applying to. Even though this question type is
ungraded it's super important you do it well because your university can view your recording
they can see and listen to your answer. So it's really important you make a good impression of
yourself by taking this question type seriously and answering to the best of your ability.
Your job is to speak for between one and three minutes about the topic you're given. Again,
remember to stay on topic. The next button turns orange after one minute. The next button at the
bottom of the screen will be gray it will not turn orange until after one minute. After one minute
you can click it to go to the next question.
which means that you should speak for at least one minute continuously trying to answer the question
you've been given.
Some tips now try to use this as an opportunity to show off your personality. So talk about yourself
and your ideas and experiences. Let the university you're applying to know how good you are. It's a
good opportunity for the university to learn about your language skills, but also your personality.
Now you need some speaking practice, and this video here will help you it will help you to
describe a photo well it goes into the structure I mentioned earlier, so I'll see you there. Bye.