IELTS Energy 1636: Launching Answers Part 1: Start With a Bang!

This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1636, Launching Answers, Part 1. Start with a bang. welcome to the ielts energy podcast from all ears english downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner trained ielts whiz aubrey carter and lindsey mcmahon the english adventurer if you are stuck with a low score our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash my score.

Do you feel like you always use the same phrases to open your answers on IELTS? Today, get more than 15 ways to vary your answer and encourage the examiner to give you a higher score.

Sometimes English learners think their problem is vocabulary, but often the issue is something deeper. It's hesitation. You pause to translate. You pause to check grammar.

You pause to search for the perfect word. Those small pauses add up and interrupt the natural flow of conversation. You can respond with ease without constantly analyzing every sentence. Our free two-minute fluency quiz will show you your current level and what skills you need to improve.

Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hey, Lindsay, how are you today? Good, Aubrey. How's it going?

Excellent. Question for you. Yes. Do you ever find yourself starting sentences the same way over and over? Not as much, but sometimes I notice that within one conversation, I could be like, why am I using this pattern?

And I'll pick up on it and then I'll get focused on that and then I'll get distracted and it ends up being a big mess. Totally. Yes. Right. It's interesting because

In English, we probably don't. In your first language, this isn't so tricky, but in French and Spanish, absolutely I do. I've noticed this. So I'm like, oh, we get comfortable with certain ways of speaking, certain questions we could ask, right?

And then we find ourselves saying the same thing over and over. So this, for any IELTS student who's learning English, this is probably a common concern. We got the great question about this that I feel like a lot of you are going to relate to. Yes, exactly.

So, well, I'll go ahead and read the question. This comes from YouTube. Guys, we do have a YouTube channel. So type in IELTS Energy and go ahead and hit that subscribe button.

This comes from Yoshi from Japan. Thank you for always making such helpful videos. I learned so much from them. I have a question about speaking English.

I notice that I always end up using the same sentence structures like starting with I think or relying on because, gerund plus is, and it is adjective to do. I tend to stick to these familiar patterns. Do you have any advice on how to break out of this routine and expand my phrasing?

Okay. Yes. Such a great question. This is a common struggle for a lot of IELTS students. And I first of all, want to commend Yoshi for paying attention to this because so many students will take the IELTS speaking exam without ever having noted this, right?

Without realizing that they're using vocabulary repetition, they're starting answers all the same way. So this is, I feel like half the battle just to recognize you're doing this so that you can find strategies, think of other ways to start your answers. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

And it really does affect your score. The examiner will definitely, and we'll talk about how they'll score you down if they hear you repeating the same things over and over. Right, Aubrey? Exactly, right.

This affects your vocabulary score and your fluency score. You need new details, right? And you need to switch up your vocabulary. So if you are using the same sentence starters, the same start to every question, that's affecting more than one of your scores.

Right. Yes, totally. So this is going to be a two part series. Yeah, we can look forward to the next episode in this part, maybe next week. Exactly. Be sure to hit follow.

We are going to do a series here with a lot of great options for ways to launch your answer. It's vital that you have many different ways to do this. So be sure to follow so that you can get all of these options. All right.

So we're going to give you some great templates. Use these as chunks and templates that you can go and fill in details. Of course, depending on your answer, right? This is templating here to get you ready.

Exactly, right? This gives you a chunk. This gives you the start, sort of the way to launch your question. We're giving you vocab. We're giving you a few templates for each of these options.

And then the details you add will change depending on your answer. Yes. So the first bucket is a way to answer directly right away. So instead of saying, I think, I think, I think, I think.

Mm hmm. What could we say instead? Yeah, we're going to give you three options here to eliminate because this is, Yoshi, you're not alone. A lot of students will say, I think this and I think that and I think that, right?

So instead, it's okay to say that once or twice. You need more options, more ways to start answers. When you're directly writing away, it's fine to share your opinion right away, but switch up how you do that. So you could start with the word personally, and then you're going to dive in with your answer.

Or you could say, I'd say, which really is I would say, but we use a contraction there and say, I'd say, or in my case. So these are three great ways to replace that, I think, with another interesting way to directly answer right away. Yeah. The phrase in my case, I think it's a little less common, but throwing it in there along with these other ones is great, right?

We don't want to get hooked on any of these, of course. Exactly. It definitely is less common. That's one thing that's interesting about IELTS vocabulary.

Often we'll use a linking phrase like this or an opener like this that we probably wouldn't use in a regular conversation with a friend. But the examiner is looking for that less common vocabulary, looking for variety in your vocabulary. So often you will say something on IELTS that you wouldn't necessarily say in a conversation. Exactly.

Exactly. So let's give some examples, Aubrey, of how we would use personally. So what would we say? Yeah. So maybe if you're asked about work, you could say, personally, I prefer working from an office because there are fewer distractions, right?

So of course you could instead say, I think it is better to work from an office or just I prefer, but you can also start it with this higher scoring word that's a little less common and start it with personally and then share your opinion. Or if someone asks you about a favorite restaurant, I'd say Mickey's on 4th is by far the best restaurant in my city. Okay. So that's super native and natural.

Yeah. I love that. Okay. So second thing we could do is start with what structures. And in one of our courses, we do cover a lot of these what structures.

I think it's connected communicator. But yeah, this is important to understand. What are we trying to move beyond here, Aubrey? Yeah. So Yoshi had given an example where they're often using gerund is.

So like, you know, living in a city is convenient might be one of your go-tos. So instead, you could start your sentence with what and say something like, what I like about living in a city is the convenience. And the other thing I really like about this is it lends toward more interesting intonation. You're going to want to say what I like and hit the subject, the pronoun harder.

