雅思口语：Looking for Patterns (Part II)

　　Rehearse

　　After organizing ones thought, students should practice on how to deliver their organized thinking and ideas out loud to themselves and, if appropriate, to a few others. Do it out loud because the words always come out right in your head, but if you have to speak them youll catch some problems before hand. Most of the time students know what they want to say but when they say it out will be quite different from what they had thought. Do it again repeatedly. Keep doing it until you are comfortable and improved. Rehearsing is also a good way to build a students confidence in speaking. Practice makes perfect , it can really give student an ideal score in the exam.

　　Clear

　　To be able to be understood in an integrated task, students should speak with a firm, strong and confident voice. Examiners tend to pay more attention if the student speaks with confidence. On the other hand, examiners get bored and sleepy when the student speaks with a voice as soft as a whisper or as slow as a donkey walk. Each syllable should be pronounced very clearly and accurately. Of course, it would be best if the student can deliver their answer with the proper diction and accent. There are times that examiners get distracted with the accent of the student. Because of this, the examiners tend to get the wrong information as the student meant it this way, but his accent give the words different meaning already. Some examiners would then find the whole thing funny and weird. A student must have confidence to be able to speak clearly.

　　As much as possible, we should speak the words in laymans term. Sometimes in an effort to impress the examiner, the student speaks high falluting words that the examiner is not able to relate to. This tends to make the examiner feel that they are not smart enough to be able to understand what the smart speaker is talking about. I have observed that books and novels that are best sellers are those that people from all walks of life can relate to.

　　Speed

　　Before working on speed techniques on your speaking, you need to determine how fast you can talk. This will help you increase speed talking by making it easy to keep track of your progress. The average person can speak 50-100 words of fiction or non-technical topics per minute, but a fast speaking speed is between 100-150 words per minute. With a stopwatch, set the time for exactly one minute and speak at your regular pace. When the time is up, count the number of words youve spoken and you will know how fast you can speak.

　　The most common mistake students make is to trade speaking comprehension for speed. Sure, youve been able to increase speed talking, but speed speaking techniques are useless if people do not understand what you say. The trick to maintaining your level of comprehension is to adjust your speed according to the topic you are talking. Determine what kind of topic you are talking about and decide how fast you want to go. In general, speed up when you encounter familiar ideas, unnecessary explanations and examples, and restated ideas. Slow down when you come across unfamiliar terms, abstract concepts, or difficult sentences