IELTS Speaking Vocabulary: People, Personalities and Characters

(upbeat music) - You are now listening to the IELTS podcast, "Learn From Cheaters" and ex-examinate for masters of IELTS preparation. Your host, Ben Werdington. - So I think even if I write enough of what you said, I will get a set of, but I've got seven points to eat. And I boast about it now. (laughing) - Hello there. Students, in this tutorial, we're going to look at vocabulary for a very common speaking topic, which is basically friends and family. Well, no. Speaking about people, personalities and characters. Now, not only is this useful for your speaking test, but it is quite common in the reading and the listening as well. So developing this vocabulary, it's going to help you across the board, across the different exams. Now, we're going to do this exam a little bit differently. Not this exam, it's tutorial. It's basically we're going to be doing vocabulary bingo. So, this goes back to what I was saying before about getting the most out of these tutorials. And by getting the most, I mean, we make it into an active speaking class, or an active listening class, sorry, rather than just passively sitting there and absorbing the information. Doing it this way will help you significantly just move that vocabulary from a kind of like archive into your active vocabulary. And this is essential. This is why sometimes you know what you want to say, but it's not coming out or you recognize the words, you know the words, but you never use them in your speaking. And it's because they are not in your active vocabulary. So making this action into an active listening exercise is going to help you. So let's get started. Grab a pen, write down these words, these terms, and then tick them when you hear them in this tutorial. So we're going to talk about the words that will be confident. Or quit, or quit means, you know, when it's a little bit uncomfortable. Underneath the surface, I'm paddling like a swam. Okay, this basically means looking calm, but not feeling it. But putting up a facade, facade is to give like the false impression, a control freak. This is when you want to do everything yourself, and I for detail. This means that you look over everything in a very detailed fashion. Reliable and dependable. These are quite noble qualities. It means to be trusted or not to let somebody down. In common parlance, we could say, to be not flaky. Somebody flakes a lot. It means they say they're going to be there, but then if they are, it's not a very attractive attribute. Punctuality, being an English person, this is paramount to loving the queen, just joking. But punctuality is a very, very important quality. I've heard it said before that you can't trust somebody who is un-punctual. That is lazy with that time. I mean, obviously, this varies across cultures. Disrespectful, can mean impolite and negative trait, bad characteristic, parental way, to behave like somebody paternal, like a father or a mother, interpersonal skills. And I mean, good at talking and interacting with others, empathetic, understanding others' emotions. A generous listener, this is a very positive attribute. If you've got, if you're a generous, generous listener, you take the time to hear what others are saying. To emulate, to emulate means to be similar to, or at least aim to be similar, considerate, very kind and thoughtful, insecure, is shy and not confident, and moody, means that sometimes they put the person is happy, or sometimes they're sad or cross. All right, I'll just give you a quick overview again. So confident, awkward. Underneath the surface, I'm paddling like a swan. Put up a facade, a control freak, an eye for detail. Reliable and dependable, punctuality. It's also good to learn the other forms, so we could learn the adjective, so it could be, he is a very punctual person, disrespectful. Or he lacks respect, or she lacks respect, she lacks respect, a negative trait, parental way, interpersonal skills. Empathetic, empathetic, I said it right. Generous listener, considerate, insecure and moody. Let's go to Cambridge Dictionary, actually, because I have a feeling I'm pronouncing moody different to what the Cambridge Dictionary would say. Okay, yes. Being from the North, I will kind of, some vowel sounds come out stronger, and amongst those are the O sound. So the Cambridge Dictionary said, moody, and I say moody. Small nuances there, don't worry. You'll get what I mean nine times out of 10, due to my pronunciation. All right, so what we're doing is, I'm going to give you sample answers, when you listen, or when you hear some of those words I've said before, add a tick to your nose. It'll just make it a little bit more of an active class. So let's go speaking part one. Okay, remember that if these questions, we're usually gonna get something like, do you work, are you a student? But then once the easier ones have been asked, and you kind of like settle down, you'll get these more specific ones, related to the topic of the exam. So in this case, the examiner will have asked me, do you enjoy meeting new people? Here is the answer. Yes, I do, but I admit that it does depend on the context. For example, if I'm with a group of lifelong friends, I feel more confident and relaxed than if I am alone, when I feel more timid and awkward, when I feel more timid and awkward. I think that at work, I try to put up a facade of being professional and in control, although underneath the surface and paddling like a swan. Okay, so in that answer, not only did we offer sort of like a hypothetical situation, as in if I am alone, I feel more timid and awkward, okay. Also like a little anecdote there as well, but also hopefully you picked up on the words, confident, awkward, facade, and paddling like a swan. Next question, would