Yeah. That gives you more opportunity to emphasize yourself a little bit more, right? Yes. And that makes it a little bit more interesting, I think. What makes City Life appealing is the range of entertainment options.

Yes. Or what concerns me most is the cost of housing. Or what tends to happen is that people become more dependent on technology. Okay. Yeah. So this is a great way to launch into an answer.

And a lot of these are also useful for in the middle of answers, right? You may share your opinion. And then this is a great structure for starting a new sentence to give more details.

The third thing we can do is start with a strong evaluation. So instead of saying it is important to exercise regularly, Aubrey, what could we say? Yeah. So you could start your phrase with, there's no doubt that, and then you're going to give some kind of detail, an opinion about what's important about exercise maybe, or there's a strong case for, or a significant concern is.

So these are three templates, like you said, that you can start anything where you are then going to share the importance of something. Yeah. So for example, there's no doubt that exercise can improve both physical and mental well-being. Okay.

Yes. Or if you're asked about online privacy, you could say a significant concern is the amount of personal data companies collect. So these are good replacements for that. It is important too, right?

You really do want to avoid that. It's so common, this structure for students to use on IELTS. These are much more higher scoring ways to launch into an answer. And I think also the phrase it's important to is kind of didactic, kind of condescending a little bit.

If I were using that in conversation, it would feel, and even on IELTS, I guess it would work on IELTS, but in conversation, it feels a little too prescriptive, don't you think? Yeah, that's a good point too, right? It's interesting because whenever you're asked, like being asked about exercise or mental health is a really good example. There's no right answer for each person, right?

You're going to be answering about what works for you. But when you're wanting to, you can be more black and white on the IELTS exam and say something like, everyone should do this, right? I strongly think Everyone should.

Sure. Why not? Right. As long as you're getting impressive intonation and vocabulary. But for a conversation, right, we want to be more nuanced with our opinions because otherwise you're passing judgment on what someone else chooses.

Exactly. All right. So we'll take a quick break and then we'll be back. Thank you. Your brain has to process all of this in real time. If conversations sometimes feel overwhelming, it may simply mean you're ready for the next level of training.

Find out your exact level with our quick, free fluency quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E.

Okay, Aubrey, so fourth bucket here is where we start with a personal experience. So we might say something like, in my experience, or I found that, or what, Aubrey?

Or I've noticed that, right? So yeah, this is interesting because you're going to do this a lot. You should share personal details on the IELTS exam, but you need different ways to start those sentences, right? So maybe if you're asked about work, you could say, I've found that I get much more work done in the morning, for example, right?

And you're just adding this chunk to have more interesting vocabulary and show your fluency. Or if you're asked about travel, I've noticed that traveling with friends is more enjoyable than traveling alone. Okay. Good.

Do we even have a fifth bucket, Aubrey? Is there more? Okay. Yes. The fifth bucket for today. This is our final one for this first part of the series is to start with a contrast.

So this is especially great for part three answers when you're wanting to give a more sophisticated, nuanced answer. You might share one side of the argument and And then you're contrasting it with your opinion or just the other side of the issue. And you might start that with at the same time.

And notice the intonation here, right? When you make a contrast like this, you also want the intonation to reflect that now I'm sharing a contrast. Yes. A balanced perspective, right?

Or the phrase, nevertheless. Now this is very formal, but part three does yield more formal answers, right? Exactly. And so you want to use more formal vocabulary, right?

Or while that's true, right? Because these are not going to be the way you start an answer. You're going to have been giving some details and And then now you're contrasting it with the other side.

So you want to share that in your intonation as well as the linking phrase you use. Yeah. So in speaking part three, you might have a question, for example, about children attending college far from home. Okay.

So Aubrey, what might we use here? Yeah. So first, you'd want to maybe share an advantage. But then in the middle of your answer, after you've been sharing some advantages about attending college far away, learning independence, etc., then you could provide this contrast.

You could say, nevertheless, or while that's true, right, there are some disadvantages to moving out right away. This is also a better way to provide more details to get those answers that are closer to a minute in part three, if you are providing both sides of an issue. Yeah. It's also kind of linking phrases too, which really matter for your score, Aubrey, right?

I mean, this is so important. You got to show the examiner that you can tie your ideas together and have it flow smoothly. Tie your ideas together. It's not enough just to have good ideas, not enough to articulate them well, but they have to connect to each other.

Okay. So, and then you could be asked about education. So we're going to share about a new method, right? A new education method. And then you would follow it up with, at the same time, I can understand why some people prefer traditional classroom methods.

Okay. Yeah. So this is interesting. If ever you provide a contrast like this, be sure you provide a good amount of details for both sides, right? You don't want to just kind of be like, yes, many people believe that.

On the other hand, right, that doesn't really make sense. You want to provide interesting details for both sides of the issues when you do this. Exactly. Wow.

We've got a lot of good vocabulary coming out of today's episode, Aubrey. This is definitely going to help our students score higher, I think. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.

And be sure to hit follow for part two. We have even more options. There are so many ways you can start your answer in an interesting way. You need to have a whole arsenal of ways to launch answers so that you don't do just exactly what Yoshi was saying.

You're kind of stuck using these same structures over and over, which would lead to lower scores. Exactly. Exactly. And is that that follow-up episode 1635, Aubrey?

Is that another one? No. So that's part two. Hit follow for part two, but we do want to make sure that you don't miss episode 1635. Scroll up. That was how to evaluate opinions for higher IELTS scores.

So check that one out if you missed it. Be sure to follow the podcast so that you don't miss any of our episodes. All right. Good stuff, Aubrey. Talk to you very soon.

You have a good day. All right. You too. See you next time. All right. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.