Phần 8: Nói lưu loát

Lưu loát là một trong những kỹ năng được đánh giá trong vòng 2 phần thi vấn đáp của IELTS. Trong phần này, chúng tôi sẽ định nghĩa về lưu loát và cung cấp những cách thức/chiến lược để giúp bạn đạt được điều này.

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1) Clip 1: Speaking Fluently

2) Clip 2: Vocabulary Exercise

3) Printable Documents

a) Notes for Study

IELTS Tip

Practise talking on a range of topics in order to build your confidence.

Record yourself speaking and listen for how often you pause or hesitate. Check that you have logically organised your ideas and used appropriate linking words.

Practise speaking at every opportunity. You can’t improve without practice!

SPEAKING FLUENTLY

Fluency is a measure of how easily and smoothly you communicate in English. Do you speak easily and at a natural pace or slowly and have to stop to think of what to say when talking?

Fluency is particularly important in Part Two of the interview – the individual long turn. This is where you will be speaking at length on a given topic, on your own without any prompting, so your ability to speak effectively, smoothly and continuously will be on show.

There are two features to consider when talking about fluency:

• smoothness and continuity of your speech
• rate or speed of your speech

Smoothness and continuity of your speech

How easily you speak without hesitating or pausing too often is how smoothness and continuity is measured in your speech. It is natural to pause or hesitate when speaking but only if it is at a natural pace.

When there are lengthier segments of silence in your talk this may indicate a lack of communicative grammatical structures and/or a limited range of conversational vocabulary. Are you searching for language or ideas?

Communicative grammatical structures

It is important to build a bank of grammatical structures and expressions which help communicate or express how you feel about something. Being emphatic about something or wanting to emphasise a point is one such structure.

Emphatic structures

Drawing attention or importance to a reason, example, opinion or comparison is relevant to all parts of the speaking test.

There is a variety of structures used for emphasising a particular point or idea in an effective manner or signalling something is important. These can include:

• fronting
• inversion
• cleft clauses

Fronting

In spoken English when you want to emphasise a contrast or comparison with something in the previous sentence then that information is placed at the beginning of the sentence and is called fronting.

Fronting information changes the normal word order in a sentence and subsequently changes the emphasis and focus.

Example
Usual word order	There are many yet unexplored places to visit in Australia. The rainforests of Kakadu would be the most exciting.
To emphasise there is something special about Kakadu the superlative structure with that information is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
Fronting	There are many yet unexplored places to visit in Australia. The most exciting would be the rainforests of Kakadu.

 

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Inversion

Another structure used to give more emphasis or create a more dramatic effect is subject-auxiliary inversion. The auxiliary (do, have) is placed before the subject and the rest of the verb phrase follows. There are also other expressions that use this pattern of inversion as well.

Example
Expressions	Inversion
hardly, rarely, little, few, never	Little did he know what the consequences of his actions would be. Never have I seen such an amazing performance.
not only … but also	Not only does she speak English well, but also three other languages.
no sooner … than	No sooner had we started our tour than the coach broke down.
adverbs of time (first, next, all day)	All day I waited for the service man to come to fix my refrigerator.

 

Cleft clauses

Cleft clauses are often used to draw attention to a particular piece of information.

The information is divided into two parts and each has its own verb. Introductory noun phrases are generally used in cleft sentences. These can include wh- clauses and other noun phrases.

Examples
Introductory noun phrases	Cleft sentences
wh- clauses: the person (who); the place (where); the reason (why); the time (when); the thing that	The person who is responsible for the accident is John. The place where you’d want to visit is Egypt because of the pyramids. The thing that worries me is the cost of living.
the thing is; the point is; the fact remains; the trouble is; the problem is	The thing is, I’ve run out of money. The fact remains that we’ve got to sit the test.

 

Conversational vocabulary

In addition to building a bank of communicative grammatical structures, it is also helpful to build up your vocabulary around a topic area. This allows you to more easily express yourself because you would have a bank of relevant and related vocabulary from which to draw on when speaking on that topic.

The kind of vocabulary items to learn would include synonyms and opposites in particular, because they allow you to extend your talk by using words or phrases of similar meaning or they can provide additional information which is opposite in meaning. This can give continuity to your speech and this will help maintain fluency.

The general topic area of health is developed below. Practise using this vocabulary and add new items as you come across relevant vocabulary.

