Hello Exam Seekers,
Looking for some more tips on the B1 – First (former FCE) Speaking Exam? Last week we gave you some tips on how to work on the first part of the Speaking exam –the interview, and today we are going to talk a little bit more about the second part – the long turn.
Part 2 – The Long Turn.
It usually takes 1 minute per candidate to respond, but first, the interlocutor is going to give the candidates directions.
First, the interlocutor is going to say: “In this part of the test, I’m going to give each of you two photographs. I’d like you to talk about your photographs on your own for about a minute, and also to answer a question about your partner’s photographs“. It is essential that you listen carefully to the description, you won’t have it written down so that you can follow later.
After describing the task, the interlocutor is going to give you the pictures to describe and to answer the task. After one minute, the interlocutor is going to turn to your peer and ask him/her a related question. He/She has now 30 seconds to reply.
Once this phase is done, it’s the other way around, now it’s your peer to receive the paper with the question and talk about it. You also have to pay close attention due to the related question that comes in your way.
Check it out:
If you were paying close attention, you realized that there are three implied questions in one description:
- Talk about your photographs for about a minute.
- I’d like you to compare the photographs and…
- …say how important it is to help people in these situations.
Sometimes people don’t realize there are three tasks instead of one, and they give half answer, which is not good.
- I’d like you to compare the photographs and…
You can try and say all the things that you see in one of the pictures comparing to the other, to show the interlocutor that you do have vocabulary enough. You can say:
In picture one I can see a man, he is a soccer player and he seems hurt because he is on the floor and someone is working on his leg. On the second picture, I can see a woman talking to a man. She is probably asking for some information because she is talking to a guard and there is a map on his hand which he is pointing to.
It seems that in both situations the people are asking for some help to another person and they are helping them.
Here you are describing the pictures while providing information to compare right after.
- How important it is to help people in these situations.
You have only one minute to answer both questions, so as soon as you compared them, you say why it is important:
In both situations, it is very important to help people. First, there is a soccer player hurt on the field, he needs assistance because he has to go back to the game, so he can’t really stop playing. Moreover, he might be hurt, and he can’t fix himself. On the second picture, it is very important to help people who are lost, especially if they are not from the county in question.
They are assessing your ability to discuss: begin, connect and close ideas. So make sure that you try and answer both questions connecting the ideas.
As soon as you finish, the interlocutor is going to ask your peer a follow-up question. Pay attention to what your peer was saying, because your comments have to connect to your peer’s:
- Do you find it easy to ask for help when you have a problem? (Why? Why not?.
People, in general, don’t like to ask for help. They tend to do things wrong instead of asking for help or for some guidelines. I believe that being shy or fear the answer won’t help me or anyone else, because once you make mistakes, you cannot go back. So it’s important to ask for help because you won’t open an opportunity for things to go wrong again.
Hope it has made you at ease. If you have more questions about it, please write them in the comment session below and don’t forget to follow the blog at:
Have a great week,
Patty