Hi friends. In today's lesson, we're going to talk about different speaking strategies you can use to
help you score higher on the Duolingo English test, we'll take a look at the scoring criteria,
and then analyze it to help you score the best you can. When you take your own test, this video will
be very helpful, especially if you need to get a good score on the production sub score. Because of
course, the speaking questions contribute to your production score. And we will start in just one
second. But I want to say if you're new to this channel, Hi, I'm Teacher Luke from d t ready.com.
If you're looking for some courses or some tools to help you prepare for the Duolingo English test,
that's the website to go to. Okay, then well, let's get started. Let's first take a look at the
different speaking questions on this Duolingo test. There are three different speaking question
types on this exam. The first one is speak about the photo, you'll get this once on the test. Next
we have listen then speak, which you get twice on the test. Here you have to listen to a question
and answer through speaking. And lastly, we have read then speak, which you only get once on the
test. In this question, you have to read a prompt and then respond through speaking. For all of
these questions, you need to speak for at least 30 seconds, but you have 90 seconds in total to
answer. So those are the three graded speaking questions on this Duolingo English test. And as
you just saw, you have to answer four speaking questions in total, which is quite a lot. And that
does affect your production sub school. So you do need to learn how to answer these questions. Well,
which we will look at now the best way to learn how to answer them well is to analyze the scoring
criteria that you lingo provide for us. So let's do that now. And then I'll give you some
strategies to score high for each point on the criteria. So let's look at this criteria here. You
can find this on the D E T official guide. And these are the points you scored on for speaking.
points one and two are concerned with your grammar. So your accuracy and complexity. Points
three and four are concerned with your vocabulary, specifically your lexical sophistication, and
lexical diversity. What that basically means is the level and accuracy of your vocabulary. Point
five is task relevance how well you answer the question. Point six is fluency. And here it states
for how long you can speak for. And the last point is pronunciation, which is of course important
when you're speaking. Okay, so that's the scoring criteria. Now let's go over some strategies to
help you score well for each of these points will start off with point one and two, which is of
course all about grammar. To get a high score for grammar, you need to use a range of grammatical
structures, some simple and some complex as accurately as possible. If you just use a simple
structures, you won't score high for this point. Let's say a student said this. The story was
interesting. The story was unique. I enjoyed reading this book. Here, even though every
sentence is correct, the student only used simple structures, so she wouldn't get a good score here.
Instead, you need to try to use a range of grammatical structures to express your ideas. For
example, to make these three sentences more complex, you could say this. Since the story was
interesting and unique, I enjoyed reading it. In this example, this complex sentence would get you
a much higher score than if you just use simple structures. Here are some more examples of complex
structures. We have adverb clauses. For example, although I was busy, I always found time to read
this book. Another way to make your grammar more complex is to use relative clauses. These are
quite easy to use. Take a look at this example. The book was about zombies, which is something I'm
fascinated about. So when you're doing your speaking answer, it is important to use a range of
simple and complex sentences. That's how you get the highest score possible. In the past, I have
made videos on different complex sentences. I'll put a link somewhere down here in the video
description for you, but you need to learn them and you need to practice using them as accurately
as you can. You can of course use simple structures as well, but you need to mix them up
some simple and some difficult. Okay, now let's take a look at the next point, which is all to do
with vocabulary.
