Hi friends! Welcome to this Duolingo English test Speaking Lesson in today's lesson,
we're going to take a look at the describe a photo through speaking question type. This question type
is so important because it contributes heavily to your production sub score. And I know a lot of you
want to get a good score in production. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to describe a
photo well through speaking. But before we begin that if you're new to this channel, Hi, I'm
Teacher, Luke from DT very.com. If you're looking for more tools to study for the Duolingo English
test, I recommend you visit our website. That's DETREADY.COM Okay, anyway, back to this lesson.
Describing a photo is not an easy thing to do in English. So I think this video is going to be so
helpful. So what type of photos might you get? For this question? Let's take a look at some sample
ones. Now. There are many different types of photos on this test. Some might look like this
one, this one or this one. Even though there are lots of types of photos, the way you describe them
can be the same, which I will show you later in my tips. If you learn a strategy, like I'll show you
then you don't have to worry about the type of photo you'll get. Let's talk more about this
question. And then I'll show you those types. Here are the key points of this question type. You have
90 seconds to complete it, but you need to speak for at least 30 seconds. So the minimum
requirement is 30 seconds, but I highly recommend you speak for longer. And of course, I will show
you how to do that later in this video. For this question type you have 20 seconds to prepare.
Luckily, you can see the photo while speaking so you don't have to memorize it or anything like
that. And it's important to know that you cannot rerecord your answer. You only have one chance to
do this correctly, and it contributes to your production and conversation subscores. So those
are the key points. The important ones are that you need to speak for over 30 seconds and that you
cannot re record your answer. Remember, you only have one chance at this if you make a mistake,
just continue. Don't start over again. Now let's take a look at the scoring criteria for this
question type. And there are four main categories you need to be aware of. The first category is
content. Basically, how well do you describe the photo? Next is grammar and vocabulary. Duolingo
are looking for the level and variety of your grammatical structures and your vocabulary. Next
is fluency. And in the Duolingo official guidebook, they say that fluency is how long you
can talk for in a limited time. And lastly, we have pronunciation, which is how clearly you can
speak knowing how your score is so important because now you can tailor your answers around the
scoring criteria. Remember, you should describe the photo as well as you can use a variety of
grammar and vocabulary, use clear pronunciation and speak for as long as you can. If you do all
four of those things, you'll score very high for this question type. But now let's go into some
specifics. How can you score well on this question type of based on this criteria? Well, I have five
tips for you to help you score better. And each tip is equally important. So watch this video all
the way to the end from now, it will help you a lot when you do this question on the Duolingo
English test. And the first tip is to help you score better on content and the tip is don't
label. So what do I mean by labeling? Well, if you look at this photograph here, if a student just
labeled the photograph, then the answer would be something like this. It's a coffee shop, I see a
barista. There are lots of shelves, and there is one chair. If you just label the photo, like I did
here as an example, then you won't score high for content or grammar and vocabulary. Why? Well,
you're not describing the picture fully, you're just labeling what is in it, and you're only using
simple grammatical structures. So don't do that. Instead, you want to describe using descriptive
language. That way you'll describe the photo better, and you'll use more complex grammar and
vocabulary, both of which will help you get a really good score for this question type. And
here's a better example of that.
This is a photo of a stylish and modern coffee shop. Behind the counter. There are several
shelves that have been hung on the wall with plants, bags of coffee, and other items placed on
them. An empty wooden chair is facing the counter on the left of the photo. So this example has lots
of descriptive language. These words and phrases in red are what we would consider descriptive
language things like adjectives, prepositions, and extra information to describe the photo. Well.
