Producing a Good Quality Part Two Talk
The Fluency-based Strategy for Part Two IELTS Speaking Test
This
strategy focuses on the fluency aspect of the marking system. Earlier in this
book we concluded that linking words and linking phrases can increase your
"Fluency" score – this strategy is based on producing good quality
linking structures in your two-minute talk and combines these with complex
sentence structures.
First look at the following
topic card.
Describe a sport that you like playing or watching.
What
the sport is
How
often you play / watch it
Why
you like it
Whether it is popular in your country.
The
first thing to notice is that all topic cards have one thing in common.
Look carefully at the 4
prompts on any topic card and you should notice that they all share the same
grammar feature.
What the sport is
How often you play / watch it
Why you like it
Whether it is popular in your country.
Most
people think that these are 4 questions. Look carefully – they are not
questions: they are in fact a single clause or part of a sentence (statement).
This fact is true for every Part Two topic card.
For
this strategy, you can divide your talk into 4 Parts (the 4 prompts). Take the
first one for example: "What the sport is".
You can use this to create
your opening sentence.
I
guess I could begin by saying something about what the sport is, and I think I would
have to choose football. Most people know that football is...
This
sentence has 3 strong features. It contains complex linking structures,
redundant language and complex grammar (sentence structure).
Another
advantage of using this type of structure is that you don’t really need much
content because you will probably spend almost one minute producing the complex
linking phrases.
If
used correctly, this structure will have a positive affect on your
"Fluency" and "Grammar" scores.
Now
look at the second prompt: “How often you play / watch it” (you need to change
"you" to "I")
Going
on to my next point which is how often I play it. I really need to add that if
I have enough time I usually play it about twice a week. In fact...
And
then the third prompt: "Why you like it". The third sentence could
be:
And
now with reference to why I like it, the point I want to make here is that...
And
the last prompt: "Whether it is popular in your country". The fourth
sentence:
And
so finally then, if I have time, in answer to the question of whether it is
popular in my country, really I should mention that...
So the final structure
(without content) might look like this:
I
guess I could begin by saying something about what the sport is, and I think I
would have to choose... Going on to my next point which is how often I play it,
I really need to add that... And now with reference to why I like it, the point
I want to make here is that...
And so finally then, if I have time, in answer to the question of whether it is
popular in my country, really I should mention that...
Practice reading the
structure above. Depending on the speed it should take you between 30 ~ 45
seconds. This means that you only need about one minute of content. As there
are 4 points, you only to find about seconds of actual content for each point.
Now
look at the next topic card with a complete structure with content.
Describe
a famous person you would like to meet.
You
should say
Who the person
is
Why he /
she is famous
Why you
would like to meet this celebrity
What you would
like to do if you met this person.
I
guess I could begin by saying something about who this person is, and I think I
would have to choose the superstar Jackie Chan from Hong Kong.
Going on
to my next point which is why he is famous. I really need to add that he is a
world-renowned martial arts film star as well as being a successful director.
In fact he was probably the first
Chinese actor to achieve blockbuster success in Hollywood.
And now with reference to why I would like to meet this celebrity, the point I
want to make here is that I have always been a big fan of martial arts movies,
so if I had the chance to meet one of
my childhood idols, it would be a dream come true.
And so finally then, if I have time, in answer to the question of what I would
like to do if I met him, really I should mention that I would probably ask him
to teach me a few special Kung Fu tricks and I would possibly invite him out
for dinner at a classy restaurant or something like that.
The
structure is complete in the example above but it probably needs slightly more
content (maybe one more sentence for each point). However, there are many very
good features in the example so far.
Analysis
I guess I could begin
by saying something about who this person is, and I think I would have to choose the superstar Jackie Chan from Hong Kong.
(The
first point is quite simple, but for most Part Two topics the first point is
usually just a simple factual introduction.)
Fluency: the sentence begins with a linking phrase and contains redundant
language.
Vocabulary: one topic-related word – superstar.
Grammar: complex structure and use of complex tense –
"I would have to choose..."
Going on to my next
point which is why he is famous, I really need to add that he is a world-renowned martial arts film star as well as
being a successful director. In fact he was probably the first Chinese actor to achieve blockbuster success in
Hollywood.
Fluency: the sentence begins with a linking structure and contains 3 more
connecting structures: "I really need to add that", "in
fact", "as well as".
Vocabulary: topic-related uncommon words: world-renowned, blockbuster success.
Grammar: the use of the connecting
structures makes it one long and complex sentence.
And now with reference
to why I would like to meet this celebrity, the point I want to make here is
that I have always been a big fan of martial arts movies, so if I had the
chance to meet one of my childhood idols, it would be a dream come true.
Fluency: begins with a linking phrase, and contains 2 other connectives.
Vocabulary: topic-related uncommon word: childhood idol; idiomatic phrase: dream comes true.
Grammar: the sentence is complex and contains examples of
conditional tense - "so if I had the chance to meet one of my childhood
idols, it would be…”
And so finally then,
if I have time, in answer to the question of what I would like to do if I met
him, really I should mention that I would probably ask him to teach me a few
special Kung Fu tricks and I would possibly invite him out for dinner at a
classy restaurant or something like that.
Fluency: begins with a linking phrase and contains redundant language – or something like that.
Vocabulary: uncommon words: tricks, classy.
Grammar: the sentence structure is complex and contains
examples of conditional tenses: "would probably", "would
possibly".
Overall Analysis
Each
of the four points covered in this Part Two talk focuses on all 3 areas of the
marking system (we can’t really work on pronunciation at this stage).
In
summary, everything the candidate says is in some way increasing the speaking
score.
Notice
that the actual "content" that is presented doesn't really make any
difference to the score.
This style of response is
probably the easiest way to achieve a score of 7 or higher in Part Two.
Important Note
Notice
that in the answers. the candidate doesn’t change the wording from the topic
card. If you start changing the wording you will begin to make grammar errors
and this will reduce your "Grammar" score.
You
can make very slight changes if you are 100% sure the change is correct, e.g.:
Who the person is -> Who
he is
Why you would like to meet
this person -> Why I would like to meet this star
Changing
one or two words is fine but change the actual structure of the clause on the
topic card or your whole sentence could be grammatically wrong.
