I for imaginative, E for excellent, L for Laid back, T for tuned in, S for smart. Yes
it's time again to learn some new vocabulary and revise the previous one for the IELTS
speaking test with me, Michelle. By the way do you know revise has a synonym, what is
it? To brush up. Whenever I think of this word, I think of a big brush, brushing through
my brain cells. Just to let you know if you wanna learn about IELTS speaking test and
what all it includes please look at my video FAQs on the IELTS speaking test. The link
is in the description and also if you wanna know about other criteria for the IELTS speaking
test, look for my other videos on IELTS.
Let’s look at the criteria lexical resource, which means to talk about vocabulary. Yes
this is one of the criteria on which you'll be assessed in the IELTS speaking test and
trust me it's very important. Not just for speaking, for writing, listening, speaking,
reading, everything. So let's go. So the first thing that you should do for the IELTS speaking
test for this criteria is, use vocabulary flexibly, what is flexibly? Let's see, it
means to use the same word in different contexts means in different situations. But how? You
can create a mind map. I suggest that you categorize words. So for example, you’re
reading a newspaper and you come across certain words about sports in an article. So you can
categorize them in the form of mind map like sports, kick, lose, run, win and play. Now
I’m going to show you how you can use one word in different context through an example.
The word we have is advice. Yes, so you can use this word to talk about relationships.
But in which task? In task 1. Yes, just imagine the examiner asks you the question that why
did you choose the career that you are having right now? What would you reply to that? You
can say that it was my brother's advice that I go for medicine as a career. So that's where
you can use it for your relationships. Let's look at the second one, describe your
favourite newspaper. Which task should this be? This should be task two. Absolutely, but
how will you use the word advice here? You can use that I will to read xyz newspaper
because of its advice column, which is authored by experts. Now here advice is an adjective.
Let's look at the next one. Effects of eating out, which task should this be? We have done
task 1, task 2 and now we have task 3. Effects of eating out in task 3. So you are given
this topic and you have to speak on this topic. So here you could use the word advice when
you are giving a personal example. You could say that, my advice to my nephew who is getting
overweight is to not eat out. That’s how you can use it in task 3. So now you have
an idea, how to use the same word in different situation. However, do remember be careful
that you don't overuse the same word. With that we look at the next thing that you should
do in the IELTS speaking test for vocabulary.
Paraphrasing, what does this mean? This means that you should try to explain a word which
you cannot find. Strange isn't it? Happens sometimes but how will you explain a word?
By describing the word. Trust me, you'll get some brownie points for this and you will
surely get some extra marks. You have nothing to worry. So let me give you an example. In
task 1, if the examiner is talking about your studies and he asks you, how was your first
day at college like? For task 1. You can reply I can't explain the feeling, I felt some disappointment
and some excitement too because I did not make any new friends on the first day. However
I was expecting to make some good friends in the future. So what are you trying to do
here? You are trying to explain the feeling for which you don't have a word and here you
are using some good vocabulary, when you are using the word vocabulary disappointment,
future, expecting. These are some awesome words and you'll surely be given some extra
points for this.
Now we move to the third point that you must do for the IELTS speaking test to improve
your vocabulary. Let's go. Now we have the third thing that you must do to score much
better in the IELTS speaking test for lexical resource which means vocabulary. Let's look
at this. You must try to use synonyms, of course you've heard of synonyms before. But
you don't know how to use them. Let’s find out how. So the meaning of this, you know
there are some words which are really tired words for example, the word hot. But you can
use a synonym for that and that could be blistering. Yes and what, what is that. That's an energetic
word. So your aim should be that you've to get rid of tired words and you've to try using
energetic words. I hope you'll be able to do that after this lesson. Let's look at how.
So you can use a thesaurus. Of course if you refer to a dictionary, you also have another
part to the dictionary and that's called a thesaurus where you find some synonyms for
any word that you are looking for. And the other option that you have is to use a word
card. Do you wanna know what a word card is? I have an option; I mean I have an example
for you. I'll show you let's look at this word, very sunny, right. So you can create
a word card like this with the word on the front side, very sunny and you can have synonyms
on the backside. For example blistering, boiling and sizzling. You can also write the example
if you want to. My city sizzles in the month of June. That would be awesome isn't it? So
sometimes you can see this side and try to guess which word are these the synonyms for
and sometimes you can see the front side and guess the synonyms and also test yourself.
So that's another way of getting rid of tired words and learning to use energetic words.
Let's look further at an example. So in your speaking test if you are to use these words
job, lunch, car and woman and use the word nice for all of them. Just hear me, how monotonous
does it sound. Nice job, nice lunch, nice car, nice woman. That’s really unimaginative
and you remember when we started the video, I said I for imaginative. If you want to be
imaginative, then you can change these words. I'll show you how.
For nice job, you could say a first rate job, which means the same as nice but even better
actually. Nice lunch. Umm... let's change both the words. We could say a sumptuous meal,
for a nice car maybe we can say an outstanding car and if you want to say a nice woman you
can say a smart woman. Isn't that? That sounds so imaginative, so excellent and not at all
laid back.
Let's look at the second thing you must do to improve your vocabulary for the speaking
test. You should try to use collocations and understand connotations for different words.
I'll share the meaning with you right now. So let's look at what are collocations first.
These are the words that go together that you can use together. They are always one
more than one words that you can use together. Perhaps they are always two words that you
can use together. But how? I suggest that you practise it more and more and it'll be
awesome if you can watch our videos on collocations, we've done so many of them for you, you'll
definitely improve your vocabulary through that. So an example would be, lions shout,
do lions shout? No what do they do? Grrrr... What is that called? Roar, so you could say
lions roar. If you use shout that shows that you do not have a very good vocabulary. Do
a phone call; do you ever do a phone call? I don't I always make a phone call. So here's
an example of two words that go together and here's an example of three words that go together.
There are many such videos we have done, please refer to them.
Let's look at what are connotations. Connotations mean the neutral or the positive and the negative
association that words have. Don't worry I’ll explain it to you in a much easier way. So
one way to practise connotations is to use it in a sentence. But how? Don't worry we
have an example here. So laid back, what kind of a word is it? Is it a positive word, negative
word or a neutral word? I think laid back is a positive word. Yes, but why? If you want
to say that you work slowly or you way of working is slightly slow, you could say I'm
slightly a laid back person, instead of saying I'm a lazy person which sounds so negative.
So never use the word lazy instead use the word laid back. This is negative and how about
the word inactive means you are not active. This is a very neutral and a formal word.
So be careful about where you use which word if you are telling something good about somebody,
you could use laid back. If you are telling something not so nice about someone, you could
says he or she is quite lazy, like you are complaining and if you are trying to be neutral
you could say, this person is a bit inactive. So these are the different ways that you can
use different words that have the same meaning, right and these are like synonyms but they
have a connotation, positive, negative or neutral. With this we come to an end of the
lesson on lexical resource for the IELTS speaking test.
I hope this lesson was fun for you and you won't make too many errors with word choice
now. Do follow our videos on idioms and collocations to learn more. I hope to see you again with
a new lesson and a new criteria on the speaking test, till then you take care and miss me,
I had a great time, bye.