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‫Welcome back to another IOU speaking lesson.

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‫And today, we're going to be looking at something that a lot of students ask me about, and that is

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‫especially for I speaking feeling nervous during the test.

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‫Now, this is definitely one of the most nerve wracking parts of the test for many students.

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‫In fact, it's pretty much guaranteed that every student will feel nervous for this section.

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‫So we're going to talk about it in a little bit more detail, and I'll give you some tips to deal with

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‫the nerves and ways that you can practice in terms of the speaking test to improve and improve your

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‫nerves, but also to relax a little bit better.

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‫So I'll take you through those tips.

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‫And of course, if you have any questions, please jump into the Q&A section.

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‫Okay.

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‫So first, let's look at some general tips for nerves.

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‫As I said, it's true that the aisles is definitely a nerve wracking test.

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‫There's a lot relying on the IRS test in terms of the band scores that you get, whether that's migrating

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‫abroad, entrance into foreign education, institutions such as a university or even just for work purposes,

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‫maybe it's a pay rise, a new position that you need to push your eye out for.

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‫So there's a lot riding on your A+ test results, which naturally will make you quite nervous.

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‫But rest assured, all students are nervous and there are some definite, some definite exercises we

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‫can do in order to relax more.

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‫Of course, if we're too nervous, we're going to freeze up.

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‫It's going to stop us focusing, and we're probably going to not do as well as we should.

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‫Okay, so here are a few general tips overall for the adults, which are always good to remember that

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‫useful for the arts speaking section, but also for the other sections of the arts test too.

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‫So we have the first thing which is really important, and I'll talk about this again later on in the

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‫lesson.

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‫Realistic expectations of the illness test.

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‫And I mean that in two ways.

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‫So first, expectations in terms of your band score and if you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself

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‫to get from, say, you're a six now to be an eight in two months, that's not realistic.

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‫Most probably it's going to be very difficult to achieve that grade with your current level of fluency.

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‫This is going to make you feel nervous.

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‫So it's good to have realistic expectations in terms of the band score that you can achieve.

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‫And of course, ask me able to give you some feedback in terms of where abouts you are in your overall

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‫fluency.

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‫The next realistic expectation would be in regards to studying time.

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‫So some students jump into this course, for example, with, say, three weeks of quite intensive studying.

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‫That works for some people.

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‫It doesn't work for others.

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‫It depends on your current level of fluency.

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‫It depends whether you've taken the test before.

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‫So try and think about how long you need to spend in terms of studying the results to reach your required

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‫band score so that you're not putting too much pressure on yourself.

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‫Also understand that many students have to spend up to a year, some even two years, studying for the

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‫test in order to get that band score that you need.

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‫So that's going to definitely mean that you're more calm, that you have a better understanding of what

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‫realistically you can achieve and what to expect from the test.

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‫So think clearly about what band score you need and how you will get there, how long it's going to

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‫take you.

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‫Okay, the next thing is to prepare for all situations important in the IO speaking test, but also

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‫in the other sections of the test too.

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‫And basically preparing means to practice to use as many resources as you can to repeat lessons in this

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‫course.

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‫To ask me questions.

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‫That's what I'm here for as well.

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‫But also to try and look at other resources elsewhere.

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‫This course is a complete guide for adults, but that doesn't mean that you can't go onto YouTube,

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‫for example, and take a look at more muddled answers for, say, it's listening or to look at some

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‫example tests for alts reading in other places.

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‫The more preparation you do, the less you'll be feeling nervous about surprising topics that you say.

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‫So preparation is definitely key to building confidence and lessening those nerves.

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‫Next step is to identify.

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‫Your strengths and weaknesses.

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‫Again, an overall layout tip, but where are you weakest?

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‫Is it your speaking skills?

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‫Do you need to practice more in your conversational fluency?

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‫That's where you need to sort of weigh up where to study the most in terms of the hours spent on those

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‫four sections speaking, writing, listening and reading.

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‫And if you do this, it would definitely help you in terms of making sure that all those levels of fluency

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‫are pretty equal.

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‫That's going to help you with your nerves.

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‫It's going to build confidence.

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‫Okay, so let's get more into the I Am Speaking tips.

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‫And the first one is preparation of common topics.

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‫So we just kind of spoke about this.

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‫You can't prepare for every single possible topic with an eye out speaking, but you can prepare for

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‫all the common ones pretty much.

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‫So there are different topics that come in and out of the speaking test year on year, and occasionally

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‫they have some slightly more left field or strange topics that they introduce and then bring away,

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‫pull out, and but the common ones always stay the same.

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‫And it's good again to use, of course, this course to look at all those different model dances and

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‫scripts I give you, but also to try and look at different model dances elsewhere.

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‫Okay, so here are a few examples of common topics.

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‫It's not all of them and I talk about this throughout the section, but we have things like family,

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‫education, hobbies, definitely going to see one of those at some point and I'll speaking test out

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‫sports and travel probably more towards part two and part three and exercise food and culture again,

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‫probably more to our towards part two and part three of the I speaking test.

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‫But these are just nine quick examples of very common topics.

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‫So try and learn a language around learn vocabulary for these different topics.

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‫Take a look at the example model answers I give you within these topics and really focus on the language

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‫I'm using.

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‫Repeat the language that I'm showing you.

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‫Try and use the vocabulary I'm showing you to.

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‫Again, preparation will build confidence and make you feel less nervous.

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‫Okay, next, we have rehearsed modeled answers.

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‫Now you'll often see that teachers say Don't memorize answers on the day of your test.

