口语五步曲

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发信人：[VanilleSky], 信区：IELTS考试
标题：口语五步曲 之一  
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Of recently, a lot of my fellow students were asking me questions such as "How can I improve my oral English?" the answer, as you already know, is very plain: to practice, which is easier to say than to do it.
Have you ever been asked to speak aloud to a group of people-even your classmates? This can seems like a very difficult thing to do. But the good news is that, with careful preparation, it becomes as easy as writing an essay (and very similar). Effective oral communication is a vital part of life. Research has found that reading and writing altogether account for only 25% of all human communication whereas speaking (and listening) occupy 75! So being able to listen and to speak skillfully is one of the most useful things you can do.
You may have already noticed that I mentioned the word: preparation. So how can we do the "preparation"?
It is not just a matter of steeling your nerves, standing up and opening your mouth, you would never be able to have a good oral communication without a detailed "plan".

Preparation is the key to success, then how can we do the preparation? This will be our central topic during our following classes.  
  
First, there are two types of oral communications we have to pay attention to: TYPE I, oral communications with a given topic and, TYPE II, communications without a given topic.
The TYPE I will include interviews during a exam, such as IELTS, and or, a meeting concerning about a certain aspect of the company or any other organizations.  
Eg: Describe a skill you want to learn.
   You should say:
    What is the skill?
    Why do you want to learn this skill?
    How will this skill change your life, or
    What do you think will happen if you learned this skill?
    (This is a Topic often appears in the IELTS test)
OR  
A business meeting talking about how to improve the company's profit.
Can you write down some other conversation that you thought might be belongs to the TYPE I conversation?
Write them down here:


  
TYPE II will include things like our daily chat with our friends or strangers, which originally contains no given topics, but will need some topic so to keep it going.
Eg: You meet one of your old friends on your way home, you stopped to talk to him.  
     OR
   You are waiting for a bus, you get bored so you want to talk to someone, and there is a stranger standing next to you, you are trying to start a conversation with him.
  
Let's first look at the situation in which there was no topic at the very beginning of the conversation, conversation TYPE II.
  
Imagine that you are waiting for the bus to come, it is a rainy day in London, and there are only two people at the bus stop, you and another guy who you don't know. You feel bored and want to do something to pass the time. You want to talk with him.
What will you do?
Here is the First part of doing the TYPE II conversation: to start a conversation.
This is called engaging with a audience, though you may have some other audiences, the way of doing so is always the same: talk about something that you can be sure that both (or all) of you will agree with, something you know that will draw other's attention to you.
Eg: what a bad weather today!
    It is always so damp here!
    How I hate the weather!
Things like this will be able to attract other's attention, and when the others make their replies, you can go on with other things you want to talk about.
Eg: A: How I hate the weather!
    B: yes, I hate it, too. Too wet here I think.
Can you think about other words that you thought might be helpful when you want to star a conversation with someone you don't know?
Write them here:






The Second stage of this kind of conversations will be find something that you are both (or all) interested in, or, to find the topic needed to keep your conversation going. This is called finding things you have in common. By doing this you can get some ideas of what you should say to keep the conversation going and going till the bus comes.
Eg: A: Yes, I am wondering when we can have some sunny days?
    B: I am thinking the same thing, you know, when I was in Melbourne the weather there is      
        so beautiful, always sunny and warm all day.
      A: Oh! I would really like to go there and have a look myself; can you tell me something about Australia?  
      B: Well, Australia is ……….
   So in this way you can find a topic that you are interested and willing to talk about it for a longer time. Or, if you find the topic not too your liking, you can change it to another one. But the bottom line is that it must be something that you are both interested in.
   Eg: (B talked a lot about Australia and A get bored now)
A: Have you watched the film "Die another day"?
B: Yes, as a matter of fact I did just a few days ago, very good film.
A: Oh yes, I like the actor very much, what is his name? I can't remember it. Er……
B: Pierce Brusnan if I remember correctly.
A: Oh yes, that is the name. He is such a charming man, and the film looked so good with him as 007.
B: …………….
     
