Let's change roles

In a previous post, I talked about paralinguistic skills. Paralinguistic skills are those verbal and non-verbal features that accompany communication. Among them we can mention body language, eye contact, *timing (non- verbal), volume, rate of speech and tone voice (verbal).

*this means conversational timing (to know when to start speaking and know how to take turns when having a conversation)

I also talked about the important role that these skills play in the IELTS speaking test. Just to make my point clear, today I would like to invite you to play a game which I have called ‘let’s change roles’.

On this occasion, you will have the chance to swap roles and to become an IELTS examiner. What I would like you to do, it is to play de video and watch it paying attention to every movement or gestures that this IELTS candidate makes. Then, when you have finished, you will need to answer some questions about her performance (you don’t have to write anything down).

Ready?

Now, read these questions and try to answer them – you can do this exercise with somebody else but if you are on your own, don’t worry!

What can you say about her body language?

     Do you like the way she smiles?

     Do you like her posture?

     Does she make eye contact all the time?

     Where is she looking at when the examiner asks her a question?

     Where is she looking at when she is giving her answer?

     When she scratches herself – is it distracting from what she is saying?

Is her tone of voice adequate?

     Can you hear her responses very well?

If you have finished this exercise, probably you expect to check your answers in a ‘key answers sheet’; however, I regret to tell you that there is not any ‘right answers list’. Sorry!

But hey! What you have done here it is going to help you to reflect on your own performance. In this exercise -for 5 minutes- you had the opportunity to ‘see through the examiner’s eyes’ an IELTS candidate in action. Perhaps, on other occasions you have used this kind of videos to have an idea of the IELTS interview. However, this time, it has another purpose! And it is to help you to be aware of some ‘aspects’ that you might share with this candidate that may affect your score in the IELTS Speaking test. What are those? Well, all it is about common sense. Everything you saw on her performance and you do not feel comfortable with or you consider it is not appropriate, DON’T COPY IT! Go with your instinct!

Here, there are some suggestions you can put into practise so you can analyse your performance:

ü  practise in front of the mirror;

ü video record yourself and then watch it to correct some verbal and non-verbal features that you consider may affect you score on the Speaking test.

And don’t forget...if you want to get ‘that score’ you need to give 100%! So, what are you waiting for?