IELTS Energy 1600: How to Ace IELTS Speaking Questions About the Environment

This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1600, How to Ace IELTS Speaking Questions About the Environment. Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English. Downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams.

Do you often speak with friends about the environment in English? If not, you need today's vocabulary and strategies so that you are ready for this common IELTS topic.

Preparing for IELTS can feel overwhelming because there's so much advice online and not all of it is right for you or even correct. Instead of wasting time, start with a simple two-minute quiz that shows you your estimated IELTS band score. Then we'll give you free resources that match your current level so you know exactly where to focus your precious time. It's quick, free, and designed to help you prepare with confidence.

Go now to allearsenglish.com slash myscore. That's allearsenglish.com slash myscore. Hello, Michelle. How are you? I'm doing well, Aubrey. How are you today?

Excellent. Welcome back to IELTS Energy. I have a quick question for you. Be honest. Do you talk about the environment a lot with friends? I wouldn't say it's a hot topic of everyday conversation, but we certainly talk about it.

It comes up, but not all the time or anything. It comes up sometimes, but it's not a very common conversation topic, especially because it can be sort of... political. People disagree about how much that should be the focus of government action, etc.

So it can be a controversial topic. So everyone out there listening, you might not have had a lot of conversations about the environment or written about it a lot, but it is a very common topic on IELTS. You need to be ready to answer IELTS speaking questions about this and write IELTS essays about this. We got a great

question here on YouTube from HamoudXD9497. You want to read that for us, Michelle? Sure. Hamoud says, thanks. Need more content related to IELTS speaking topics?

Keep enjoying it. Kindly make videos on speaking topics like the environment, culture, etc. Yeah, great. Yes, especially environment really stuck out to me here.

Also culture, definitely. We talk about culture a lot here, but today we're focusing on the environment. It is a very common topic. You need high scoring vocabulary.

You need strategies. You need to have something to say. So let's first share some questions you could be asked on IELTS. On part one, these are those shorter answers, three to five sentences.

You might be asked, for example, do you think pollution is a problem in your city? What else might you be asked, Michelle? How often do you recycle? Yeah.

Or what can individuals do to protect the environment? And then part two, right? This is where you have a minute to think about your answer, and then you answer for two minutes. What might you be asked on part two, Michelle?

Well, they might say something like, describe an environmental problem in your area. Yes. And if you have not thought much about environmental problems in your area, it might be hard to come up with two minutes worth in a minute. So these are things you want to have thought about ahead of time, definitely.

Worst case scenario, you could make it up if you have today's vocabulary. But even better, if you've been thinking about these things, it'll be easy to fill two minutes, right? Right. And then, of course, part three.

This is where these questions come up the most often. These are more problems that affect society, and the environment is definitely one of those. So part three answers, which you'll answer close to a minute, can be just under, but you're answering a little more detailed, a little more fully. You might be asked, why are environmental problems increasing worldwide?

Or do you think governments or individuals are more responsible for protecting the environment? What else, Michelle? Or how can schools teach children about environmental protection? That's an interesting one.

Or what are the long-term effects of climate change? Yes. Or is economic growth more important than environmental protection? You can see reading these questions.

If you had never thought about these things before and you get this question on test day, you probably could speak intelligently about this in your first language. It is more difficult in a second language. If you haven't thought about it a lot, talked about it a lot, have this vocabulary. So I'm excited for the vocabulary that you will learn today and stay to the end for a band nine sample answer, a sample part three answer.

Love it. So let's dive into this vocabulary, Michelle. Okay, so the first word is degradation. So this is a noun, and this is damage or deterioration of the environment.

So for example, deforestation has led to severe environment degradation in the region. Yes. So this is a band nine word that just means damage, destruction. So when you're talking about deforestation or pollution, this is a great word to use to push your vocabulary score up.

Degradation. Add it to your vocabulary notebook. And number two is emissions. This is also a noun. Gases or pollutants released into the air. So for example, you might say car emissions are one of the main causes of urban air pollution.

Or you could say car emissions are one of the main causes of degradation in the air, in the ozone or in the air, right? So you can combine them. Oh, that's a high scoring sentence.

Oh, I love it. Or the third one is sustainability. So that's a noun. And that is the ability to maintain something without harming the environment. So, for example, sustainability should be a prior should be.

