Hey Naturals, what's up? I'm your English teacher, Gabby and in
today's episode we're going to talk about
what to do when you don't know what to talk about.
Now this is especially helpful if you're taking a speaking test
like the IELTS or the TOEFL or
another test where you have to speak and impress
your tester or your teacher.
It's also helpful for everyday conversation. Now this episode
is sponsored by ESL Test Prep and they're offering
an awesome offer where you can get
two test prep courses for the price of one.
Now that's through GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLTestPrep
GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLTestPrep
and that includes all the sections, reading, writing, listening, speaking
and a professional, qualified
native English speaker will give you feedback
your teacher will give you feedback on your speaking
and your writing so that's really
valuable and I encourage you to take advantage of that if you're
preparing for a test or if you just want to get feedback on your
English skills in general. Ok so let's talk about what to do when
you don't know what to say. It can be really
nerve-wracking when you're not sure how to
respond to a question when you're supposed to speak English and
impress your rater or your teacher
or your tester. Ok so, number 1
Outline. Make an outline maybe on paper
or mentally of what you're going to say.
Now don't write down every single word. That's a
big mistake. That's just going to waste your time. Just quickly
think of 3 interesting points related
to the question. Maybe 3 reasons or
3 examples or 3 things that would be
interesting in your response. I like the number 3.
It's a solid number. It's not too little, not too much
for your time given. So that mental outline will really
save you. And actually if I can tell you a secret, that's what I do for every
single Go Natural English lesson like this one. I make a
mental outline. I write it down first but then I keep it in
my mind and refer to that outline. Well also
I have the outline written right behind me. But, let's see if I can do
the rest of this video without looking at it. I have my
mental outline right up here. So first,
outline. Second you
have to be able to have tools - yes
I got it - tools to help you buy time.
If you for some reason forget your outline
or forget what you want to say. So for example
you could buy time not with money to try
to give money to your tester, but buy time with phrases
like "Let me think.." or
"Let's see" or "Hmm... That's a good
question... Let me see... Let me think"
"How can I answer that."
So that buys you time. When you're saying these things it makes
you seem like you're not hesitating because you are speaking
and you lose points if you hesitate, so it's better to use a phrase
like this to buy time. Next, try
expanding on those points
that you're brining up. Those interesting points that are in your
mental outline. Expand on them. Ask yourself "How?"
or "Why?" or "What reasons can I give to
support these points?" So expand
could be with examples too, personal, or things that
you've heard of, things you've read, or made up! You could create
your own examples. And finally, describe.
Try using descriptive vocabulary. Descriptive language.
Try to avoid using the same vocabulary over and over.
Instead of saying, "There's a really nice
restaurant." You could say, "There's a
luxurious restaurant with delicious gourmet
food!" See, when you use a variety of vocabulary
you're going to get more points on your test. So those are four
ways to say what you need to
say to get points, to communicate clearly when you're not
sure what to say. So for example
say the question was, "Tell us about your
favorite restaurant. Why is it your favorite?"
First of all I'm going to make a mental outline and
let's see... let me think of my favorite restaurant. It's actually
a restaurant is new and I like it
because the manager is friendly, the
food is really good and
it's affordable. Those are my three points. That's my mental
outline. When I speak I might say something like
this: My favorite restaurant is
a new Polish restaurant
called Kazinsky's. I really like
it for three reasons. I met the manager
and he's really nice. Every time
I go there he greets me. He knows
my name. He pays attention and asks me how my
day was and I really appreciate that and he can make recommendations
for good items to try
on the menu that I haven't tried yet. But speaking of menu
items I've tried a couple things there and
they've, everything has been really delicious. I've
really enjoyed the hamburger and
the french friends. I thought it was the best one that I've had
in New York city, actually.
The manager is really friendly, the food is delicious
and it's affordable. It's important
to me to not spend too much money when I eat out, especially
if I'm just eating out by myself. I think it's
important to go to restaurants where I feel comfortable
spending maybe around
$15-$20, that's pretty normal
pretty good actually for a meal in New York City.
So for those three reasons, the friendly manager, the delicious food
and the affordable prices, that's
my favorite restaurant. That's just an example. I did that
off the top of my head and it's a really
good way to wrap up when you can repeat
your mental outline. That's why a mental outline is so
important because you can use it to summarize at the end, to
remember what you're doing to say and actually to buy time too.
Did you notice when I kind of forgot what I was going to say? I
used my outline to remind me and get myself back
on track. So I hope that these points are helpful
on your next speaking test. I almost
forgot the last point! Don't go crazy!
I mean two things by this. Don't go
crazy. Don't get nervous. And also
don't go crazy trying to say too
much. Don't go crazy trying to use
new grammar that you're really not comfortable with or
words that you've never used before. So don't
go crazy. Do what feels comfortable
to you but use these tips to give your
speaking test structure and to give yourself
the confidence you need for a good score. Alright
did I hit all the points.
I did it! Awesome. Alright thanks so much for watching
and get your 2 practice
tests for the price of 1 at GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLtestprep
GoNaturalEnglish.com/ESLtestprep
they have IELTS tests, TOEFL tests, they have several
other preparation courses and they have
real qualified, native English speaker teachers who will give you
feedback. Super valuable! So I recommend that! Thanks so much
for watching and subscribe to Go Natural English to keep watching
awesome lessons like this one. Thanks for being an awesome part of our community
here. I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now!