‫Welcome back to another I am speaking lesson.
‫Now we're going to be looking at idiomatic language and how you can use it in your speaking test, naturally
‫and effectively, you'll understand what idiomatic language is and how it is used.
‫I'm going to show you some key idiomatic phrases that you can easily use in your speaking test.
‫And also you'll be able to use them while sounding natural and confident.
‫So what exactly is idiomatic language?
‫Well, to sum it up, idiomatic language is a commonly used phrase, which has an unclear meaning.
‫So it's something that native English speakers say that seems like it has a completely different meaning
‫to what they are talking about.
‫Confused?
‫Well, here are a few examples.
‫Raining cats and dogs.
‫Now, this doesn't actually mean that cats and dogs are raining and falling from the sky.
‫It actually means that it's raining heavily.
‫Let's take a look at another example.
‫Over the moon now, this phrase actually means that someone is extremely happy.
‫If you'd never heard this phrase before, it could be quite confusing.
‫It's also important to note that in the speaking test you must use idiomatic language in the correct
‫place and accurately.
‫So let's take a look at the banned descriptors one more time.
‫Now we're looking at the banned descriptors for lexical resource as that's where idiomatic language
‫will score you extra marks.
‫I've highlighted from band seven, eight and nine, where idiomatic language is mentioned and it is
‫mentioned in all three of these band scores.
‫That means that if you are aiming for a band score of seven or higher, it's quite important that you
‫include some idiomatic vocabulary or language.
‫But once again, you need to use it naturally and accurately.
‫If you don't use idiomatic language properly, it could actually lose your marks.
‫Let's take a look at the example now.
‫So here the student says, I had such a terrible day, I really was over the moon about it.
‫Now, you may remember that over the moon means extremely happy.
‫What the student wants to say is that she felt really bad, but instead she's used over the moon in
‫the wrong place.
‫This will actually lose her marks.
‫Let's take a look at another example of idiomatic language used inappropriately.
‫I'd love to be a pop singer, but my dreams are just a pie in the sky.
‫Now the phrase pie in the sky actually means something that will never happen.
‫But it's really not a very common idiom that people use often these days.
‫It's important that you use idioms that are native sounding and not too old fashioned because that will
‫help you sound more like a confident native English speaker.
‫So I'm going to show you for idioms that you can use very easily, that will make you sound more confident
‫and natural in your English speaking.
‫Let's go to example one.
‫Off the top of my head.
‫Without thinking too much about something now this is actually a great conversation filler or opener
‫for when you want to buy some time to think about what you will say next.
‫Let's see the example.
‫Off the top of my head.
‫Action movies are probably my favorite type of films to watch and on to example to Warm-hearted, this
‫can easily be used to describe people, which I'm sure you will have to do in the speaking test.
‫It means a very kind and caring person.
‫Here is an example for you.
‫My mom has always been supportive.
‫She's always such a warm hearted person.
‫I think that Warm-hearted is a really easy idiomatic phrase to use when discussing your family, and
‫once again, I'm sure that you're going to have to describe your family in the speaking test.
‫Let's see example three, which is down the road.
‫This can be used when you want to discuss your future plans.
‫It means something you want to do later.
‫Here is an example down the road.
‫I like to marry and have two or three children.
‫Let's see if I meet someone first.
‫And the last example is cost an arm and a leg, and this can be used when you're talking about money,
‫again, a very common topic in the speaking test.
‫So what does cost an arm and a leg actually mean?
‫Well, it means something that is very expensive.
‫Let's take a look at an example sentence.
‫My friend wanted me to visit her in Jakarta, but the plane tickets cost an arm and a leg.
‫I think that talking about things that a very expensive or maybe things we want that are also expensive
‫is going to be easily added into our speaking test language.
‫That's all for my for idiomatic phrases that you can generally use pretty much for any aout speaking
‫test.
‫I hope that you feel a bit more confident with your idiomatic language, do practice using those four
‫key phrases, the you in the next lesson.