you describe yourself as a sociable person? Perhaps you want to even pause the recording here, write out your answer, say your answer, get your answer together in your head, and then resume the recording. Would you describe yourself as a sociable person? I'd like to say so, as I'm always happy to get involved in organizing parties and gatherings. Indeed, I can be a bit of a control freak, as I have an eye for detail, however, I would be more than delighted to be described as reliable and dependable, 'cause we all need friends we can rely on. I have known my best friends in school, and we trust each other completely, and pick up where we left off each time we see each other. Okay, different answer from a different student, in this case, okay. And hopefully you picked up on the little anecdote, you picked up on the fact that Mario can be a control freak, he has an eye for detail, and but he would like to be described as reliable and dependable. So we answer in the question, we're not developing it fully like we do with part three, but we are given an adequate response with lots of adjectives, and like personal examples, it's always good to involve, include those. Next question, this one is Judy's answer, are you usually punctual or late? Judy, that's a great question. Every year I make a resolution to be on time for both work and social meetings, but I have a terrible habit of always being slightly late. I know that punctuality is a virtue, good little phrase there, and I'm always embarrassed by being a bad time keeper, especially when I understand that being late is rude and disrespectful. I'll keep working on improving this negative trait. Again, punctuality, disrespectful. Also, some of the key terms there were bad time keeper and negative trait. This is the type of topic specific vocabulary we can definitely make a note of because it's quite versatile. We're going to use it throughout our speaking exam. There's a high degree that we're going to use it, especially because as you know, the speaking exam, especially part three is usually places, people, or kind of like a, what's the third one? Places, people, or events if I remember correctly. Let's move on to part two, QCAD. Describe a person you would like to be similar to. You should say who this person is, what this person does, what qualities this person has, and explain why you would like to be similar to this person. As you know, you've got about a minute to prepare for this and you make your notes in the speaking course. We have a process for you to follow this, proven, very successful for students. It just helps you organize your thoughts, organize your answer, and includes a few frameworks for you to basically drop your ideas in. Like we do with task two. So here's the model answer we have. I'd like to talk about a teacher who is head of pastoral care at a school I used to go to. Pastoral duties revolve around the mental and social health of students, more than the academic side, but of course, the two work in tandem. This lady is Mrs. Butler, and has held a job for more than a decade, and she's inspiring in her attention to detail and caring personality. It is her job to interact with students in a relaxed, almost parental way, and create the kind of atmosphere where they can trust her and share any problems and issues they may have. As part of her duties, she would liaise between students and other members of staff, education and healthcare professional bodies and parents as needed. The interpersonal and communication skills required for this role are very demanding and take a long time to learn if not acquired naturally. Mrs. Butler is enormously empathetic. She really understands emotion and is a great and generous listener, and I believe these are all key qualities which are important to emulate. Think that interacting with students and colleagues that work can present many challenges and an understanding of human characteristics, even the psychology of how people think and respond to each other is more and more important. I'd love to be considered as caring, consider it unreliable as she is, and she's really one of those rare people who can connect with anyone, anywhere. All right, so hopefully you noticed that we were working through those bullet points, in very organised fashion. Perhaps maybe you could say it was a little bit too organised, but I mean, I'm reading. I mean, if you look, if you go to our site, you'll see the whole, all the speeches, all the things I'm saying have been written out. So that's why it may sound a little bit scripted. Anyway, it's like almost a textbook example of what's required. As I said, probably possibly lacks a little bit of spontaneity, but it's a good practice just to write out your answers before the exam, two sample questions, and this will help you just improve your vocabulary. Now then, part three. We know that in part three, we're going to get questions that might be similar to the other part three questions. And as I said before, we're going to be explaining the same topic maybe from different angles, maybe in a more abstract fashion, a more hypothetical fashion, and this really pushes the limits of our speaking ability. Let's go. How do you think the personalities of men and women vary? Wow, quite a tough question. All right, surges, possible answer. It is often said that men can be more opinionated and less empathetic than women. And it is true that it is often a male stereotype. However, compared to previous generations, many men today are more in touch with their feelings, less moody and are much more aware of the challenges faced by regarding juggling a family and parentshood. Very PC answer there, I do say so. Now some good vocabulary there, maybe opinionated, male stereotype, moody. As I've said before, when you get the app by Search in Ben Worthington on the Play Google Play Star on iOS, then you'll also get the transcript for these recordings, and it helps a lot just to read a long while I'm talking. You can associate sounds with words, new words you come across, you instantly get the perfect, I can't say perfect. I'd say you instantly get a highly accurate pronunciation. I mean, perfect pronunciation. Maybe we could say it's for the people down in Cambridge and Oxford, but as you know, as most English language learners know, there are a million and one different accents. And mine is no longer broad Yorkshire, as it used to be. It's been softened a little bit. Let's go. Next question, how do companies try to assess the personalities of people who are applying for jobs? Alice's answer. Rather than a traditional interview, nowadays, many companies demand high grades in cycle metric tests. Good vocabulary, which have been designed to test character in order to select candidates who are compatible with the company mentality. Some great vocabulary there. Whilst these tests may highlight insecure or weaker candidates, I'm not convinced that it is the most effective way to judge personality. Great vocabulary there, and I strongly recommend you make a note of some of these terms. They're very useful, not only for the speaking, but for the writing as well. Now, as I've just said a few minutes ago, that this in part three, you're going to be challenged on expressing your views in different ways, and maybe asked similar questions, which seem like the question you've just answered. And they do this just to encourage you to develop your answer, to test your ability to develop the answer while using more vocabulary, so you're not repeating exactly what you said. And also by developing your answer, you're going to go deeper into the subject, and show the examiner you've got even more knowledge than what might appear at first glance or in your first answer. A typical question, typical way to do this is the, why do you think they do this question? Now, why do you think this is? That's basically an invitation to do what I just said to develop your answer, go deeper, show more vocabulary, possibly even different viewpoints and more examples. So, aloic has an answer, which I'll read now. In my opinion, these tests are used to save time as most jobs today attract numerous applicants, and it must be hard to choose the strongest or most suitable. That said, to be defined by an algorithm or computer program is terrifying, and critics suggest that it cannot effectively determine those with good communication skills or natural leaders. Right, so again, more vocabulary in their algorithm, computer program, choose the strongest, most suitable candidate applicants, good communication skills, natural leaders, all fantastic vocabulary that we want to be incorporating. Maybe you can include a little example. In these ones, we didn't really have sort of like personal anecdotes. You don't have to include personal anecdotes or examples in every single answer, but they are good tools to help you expand your answer, especially if you're a student who struggles with giving long answers, which is, I know is a common problem. Another point that I forgot to mention was that in a lot of these answers, we're getting the students opinion, which is fantastic. It shows a little bit more character, and it helps you expand your answer as well. For example, the last one, the student said it would be terrifying to be judged by an algorithm or computer program. Also in the previous answer before that, the student said, I am not convinced that it is the most effective way to judge personality. So another advantage of giving your opinion is that the examiner now has some more material to work with. They can ask you why you believe this. It just makes the whole process a little bit smoother. Now, we've come to the end of this tutorial. If you want to find the whole text for this, like I said, you can get the transcript from our app. You can also go to IELTS Podcast, just put IELTS Podcast vocabulary, and you'll find a new page that we've got. We've recently updated it, and it's got sample answers for all parts, all speaking parts, and then a massive list of useful topic-specific vocabulary. And as I said, the example answers, and which include the topic-specific vocabulary. So if you're starting out, maybe you can write it down. Maybe you can copy these answers out. Maybe you can do the look, cover, remember, or recall technique where you look at a sentence, try and say it from memory, and then review it. There are lots of different exercises you can do with this. It's up to you to find what you believe is the most effective for you, and also find one that you enjoy. Because if you're not enjoying it, then it's going to be difficult to stick with it. Right, that is everything from me today. Thank you very much for joining us. If you are struggling with IELTS speaking, remember we've got the speaking feedback service, whereby you'll send us in a recording of a sample QCAD, we give you some feedback on that. Likewise, with the writing feedback service, we send you the question, you send us your answer, and we'll review it, evaluate it, give you feedback. And both of these, for the speaking and for the writing, have shown to improve students' scores, improve their studying capability, and just it's the fastest way to improve at the moment. Because there is not a faster way to improve. Having an expert review your work, pinpoint which areas need to be worked on, highlight your weak point, your strong points, is really is the fastest way to get ahead and to pass this exam. So that's everything from me today. Have a fantastic day. Keep moving forward, keep working, and you will pass the IELTS six out. All the best.