hi there it's asiya imagine a situation you are in the
middle of your ielts speaking exam the examiner asks you the next question
and you really don't know how to answer or you're giving your answer you're
speaking and then suddenly you fall silent
because you can't get this word it's on the tip of your tongue but
you still can't get it in this video i'm gonna share with you five
ways to get out of these situations without losing
either your fluency or your confidence the sponsor of today's video is
cambly an online learning platform where you can practice your english skills
with native speakers at any time of the day
or night it's a great place to improve your ielts speaking
and listening skills and i have a special discount for you
in the description and now let's get started
first of all let me explain what my advice is based on
ielts examiners assess your fluency and fluency is not just your ability to
speak in english quickly we may run out of ideas or forget what
we wanted to say or forget a word and that can happen in any language
what shows your fluency is how you react to these situations if you
freeze if you fall silent if you say oh i don't know
that's problematic so i'm gonna show you what you should do instead i suppose
when you can't say anything that happens for one
of the two reasons you either can't find the right word
or you simply don't know what to say so here's what you can do when you can't
find the right word either you don't know it or you simply
forget it use placeholders these are nouns you can use to replace
either unknown or forgotten nouns the first one is this thingy
like a thing this thingy could you give me this thingy once i
bought a charger for my phone which turned out
to be fake the first time i plugged it in i
couldn't take it out so i had to run to the nearest two shop
and luckily they had this thingy to open my phone
perhaps in this story this thingy is a screwdriver another placeholder is
what's its name all this is one word what's its name let me give you an
example last night i came home and i couldn't
open the front door because i'd forgotten what's its name
at home so what's its name in this situation is a form when you
can't find words to express exactly what you want
to say use kind of kinda
sort of and like these phrases are very common in spoken english
please don't use them in ielts writing they serve two purposes first of all
they make what you're saying softer and less direct
if i say he was kinda rude it's softer than saying he was rude
but these phrases can also be used when you can't find precise words
let me show you an example my favorite color
is sort of a light blue but with a hint of green
in it or it's turquoise i could say i bought this
beautiful ceramic plate it's kind of round but a bit long on one side
or it's oval these phrases help you hide words you
don't know but they sound very natural another
thing you can do when you can't find the right word is to
describe it instead of naming it for example
you know this big car with an open boot that should be used by farmers it's very
popular in the united states yes a pickup you see i didn't name the
car i just described it and that's fine
you can do it in ielts speaking the key to all these solutions is to incorporate
them into your speech quickly without
making a big pause and that's something that comes with practice
a great place to work on your speaking skills is
cambly on this platform you can choose one teacher you like or book lessons
with different teachers and get used to
various accents you can suggest your own topic for the
lesson or take their ielts speaking lessons or
even a mock speaking test lessons start from 15 minutes a day
twice a week and you can take them at any time
that suits you i regularly get asked why we don't offer face-to-face
lessons ourselves and i want to say that we would never be
able to offer them at cambly's prices i also
have a special discount for you too and all the links
are in the description box below please check them out now what can you say
when you don't know what to say first of all
remember in ielts speaking you're not required to have
any specific knowledge if you don't know about something if you have
no interest in something you will not be marked down for that
but if you simply say oh i don't know this answer is not gonna bring you any
points because it's simply too short to assess your english skills
when we get a tricky question we usually think
i don't know much about it i don't know anything about this subject
i don't have any opinion about it or i'm not sure what i think and here is
what you can do give this honest reaction give your
answer even if it's short but then explain
why to extend your answer let me show you an example
what is your favorite painting
i'm not sure i have one you see i grew up in almaty
even though it's quite a large city it doesn't have any renowned artists and
their works are never exhibited there for this reason i'm afraid i have a big
gap in my arts education in this
answer i gave my reaction but i don't have a favorite painting and
then explained why and this answer is as good as if i
picked a painting and described it here is another example this question
was emailed to me by one of my students who said that she got it during her exam
and she really didn't know what to say because she's never worked she's still a
student the question is do you think it's
important for office workers to wear suits
let's imagine that i don't have any opinion and
then i could sing to be honest i find it really hard to answer this question
i still study at university and i have never
worked at the office for this reason i don't know if employees should wear
suits and those are important or maybe they could wear something less
formal let's say something smart casual again i gave my reaction and then i
explained why and maybe by that point
you will find an idea then you can add it on top
i suppose um there are different kinds of offices
if employees face clients perhaps they should wear suits
but if this is an office of game developers then surely suits would
only harm them when you don't know how to answer
question you can buy yourself some time to think
start your answer using one of these phrases
this is a difficult question or this is an interesting question
this is a tricky question i've never thought about it before
but i guess or i don't know much about it but i suppose
and if you need you can even combine and use
two phrases together that's a tricky question
i've never thought about it before but i guess
and hopefully by that moment you will find what to say
just make sure you don't start every answer by saying
that's a tricky question attempt to answer
each question directly but when you really need some time use these phrases
there is one more way to buy yourself even
more time this is to ask the examiner to repeat the question
you could say sorry i didn't get a question
could you say it again please or sorry would you mind repeating the
question please or sorry could you repeat the question
please remember this one is for emergency
situations only ideally you should not ask the examiner
to repeat the question at all but if you really need some time
then this one will buy you some particularly in part 3 where questions
are long so you will have quite a few
seconds to think oh yes and if you really didn't get the
question you should ask the examiner to repeat it
it's much better than answering the wrong question
let's summarize when you can't find the right word
say this thingy or what's its name use phrases kinda kind of
sort of like to indicate that your words are not very precise simply
describe the word instead of naming it if you don't know how to answer the
question buy yourself a little bit of time
by beginning your answer with phrases this is a tricky question i've never
thought about it before or similar phrases and in a real
emergency ask the examiner to repeat the question
if you want to expand your vocabulary for ielts speaking
learn these 25 idioms for common situations and all the links to
cambly are in the video description box below
thank you for watching me today good luck with your preparation
and your exam bye