It's important to remember that to get a really good score for this question. You need to use
descriptive language in your answer like in this example here, don't just label it. If you label
you will not get a good score for this question type. Of course describing a photo in this much
detail is not easy. So you do need to practice this a lot on top of practicing my other tips in
this video will help you a lot. So let's move on to tip number two, which is to learn some
introductory statements. Sometimes the hardest thing to do when you're answering a speaking
question is actually to begin speaking, a lot of students get stuck because they don't know how to
begin. So learn in some introductory statements, basically sentences to introduce your answer will
be really helpful. I have five for you here. You can say this is a picture of this photo shows. In
this image there is there are or you can use more adjectives in your answer. For example, this is a
stunning photograph off, you can change stunning with another adjective like beautiful. You can
also say, in this photo, I can see. So here are some examples. This is a photograph of a stylish
coffee shop with a barista working behind the counter. This is an image of a young girl riding a
horse down a country lane. This is a photo of a highway that leads to a big urban city. And notice
in these examples that we use the present simple or present continuous when describing a photo. So
you've given your first sentence, that's great, but now you need to go into detail. And one good
way to do that is to describe the location of things in the photo, basically talking about where
things are in the photograph. And this is a great way to go into detail for your answer. So let's
look at how you can do that. Now. Tip three, what is where, and there are some ways to do this, you
might want to start from left to right or right to left, top to bottom or bottom to top, far to near
or near to far. If you go in a logical order and stick to it, then describing where things are
located in a photo becomes a lot easier. And you should also use prepositional phrases for this to
the left to the right, on top of above, at the top, in the center, or in the middle, in the
corner, at the bottom, under the neath underneath or below. Here are a bunch of extra different ones
you can use as well. Using these types of phrases when describing a photo will be great because
you'll describe the photo in lots of detail that will get you a good score for content. And also
you'll get a good score for vocabulary because if you use these phrases, well then you will have a
diverse set of vocabulary in your answer. And that's what Duolingo wants to see. Let me show you
how to use these in a sample answer. Behind the counter. There are several shelves that have been
hung on the wall with plants, bags of coffee, and other items placed on them in front of the
shelves. A barista is hard at work, probably making a cup of coffee. The menu is written on a
tall Blackboard, which is to the left of the barista. Also, on the right side of the photo,
there's a large coffee machine. And next to it. There are three other machines that are used to
make coffee. As you can see using these prepositional phrases as a great way to describe a
photo because your answer becomes very descriptive. And like I said, That's what Duolingo
wants you to do. So that was tip number three talking about what is wearing a photo. But that's
not enough. You can't speak for 60 to 90 seconds just using this technique. You might also want to
talk about who is doing what and that's tip number four, who is doing what? In this tip, we want to
look at the people or objects in the photo and describe what they are doing. You can use the
present continuous an action verbs to do this well. So let's take a look at this photo. What are
the two ladies in this photo doing?
Here's an example answer. A woman in the Navy jacket is pointing a pan at the laptop while the
lady in red is reading the information on the screen. How about this photo again, you could say
the barista is working behind the counter and waiting for customers to serve. If there are
people or animals or something moving in the photo, then this becomes very easy. You just use
the present continuous tense but what if you get a photo which doesn't have an object or a person
moving? What can you do then? Well, let's take a look here. If there's no actions in the photo, you
should use the present simple plus an adjective. For example, the boat is stuck on the beach. As
you can see here, you don't need to use complex or difficult grammar to do this. Well. You just need
to use the present continuous or present simple tense when we're describing a photo in English we
often just use the present tenses. Okay, now you've learned how to give an introductory
restatements talk about the location of things and talk about who is doing what if you could do those
three things really well, that will really help you get a better score. But there's one more thing
you need to do to get the highest score. And that's use really descriptive language to add
details. And that's tip number five. Use descriptive language. Now the first easy way to
use descriptive language to add details is to use adjectives. Remember, adjectives describe nouns in
more detail, and I highly recommend you use as many adjectives as you can when describing the
photo. It will boost your score for vocabulary and content. Let's take a look at some examples. My
simple sentence could be this is a photo of a highway that leads to a city. Okay, that's not
bad. But let's use some adjectives to describe this photo better. For example, this is a photo of
a busy highway that leads to a large city. How about this example? This is a photo of a man who
is giving a presentation with some adjectives your answer could be. This is a photo of a tall man who
is given an important presentation. Using adjectives is a fantastic way to add more details
and information to your answer. And you don't need to use complex or really difficult adjectives just
simple ones will do fine. You can also use adverbs as well. Remember, adverbs modify a verb they give
more information about the verb. Let's take a look at some examples. This photo, the beautiful horses
are galloping through the green fields. With an adverb you can say the beautiful horses are
quickly galloping through the green field. In this sentence, the adverb is after the be verb. But it
can also come at the end of the sentence like this. The beautiful horses are galloping through
the green field quickly. Another example. This is an image of a young girl riding a horse down a
country lane with an adverb. This is an image of a young girl riding a horse carefully down a country
lane are again at the end of the sentence. Those are five tips. Now let's look at a full answer to
show you how it's constructed from start to finish. This is a photo of a coffee shop with a
barista behind the shop counter. The barista is working, possibly making some coffee and waiting
for customers to serve. Behind the counter. There are several shelves that have been hung on the
wall with plants, bags of coffee, and other items placed on them. The menu is written on the top of
Blackboard, which is to the left of the barista. Also on the right side of the photo, there's a
large coffee machine. And next to it, there are three other machines that are used to make coffee.
The coffee shops design is very stylish and natural because the counters and the shelves are
made of wood, and the chair in front of the counter is also wooden. Even though there aren't
any customers present at the moment, I think it's likely a popular place for local residents and
tourists to visit. Now you know how to describe a photo well through speaking but what about through
writing? This video here will help you with that. You'll learn a structure to describe a photo
through writing and I'll show you lots and lots of examples. So click it and I'll see you in this
video. Bye