This week I was looking through previous episodes. Previous episodes of this podcast and I discovered that I haven't spent a lot of time talking about the speaking section of the exam, which is really weird because this is the Speak English Fearlessly podcast. I should be spending more time talking about speaking strategies.

So if you've been wondering where those speaking strategies have gone, well, today you're in luck. I'm beginning maybe a two or three episode series around the speaking section of the CELPIP exam. By listening to these episodes, you're going to get practical strategies that will help you conquer the speaking section of the test.

And today, we're going to get started by taking a look at speaking task Three. Now, you might be wondering why I'm not beginning with speaking task one and two. And the answer to that question, well, there's two reasons why:

Number one. Speaking desk three is one of the spots where a lot of students, a lot of people that I've been seeing giving feedback around the test like on the CELPIP.CA website, for example, if you watch some of their YouTube channels, you'll see that very often test takers have trouble with speaking task three.

And the main reason is that you're being presented an image, you're being presented with a picture, and your job is to describe it. And that can feel very overwhelming if you're not ready for it. Very overwhelming indeed.

What do I say? Where do I look? Where should I get started? And I only have a certain amount of time to do all this in. So that's the first reason why we're starting with speaking task three today.

The other reason is kind of a more practical one for me. I actually am working with some students on this right now, so this information is top of mind for me. So I just wanted to share it with you. What we're doing in class is what I'm going to be sharing with you today.

So if you've not if you're not familiar with the speaking tasks, speaking Task three is divided into two parts. There is a 30 second brainstorming section and immediately following it, you have 60 seconds to give your response.

The other thing that you need to keep in mind is and if you're new to this, you need to listen up, but you're not talking to a person when you're actually doing your exam, when you're doing the speaking section of the exam, you're not talking to anybody!

You'll have a headset, a microphone, and you'll be speaking into that microphone to give your responses, without the aid of a human face. So you you won't have those cues, you know, that that we all depend on when we're talking to somebody. We like to look at their faces to see if what we're saying is making sense or to get a head nod, you know, if they're agreeing with us or we depend on that non-verbal communication so much and that is a challenge, I think to the CELPIP exam, is that you don't get to speak to a person when you're doing this. You're speaking into a machine.

And the reason behind that is, well, they thought the creators of the exam thought, it would be less stressful for you because for many people, when you're when you are using your first language, it's hard It's not easy to use that new language in front of other people.

And when you are on an exam, speaking to an examiner is even more challenging. It's even more stressful. So they removed that feature of the exam and they made it so that you're talking to a computer.

Did that help reduce the stress? I don't know. I kind of don't think it did, but that's the reason behind it, or at least that's one of the reasons behind it.

So keep this in mind. You have 30 seconds to brainstorm and then 60 seconds to give your recorded answer.

What should you do in those 30 seconds of brainstorming? Let's talk about that. As soon as those 30 seconds start, you're going to see a picture in front of you. What you should do in those 30 seconds is, first of all, try to figure out what you're looking at a picture of.

Is this a park? Is this a cafe? Is this a restaurant? Is it a grocery store? A shopping mall? A busy city intersection? An airplane, A boat? Try to determine what you're looking at and on your notepaper, if you want, if this will help you, write it down what this is a picture of.

Keep in mind, 30 seconds is not a lot of time. So you're not going to be writing big sentences, long sentences, lots of words. No, you should just write one word answers if you're going to write anything at all. But the first thing that you should try to determine is what am I looking at?

Second thing that you should be noticing about the picture is, is there a location inside of that picture where, you know, you feel comfortable?

Is there a spot in that picture that draws your attention that you think, Oh, that looks really interesting. I think I can talk about that. See if you can locate an area like that in the picture. Because here's the thing: You don't have to talk about the whole thing. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit later.

So figure out what you're looking at and then pick an area where you'd like to start talking about. And in that time, well, in that 30 seconds, that's probably all the time that you're going to that's probably all that you're going to be able to accomplish inside of those 30 seconds.

Once those 30 seconds are finished, the exam will automatically move you to the second phase of this question. Your timer will reset to 60 seconds. You'll still be looking at the same picture, and then you'll just need to start recording your answer and you'll have 60 seconds to do it.

So what should you start by saying? Have you thought about that before? Or what should you start by saying? And here's a quick tip: The best thing that you can do for yourself is to pretend that you're talking to a best friend on the telephone and you're describing a scene for him. You're describing that scene in front of you to him or her.

