SPEAKING TEST: CÓMO PREPARARLO

Ya he puesto otras entradas sobre el tema (ver en la pestaña SPEAKING). En concreto, la entrada ATENCIÓN: MATERIAL PARA LA PRUEBA ORAL incluye una serie de situaciones hipotéticas que se te podrían preguntar. Todas se contestan con la 2ª condicional, porque todas te ponen en una situación irreal en la que tendrás que contar LO QUE HARÍAS si te vieras en esa situación. Así que todas se responden I WOULD ... (inf. vb).

Repasa el vocabulario visto en las lecciones y prepara las posibles respuestas a estas preguntas o situaciones:

• Can you tell an urban myth or a strange story that happened to you or someone in your family? What happened? 
• Are you competitive? Do you think winning is the most important thing when compeating? What else is important? How do you feel when you succeed or when you fail? Support your answers.
• Have you ever felt that there was a lot of pressure on you to succeed at something? If so, how did you feel? What did you do about it?
• Do you ever read blogs? Why? What about? What would you like to write a blog about?
• Are you interested in the news? How often do you read/ listen/ watch the news? What is the best way to learn about the news? Which stories are in the headlines at the moment?
• Describe a person you would like to meet (both appearance and character). Explain why you would like to meet him/her and what you would do.

Ahora mira la entrada PREPARARSE PARA HABLAR. Si le dedicas el tiempo suficiente, preparando cada uno de estos temas cada día y practicando los de los días anteriores, seguro que lo harás muy bien.

ATENCIÓN: MATERIAL PARA PRUEBA ORAL

Te presento una serie de preguntas para que pienses (y escribas si lo necesitas) una contestación. Son todas situaciones hipotéticas, irreales: ¿Qué harías si...? La contestación de todas, por tanto, ha de hacerse con el verbo en condicional (would), porque todas se refieren a lo que harías.

What would you do if..? 

If you won a million dollars, what would you do with it? How much would you give to family and friends?

If you were told that you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?

if you found a wallet with one thousand dollars in it and an I.D. card?

if you were invited to friends house for dinner and they served your least favourite food?

if you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday, where would you go?

if your mobile phone fell into the toilet?

If you could be another person, who would you like to be?

If you could meet any person in the world who would it be and why?

If you could change something about your school what would it be?

If you had to live in another country, which one would you choose?

If you could speak three languages well, what would they be?

If everyone in the world suddenly disappeared, what would you do?

If you could choose how old you were, how old would you be and why?

If you lost your mobile or if it were stolen, what would you do?

if you were invisible for one day, what would you do?

Recuerda: prepara posibles respuestas de lo que te puedan preguntar en una prueba oral. Nunca se dará por buena la respuesta "I don't know."

PREPARARSE PARA HABLAR

Tendemos a pensar que una prueba de Speaking no se prepara porque creemos que podremos improvisar lo que hablamos tal y como lo hacemos en nuestra lengua. Pero una conversación o una prueba oral  se pueden y se deben preparar, lo mismo que otro tipo de pruebas.

Se trata de prever qué te van a preguntar, sobre qué tendrás que hablar. Luego se pueden escribir las respuestas o el discurso que tendrás que decir. Después puedes practicarlo en voz alta hasta hacerlo con soltura y naturalidad. Es al preparar estas preguntas cuando te saldrán las dudas de vocabulario ("¿Cómo se dice ...?") a las que tendrás que enfrentarme en el momento de la prueba. Mejor que eso no ocurra el día de la prueba, ¿no te parece?


Recuerda: si la primera vez que hablas en inglés es en el momento de la prueba oral, probablemente no lo harás muy bien. Prepararla te evitará errores y te servirá de entrenamiento.

 Evita las respuestas demasiado breves, de solo sí o no o de una sola palabra. Intenta usar modificadores delante de los adjetivos, adverbios delante de los verbos, nexos entre frases y, en definitiva, enriquecer tu respuesta mostrando que conoces vocabulario. Y, por supuesto, descarta contestar con la frase 'I DON'T KNOW'.


He aquí algunas preguntas sobre tres temas que podrían salir en una prueba oral:

HOLIDAYS
Talk about the last place you visited on holiday./ Tell me about your last holiday:

• How did you get there?
• Who did you go with?
• How long did you go for?
• What was the place like? / What did you think of it? / Did you enjoy it? Why?
• What was the weather like?
• What about the people?
• Tell me about the food: did you like it? Where did you eat?/ Did you try any local dishes that you really enjoyed?

GADGETS

Talk about your favourite gadget:

• What gadgets have you got?
• What is your favourite?
• What do you use it for?
• Can you describe it? What does it look like?
• Why do you like it ? How has it changed your life?

TELEVISION

Talk about television:

• How much TV do you watch?
• What sort of programmes do you watch?
• Television is good for us. Do you agree?
• People should watch several hours of TV. What do you think?
• The government should ban all advertisements on TV. Give your opinion.
• Reality shows are a good form of entertainment. Do you agree?

CUESTIONARIO SOBRE VIAJES

Si tienes que preparar un examen oral, no improvises: lo mejor es prever qué preguntas te pueden hacer y sus posibles contestaciones. Éste es un cuestionario cuyo tema son los viajes. Está sacado de una página con docenas de cuestionarios similares clasificados por temas.

TRAVEL CONVERSATION QUESTIONS

• Do you prefer active or relaxing holidays? Why?
• When was the last time your travelled?
• Have you ever been abroad?
• Where have you been?
• What was your best trip?
• What was your worst trip?
• Do you think it is a good idea to travel with friends, or alone? Why? How about with your family?
• Are you afraid of going abroad alone?
• Have you ever been in a difficult situation while traveling?
• Have you ever been on an airplane?
• Have you ever got lost while traveling? If so, tell about it.
• How much luggage do you usually carry?
• What are the most important things to take with you if you go on a trip?
• If you travelled to South America, what countries would like to visit?
• What kind of souvenirs do you usually  buy?
• What are some countries that you would never visit? Why would you not visit them?
• What are some things that you always take with you on a trip?
• What countries would you most like to visit? Why? Do you think you will ever go there?
• Would you rather go to a place where there are a lot of people or to a place where there are few people?
• Where are you going to go the next time you travel?When are you going to go?
• Who are you going to go with?
• How long are you going to go for?
• What are you going to do there?
• What kind of things do you think you will buy?
• Where did you go on your last holiday?How did you go?
• Who did you go with?
• What are popular tourist destinations in your country?
• Have you been to any of them?
• Why do people travel?

RECUERDA: Evita las respuestas demasiado breves, de solo sí o no o de una sola palabra. Intenta usar modificadores delante de los adjetivos, adverbios delante de los verbos, nexos entre frases y, en definitiva, enriquecer tu respuesta mostrando que conoces vocabulario.