tips and useful phrases for speaking

FCE tips: speaking part 2: describing picturesAims to help students compare and contrast different pictures.. Tip 1 In the exam, the examiner will give one of the candidates two pictures

FCE tips: speaking part 2: describing pictures

Aims to help students compare and contrast different pictures

Tip 1

In the exam, the examiner will give one of the candidates two pictures The first thing they will ask the candidate to do is to show the pictures to the other

candidate(s) This means that everyone has seen the pictures and it is therefore perfectly acceptable to say 'this picture' and point More complex language such as 'the top picture' or 'the former/ the latter' is, of course, even better

Tip 2

The examiner will then give the candidate precise instructions about what they should say about the pictures The instructions always have two parts, so students should listen very carefully

Tip 3

If there is anything a student doesn't understand about a question, they should ask the examiner to repeat If they still don't understand, they should ask again They should remember that they are being tested on their speaking in this part of the exam, not their listening comprehension However, one thing they are being scored

on is their ability to actually answer the question they are asked

Tip 4

Asking the examiner to repeat can actually be the perfect opportunity to show off some complex language - e.g 'I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch the last part', 'If I can just check what you are saying, you'd like me to ', 'I'm not quite sure what

(contrast) means', etc

Tip 5

The examiner almost always asks the students to 'compare and contrast the two pictures' They will never be asked to simply describe them Any activities giving oral practice of comparing language (more than, less than, (not) as as, similar to, etc.) and contrasting language (although, whereas, however, etc.) are good practice for this See lesson plan for examples

Tip 6

The second part of the question is usually about giving some kind of opinion e.g 'Compare and contrast the two holidays and say which you would prefer'

Language like 'in my opinion' and 'personally' can be very useful here

Tip 7

Students should make sure they are talking to the examiner (and the other

candidate) rather than to the picture! This can be practised in the classroom by getting students to turn over the picture once they have taken a glance at it, or even getting them to do a task with imaginary pictures

Tip 8

The examiner will interrupt the student speaking after one minute, even if they are halfway through a sentence Being interrupted is actually good, as it means they haven't run out of things to say

Tip 9

As the examiner takes the photos away from the first candidate, they will ask the other candidate a question about those photos Again, this is probably a question of opinion, e.g 'Which holiday would most people prefer?’ This only requires a short answer, but is a perfect chance to show they have been listening to what their partner said, with language such as 'As (Juan) said ', or 'I agree entirely with (Lee Yan).'

USEFUL PHRASES FOR FCE SPEAKING EXAM

PART 1

I'm speaking English for my own satisfaction / my job / in order to improve my employment prospects

If you want to go ahead these days, you need to have a good command of English

I always loved (the sea)

I'd love to visit places untouched by man

However, there's no place like home

That's a big question!

I want to be a useful member of society

I'm keen on

I'm an avid (traveler, zapalony)

I haven't given it much thought until now

PART 2 - COMPARING CONTRASTING

In both of these pictures there are …Both pictures ….………… is similar in that it's ………slightly more (adjective) than ………….far more (adjective) than

……….considerably more (adjective) than… …… differ in several ways … Another important difference is ……On the one hand …., on the other

………while ……… whereas… In contrast

………Although …………., ………

The impression I get is that … As far as I can work out, it's …

I could be wrong, but …… I wouldn't be surprised if …

This looks like it's …… There's something that looks like …

It looks as if it might be … It's a kind of …

It could be ………

I think he's probably ….ing Perhaps he's … ing

It comes across as if he's … He looks as if he's … ing

If I were …

What strikes me about the first picture is the fact that

This picture reminds me of

Judging from the photograph, the children

The man appears to be

From what we can see here, he must

There are many similarities

Both picture depict

Both picture are quite similar in that they show

When you give it a closer look it reveals

The first picture whereas the other picture

Another important difference is

Picture doesn't show as clearly as

Picture attempts to but I think picture does this more effectively

All pictures are interesting, but gives a stronger idea of

It's difficult to tell from a photograph but this picture could have been taken in

I might be wrong, but I'd say that this picture

I would imagine/guess that this picture comes from

Picture is by far the best to show because

To me, picture is essential for this kind of publication

I'm surprised there is no picture showing

A picture of would get the message across more effectively

The cover would be so much better if we had a picture of

So let's look at the alternatives

The name for this escapes me at present, but it's for/it's like

The name for it is on the tip of my tongue

PART 3 & 4

Up to the problem in question

The main problem centres around

It's my belief

For my part

As I see it

As I was saying

I forgot to mention

I'm of the opinion that

To my mind

To my way of thinking

I am convinced that

I am inclined to believe that

Don't get me wrong but shouldn't we ?

Judging by they must be

is a separate issue

Moving on to

Taking everything into account

I couldn't agree more

I agree up to a point

I think I see what you mean, but

I'm in two minds about it / I'm ambivalent about

I don't see eye to eye with you here

That's true in a way, I suppose, but

I don't feel convinced

That's one way of looking at it On the other hand

Can you take a clear stand on that matter?

It brings to the question / idea / problem of

Perhaps we should put first? What do you think?

A strong point in favour of is that

What do you think should go next?

Are you happy with this order then?

Do you go along with that?