In IELTS, there will be three different parts of speaking test, each with ease and challenge. But one part that usually causes a trouble is the second part of the speaking. The second part of the speaking is the self presentation, giving the chance for the test takers to demonstrate their speaking skill without any interruption from the interviewer. The speech will be based on a guideline presented in a cue card. The speech will also be limited to two minutes, and thus too long pauses need to be handled to avoid giving yet-to-be-complete presentation.
Generate Great Ideas
From the explanation above, it can be said that arrangement of ideas will play an important role in speaking part 2. Arranging ideas can be improved by having profound background knowledge. Reading articles of a range of topics will be very helpful when you want to better generate great ideas without any difficulties.
Practice Makes Perfect
However, ideas are abstract. It still has to turned into a real speech. In this case, fluency will become an important aspect to consider. Talking with pauses, stuttering and too much time thinking will definitely lower your grade. Increasing fluency can be done by doing a lot of practice. Saying like "practice makes perfect" could sound a little cliché, but it actually works in speaking. Speaking is part of language performance, which is very practical. Merely reading books sometimes does not really help you with the spoken English.
Time Management
Time management is another aspect important enough to worry about. There are mostly four questions in the cue cards. The test takers have to answer all four questions in time. If there is even one question being skipped, that would probably mean a free fall for your speaking score. To make everything efficient and done just in time, the test takers need to limit the ideas to those that are most relevant. In this case, comparative explanations will be the key answer.
Expanding Ideas
Reason
Generating great ideas is one thing, but it is not the only thing. We still need to expand the ideas, and this can be done by giving reason and examples. Remember that reason is always mandatory. We always have to give reason for our answers. Do not give too short answers. The interviewer needs to assess your English knowledge and performance. If you answer using, say, three words like "No, I don't", then the interviewer may not be able to find a reason why we should get a good score in speaking. Every time we give a reason for our reason, we make it possible for the interviewer to assess our English. And by doing so, we actually give a reason for the interviewer to give us good score in speaking.
Example
When dealing with delicate topics, it is almost always difficult to simply think and talk about stuff. For example, when we talk about happiness. Happiness is quote an abstract concept to talk about. Some people may find this difficult, and one way to solve this problem is to give a real, concrete example, especially those happening around us.
Make A Comparative
This is done so that you can limit the reason to two to three reasons and two to three examples. Make a comprehensive explanation, but avoid digressing and give too much unnecessary explanations. I always have a concern that I give irrelevant explanations and that's why I almost limit my reason and examples to two, and focus on those.
Example of Cue Card
Helping Somebody
Describe the time when you helped a person
1. Who the person was
2. Why that person needed your help
3. How helped that person
4. What was the result of you helping that person
Sample Answer
1. One person that I ever helped was my classmate, named Bill. 2. Bill talked to me telling about his problem. He has been struggling with his work trying to get enough money for the college tuition. It turned out that it didn't even pay half of the whole tuition. His parents could no longer support him because they have to support his two other younger sisters, who are also going to school. 3. Unfortunately, I couldn't help him with the money either, so I decided to give him something else other than money. I happened to have a side job that can generate a huge amount of money. I invited him to get in, and he said yes. I could not finish the project my self because I have school. But with Bill's help, we finished the project earlier and we even were able to take up another project. 4. This ended up with me and Bill having salary that almost doubled the usual salary. Bill could finally able to deal with his tuition fee, and I finally find a partner to work.
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