The other day I noticed something amazing during one of my CELPIP prep classes: when my student was sharing their response to Speaking Task 2: share a personal experience, they struggled to put their ideas together fluently for the first 30 to 40 seconds.
They struggled to find the right words.
They started and stopped repeatedly.
It was difficult for them to get their ideas across.
I could tell they were starting to feel frustrated, but then something magical happened!
They began to talk about how their experience made them feel.
The change that took place was dramatic! The starting and stopping, the hesitating, the struggling to figure out what to say next suddenly vanished!
Now, as they shared how they felt during this challenging time in their life, the words flowed almost effortlessly!
In fact, they ended up running out of time BEFORE they had completed their answer! (And you don’t want that to happen….just to be clear.) But you also don’t want to run out of things to say BEFORE your time is up either.
But that’s what I want to share with you today: To improve your Speaking and Writing responses for the CELPIP exam, use your feelings in your response. Don’t just stick to facts, which is what my student was doing. They were still telling me about something they experienced, which was what they needed to do to answer this question. But you’ll have much more powerful answers (and easier ones!) when you use your feelings in your answers.
This applies to your written responses too!
Not all questions will be about your past or something you experienced. That is true. But you CAN and SHOULD, whenever possible, use your imagination to help you pretend that the situation the exam is asking you about is actually happening to you.
Imagine how that situation would make you feel if it were really true in your life. Use your feelings to help you answer, and I promise you that you’ll quickly see better results!
Leave a Reply