SPEAKING: OPPOSITE OPINION
My two golden rules for choosing the topic you will talk about for part two of the IELTS speaking test:
- Something you’re familiar with
- Something you have language to describe
With certain topics you may be best to be creative and shows a topic that is in reality opposite to the question have being asked. Let the explain a couple of potential situations:
- DESCRIBE A TV SHOW YOU DON’T LIKE
You should be very careful with this question because if you choose a show you really don’t like you may not watch it much and therefore you might not have a lot to say about it and you might lack the language to talk about it. It may be better to choose your favorite show and then pretend that you really don’t like this show. Start off by talking about why you don’t like the show and then later on you could mention something that you like about it. The key point is to start off by saying why you don’t like it so that you are answering the question.
- DESCRIBE AN OUTDOOR ACTIVITY YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY FOR THE FIRST TIME
You may struggle to describe an activity that you have never done before. I had a student who chose to talk about rugby… he had had very little to say and didn’t really have the language to talk about the sport. I then asked in what sport he does like to play. He said he liked soccer. We’d tried again, this time he pretended he would like to try soccer. This time he produced a great answer because he could talk about all the different positions and rules of the game…. So what I’m saying is it might be better to pick an outdoor activity that you already do and then pretend you’d like to try doing it, rather than picking something you have never done that you don’t really know much about.
STARTING SPEAKING PART TWO…PLACE
Let’s continue with the idea from my last post, about how to start the answer to part two of a speaking test. Note that the first word is always “describe” so the function is always to describe something. The best way to start off your 2 minute speech is by directly address and the object you will describe… In this case let’s look at a place to describe.
We can use standardised opening phrases for any question, and then just modified to the particular question.
STANDARDISED OPENING PHRASES
The place [rephrase topic]is…
The reason I’d like to talk about [place]…..is because……
EXAMPLE:
The place of historic significance that I’d like to talk about is London Bridge.
The reason I’d like to talk about London Bridge is because of its deep significance to London.
Some common speaking questions and model answers: