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Wednesday 30 October 2013

Speaking activity: FLUENCY

Fluency in a language means speaking easily, reasonably quickly and without having to stop and pause a lot. Becoming fluent in a language can take many years, but here are some tips to help you sound as natural as possible in speaking exams.
  • Good speakers communicate and get their message across smoothly, even though they may make mistakes. Communication is the most important part of speaking and it is important to communicate your ideas as naturally as possible. Here are some tips to help you speak more fluently.
  • Use every opportunity in class to speak English. Speak to your classmates and your teacher in English. The more English you speak, the easier you will find speaking.
  • Be confident about speaking in English. You do know a lot of English – use your English and show the examiner what you know!
  • Be very clear about the message you want to communicate. That is your goal.
  • Don’t worry about making mistakes. The important thing is to communicate what you want to say.
  • Practise at home with a speaking game. ‘Speak for one minute without stopping about....’ Choose a topic, e.g. video games, and talk in English for one minute about video games without stopping.
  • Use little expressions like ‘Er’ or ‘Erm’ to fill the gaps while you are thinking about what to say.
  • Use communication strategies to make your English sound more natural.
 Use these videos to get inspired about what you want to say:
 
Use this situation to talk about the topic for 3 minutes, focusing on fluency, answering the question below:

I have recently moved to Hamburg in Germany and have always heard a famous stereotype that “Germans are very unfashionable”. I always heard that Germans just wear jeans and jumpers or some strange clothes. Since I have moved here though, I have found this to actually be completely false and I think I would prefer it if they did just wear jeans and jumpers, so I could do the same!
Hamburg is a very big shopping city with hundreds of clothes shops wherever you look. Aside from H&M, New Yorker and Mango, I have found a New Look and a new Topshop has recently just opened. These shops are quite popular shops in the UK and sell clothes which are always classed as very “fashionable”.

Another thing I really am struggling with as well as trying to be fashionable, I am trying to find the right clothes for the weather. I have found in Hamburg one minute it is nice and sunny but the next minute it is throwing it down with rain! One day it might start off really rainy and cold but by lunch time it is sunny and really hot so wearing a coat is not practical.
In general however I think it has also got cold here very quickly and it already feels like the winter that I am used to. I frequently go out in my winter coat, hat, gloves and scarf whereas many other people are still only wearing denim or leather jackets. I don’t understand how they do it as I am always freezing.  Is it better to blend in with fashion or be warm? I think I would rather be warm and maybe look like a bit of a banana in a huge coat rather than be shivering all day.
What do you think? Clearly I am missing something here as I seem to be the only one struggling over these fashion decisions.

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