Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking
43
The problem with these questions is that many
candidates give very direct
―information-focused‖ responses. It is quite common for candidates to response to these
questions in the following way:
Maybe once a week
In
New World Department store,
At weekends and in the evenings.
In the evening before I sleep.
My parent or my friends.
As we have discovered, It is almost impossible to achieve
a high score with this
type of answer. The key to these questions is to answer the question with two or three
different responses. Example:
―how often do you go to the cinema?‖
―Well to be honest, I think I would have to say that it really depends. Like for
instance,
if I have the money, then it’s quite possible that I will watch a movie in the
cinema, two or three times a month. You know cinema tickets are pretty pricey in China.
Whereas in contrast, if I’m broke, it’s more likely that I’ll watch movies at home on DVD;
you probably know that DVDs are quite cheap here, especially compared to the price of a
cinema ticket.‖
The key to the answer is the structure ―it depends‖. If you use this, you can produce
a ―situational contrast‖ which allows you to use contrast language (linking words).
The first step is too select an opening phrase:
Well to be honest …
Actually to be fair …
In actual fact …
Well in truth …
Well in all fairness …
In fact, in all honesty …
Now select a ―depends‖ phrase:
… I think I would have to say that it is really depends.
… I suppose I would have to maintain that it kind of depends really.
… I imagine that it would depend on the situation.
… I guess my answer would be determined by different conditions.
Now select a linking phrase:
Like for instance …
Like more specifically …
Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking
44
You know like, to be exact …
More precisely like …
Like, to be more direct …
Notice that all of these linking phrases include the word ―like‖. In these structures
―like‖ is a conjunction used as a meaningless filler word. This is very typical of informal
native-native speaker English.
It is important to get the next step exactly right. The success of this structure relies
on the following conditional grammar structure:
Select one of the following:
If (situation A) … then I will most likely …
If (situation A) … then it’s quite possible that I will …
If (situation A) … then as a consequence I will probably …
If (situation A) … then I guess it’s quite likely that I will …
Your answer is going to compare two different situations or conditions. These can
be quite flexible. Here are some possible ideas to use:
