The Pitfalls of Being Boring Speaking Part 1 answers

Take a look at the Pitfalls of Being Boring Speaking Part 1 answers below:

Question: Do you prefer Vietnamese or Western Food?

• Answer: I prefer Vietnamese food because it is delicious.

Question: What’s the last thing you read and enjoyed?

• Answer: The last thing I read and enjoyed was an economics book.

Question: What type of music do you like?

• Answer: I like many different types of music, like pop, pop ballad, R & B, and Rock Music. I think listening to music helps me to relax and feel comfortable.

Question: What’s the most popular newspaper in your country?

• Answer: Tuoi Tre is the most popular newspaper.

What’s wrong with these answers?

They are boring. It is certainly true that many of the topics and a lot of the questions in the IELTS Speaking Test are boring. Don’t put the examiner to sleep. Why is it important not to be boring? Being interesting and giving engaging responses can seriously improve your answers.

First, let’s look at the dangers of being dull and uninteresting. Giving boring answers can affect your score. Boring answers can be a sign that the candidate has memorized her or his answers. Examiners are trained to identify scripted answers and candidates who use them will be found out.

Just because the topics are not exciting, doesn’t mean that your answers have to be dull. Boring answers which are not learned by heart are still dull, and this can result in poor pronunciation. Candidates, who respond with a boring answer, usually speak in a monotone voice. This simply means that their voice is flat and they sound like a robot because they are not using intonation. Why is this important?

Intonation is the rising and falling sounds of speech when we are speaking. Native speakers use it to convey meaning and emotions. Besides this, intonation is a form of verbal punctuation. If you are not using intonation, your score for pronunciation will be low. Remember pronunciation is worth 25% of your overall Speaking Band Score.
Apart from affecting your pronunciation, boring responses can also have a negative impact on your other scores. IELTS candidates, who respond by giving boring answers, mostly give low content answers. This is because they don’t have many ideas and are unable to express themselves.

Some other problems with the answers above

Besides being boring, there are some other problems with these responses. In each answer, the person is parroting the question words. This simply means that they are using the given vocabulary in their answers. Even someone with a very low level of English, can respond to questions in this way. So don’t do this. Use synonyms and parallel expressions to avoid repeating the words or phrases from the question. Candidates should paraphrase as much as possible to show the examiner that they understand the question and have a good vocabulary size. Remember vocabulary accounts for a quarter of your total speaking score.

Most of these answers are too short. Remember that you are being assessed on your fluency and coherence, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. If you are not speaking enough, your score will be low. These answers lack content and use a minimum number of words, fluency markers and grammatical structures.
Fluency markers are important because they link our ideas together and structure our speech. If you want to do well in the IELTS test, you need to use them effectively. Responses need detail. When you are communicating you should use adjectives and adverbs to be more descriptive and to provide greater meaning.

The response to question 3 is boring because the candidate lists the different types of music without personalizing her/his answer.

People who give boring answers…..are not enthusiastic parrot the question (use the same vocabulary) don’t use fluency markers
Their answers are….short and lack content nondescript

Let’s look at some better answers to the same questions.

Question: Do you prefer Vietnamese or Western Food?

• Answer: I absolutely prefer Vietnamese food. I find most Western cuisine quite bland, to be honest, and it has few or no spices in it, in contrast to Vietnamese food, which is full of interesting flavors.

Absolutely is modifier which tells the listener how much she/he prefers Vietnamese food. Then, the speaker explains why and uses a fluency marker, topic-related vocabulary, and a comparative structure.

Question: What’s the last thing you read and enjoyed?

• Answer: This might sound a bit odd, but I got my electricity bill yesterday and it was much lower than I thought it would be.

Remember, books are not the only things that you can read. As well as being an imaginative response, the vocabulary is good and the speaker uses a quantifier and a comparative structure. Besides this, the speaker doesn’t parrot the question.

Question: What type of music do you like?

• Answer: Well, like most people I love many different kinds of music such as alternative rock music which, I guess, is my favourite as I spend more time listening to this than anything else. I’m especially fond of bands like the Pixies and REM as they remind me of my youth. Apart from this, I also enjoy listening to great female blues singers like Nina Simone.

This answer uses the word ‘kind’ instead of ‘type’. Paraphrasing doesn’t have to be complicated. The speaker doesn’t list different musical genres. She or he illustrates by giving an example and explanation.

Question: What’s the most popular newspaper in your country?

• Answer: To be honest, I’m not really sure, but it must be Tuoi Tre as it is sold in so many different places.

The speaker informs the person asking the question that he or she doesn’t know the answer, and then makes a guess using the correct language [must be].

Question: What do all of these answers have in common?

Answer:  They are positive, enthusiastic and personal. Being happy generally means that you will be using good intonation. This is good for your pronunciation score. Personalizing your answers is important for Speaking Part 1 because that part of the test is about you.

They don’t parrot the question and fluency markers are used. This tells the examiner that you understand the question and you are able to develop your answers. They are descriptive and give details. Adverbs, adjectives and topic related words are used to make the answers more interesting.

Different structures are used effectively including comparative structures and the language of speculation.

Best of luck!

Mr. Dominic Ryan – KTDC IELTS Trainer