TRANSCRIPT

Every year, over three million ESL learners take the IELTS exam. But the truth is, everyone has a different study style. There are five different ways to study for the IELTS speaking exam, and today I will teach you all of them. Welcome to Speak English with Tiffani. I am teacher Tiffani, let’s jump right in. Number one, the note-taking style.

This style is used by the learner who likes to hand-write their notes and highlight all key information. It focuses on the use of books, other English resources, and reviewing all of the information. Let’s meet Muhammad. He’s from India and the reason why he’s studying for the IELTS speaking exam is because he wants to study in Europe for graduate school, and his study style is note-taking.

The first thing he should do is read a lesson from the book he chose about the IELTS speaking exam. Let’s pause really quickly. One thing you have to remember is, there are hundreds of possible questions that could be on this exam and it is impossible to memorize all of the answers for these questions. Categories are the best things to study, categories or formulas that are related to the questions.

You need to find a book that teaches you categories instead of just questions. You’re welcome to get my e-book How to Pass the IELTS Speaking Exam by clicking the link in the top right of the screen. I discussed it in a previous video. Or you can get any other book but remember, they need to focus on categories or formulas for answering questions. Let’s keep going. He should make sure that he understands the principles of the lesson.

The second thing he should do is, highlight the important points from the lesson. He should find the parts that will be helpful as he prepares for the IELTS speaking exam. This is very important.

After he’s found those highlights, he should write the highlighted portions in his notebook. Remember that writing is important to his study style because it will help him remember the information. Everything that he highlighted needs to go directly into his notebook.

The fourth thing he should do is, connect the highlighted portions with something else he already knows. Remember that making a connection is another way to help him remember. From the previous screen where he wrote all of the highlighted information, now what he did, he chose his hand to connect with the information.

There are one, two, three, four, fives pieces of information related to the relationship with others, the category. He chose D for describe, one, two, three for the first, second, and third characteristic, and he chose O for the outcome. These are the pieces of information important for using to respond to a question in this category and he used his hand. What’s gonna happen is, he should memorize the highlighted information and the connection.

This step will have a big impact on his ability to remember the information when he takes the exam. After he’s memorized, the sixth thing he should do is apply what he memorized. This step will give him the opportunity to create his own answers based on what he learned from reading and highlighting information from the book. Let’s look at his answer a little closer. The question they ask him is, do you get along with your colleagues?

Very quickly, colleagues, this word just refers to people you work with, people you work with. In English we say, colleague. Again, colleague. What does this come from? This category is relationships with others. Remember, he’s memorized this, relationship with others. He has this memorized by the connection he made with his hand. Let’s look at his answer. He says, “Yes, I get along well with my colleagues.” He answered D. Why?

He described colleagues. Then he says, “The three main characteristics of our relationship are trust, honesty, and teamwork.” You got it? He answered number one, number two, and number three for this category. Finally, “So, I feel like my relationship with my colleagues will continue to get stronger and the years go by.” I feel like, now he’s talking about the outcome. So he did it correctly using his study style.

The last thing he needs to do is practice. However, in order to practice properly, he needs to make sure his answers are good and his grammar is okay. In other words, he needs someone to help him. The problem is, he doesn’t know where to find a native English speaker in his country, but there is a solution. Cambly. I was so happy to partner with Cambly for this video. Cambly is a company that focuses on giving one-on-one tutoring in English for students. It’s amazing. What happens is all the lessons are recorded so you can watch them over and over again.

They have tutors from the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK. Their tutors are available 24/7. That’s right, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it’s always a one-on-one private English lesson and they offer tutors that specifically are trained to help you with IELTS. The other thing I love about this company is, they said that they want to offer you as my student a free 15 minute tutoring lesson. That’s right, a free lesson.

The link is in the description so you need to get it as soon as possible. Also, if you wanna keep studying with them as a tutoring session, you can get 10% off all of their plans. It’s an amazing offer. Cambly, click the link in the description. Let’s keep going now to number two, the verbal style. This style is used by the learner who likes to speak more when they are studying. It mainly focuses on using repetition to remember the information that was studied.

Let’s meet Anh. She is from Vietnam and the reason why she is studying for the IELTS speaking exam is because she wants to get a job in Australia next year, and her study style is verbal. The first thing that she should do is, find a lesson in the book she chose about the IELTS speaking exam. Then, she needs to read the main points from the lesson out loud, that’s right, three times. Remember, this is the verbal style so speaking is the most important.