And you can begin by using your best friend's name like, Hi, John. I am looking at a picture of a beautiful downtown park or whatever it is that you're looking at a picture of, but pretend that you're talking to your best friend on the telephone.

And there's a big reason why. Number one, if you're pretending to talk to your best friend, it will maybe reduce the tension that you're feeling a little bit. Imagine you're just talking with a friend.

The second thing that's important around this is that you want to avoid using a monotone where your voice doesn't go up or down. It just remains one single, boring, very boring level. That's not what you do when you're talking to your friend, right? You put feeling into your words. Your voice goes up when you're excited, or if you're asking a question, your voice goes all over the place as you as you express the emotions behind what you're sharing with them.

And that's something that's important to getting a good mark on the speaking section, that your voice is not a monotone, that does not express any emotion whatsoever. You don't want that to happen. So pretend that you're talking to a friend.

So after you've done that, you've, you've said hello to your friend and let them know that you're talking about a picture that you see in front of you in that little part where you're you're saying hi to your friend, you are going to accomplish the first task.

You should set the scene. You should say to your friend what you're looking at. And if you've used your preparation time, well, you'll already know.

So you would start by saying, let's let's pretend that our imaginary friend's name is John. So you would say, Hello, John, this is Aaron. I'm looking at a wonderful picture of Stanley Park.

Now, if you live in Vancouver, you know that Stanley Park is probably one of the most iconic parks in the city. And you can use your imagination if you want to give a name to whatever image you're looking at. But let's just pretend that it's a it's a park scene.

Okay. So you could say, Hello, John, this is Aaron. I just wanted to let you know about this awesome picture that I'm looking at. It's of Stanley Park. So right then and there I am setting the scene. And from there, you can start moving through the picture to talk about it. And like what I said in the introduction around brainstorming, this is where you need to focus.

Don't feel like you need to cover every item on in the picture. You might not have enough time to do that and you might freak yourself out trying to cover everything in the picture. That's why I suggested that you pick a section or an area of the picture where you feel drawn to, where you feel more interested in, or where you feel like you have more words or more vocabulary words that you can use to talk about that area. So start in that spot. And again, you don't have to talk about every single thing in the picture. So feel free to focus on that one section that you liked a lot.

And then maybe if time permits, move on to a section that's nearby. It. But yeah, don't worry about trying to talk about everything.

The third thing that you need to keep in mind is the power of details. Use the power of details. If detail usage is new to you, I encourage you to listen to the previous episode. We talk all about the power of details.

But don't underestimate the hidden power that details have, my friend. Details can help you fill up your 60 seconds with very little effort. If you get good at noticing what is in that picture and what is in that specific area where you're going to be talking about, you will have zero problems trying to come up with things to say. So oops, I just bumped into my mike. So make sure you use the power of details. here are some of the things that you should be talking about as you begin drying out details.

For example, talk about who or what you see in the picture, who or what do you see in the picture. If there are people in the picture, avoid stating the obvious. Like, for example, if the section that you chose to begin talking about had the picture of a man or a woman, don't just say in the top left hand corner of the picture that I'm looking at, I see a man or I see a woman draw out more information than that.

Look at the picture. Use your imagination a little bit. How old do you think they are? Maybe they're a teenager, Maybe they're a middle aged man. Maybe they're an old man or an old woman. The point is, don't just say in the top left hand corner, I see a man. No, Pull out some details. In the top left hand corner, I see a middle aged man.

And then the next thing, look at their face. How do you think they feel? Probably you'll be able to pull out some some clue as to how they're feeling. Are they happy? Are they sad? Are they worried? Do they look angry? You try to figure out how they feel and if it's not obvious, you can invent it. You can you can use your imagination a little bit. As long as your imaginary scenario is logical when compared to the image. Don't don't pull out something that's completely foreign, You know, something that is completely different to what is happening in the picture. It needs to be logical.

So instead of saying I see a man in the top left hand corner of the picture, let's say he's middle aged. Okay, so I am looking at a picture of a middle aged man in the top left hand corner of the picture and he looks so sad. He looks so sad because and now this is the opportunity for you to bring in a little bit more detail maybe.

Let's imagine that in this picture he's looking at his watch. Why do you think and I want you to come up with some answers on this. If in the picture a middle aged man is looking sadly at his watch in the park, I wonder what it could be that's making him feel sad. What do you think? What would make someone feel sad in the park looking at their watch? Hmm.

I think our middle aged friend is sad because he's waiting for his best friend to come. His best friend who he hasn't seen in years. They plan to meet together to go for a walk in Stanley Park. And this was the day and the time that they had agreed to meet. But our friend has been standing there all by himself in the park and his best friend hasn't shown up. So he's feeling sad.

Okay, so let's put that all together. I am looking at a middle aged man in the top left hand corner of the picture He's standing now. Let me back that up just a little bit. I am looking at a picture of Stanley Park, and in this picture I am looking at a picture, a man, a middle aged man who's standing in the top left hand corner. And he looks so sad because he's looking at his watch and he's sad because he's waiting for his best friend to arrive and he hasn't arrived yet.

Now, you've already talked about where this is happening. You've talked about a person and you've given some more detail about who that person is as far as how old they look. Then you started talking about some emotions that they might be feeling. Then you gave a reason why they might be feeling what they're feeling.

Next, why don't you talk about what this person is wearing? You can start bringing out specific items of clothing, like maybe he's wearing a black hoodie and some gray jogging pants and some white and red sneakers.

Obviously, you need to use what the picture has, right? You don't want to invent clothing items that are not there. So but draw out what the person is wearing and use colors if there are colors available, not available, but if they are wearing a certain item of clothing that has a color, you should state it.

Let us know what this person is wearing and talk about other things that they might have, like glasses, a watch. While we already mentioned the watch,

what color is their hair? Are they wearing a hat? There's lots of ways that you can add more details to the person or thing that you are describing.

When you're done talking about that section, if you still have time, what you can start doing is shifting your gaze or shifting your eyesight over to the next little section that's right next to the one that you were just describing.

What's going on in that section of the of the picture, maybe you could say. And standing next to the man, not exactly next to him, but standing maybe, let's say, 15 feet away, there is an old woman walking her dog and then you can just start following the same pattern that we just started using to talk about the man standing in the top left hand corner of Stanley Park.

You can begin talking about the old lady who's walking her dog

and you can start filling in the details like, well, I already gave you one answer. Talk about, is she old? I said, She's an old lady. Right? So you can begin talking about the old lady.

Talk about how you think she feels and can you invent logical reasons why she's feeling the way she's feeling? And can you talk about what she is wearing? Can you talk about what kind of a dog you see and finally, talk about where these people are in relation to each other and in relation to certain things that you see in the photo?

Let's go back to the middle aged man standing in the top left hand corner of the image of Stanley Park that we were talking about at the very beginning.

Let's imagine that there is a big water fountain somewhere nearby. You can see it plainly in the picture. Maybe it's just in front of the man. You could begin talking about where he is in relation to that fountain. Yeah, the man is waiting for his best friend just to the right of that fountain that you see in the picture. And he's standing next to that fountain because that's where he told his best buddy that where they'd meet right there at the water fountain, because that's probably a landmark, you know, it's an easy to find place in the park. So he's standing next to the fountain and the old woman that's walking her dog, she's just across from the man and she is walking towards him with her dog.

You see what I mean? You can start moving from section to section two section of the picture. But if you're pulling out these details as you go along, I promise you, you probably won't need more than one or two sections of that picture that you're looking at.

So let's just do a quick recap of what we covered on speaking task three. You're going to be describing a picture, and unless you practice this, it can feel overwhelming. So that's why we're focusing on speaking task three today. The first thing that you will have is 30 seconds to brainstorm. Use this time to figure out what you're looking at and then find a spot in that picture where you feel most confident beginning to talk.

When those 30 seconds are finished, your exam will automatically begin, will automatically move you to the second phase of that question, which is where you record your answer.

You will have one minute 60 seconds to give your response. And here's a special tip Make sure that you use your best friend. Pretend that you're talking to him or her on the phone and make sure that your voice does not remain in a very boring, monotone style. Okay. Use emotions and feelings as you talk.

As you begin, make sure you set the scene. Make sure then that you focus on not describing the whole entire picture. You're only describing a small little area. And when you're finished talking about that one little area, you can move on to a little area that's close by to help you draw out information and fill up those 60 seconds. Use the power of details.

And if you want to learn more about details, I suggest you listen to the previous episode. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Next week, we're going to be talking about strategies that will help you conquer speaking Task four, which is all about making predictions. I hope to see you next Tuesday. Thanks for listening. Bye bye