The dangers of IELTS Speaking models
This website posts 'model speaking answers' on LinkedIn.
The question here is "What are your favourite websites?"
Look at the yellow areas I've highlighted as problematic - can you guess what I'm going to say?
This language is WRITTEN language, and therefore too formal for Speaking Part 1.
They have chosen language they think will 'impress the examiner'.
It will impress the examiner much more if you use natural language,
For example:
- swiftly = quickly
- in my leisure time (?free time?)
- I, like everyone else, (?not everyone goes on Facebook in their free time)
- since = 'cos
- (The Guardian isn't a website, it's a newspaper. Also Google isn't a website, it's a search engine)
- information = stuff/info
- discover = find
- require = need
- it allows you to = it lets you
- you may = you can
- frequently = often
and the only way you can acquire this is to listen to people speaking naturally.
It is something you need to work on regularly, as I do with my students, keeping a list of informal expressions that you hear being used naturally.
When trainee teachers observe my lessons where I spend some time looking at rephrasing formal language, they always say:
"I'd never thought of that before"
and my students always say
"I've never been taught informal language, so I only use the formal language I get from reading".