Topic area: Health

Topic vocabulary
health care, health, diet, health food, obesity, nutrition, medicine, exercise, conditions, lifestyles, consume, illness (cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, immune system)
Word forms
adjective	noun		verb		adverb
	thing	person
healthy, healthful	health		x		healthily
obese	obesity		x		x
nutritional	nutrition; nutrient	nutritionist	x		nutritionally
preventative; preventive	prevention		prevent		x
Related words
synonyms
serious	grave; debilitating; severe; major; life-threatening; chronic; painful
nutritious	nourishing; wholesome; beneficial; health-giving; invigorating; strengthening
unhealthy	harmful; unwholesome; damaging; toxic; diseased; deleterious; unfit; out of shape
opposites
healthy	unhealthy
thin	obese
scale	← thin slim heavy fat overweight obese →
idiom	prevention is better than cure; an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure (saying)
Collocations
	(adj.) + noun + (adj.)		verb + noun	(prep.) + noun + (prep.)
diet	balanced ~; sensible ~; healthy ~; poor ~; weightreducing ~; low-calorie ~; high-protein ~		to go on a ~; to follow a ~; to have a ~; to stick to a ~	on a ~; a ~ of; in a ~
health	~ problems; ~ risk; ~ education; ~ benefits; ~ services; good ~; declining ~		to enjoy good ~; to look after your ~	in good/poor ~
illness	stress-related ~; minor ~; chronic ~; debilitating ~; long-term ~; physical ~; mental ~; serious ~		to suffer from ~; to develop an ~; to contract an ~	onset of ~; because of ~; due to ~; associated with ~
Other related collocations
catch a cold; to nurse a cold; come down with the flu; develop high blood pressure; suffer from high blood pressure; suffer from stress; have a splitting headache; have a nasty cold

Rate or speed of your speech

Fluency is not only about your ability to speak smoothly and continuously but your ability to speak at an effective speed as well.

How quickly or slowly you speak is how the rate or speed of your speech is measured. Speaking too slowly or too quickly is unnatural. Aim to speak at a relaxed and natural pace.

There are different ways of achieving fluency but one of the most effective would be experiencing and listening to good varieties of English speech. Being aware of speaking styles and knowing how to listen will help you become a more fluent speaker of English. Record your speech and check whether you’re speaking at a natural and relaxed pace. Practise modelling the pace of your speech on that of a native speaker.

 

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b) Learning Activities

Practise and consolidate your learning about fluency by completing our activities.

The answers for all activities are on the last page.

ACTIVITY 1

Change the order of the information in these sentences to emphasise a particular piece of information. Make any necessary changes by using the word in the bracket or by joining the two sentences. The first one has been done for you.

1. The shop is closed. That’s the problem.

The problem is that the shop is closed.

2. Jane moved from Sydney because of the great job offer in Japan. (why)

_____________________________________________________________

3. It was the plumber who left the message. (person)

______________________________________________________________

4. White water rafting in the mountains was much more exciting.

_____________________________________________________________

5. We didn’t sell the collection of CDs. That’s the only thing.

______________________________________________________________

6. Palm Beach is where you can buy the best chilli prawns. (place)

______________________________________________________________

7. She doesn’t want to study. That’s the trouble.

______________________________________________________________

8. The happiest day was when John completed his MBA. (when)

______________________________________________________________

9. They mixed up the dates. That’s a fact.

______________________________________________________________

10. The smoke from the fire was so intense that I couldn’t breathe.

______________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 2

Match each of the words on the left with a suitable word or phrase on the right. The first one has been done for you.

 

 

ACTIVITY 1 ANSWERS

1. The problem is that the shop is closed.

2. The reason why Jane moved from Sydney was the great job offer in Japan.

3. The person who left the message was the plumber.

4. Much more exciting was white water rafting in the mountains.

5. The only thing (that) we didn’t sell was the collection of CDs.

6. The place where you can buy the best chilli prawns is Palm Beach.

7. The trouble is she doesn’t want to study.

8. The day when John completed his MBA was the happiest.

9. The fact is that they mixed up the dates.

10. So intense was the smoke from the fire that I couldn’t breathe.

ACTIVITY 2 ANSWERS

1.     E      healthy appetite

2.     I       crash diet

3.     A      catch a stomach bug

4.     J       health warning

5.     B      stretching exercises

6.     H      suffer a breakdown

7.     C      splitting headache

8.     F       develop an allergy

9.     D      keeping fit

10.    G      follow-up treatment

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c) Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I’m Margot Politis.

One of the skills that is assessed in the IELTS speaking test is fluency.

Fluency is speaking at a natural pace without hesitating too much.

But fluency doesn’t mean speaking quickly. Sometimes, speaking too fast can make it harder to be understood.

Another aspect of fluency is the smoothness of your speech. This means that you don’t always stop to try to think of the right word.

Listen as the golfer in the next clip talks about her career:

Golf is a very interesting game. Um It can be very frustrating and annoying and um but then, you know, it can be just, it can be really fun and challenging which makes it fun I guess. When I’m not competing um, I try to practise every day for at least 6 hours and if I play 18 holes er I’ll still try and practise for another 3 or 4 hours.

You may have noticed that she used expressions such as ‘um’ , ‘like’ , ‘you know’ and ‘I guess’. These are called fillers. It’s natural to use fillers but be careful not to overuse them. Listen to her again:

On top of that I guess I have err like work outs, and um gym work outs and I try to do that 3 to 4 times a week. So they’re pretty long hours. In January this year I went to the ladies European tour qualifying school and I managed to secure a conditional card for the season so I decided to turn pro. This meant that, you know, I’d give up my amateur status and I’d be playing for money I guess is the main difference.

Fillers are used to tell your listener that you haven’t finished, but you are thinking of what to say next. They don’t carry meaning like words do.

Now let’s listen to a speaking test candidate using fillers:

Mm, ok, well, one of the buildings I really like in Sydney is the Queen Victoria Building. Um, I’ve been here for a year only in Sydney, so I haven’t had the chance to actually visit many public buildings, but I know this one very well. Um, I like it because, um, it’s got a very interesting old style, and, er, it’s very elegant, it’s very spacious. I don’t like the modern type of buildings, you know, with many storeys and er, very modern and contemporary. Um, I like the Queen Victoria Building, um, because it’s elegant.

To begin her talk she uses several fillers:

Mm, ok, well, one of the buildings I really like in Sydney is the Queen Victoria Building.

Saying 'Mm, ok, well', helps her get started on the topic of her favourite building.

She is thinking of what to say and not how to say it.

She uses ‘um and ‘er’ to give her time to think of what to say next at points in her speech, such as at the beginning of a sentence when she’s linking information back to what she’s just said:

…one of the buildings I really like in Sydney is the Queen Victoria Building. Um, I’ve been here for a year only in Sydney…

Next, she uses fillers just after the words ‘because’ and ‘and’ to give her time to think of reasons.

Um, I like it because, um, it’s got a very interesting old style, and, er, it’s very elegant, it’s very spacious.

She also uses the filler ‘you know’ , but this time to show that she is sharing knowledge, in this case that modern buildings have many storeys:

I don’t like the modern type of buildings, you know, with many storeys and very modern and contemporary.

Let’s listen to another clip where she uses ‘you know’ in the same way while answering a question about eating habits in the future:

Well I think they will because, um, you know, the rhythm of life, the pace of life is becoming, you know, more and more, um, stressful and, um, faster, so I think there is less time to eat, then we have to eat, um, in smaller amounts, but with the same quantity of vitamins and nutrients.

She uses expressions with similar meanings - 'the rhythm of life', 'the pace of life' - to help her talk flow.

Using synonyms, opposites and related vocabulary gives continuity to her talk.

It makes it possible to continue talking without repeating the same words.

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Listen again:

Well I think they will because, um, you know, the rhythm of life, the pace of life is becoming, you know, more and more, um, stressful and, um, faster, so I think there is less time to eat, then we have to eat, um, in smaller amounts, but with the same quantity of vitamins and nutrients.

Being able to talk on a variety of subjects confidently will make it easier to maintain fluency.

Listen to this man, who is a concert master in a symphony orchestra, talking about his violin:

Um, this violin, it was made around er, they figure around 1810 in Cremona, in Italy. And Cremona, of course, is er, where all the … kind of the … it’s the best lineage of makers are from Cremona. Stradivarius, of course, which is the most well-known violin maker, originated from Cremona. And so, this kind of is a descendant of the Cremonese line of making. And um, I’ve been lucky enough to own this violin. My parents bought it for me when I was 14, I think. So, very, very lucky to have a very nice, 200, almost 200-year-old Italian instrument.

He was thinking of better ways to say what he meant and was able to easily change what he was saying mid-sentence. Listen again:

Um, this violin, it was made around er, they figure around 1810 in Cremona, in Italy. And Cremona, of course, is where all the … kind of the … it’s the best lineage of makers are from Cremona.

Maybe this is not perfectly correct English, but it is acceptable spoken English because it remains fluent. Hesitating to correct your grammar disrupts your fluency.

Only by practising can you improve your fluency. A teacher or native speaker will help you with your accuracy.

Fluency is not only your ability to speak smoothly and continuously but also your ability to speak at an effective speed.

Speaking too slowly or too quickly is unnatural. Aim to speak at a relaxed and natural pace.

Let’s listen to this student talking about public transport in Sydney. Listen to the speed of her speech. Does she speak too quickly, too slowly or just right?

Er, it should be less expensive. I must say Sydney um Sydney’s transport is really expensive. Er, it should be less expensive but, um, one of the problems is the frequency of transport. Sometimes you have to wait, like, twenty minutes for the bus to come.

Her speech rate is just right. She is neither too quick nor too slow. The pace is reasonable and appropriate, and she sounds natural.

You should practise modelling the pace of your speech on that of a native speaker.

Listening carefully to a large range of English speakers is one of the most effective ways to help you achieve fluency yourself.

Once you are used to the natural pace of English, you should record your speech and check whether you’re speaking at that pace.

Fluency is most important in part 2 of the speaking test, the long turn. It’s when you have to speak for one to two minutes on your own.

That’s all for today. For more about fluency, go to our website. The address is: australianetwork.com/studyenglish. Good Luck with your studies. Bye for now.

(Nguồn UTS: Insearch and Australia Network)

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