Thanksgiving story

Victoria and Ciara

Speaking & talking

Speaking: click here for a list of topics.

Talking: click here  for examples. It is very important to justify your points of view as well as to listen to what your partner says and react (i.e. agree, disagree, add ideas, offer solutions or suggestions...)

In the speaking and talking test, you often need to think about what to say next. But this does not mean that you cannot demonstrate your command of English while you are thinking. When English native speakers do not know what to say, they are not completely silent. They use conversation fillers – words and phrases to fill the space. Here are some examples: 

While listening

• Really?
• Right
• Sure
• How awful!
• Oh no!
• You're joking!
• What a pity!
• Auxiliary verbs to make short questions (as in "Have you? did you? Is it?...")
• Non-words (as in "mmm, uh-huh...")

While speaking

• Well
• Ok
• So
• Let me think...
• I mean
• I guess/think
• You know
• Like (as in "I'm... like... really sad that you lost your...")
• What I want to say is…
• The point I want to make is....
• Anyway,…
• Well, what I mean is that …
• Back to our topic …
• As I was saying …
• The basic idea is…
• kind of... (as in "he's kind of nice...")

Exam practice

Download here and here

Password: book4joy

How to prepare the oral exam

Prepare vocabulary and ideas on these topics:

• Food/ eating out
• Family
• Money
• Experiences

Follow this structure:

• Introduce yourself and the topic: My name is ... and I'm going to talk about ...
• General comment: I've chosen the topic of .... as it is a very controversial issue at the moment.
• Stucture your discourse and introduce each point with a a connector: First, to start with, on the one hand, etc.
• Make use of the grammar and vocabulary seen in class.
• Conclusion: To sum up (to conclude, etc.) I would like to say that... / I would like to finish saying that ...

This is what is taken into account in the oral exam:

• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Entonation/pronunciation/rhythm
• Use of connectors (especially in speaking)
• Use of discourse markers: I mean, well, you know, it’s kind of, it’s sort of, it’s like, actually, what I mean is, what I try to say is,etc.
• Interaction (in talking)

Really?

Honestly?

What a great/horrible idea!

I agree/disagree with you

I think/don’t think so.

I see what you mean.

Oh! I see

Yes, sure.

Yes, you are right.

Yes, that’s right.

Exactly.