Hello everyone and welcome to English for Learners. Today's video is about the Duolingo
English Test speaking tasks and the task we are going to talk about speaking on a picture aloud
or describing the image aloud. I have included some tips and information
on describing the picture aloud and I have also included some examples so let's start.
Let's start with the journal information about this question type so you will get
describe a picture allowed question type one time in the test according to the official
Duolingo English Test guide and to make it more clear let me tell you that you will get
write on a picture twice and speak about a picture or an image once. Secondly you can speak for a
minimum of 30 seconds or maximum 1 minute 30 seconds or 90 seconds to answer this question
and you will have 20 seconds to look at the picture you can use that time to plan your answer
and after you look at the picture for 20 seconds you can start speaking your answer the last thing
about this question type is that you will see the picture in front of you as you speak your answer
Now the most important part of this video how to describe a picture aloud
so here are some guidelines you can follow and you will create an excellent answer so let's
talk about these guidelines first of all start with the first impression of the picture give a
journal summary of what you see in the picture in the first sentence secondly focus on the key
details the main things in the picture not every single detail or minute or insignificant details
and we will talk about it later when we start our examples next we need to mention where things are
in the picture say if the things or people are seen in the foreground background middle right
or left of the picture etc these are just few words to describe the location of something
there are more words like top right corner left bottom left etc
so while you describe the picture you can add details to your description for example you can
describe if the picture is cute it is interesting it's boring simple panoramic dull etc also you can
add adjectives to describe things or people for example a busy street as desolate town a rainy day
two tall people uh congested area etc so the main point is that you need to describe the picture in
general what kind of picture it is and then you can add adjectives to different people
or objects that are in the picture one very important thing about picture description is
speculation you can speculate or guess about the picture or its context for example when and where
the picture was taken why the characters or things are in the picture are behaving in a certain way
for example if you see people walking on a road in a rainy day and they're wearing coats
and holding umbrellas you can speculate or guess that it is cold so you can say it looks like
that the weather is really cold or the people in the picture are feeling cold
that's why they're wearing all those warm clothing likewise if you see a crowd in a playground
cheering and jumping you can say that it looks like that the crowd is really enjoying the game
so be speculative lastly use all the time allowed to describe the picture
and follow these guidelines now we can take a look at some examples
here's our first example and we can see that there are some kids sitting in the room
the main focus of the picture are the three kids who are sitting on a pink table
and they're eating and enjoying some fruit that is in front of them in the bowls
let's see the complete description of this picture on the next slide
now you must have remembered the guidelines that we discussed a minute earlier so according to
the guidelines first we will discuss the main focus of the picture or summarize what's in
the picture in our first sentence from the second sentence onwards we can keep adding more details
about the key points in the picture or the key details in the picture and in the last sentence
we can add a general speculation about the picture so let's start reading our description this is a
cute picture of small kids eating on a table in a room which looks like a child care facility
the kids have some fruit in front of them in the bowls it is obvious that they are enjoying it a
lot and the boy on the right and the one sitting close to him are looking into the camera while the
girl on the left is looking at her food there are some color variations seen in the picture
for example the bowls have different colors such as pink and blue the table in the foreground is
pink while the chairs are green while the table in the background is also pink with pink shears there
are some pictures of animals and trees painted on the wall and some beds with wheels as stacked by
the walls it seems that the picture is either from japan or korea now this is just one sample answer
and i have prepared it for this video and it is perfectly fine if you try to answer it in a more
simpler way or you just skip some details the main idea is to stay focused on the key points of the
picture or the main details of the picture in the case of this picture it's the kids and the child
care center and the fruits they're eating and then there are beds stacked around the corners
and the pictures on the walls so you just try to incorporate these details in your description and
you will be fine just make sure you're summarizing what's in the picture in your first sentence
then you're adding details and at the end you are mentioning your speculations about the picture
now what can we see in example number two it looks like that it's a really busy area there are train
tracks there are buildings on one side there is traffic going on the opposite side there are some
car parked on one side of the picture or let's say on the right side of the picture and there is
a suspension bridge and even beyond the bridge there are some trees and houses on the hills
and if you speculate about this picture you can see that it looks like that this picture has
been taken is not really busy hour of the day now let's see the complete description of this picture
now for this image or for any other image there can be more than one description
each time i speak on a picture aloud or you speak on a picture aloud
the answer is going to be different because we'll be using different sentence structures
and we will come up with different adjectives and different expressions when we describe a picture
so each time you describe a picture it's going to be different although the key details or the
main points will be the same so let's start with our description the image shows a busy
area of a city with trained tracks starting at the bottom of the picture and stretched till far
a train can be seen moving on the tracks there is a suspension bridge built above
the surface of the lake some mountains with houses built on them are also visible in the background
there is a row of tall buildings with a line of
parked cars at its bottom a busy road can also be seen on the left side of the track overall
this picture is a kind of intricate as it has been taken from far and not all objects are clear
it seems that it was a really busy time of the day when this picture was taken this was one
sample description of this picture every time we say it will describe it differently also remember
that we don't have to be perfect while we describe a photo we can pause a little bit to think what we
are going to say next if you said something wrong or you pronounced something wrong you can still
correct it and move on with your answer basically it should look like you are describing the image
to a real person who is sitting in front of you you are looking at the image and then you are
telling that person who cannot see the picture all the details that you can see in that picture
this picture is not complicated by any means this is only showing a person who is sitting on
a table and she is reading from her notes there is foliage and trees in the background and there are
more tables or benches in the place where she's sitting and definitely it's an outdoor area let's
see what can be one possible answer if we get this type of picture in our dailango english test
once again you can answer this question of describing the image aloud in your own way
in this sample answer you can notice how i have summarized the key point of this picture in the
first sentence and then i have added details that i can see in the picture and then i have concluded
my description by adding a speculation so let's describe this picture aloud the picture shows
a young woman sitting outdoors on a bench with some books on a table in front of her
one of the books is open and she's looking at it with a pen in her hand it looks like she's a
student and she is either doing her assignment or trying to understand something in her notes
there are more benches with tables seen in the picture behind her some rich foliage can be seen
in the background most probably this picture has been taken in a park or an outdoor sitting area of
a college or university in this description you must have noticed the word foliage which means
greenery also i have started the last sentence with the phrase most probably so this is
to describe the speculation or my guess about this picture so if you're speculating about something
you can say i guess i believe most probably i think that etc these are just few expressions to
express your speculation about something i will end this video here there are more videos related
to the same topic on this channel and there are other videos as well related to different question
types in the delinquent test if you found this video useful please hit the like button share this
and subscribe to the channel thanks for watching i'll see you in the next video bye for now
so
you