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TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 10: VOCABULARY FOR SPEAKING

Hello, and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

Today we'll look at how to make best use of yourvocabulary and get your meaningacross in the IELTS Speaking Test.

Knowing how to use yourvocabulary in different ways can help you maintainconversation.

When you find that you can't think of the right word, you can talk around the idea asthis candidate does here:

Do you think the children of famous people have it easy?

No, I don't think so. It must be very, very hard. You know, when I lived in Ecuador, Iknew a lot of famous people and they always have to have bodyguards, or they have

to live behind bars, you know, behind big walls, and children are always protected,and they don't have the freedom, so it's a big price you pay.

You can picture the surroundings from her description even though she has notnamed it.

She said 'have to have bodyguards' 'live behind bars' 'behind big walls'

'children are always protected' and 'they don't have the freedom'.

She paints a clear picture of what she means: 'live behind bars' - we imaginesomeone in jail; 'bodyguards' - employing someone to protect you and yourchildren.

The vocabulary used in her description accurately, effectively and successfullydescribes a 'gated community'.

The ability to use your vocabulary to describe something you don't have the exact

word for is called circumlocution. Circumlocution means 'talking aroundsomething' and is assessed as a vocabulary skill.

During the interview the examiner may use a word that you don't know the meaningof. Let's imagine the topic of computers in education comes up in the interview. Theinterviewer takes the opportunity to explore this area and says:

Computer technology plays a big role in children's education today. Do you think thebenefits of using computers are overrated?

Let's say you don't understand the word overrated. You can ask the interviewer whatthat word means, like this:

Computer technology plays a big role in children's education today. Do you think thebenefits of using computers are overrated?

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What do you mean by overrated?

I mean that the benefits are regarded too highly. They're exaggerated.

This is called asking for clarification. Apart from helping you answer, it shows theinterviewer an aspect of your speaking ability. There are several ways of asking forclarification. You could say:

Sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'overrated'.

Or

Would you mind explaining what 'overrated' means?

All these examples ask for clarification appropriately. They range from the leastformal what do you mean by ? to the most formal would you mind explaining?

It would be inappropriate in such a formal interview to just say:

What's overrated?

It would, however, be more to your advantage if you tried to guess the meaning ofoverrated and then checked with the interviewer whether your understanding iscorrect.

Let's try doing this.

You know from your own experience that the use of computers for education can begood and bad. The question asks about benefits. Benefits are good things but arethey overrated? Is there any part of the word you recognise?

It starts with 'over', a prefix you might know. You hear ofoverpopulation and

people being overweight. That's too many people and too fat. So 'over'probably means 'too much'. And it's not a good thing.

So you can check with the interviewer to see if you've understood by rephrasing the

question like this:

Computer technology plays a big role in children's education today. Do you think thebenefits of using computers are overrated?

Are you saying that the benefits of computer use might not be that good?

Yes, that's right.

Asking a question like this shows that you can use your vocabulary skilfully.

The questions in the Speaking Test interview are designed to encourage answers

that show you can use a range of language functions.

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The interviewer wants to see if you can express an opinion, orspeculate orgive a

suggestion.

It's a good idea to vary the ways you respond.

Take the question: Do you think there is too much violence in films today?

It's inviting you to express an opinion, like this:

As far as I'm concerned there is too much violence in films these days.

But there are other ways of expressing an opinion. Listen:

In my opinion there is too much violence in films these days.

From my point of view there is too much violence in films these days.

It seems to me that there is too much violence in films these days.

Well, I would say there is too much violence in films these days.

The same applies to speculating. Speculating means making suggestions, where

you don't necessarily know the right answer.

Here are some phrases you can use to speculate:

Why do teenagers vandalise public transport?

If I had to guess I'd say that it's boredom

I'm not sure but from my observation it's boredom

I imagine that the most important reason would be boredom

And here are some ways to give suggestions:

What would you do to improve public transport?

I think what should be done is increase services

The problem could be solved by increasing services

What might be done is increasing services

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