The second thing she should do is, create a song, a rap, a jingle, or something like that from the lesson. She should find the parts that will be helpful as she prepares for the IELTS speaking exam. Here, Anh has chosen to pick the ability category and there are three points from this category that she chose from the lesson.

She made a song or a jingle to go along with it. Her jingle, I’ll do it really quickly for you, is, ability, ability, tell me all about it. Ability, ability, what’s yours about? Ability, ability, when did it come? Ability, ability, now tell me how. This is the jingle that she chose to make in order for her to study for her test, but you can choose whatever jingle you want. Let’s see what happens after that. She needs to memorize the song she created.

This step will have a big impact on her ability to remember the information when she takes the exam. This is very key for the verbal style. After she’s memorized, the fourth thing she should do is, say it while looking at herself in the mirror. By looking at herself say it, the information will become more ingrained in her memory. This term ingrained just means to stamp or to remain, to stamp or to remain in her memory because her style is the verbal style.

After that, she needs to apply what she memorized. This step will give her the opportunity to create her own answers based on the song, the rap, or the jingle she created from the lesson. Let’s look at her answer a little closer. The question is, can you sing? Remember, the category she studied was ability. This is the category and the jingle she made is right here. Let’s see how she answered the question.

She said, “Singing is an ability that many people desire.” She told us about the ability. Many people desire it. Then she says, “Personally, I think that I am an okay singer because growing up, people always told me that I sang very well in choirs and when I did the occasional solo.” Real quick, occasional. Let me explain what that word means. Occasional just means sometimes, just means sometimes. She actually answered what’s yours about and when did it come in this section right here. Finally she said, “My dad has an ear for music so I think I may have gotten my ability to sing from him.”

Last part is tell me how and she answered it in this section. She did a great job. Let’s keep going. She needs to practice. She needs to make sure her answers are good and her grammar is okay. She needs to find someone to practice with before she takes her exam. Remember I said before, this is a very important step. Now let’s go to number three, the auditory style. This style is used by the learner who likes to listen more when they are studying. It mainly focuses on using audio files to remember the information that was studied. Let’s meet Asnee.

He is from Thailand and the reason why he is studying for the IELTS speaking exam is because he wants to move to England to expand his business and his study style is auditory. The first thing he should do is, find a lesson in the book he chose about the IELTS speaking exam. Then, he needs to record himself reading the lesson or the categories out loud. This is very, very important. He needs to record himself. The second thing he should do is, listen to the recording he made of himself. He should listen to the recording at least three to five times.

Remember, repetition is important. This will help him learn and understand the information. The third thing he should do is, shadow, or mimic, or copy the recording he made of himself. This step is similar to memorizing, but it focuses on repetition as a way to remember the important information. After he’s finished shadowing, he needs to apply what he listened to. This step will give him the opportunity to create his own answers based on the audio file he created.

Let’s go into his answer. Let’s say the question he gets is, has your hometown changed since you were a child? The information he recorded of himself is right here, these three pieces of information. The category that was chosen when he studied was a change from the past to the present, a change from the past to the present. This is the category that he studied. When he has a question in that category, he learned that he must first say yes or no. Did he do that?

Yep, he said, “Yes, my hometown has changed since I was a child.” He answered the first part. Then he needed to describe the past. Let’s see. He says, “In the past, my hometown was very peaceful and quiet because at that time, the people in my hometown would always come home and just relax on their porches.” Yes, he answered the second part, describe the past. I wanna explain something really quickly.

Porches, this is just the front portion of a house where people sit down. This is a house. On the front portion of that house, there’s sometimes an area where people can come out and sit in a chair. They can sit in a chair. That area is called a porch. Let’s keep going. Now he needs to give three similarities. He says, “The three main differences that I notice about my hometown when I compare it to the past are the increase in skyscrapers, more tech industries, and more hipsters.”

Yes, he did give three differences in this section right here. Very quickly, skyscraper. A skyscraper is just a very tall building. It is called a skyscraper because the feeling is that the building is literally inside or in the clouds or in the sky so we call that a skyscraper, a very tall building. A hipster. A hipster is a very common word we use in America. A hipster refers to a person, but it’s a person who really cares about trends and fashion so they are very trendy. They like trends and fashion. Let’s keep going. He answered that very well, but now he needs to practice.

He needs to make sure his answers properly answer the question so he needs to find someone to practice with before he takes the exam. Now let’s go on to number four, the buddy style. This style is used by the learner who enjoys studying with others more than studying alone. It mainly focuses on explaining and quizzing each other on the information that was studied. Let’s meet Alanza and Yara. They are from Brazil and the reason why they’re studying for the IELTS speaking exam is because they want to become fashion designers in New York, and their study style is the buddy style.