   So in this way you can have a lot of things to talk about for a long time, both of you will be glad to have this conversation going till the bus comes.

   Of course there are some other situations exists such as when you are buying something in a supermarket and you have to ask the stuff to get you something, but these are basically the same thing, the only difference is your audience is changer here, no longer a person you know nothing about, but a man you know who is the stuff in that supermarket, and you know what you want to ask him. But altogether the conversation will be much the same( means the way of talking with him or her), so the same way applies here as well as all other conversation with people that you know nothing or little about.
     
   Here are some rules you should remember when doing this kind of conversation:
   1, make sure you use polite words when first talk to the others.
   2, do not try to force any of your own ideas into the other's mind, some people may find it offensive and will not continue talking with you.
   3, Do not be rush so as to ask other people's personal information, such as age, addresses, phone numbers, salaries and other thing that you know you will not tell a stranger yourself.
   4, remember, no matter how much in common you are, you are still strangers, so do not show too much "warmth", or else you may scare your talking companion away.
   5, if you find that your audience is not interested in what you are talking about, change the topic quickly before they really get bored.
   6, have eye contacts with the person you are talking to, this is very important when you are talking with someone for the first time.
   7, last but not lest, don't forget to show your politeness by showing agreements to things they say to you, even if you are not quite agree with their point of view.

   Remember, having a conversation with a stranger, and without a certain topic at the beginning of the it, is not easy, you have to try to find things you may have in common with each other, and try to keep it going for as long as you want. So the whole thing is like: finding things in common, talk about it, change it, find it again, and talk again. As long as you want to keep the chat going, you have to do these things.

   A lot of people may ask now: how can I find things we "may" have in common in such a short time? It is so difficult for me to guess what they may like or interested in, what if my questions are themselves boring to hear?
   Well, as a matter of fact, there are ways you can depends on when you want to make the guess of what the person you want to talk with may be interested in:
   First, the way they dress themselves.
By judging a person by looking at his dress, we can have a general idea of what their jobs are or what they might be interested in. For example, if people you want to talk to are dressed in football wear, you can be sure that they are interested in football, then you can talk about something about football to get their attentions, but make sure your opinions will not anger them, make sure you know which club they support before you lunch your own statements. Or, you can check the style of clothes they are wearing, whether it is a uniform of some sort or a dress that may reflect their culture background, or their religions, or their positions in the society. A rich and well educated businessman will not dress himself in the way the people wondering in the street will do, an Asian will not actually dressed himself in the way a streetwise young American will do, so pay attention to these thing and you can get a general idea of what a proper statement will be.

   Secondly, the way they answer your first few questions.
By hearing their replies to your first few question you will be able to know their characters( a general look though), then you can guess what kind of thing they are most likely be interested in. and also in which way you should have the conversation.
   
   Last, listen to their way of speak, you may be able to find something interesting from their accents, and ask them something you want to know about other part of the world, you may get something more than you want.
   
   
   Here now finished introducing you the TYPE II conversation, which happens when you have no given topic when having the conversation. The most important you should understand is that in this kind of conversations, there is no "fixed leader" in the conversation, the one who want to talk about something will be the leader as long as the topic he choose remains popular, when that's over, the one who have a new popular idea will be the "leader", so how to keep your ideas popular is what you should think about when you are have a conversation like this, if you can't, then you'd better pass the torch to someone else.
   
   Before we start our introduction about the TYPE I conversations, we will have some practices so you can have a better ideas of how to do the TYPE II first.     
            
  





PRACTICE:
1. You are a customer who want to buy some brown loaves in a supermarket, you cannot find it yourself so you are asking a shop assistant to help you.□
2. You are with your friends in a football club and you see a old friend who is training in it as a football player, you want to talk to him, but you are not sure if he still remember.□
3. You are a oversea student waiting for a bus at the bus stop in Melbourne, it is a sunny day and you want to do something instead of standing there, there is another guy dress in suit and holding in his arm a briefcase.□
4. You are playing basketball in your school's gym, another guy come in and start to play it too, after a while, both of you feel tired and sit down drink some water.□

When you have finished these conversations above, switch your roles and do it again in another way, think about what else you can do to start conversations like these, and try to make it as long as possible. Tick the box(□ )when you have finished one conversation.

