my name is jay and this is mark mark is
an ex-ielts speaking examiner he's a
hard guy to impress if you're giving a
speaking exam in this lesson we're going
to learn what to say to impress mark no
matter what english test you're taking
ielts pt oet or even just one at school
or university
when most people think about impressive
vocab they think about using long fancy
words like surreptitiously or plethora
or supercilious but these words don't
impress examiners like mark
that's right if you want to impress your
speaking examiner then you need to use
collocations
powerful phrases
collocations are natural sounding one
two or three word phrases that just
sound right for example in english you
throw a party
make noise and have a good time you
probably say something quite different
in your first language
there are different combinations of
collocations like adverb and adjective
like deeply concerned
you'd never say deeply happy though
adjective and now like heavy traffic
you'd never say big traffic
now and now like a gap in the traffic
not a hole in the traffic
verb and noun like hit the accelerator
not push the accelerator
noun and verb like the engine raw not
the engine screamed and verb and
preposition like surprised by you can't
say surprised with verb and adverb like
drive erratically not drive weirdly
for example if mark asked me to speak
about traffic i would say something like
this
yesterday i was deeply concerned about
being late for work because of the heavy
traffic
when i was driving i saw a gap in the
traffic and hit the accelerator the
engine roared i was surprised by my
behavior i don't usually drive so
erratically
so what do you think mark you impressed
yet well i'm impressed by your use of
collocations
when you use them i know that you're not
just translating from your first
language into english you're actually
using real english
if you want to learn real english then
you should check out e2english.com
you can sign up for free and take the
placement test to see how good your
english is it'll test your listening
reading writing vocabulary and speaking
skills
all right so we've talked about vocab
now let's talk about grammar
when you're doing your speaking test you
should not be thinking about grammar
hopefully the grammar comes to you
automatically but when you're preparing
for your english test you should be
focusing on verbs verbs are the most
important part of english grammar
there's a verb in practically every
sentence and they control the meaning a
lot
there are lots of different verbs in
english but when speaking we only really
use four of them we very rarely if ever
use the others
we use present simple verbs all the time
such as i work in the city
we use a lot of past simple verbs such
as i worked in the city yesterday
we often use present continuous when
speaking like i am working in the city
at the moment and we use the present
continuous to also talk about the future
like i'm working in the city next week
and quite often we use the present
perfect like i have worked in the city
before but i didn't like it
so concentrate on practicing these four
verbs you don't really need to worry
about the rest isn't that right mark
that's right but be careful if i ask you
a question about the future because you
might need to use will or going to as in
i'm going to work in the city tomorrow
or sometime in the future
let's talk about pronunciation
most people think that pronunciation is
just the way you say the 44 sounds of
english
but the sounds are only part of
pronunciation and your speaking score
there are other parts arguably more
important parts and there's one part in
particular that you can use that will
impress your examiner and boost your
speaking score
i'm talking about word emphasis
imagine i asked jay to talk about a
recent holiday he went on
listen to the way jay emphasizes certain
words to create more meaning
so i went on a holiday last september my
family and i visited a friend of mine
who lives on the coast it was great fun
every day we swam in the ocean and we
even went fishing
what i've done here is create more
meaning by emphasizing important words
this is easy to do and it's something
you should do in your speaking test to
boost your scores what do you think mark
you impressed
great that really improved your
pronunciation i'm glad that it wasn't
just flat like i went on a holiday with
my family
and i also heard you use a lot of great
collocations as well those natural
phrases and simple past verbs your score
is going up all right let's talk about
structure
there are two types of speaking
questions in any english exam
the first type of questions are
conversational questions where you
discuss something with the examiner
going back and forth
and the second type of questions are
individual response questions where you
have time to plan and respond to
something on your own
that's right in oet there are only
conversations
in ielts there are both types of
questions for example in part one and
part three you converse with the
examiner and in part two you plan and
then speak on your own
in pte you just speak on your own by
retelling lectures and describing images
and other tasks
it's the same for toefl and cell pip
now if you're conversing with the
examiner you don't really have time to
plan your structure because they happen
in real time
but you can take a few seconds after the
examiner has asked you a question to
think by saying something like hmm or i
guess i suppose or
well
you can even take a few seconds just to
think quickly
these are natural ways to just buy a few
seconds to think about your answer but
what about the individual response
questions jay
well with the individual response
questions where you speak on your own
you often have time to plan in the
planning time you should think of two or
three categories two or three different
things two or three experiences or even
two or three times
for example in ielts speaking part two
you might be asked to talk about
something like a gift from a friend or a
website or a time you got angry and you
have one minute to prepare
the best way to plan and structure these
types of talks is to talk about the past
present and future for example if you're
asked to talk about a gift you received
talk about a gift you receive when
you're a child a gift you received
recently and a gift you would like to
receive in the future this will create a
natural structure for your talk
plus if you speak about the past present
and maybe even the future you will
naturally use all those verb tenses we
talked about earlier and i like hearing
those key verb tenses they they really
do good things for your score
all right let's discuss ways that you
can build your confidence before test
day and your courage on test day
i've taken the ielts five times and i've
taken pt and toefl as well so i know
what it's like to feel the pressure of a
speaking test mark what's the best way
for speaking candidates to find courage
on test day
on test day concentrate on me the
examiner talk to me listen to me
don't pay attention to yourself
you have no idea what i'm going to ask
you so there's no point worrying about
it you almost have to let go and go with
what the examiner says
don't worry ielts examiners we're all
actually really kind we're trying to
give you the best score we can and we do
our best to make you feel comfortable we
want you to succeed as much as you do
but we have to score you according to
the criteria
so listen intently to me and speak
responsively to me and implement all of
these tips we've just given you
including
one using great collocations
two using key verb tenses
three
adding emphasis to specific words
and four using categories when planning
your talk
finally sit up straight look me in the
eye and give your best attempt
fantastic and leading up to test day you
can increase your confidence by
preparing by building your collocations
by improving your grammar by focusing on
word emphasis and practicing clever
structures
if you're taking a test like ielts pt
oet cell peep or toefl then check out
e2english.com and take our placement
test it's a great way to know if you
have the skills for your test it only
takes 15 or 20 minutes and then from
there you can check out our other skill
building courses if you need them
awesome my name is mark and thanks so
much for watching and we wish you the
best of luck in your speaking test my
name is jay good luck
[Music]
you