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‫Now I'm saying rehearse, not memorize.

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‫And I think a lot of teachers miss the point here.

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‫You shouldn't memorize answers, but in all honesty, fluency is something that is not natural.

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‫You have to build fluency and a lot of the time this is done through language rehearsal, which is repetition.

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‫You internalize language through repetition that can be by reading different texts again and again and

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‫again until you can almost write or speak like that.

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‫Author A good example.

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‫Have you ever read a book?

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‫And then you find yourself an hour later after finishing, reading, speaking in the style of the author.

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‫This is kind of an internalizing of the language, and you can do this with the model dances that I

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‫show you.

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‫I'm not telling you to memorize them.

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‫I'm telling you to act them out, to repeat them, to learn them.

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‫And of course, you might not get that topic, but there are some phrases, some language that I use

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‫that you can use in all topics.

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‫So rehearsing is definitely useful.

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‫For example, here I just am not reading through to you, but this is just an example of a section of

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‫a model dancer I give you.

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‫I think it's for part two of an out speaking test.

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‫So what you could do here is maybe once a day repeat and read this section 1 to 3 times.

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‫Once you've done that over ten days, you'll have a lot more fluency in terms of using not just the

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‫vocabulary but also the grammatical structures.

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‫And then you can start unpacking parts of the vocabulary and making it your own and changing the language.

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‫Don't memorize, rehearse and I think I'm just repeating pad the saying many times over with expression

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‫and feeling and really it comes down to just practicing using this structured language.

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‫This model of language here is really useful to do that.

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‫You should be doing that with all model answers.

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‫Repeat them, say them after May and learn the language.

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‫Okay.

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‫Next up, language partners.

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‫I talk about this all the time, practice with native speakers if possible, or the English language

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‫learners practicing with native speakers or even a teacher is best.

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‫But if you can find other English language learners or the people studying for Io's, that would be

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‫great.

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‫And you might.

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‫Be nervous when you practise speaking with these people.

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‫That's really common.

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‫And it's definitely you know, students have said to me before, well, we're running out of things

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‫to say.

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‫And the best way really to get around that is to think about different topics you want to discuss.

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‫Now you can bring I'll speaking questions with you to these language exchanges, whether it's online

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‫or in person, and then you can discuss them.

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‫You could give each other a minute, 2 minutes to give an answer, give preparation time as well, and

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‫just give yourself feedback.

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‫So say what you liked about the language exchange partner's answers, so you're almost mentoring each

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‫other.

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‫If you come without any preparation or no ideas of what you want to discuss, you're going to run out

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‫of things to say.

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‫So preparation here again is key in terms of thinking about what you would like to discuss just quickly.

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‫You can use social media websites such as Facebook or possibly even Instagram.

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‫I'm sure there's many more WhatsApp groups to find English language partners.

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‫And if you search for that within Facebook, for example, English language partners, I'll study partners.

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‫I'm sure you'll find plenty of groups there.

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‫Just quickly, a couple of ideas about a few questions you could bring.

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‫What is your favorite hobby?

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‫So maybe you could prepare together in these language groups and then give each of that time to give

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‫an answer, almost like you would do in the I'll speak in test.

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‫And here we've got a few other question types that are really common and I out speaking that you could

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‫bring with you to okay so language exchange partners have really useful you might be nervous but I think

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‫practicing being uncomfortable is one of the best ways to overcome being nervous.

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‫Everyone was nervous to start with and confidence is something that you build.

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‫Okay.

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‫And the last one I've kind of already talked about this, but visualization and acting, so the I am

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‫speaking is almost public speaking, a test of public speaking, even though there's only an audience

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‫of one the examiners.

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‫Now, public speaking takes practice.

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‫No one is naturally a great public speaker.

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‫Everyone has to start off from skill zero.

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‫So the best way to do this and what a lot of people do is to visualize the event, whether it's a speech

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‫or whatever is happening, training event, as I often do with teaching.

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‫And then to think about the things that you would say in this example of the speaking test that are

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‫actually in your head or even better out loud, maybe at home.

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‫So not everyone thinks you crazy is going over these answers.

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‫You can maybe write down five or six questions on a piece of paper, read them to yourself the questions,

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‫and then time yourself one minute to minute and try and give an answer, as you would do on the day

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‫of the test.

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‫And this is going to really help you to build confidence, because acting is definitely something that

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‫we can practice.

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‫We can pretend being confident.

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‫And you can do this with this preparation of pretending and really aurally reciting your answers.

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‫And it's definitely a good idea to do this within a week of your test, every day to be practicing,

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‫speaking out loud.

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‫You can even practice doing a whole test if you can get questions written down.

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‫Okay.

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‫So just a little idea on visualization and acting, something that's really important for public speaking,

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‫but also just generally speaking, confidence.

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‫So acting and visualization.

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‫Okay.

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‫So just a quick run through of the different tips.

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‫So prepare for common topics for speaking, rehearse my model dance is that I give you the different

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‫scripts and the different videos.

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‫I show you pause, say out loud and do this daily to internalize that language.

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‫Find a language partner for practicing your conversation that's very useful as well.

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‫And visualization and acting.

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‫And finally, just an extra tip, which is just set yourself realistic expectations in terms of the

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‫band school you want to achieve and how long that will take you because that's going to make you feel

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‫less nervous as well.

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‫Okay.

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‫If you've got any questions about these tips or you'd like some more advice on this jump into the Q&A

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‫section and I'll get back to you as quickly as possible.