The first thing they should do is, read through the lesson together. They need to make sure that they both understand the main points of the lesson. Then what they’re gonna do is, explain the lesson to each other again. The one explaining should be the only one that’s looking at the book. The other person should not be looking at the book. This will help them learn and understand the information. After that, they need to quiz each other on the lesson.

This step is important because it will help them see which parts of the lesson they need to review again. After they’ve quizzed each other, they need to apply what they studied together. This step will give them the opportunity to create their own answers based on what they studied. These ladies studied how to describe a person. They studied that lesson, that category. This is an example answer they could give for a question. The question is, who is your best friend? Since it says best friend, it’s talking about, you got it, a person. They’re gonna apply what they studied together.

The first thing is name and relation. One of them said, “My best friend’s name is Samantha Smith.” Very good. They gave the name of the person, Samantha Smith, and the relation, best friend. Let’s keep going. Now they need to give three details. “Three details about her are she is from a small town in Michigan, she majored in Computer Science with me in university, and she enjoys listening to country music.” Yes, this answered the three details.

Finally, general opinion. “In my opinion, she is the best friend anyone could ever ask for because she has been there for me through thick and thin.” We’ve answered the question, that part, giving her general opinion. Very quickly, through thick and thin. This is a very common expression in America or in English in general.

This expression just means in good times and bad times, good times and bad times. It means that person is there with me, that friend is always supporting me in the good times and the bad times. Through thick and thin. Great. She did a great job. They did a great job of doing that. The next thing is, practice and corrections. They need to check their grammar and their answers. They need to find a native speaker to practice with before they take their exam.

Remember, I told you guys about the free 15 minute tutoring session. They also need the same thing. Let’s keep going. Number five. Number five is the visual style. This style is used by the learner who needs more visuals when studying. It mainly focuses on using images, videos, and other visual resources to study and learn new concepts. Let’s meet Yongjae. He is from South Korea and the reason why he’s studying for the IELTS speaking exam is because he wants to become a famous neurosurgeon, and his study style is visual.

The first thing he should do is, read a lesson from the book he chose about the IELTS speaking exam. He should make sure that he understands the principles of the lesson. The next thing is, he should draw out the concept or find images to match the lesson he studied. Let’s see right here. He studied the category of describing your favorite and he chose to draw out the concept. The first thing right here is, a general statement. What he did was he drew this to represent a general statement that everyone agrees with. For your favorite, he chose to draw a smiley face.

This is a visual trigger for him. Finally, for three reasons why, he just chose to write or draw out the number three. After he’s done this, he needs to create flash cards from the images he created or found. He’s making flash cards for the category right here using the drawings he did in the previous step. On the back, this is the information for that category. This step will have a big impact on his ability to remember the information when he takes the exam.

Now he needs to memorize. He has to memorize the information by using the flash cards to practice. By memorizing what is on the flash cards, the information will become more ingrained, or stamped, remember that word, in his memory. After he’s memorized, he needs to apply what he memorized. This step will give him the opportunity to create his own answers based on the flash cards he created from the lesson. Let’s look at it a little closer.

Remember, the question is, what is your favorite sport? Remember, the category he studied was favorite. Favorites, this is the category that he studied. We have his drawings over here. He did the first drawing of the general statement, then his favorite and three reasons. Let’s see if he actually answered each. What is your favorite sport? For the general statement, he said, “There are many types of sports all over the world.” Check.

Next, let’s see for his favorite, he said, “However, my favorite sport is basketball.” Check. Finally, for the last one for three reasons, he said, “The top three reasons why basketball is my favorite sport are because my dad taught me how to play, it is a team sport, and it requires good hand-eye coordination.” He gave one, two, and three. Check. Really quickly, hand-eye coordination. I want to explain to you all what this expression means.

It refers to the way one’s hands and eyes work together to accomplish a specific goal that requires speed and accuracy, something that requires speed and accuracy. These two things working together. We say hand-eye coordination. Great. The next thing he needs to do is, practice. He needs to make sure his answers are good and his grammar is okay. He needs to find someone to practice with before he takes his exam.

If you would like to keep studying with me, you can get my e-book, How to Pass the IELTS Speaking Exam by going to the link, speakenglishwithtiffani.com/ebooks. You can find any e-book, but this book right here will help you by teaching you the categories and also the formulas for answering the questions so that you can pass the IELTS speaking exam.

Don’t forget about the free 15 minute English tutoring session that Cambly wants to give you by clicking in the link in the description. Watch the next video lesson on the left side of your screen. Remember, to speak English.