Even though the scoring criteria uses the word lexical, lexical means vocabulary. So what they
want to see is that you use a range of different vocabulary items and that use them accurately and
correctly in your sentences. A good way to use different vocabulary is to learn synonyms for
simple words. For example, interest in could become a engage in or fascinating, big could be
enormous or massive, sad, depressed or miserable, good, brilliant or impressive. You can also learn
some idioms like these examples here, or phrasal verbs like these examples here. Using a lot of
different types of words will help you score high for this test. So think of things like synonyms,
phrasal verbs, idioms, all of which I just showed you here. Remember, this is an English test. So
your ability to express yourself using different words is what the examiners are looking for. Okay,
moving on to the next point, which is task relevance. Task. Relevance means your quality of
your answer. So how well did you answer the prompt? It's important that you keep your answer
on topic. That means that you do talk about the prompts and questions you're given. If your answer
does not relate to the topic, then you may end up getting disqualified. So make sure your answers
are very closely related to the questions you're given. The next point is about fluency. In the
Duolingo test guide, they talk about how fluency refers to the length of your answer. So even
though you need to speak for more than 30 seconds, it is highly recommended that you speak for
longer, let's say between 60 and 90. Basically, the longer you speak, the higher your score for
fluency on this exam. But make sure that when you're given your answer, even if it is long that
your answer stays close to the topic, so task relevance, and you use correct grammar and
vocabulary, all of those are probably more important than speaking for a long time. And
lastly, we have pronunciation. Pronunciation. Of course, these are speaking questions. So
pronunciation is a really important part of speaking. But what are some things you can think
about in order to get a high score for pronunciation? The main point is that your answer
is easy to understand, so to speak clearly and at a good pace, not too slow, but definitely not too
fast. So you need to be able to pronounce most words correctly. In order to pronounce a word
correctly, you need to use the correct phonemes. A phoneme is the individual sound in a word, so BA,
PA, CA, da, etc. And make sure that the stress in the word is correct. word stress in English is
really important. For example, in the word important, the stress is on the second syllable
poor important. Next, you want to think about sentence stress and intonation. Mostly in English.
When we think about sentence stress, we put the stress on the content words, mostly verbs and
nouns, we don't often stress function words, grammar words, like articles or prepositions. And
lastly, if you're confident you can try to use connected speech connected speech is when words
join together. And this helps you speak more naturally and smoothly. There are lots of
different examples of connected speech, which I will cover in a later video. But an easy one you
can focus on to quickly improve is to use contractions. I'm sure you know what contractions
are, but try to use them when you're speaking. So here are some examples of contractions. I have
I've she would, she'd they are there, it will it'll, using simple contractions like these will
help your pronunciation sound a lot more native like and help you get a higher score for
pronunciation on this test. So now you know how to score high based on the scoring criteria for the
speaking questions. Now let's take a look at some tips to help you to answer easily and fluently.
These tips will be greatly helpful, and at the end, I'll show you a full practice answer which
you can analyze. Okay, let's take a look at some tips. My first tip is to respond to the prompts.
These prompts are here to guide you and give you ideas of what to talk about. So I always recommend
you go through each prompt point by point. That way, you'll almost certainly speak for the
required amount of time. Always expand your answers. So provide reasons or examples. Remember
that this is an English test. So you're supposed to show off your English. And the best way to show
off your English is by talking a lot about your ideas. So always expand on your answers, give
reasons give examples, anything to talk more about your ideas.
And use transition words and phrases. This will help your answer sound a lot more smooth. Here are
some different examples of transition words we have. Firstly, what's more Furthermore, moreover,
finally, one more thing I'd like to talk about. You can also use transition words to move between
questions for example, turning to the next question. Moving on to Question three. As for
Question three. Okay, so those were some tips. Now let's take a look at a sample question. With a
sample answer for you to analyze, I also want you to write out your answer below in the comments. I
know this is a speaking question, but still writing out your answer will be good practice for
you. And this is the question we'll answer.
I recently saw a live performance of Swan Lake at an art center in London, where I currently live.
Swan Lake is a famous ballet where many talented dancers and performers dress in amazing costumes
and perform live on stage with a full orchestra. Even though I don't particularly enjoy ballet, I
thoroughly enjoyed this show. Moving on to the last question, my favorite things about it were
the beautiful dancing and how the dedicated cast brought the characters to life on stage. The
training practice and preparation that must have gone into the show impressed me a lot. Another
thing I enjoyed was the music as it became increasingly dramatic as the show went on, which
kept me focused throughout the entire show. I had such a good time watching this ballet that it has
even inspired me to buy more tickets to live shows and experience more art in my spare time.
Okay, I hope this video was helpful. Now, I recommend you watch this video here because we'll
help you with your listening skills. Also very important for this test. Okay, thanks for
watching, and I'll see you here. Bye.