Whoa, let's try that again. Sustainability should be a priority for future development. Exactly. This is a great word. You will often when talking about the environment, talk about how we can create sustainability, build sustainability.

And I love this highlighted when you said prior that the word priority is pronounced so differently from prior, even though they start the same. Right. So this is more for when you are reading along. But keep in mind, there are a lot of words that do that in English where you would think they're pronounced the same because they're written the same or they start the same.

Not necessarily, unfortunately. No. Yep, exactly. All right. What's the next one, Aubrey? Next is biodiversity. This is also a noun. This is about the variety of plant and animal life in a particular area.

So for example, if you are asked about climate change, you could say climate change threatens biodiversity across the planet, right? So it's threatening different plant and animal life. This is a higher scoring way to say that.

Yes. And then finally, we have contamination. So this is also a noun. The presence of harmful substances in something. So for example, like the air, the water, the soil.

So here's a sample sentence. Water contamination has made it unsafe for people to drink from the river. Exactly. So some kind of harmful substance is in that.

I watch a TV show called Alone sometimes. Michelle, have you seen Alone? No. Do you watch it alone? I sometimes watch it alone, but usually not. My kids love watching it.

I usually watch it with my kids. They will drop someone. And these are people who are trained to survive in the wilderness. And they'll drop them in the middle of like...

northern canada yukon wow but like somewhere very very remote where the closest person to them is like 20 miles away and they have camera equipment so they're videoing their attempt at surviving alone and they're building a shelter and they're getting food and often someone will get sick because of giardia in the water contamination in the river um that will make them sick and they have to leave. So they have to boil the water. They have to be really careful to get all of the contaminants out of the water or they'll get very sick and they are monitored.

Somehow they're monitored so that if they're too sick, they're removed for health, to take care of their health. But it's crazy how any water out there is contaminated. There's so much contamination and bacteria and these water sources that might look like good fresh water.

There's a beaver upstream. Don't drink that. Yes, exactly. Be careful. So I want to point out a lot of these words will not just be useful for the environment.

I answered a practice IELTS question not that long ago about a trip I took to Hawaii. And I remember mentioning the mongoose there that were brought in and were super destructive and They were, you know, they created degradation of the biodiversity in Hawaii because they were a predator that killed off all of these other, they had like brought them in to try and control the rat population. And instead they became the rats.

They're everywhere. We would see mongoose on the streets all the time. And now that's like the pest that took over and kind of wiped out a lot of the rest of the plant and animal life. So anyway, you could be asked about travel.

You could be asked, there's so many questions where these words could end up being very useful. So add these to your vocab notebook, practice using them in your own sample answers.

Love it. Do you ever start speaking English and suddenly the words disappear? You pause too much, you hesitate, you know what you want to say, but only later, not in the moment when it matters. This is where your fluency is breaking down and it's fixable.

That's why we created our two minute fluency quiz. It shows you your exact English level right now, so you know what to work on next. Are you B1, B2, or C1? Find out.

Go now to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score and get clarity on your English level and how you can improve this year, starting today. One more time, go to allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e.

Okay, Michelle, let's have you practice a part three answer here. So keep in mind, everyone out there, if you haven't taken IELTS, you've got this. If you haven't taken IELTS before, these are harder. They are longer.

You're speaking for about a minute. You need to use more topic-specific formal vocabulary. Michelle's going to use some of the vocabulary we taught today. Are you ready for your question, Michelle?

I am ready. You've got this. Here we go. Okay, thank you. Why are environmental problems increasing worldwide? So, well, rapid industrialization and population growth are the main factors, I would say.

So, for example, higher demand for energy has led to increased carbon emissions, which contributes significantly to climate change. So, in addition, many countries prioritize economic development over sustainability. So, this often results in environmental degradation. Okay.

So another major issue is the loss of biodiversity, as natural habitats are destroyed for urban expansion and agriculture. And this not only affects wildlife, but also disrupts ecosystems that humans depend on. Furthermore, contamination of water and air has become more widespread, especially in those densely populated cities.

