Speak up | englishcourse

SPEAK UP

In this section you will find topics that may help you to prepare a speaking presentation as well as ideas about the Speaking language skill that can help you to learn and practice English.

Good luck!

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

Social and Academic functions of language.

A language function is the purpose of speaking that sentence or phrase. For example, “I’m sorry” represents the function of apologizing and, “Good Morning!” represents the function of greeting.

Go to this link: http://ielts-yasi.englishlab.net/LANGUAGE_FUNCTION_EXAMPLES_P1.htm

Video

Forms and Functions of Language

INDEX OF LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

1. Talking about personal habits

2. Expressing likes and dislikes

3. Expressing reasons for likes and dislikes

4. Expressing a preference

5. Comparing

6. Talking About Recent Changes

7. Contrasting

8. Suggesting

9. Expressing Opinions

10. Giving Reasons for Opinions

11. Explaining

12. Speculating ( = Guessing When You Don't Know)

13. Speculating ( = guessing) About the Future

14. Expressing Plans, Intentions and Hopes for the Future

15. Clarifying

16. Explaining a Word When you have Forgotten (or don't k

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TEACHERS: Here you have a lot of Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom.

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FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

What do you know about them?

Why are they so important to reach the communicative competence.

What is the STAR Method for answering tough interview Questions?

The STAR method technique will enable you to answer tough work related

questions (not limited to job interviews) in a subtly, compelling and powerful manner.

BUILD A STAR METHOD STORY
A Star story should be about 2 minutes long, and delivered with energy and enthusiasm

about a real experience you have had (it does not have to be a work experience, as long as

it describes a relevant skill or behaviour).

Time for an example:
Question: Have you ever lead a team before?
This is another reason why the STAR method is so powerful. The above question is a terrible
closed question. You could answer “yes” or “yes” on three separate occasions and move quickly

onto the next question. But Leadership is an important skill, and you must not miss this chance to shine.

A lot of folks would give the easy answer here, you have a great chance to impress, and basically do all the interviewers work for them.

Let's build a STAR method story answer
(Situation) “Yes; a relevant example being at my last company, where I was initially a software developer, in a team of 6 developing a new finance module for our core accounting product.”
(Task) “The project was critical as launch dates had been set with a lot of sales and marketing investment riding on the product being ready. However the project was behind schedule, when our team leader unfortunately became ill, and had to leave."
(Action) "I had been sports team captain at school, where I loved the challenge and responsibility of leadership. So I volunteered to stand in, and by using my technical analysis skills, spotted a few small mistakes made in the initial coding, that were causing the sporadic errors, and slowing us down. I then negotiated with our product director a small bonus incentive for the team, and budget for two pizza evenings, so we could pull a couple of late night shifts to correct the coding and catch up with the critical project landmarks."
(Result) "Though this took us 1.5% over budget the software was delivered on time with a better than target fault tolerance. The project was seen as a great success as the additional project cost was minimal compared to the costs of delaying the launch, and the negative affect on our product branding. The team where delighted with the extra bonus and I have now been officially promoted to team leader as a result."You need to practice your answers out loud, to ensure it's continuity and that you don't go over 2 minutes.

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TANTRUMS

It's a familiar scene: You're standing in line at the grocery store, almost finished checking out. For the fourth time in a row, your child asks for a piece of candy strategically placed at kids' eye-level in the checkout line. You've repeatedly said no, when suddenly, the tantrum starts. His legs and arms flail, and then he lets go with an ear-piercing scream and begins hitting the floor. Meanwhile, between muffled apologies and frantic bagging, you attempt to get as far away from the store as possible.

Choosing the Right Cell Phone Plan

Choosing the right cell phone plan can be confusing. These days there are so many different options in the areas of pricing, data, talk minutes, text and then on top of all that you have to decide what cell phone you want to get it all on.

We dream about MONEY, argue about it, worry about it, celebrate it, spend it, save it - but what exactly is money and why do we put our trust in it?

We invest it and gain it, and unfortunately sometimes lose it, and we give it value and worth - or at least we agree to give it a certain value. But what does it represent?

It used to be stones, or shells. It has sometimes been cigarettes, wives and, arguably, sex. Most-famously it has been gold and silver.

Now money is pieces of paper around which we have built a consensus in that we agree that it means something.

Central banks like the Bank of England hold the monopoly on producing this paper money - cold, hard cash as we know it.

This is known as "fiat currency", from the Latin "it shall be". It derives its value through government backing - but how did we make the shift from pieces of gold to pieces of paper?

What Your Clothes Say About You

It’s no news that your wardrobe says a lot about you.

What you wear can inform passersby of your type of employment, as well as your ambitions, emotions and spending habits.

And now it’s even launched a whole new type of psychology. Clinical psychologist Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner literally wrote the book on this phenomenon, which she calls the “psychology of dress.” In “You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal About You,” she explains not only how psychology determines our clothing choices, but how to overcome key psychological issues your wardrobe might be bringing to light in your everyday life, or even at work.

Analysis of the book

Living in such a big city has a lot of advantages. There is a big offer how to spend free time. There are a lot of theatres, concerts and other ways of entertainment. There is always a lot to do and visit! There are a lot of possibilities of shopping. In various shopping centres and galleries you can buy whatever you want. What is more, there are a lot of working places in a city.

This topic is related to those considered for certifications like in the FCE (First Certicate in Englsih).

General knowledge is an important component of crystallized intelligence and is strongly associated with general intelligence, and weakly associated with openness to experience.

What nationality was Chopin?
What's the best known artificial international language?
Who lived at 221B, Baker Street, London?
Who cut off Van Gogh's ear?
Where did Salvador Dali live?
Who painted the Mona Lisa?

What Spanish artist said he would eat his wife when she died?
Who wrote Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet?
Who wrote Lazarillo de Tormes?
What did the crocodile swallow in Peter Pan?
Where was Lope de Vega born?
What are the first three words of the bible?

Let's start the debate!

Use DEBATES as a way to improve your knowledge and speaking skills.

https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cambridge-ideas.pdf

Try to write using much of the following expressions.

TURN-TAKING

Turn-taking is a part of the structure and systematic organization of conversations.
Relatively speaking, timing is an element of the turn-takings. Timing involves participants having to wait the moment to participate in the conversation. Turn-takings are dependent on the context of the conversation, and this situation along with timing varies in the use of a specific turn-taking and may be subjective within the conversation.

In my opinion, turn-taking depends on cultural, social, and motivational factors among others. Participants should be provided of the enough knowledge and context to be able to participate during the conversation. Other linguistic factors such as the use of fillers, formal, or informal language are part of the turn-taking activity although they may be subjective, too.

Listen to and pay attention to the elements or factors that intervene during the following conversation.