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Written Nov. 5, 2008
How To Speak in Part 2 (Page
6)
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How to Begin Talking
Summary: A formal-sounding introduction is unnecessary.
Instead, 'jump straight into the story'. A particularly strong first
sentence includes a relative pronoun (such as 'which' or 'who') and a summary
of your answer to the last line of the card.
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Many candidates are not sure how to begin talking in Part 2. As
mentioned previously, it is not a good idea to begin with words such as, "I'd
like to tell you about ..." because that beginning doesn't
seem suitable for a 'conversation situation', which is what the Speaking test
represents. In other words, it is not necessary to give a formal-sounding
introduction to your Part 2 'story'.
Not
only that, so many candidates begin by saying, "I'd like to tell you about ..."
that
it's boring for examiners to hear.
Although
I say it's not a good idea to begin with those words, it's not really 'wrong' or
a mistake. I mean there are better ways to begin, that are more suitable and
more interesting to hear.
So what is the best way to begin? In general, I suggest just 'jumping
straight into the story', in a way that seems natural in a conversational
situation. I think there is no one way to speak your first sentence for every
Part 2 – it depends on the
type of topic question and I think there are some logical ways to begin these
different 'types' of Part 2 topics.
For example,
many Part 2 topics ask you to talk about an experience you have had. For these,
the logical beginning is to mention the time of this experience in your first
sentence. If the topic is, "Describe some useful advice that you have
received" a suitable way to 'jump into the story' is to begin by
saying, "About three years ago I was discussing my future
career with my parents and my father gave me some really useful advice. He said
..."
That's quite a good beginning, for the following reasons:
-
You indicated the time of the experience. Whenever you use the past
tense, the listener (or reader) must know when it happened. It is
incorrect in English to use the past tense if the listener does not know
that. This time can be rather general, for example, "One day, .."
or "A long time ago ..." etc. but it must be known by the
listener.
[Many people make this past tense mistake because they use the past
tense when they really mean to use the Present Perfect tense, such as,
"I've eaten food from several different countries." It's not
necessary to indicate the time when using the Present Perfect tense because
this tense is used to talk about an experience "before now". But the
Part 2 topics never ask you to use the present perfect tense in your answers,
although the first line might introduce the topic by using the Present Perfect
tense for example: "Describe some useful advice you have received."
Part 2 doesn't ask you to use the Present Perfect tense when you answer the 4
points on the card because these points are specific details about this past
experience and we always use the past tense when speaking about specific
points in the past, not simply stating that you have had a certain
experience.]
-
It is also a good beginning because it indicates the situation (having a
discussion with your parents) when you received the advice.
However, although that is a good beginning, it could be even better. A key idea for
beginning your Part 2 story, whatever the topic, is to summarize
the point of the last line on the task card in your first sentence.
Here's an example: "About
three years ago I was discussing my future career with my parents and my
father gave me some advice, which was really useful because it saved me
from making a big mistake in my choice of career. He said ..."
Summarizing the last point in your first sentence is a very useful thing
to do because:
-
This point is the key idea to your whole story. By mentioning this point
at the very beginning you make the whole story much easier to follow. It
helps to make your story strongly coherent.
-
You use a complex sentence to say this, using the linking word (the
relative pronoun), 'which'. When the examiner hears you say that, he or she
will immediately think, "Maybe a 6 or more for grammar."
-
If you don't manage your speaking time well and the examiner tells you
to stop talking after two minutes, before you have spoken about the last
point on the card, you will lose points for coherence. That is, you didn't
complete the task. But if you use this key idea and mention the last point
first and still don't have time to say any more about the last point later
in your story, the examiner will think, "Well, you didn't say much
about the last point but you did explain it in a summarized form in your
first sentence" and you will not lose points for coherence.
In general, the models are these:
".... noun, relative pronoun + verb + key adjective + because
...."
or,
".... noun, relative pronoun + verb + because"
Some examples:
" .... a
dog called a Shar-pie, which was very interesting to me because I
had never before seen a dog with so much loose skin."
"... a
restaurant, which I especially like because ... "
" When I
was in junior high school I had a maths teacher Mr. Wang, who
really influenced me a lot because he completely changed my attitude towards
mathematics."
Of course, variations of these models are possible. For example:
"... Mr. Wang, who really influenced me a
lot by completely changing my attitude towards mathematics."
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