To address these problems, governments need to enforce stricter environmental regulations, while individuals should adopt more eco-friendly habits such as reducing waste and conserving energy. Awesome. Amazing. I'm excited to go through all of this fantastic vocabulary you used, but I first want to point out the linking phrases.

You hear from us a lot that you have to have linking phrases in your speaking answers, which is It's kind of the toughest thing to do because when we're just having conversations, we don't usually use those linking phrases. You have to practice using them. They are required for a band seven or higher.

So if you go back and listen again, all of these linking phrases, for example, in addition, another major issue, this not only affects wildlife, but... Also, furthermore, to address these problems, especially all of these words and phrases that link her ideas and make it a well-organized response that flows smoothly, that is how you get a really high cohesion, fluency, and coherence score. So first of all, pay attention to those linking phrases. That was really well done.

Band nine, fluency and coherence. And then what about vocabulary? What are some of the words that you use, these vocabulary words from today? Mm hmm. So, yeah, I talked about increased carbon emissions.

Right. So we talked about that word emissions, the gases or pollutants released into the air. Also, sustainability. I really like that one. That's to the ability to maintain something without harming the environment.

Right. Yes. And this was a perfect way to bring that up. You're saying many countries prioritize economic development over sustainability. And that's where it's interesting how it does become controversial because a lot of people would argue that economic development is far more important while others feel like, but the planet...

So we see why there are both views and it's tricky, but this is a great way to use that vocabulary in a way where you're just sort of stating what some governments do, what's happening, even if you don't have strong opinions or you're not sure what you think yet, right? You can see Michelle wasn't saying, I think this and I believe this and this is my opinion. Instead, she's sort of stating the facts about what she sees, where she lives or what is happening, what governments are doing, what economies are doing. Yeah.

And then degradation is a great word that you used, you said, which often results in environmental degradation. So again, that means sort of the destruction of anything having to do with the environment. This is pretty flexible, whether you're talking about deforestation, or the degradation of the ozone layer, you'll be able to use this band nine word.

Yes. And then I said another major issue is the loss of biodiversity. So if you remember, Aubrey, yeah, biodiversity is the variety of plant and animal life in a particular area. Exactly.

Yeah. Great word for that. Much higher scoring than saying the plants and animals in a particular area. Of course you can say that too. And you might, if you've already said biodiversity and need to kind of say that again, that's when we paraphrase and say it another way.

That works too. But try to use this word to boost those vocab scores. And then lastly, contamination. She said contamination of water and air has become more widespread.

That just means pollutants, something harmful that should not be in the water and air. So smog, right? When it's smoke and fog in someone's air or pollutants in water sources, all of that would be called contamination.

Okay. Yeah, this has been really interesting, Aubrey. I mean, there's so much talk about the environment. It's a it's a tricky thing to talk about. And a lot of people have varying feelings on it.

And also just yeah, this vocab there, there are it is kind of a high level topic. Absolutely. So it's very interesting here. Guys, remember to hit follow wherever you're listening to the IELTS Energy Podcast.

And also, Aubrey, what other episode should our listeners check out today? Yes, if you missed it, scroll up and check out episode 1598. Are your IELTS speaking answers up to scratch? You'd learn the idiom up to scratch and related phrases that you should be using on IELTS speaking.

These are very flexible. You could use them on almost any speaking answer. And I love what you were saying, Michelle, there. This is a difficult topic to speak about on IELTS without preparing in advance.

You need to learn this vocabulary that you might not be using a lot in daily conversations. Probably not, right? You need to be able to It's not always about sharing your opinion.

You might be asked about your opinion on these things, but more than that, you just need to describe this issue, describe how people think, because it is controversial. Not everyone's going to agree, and that's fine. And another good note here, whenever we talk about something controversial like this, keep in mind, The examiner doesn't care about your opinion.

They're not worried about whether you agree with them. You can say something that they personally find super offensive and they'll still give you a band nine if you say that with good high scoring vocabulary and fluency. So don't worry about any of that. You can share your opinions, share your answers.

The examiner is just looking for the things from the scoring system to give you that good high score. Definitely love it. Well, I think that's a good takeaway for today, Aubrey. Yes, I agree.

Thanks for joining me, Michelle. Practice these answers with this vocabulary on your own, guys, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Michelle. All right.

Thanks, Aubrey. Have a good one. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.