Now we have finished introduction about the TYPE II conversations, we can move on to the TYPE I conversations.
TYPE I conversation:
In recent years, interviews in English are very popular in china and other non-English speaking countries, such as China, Japan and so on. A lot of people are willing to attend them because this will help them in getting a better position in the society.
No matter who will give the interview and who will receive it, the aim of these interviews is all the same: to test your English abilities and to see how well you can handle the stress when you are in a relatively unfamiliar situation. In another word, to see what kind of performance you can give the interviewer when they ask you something in a language you are not so familiar with and to see if your reaction is satisfactory.
So to pass these interviews, they basic qualities you should have are: First, the language. Second, the ability of handling stress when you are pressed.
Most likely, a lot of interviewee's language ability is well enough, then how they handle the stress that are posted on them will be the key to their success.
Let's imagine that you are applying for a certain position in a company, you will be asked to have a interview with someone in the company, they will read your resume before they give you the interview, and you will be asked to have a talk with one or more people, they will judge you by your responds and decide whether they will give you the position or not.
The first thing they will ask you will be your personal background information, just to get you warmed up and to make sure they are talking to the right person, they will ask you, for instance, your name, your address, your education background, your working experiences and so on.
Because this is the first part of the interview, you may want to give them a good first impression, and show them your abilities. To do this, there are four rules you have to pay attention to when you are answering their questions:
1. To be clear when answering a question.
2. To be active, creative and communicative.
3. Respond to the question quickly.
4. Learn to anticipate.

First, to be clear when answering a question:
Eg: Q: what is your name?
   A1: Yao Ming.
   A2: My name is Yao Ming.
A1 is what we call the "short" answer. A2 is the complete answer to the question asked. They are enough to "answer" the question, but don't forget, we want to be clear. So there is another way of answering this question:
   A3: My name is Yao Ming in the Chinese way; we Chinese put our family name first to show our respect towards our ancestors. In the western way , it should be Ming Yao.
This answer is a clear and complete answer to the question asked, leaving no doubts in the interviewer's mind, also it is a little show of your English ability, and it is likely to attract the interviewer's attention.
Other examples:
Eg: Q: Where are you from?
    A1: Wuhan.
    A2: I am from wuchang, part of the city of Wuhan, Hubei province.
    A3: I am from Wuchang, which is an old-grown part of the city of Wuhan, also it is the center of Wuhan's education and cultural affairs.
   
Eg: Q: Do you enjoy shopping/cooking?
    A1: Yes.
    A2: Yes, I enjoy shopping/cooking very much!
    A3: Yes, I enjoy shopping/cooking very much, you can say it is part of my life now; I don't think I can live without it.

Eg: Q: Are you a student?
    A1: No.
    A2: No, I am not a student.
    A3: No, I am no longer a student any more, I am now working as a engineer in a Telecommunication company, but how I missed my days in the university! I wish I could go back to that time and do it all over again!

From all those examples above you can see, to be clear does not only mean that you should give the complete answer but also means you have to make it doubtless so to avoid misunderstandings.

Second, to be active, creative and communicative. Remember, one of the aims of the interview is to see how well you can express yourself and to do communication with others, in one word, to have richly embodied information flows.
Eg: Q: How many people are there in your family?
   A1: Three.
   A2: There're three people in my family.
   A3: There're three people in my family, my father, my mother and I.
A1 is short, A2 is a complete answer while A3 is a complete and clear answer, but still we have other things like:
   A4: Three, there are three people in my family, I am the only son due to the one-child policy in china, so I have no brothers or sisters. I stay with my parents.
This one is a creative answer, not only just clear, but also you explained why, which is very important when doing a interview, especially when the interviewer is a foreigner.

|Notice: If you are confidence in yourself, use A1; or you can use A4 if you want to show your English level. A2 & A3 are too commonly used and not interesting.

     
Practice:
Where were you born? □
Where have you been for the recent years? □
What is your hobby? □
Are you married? □
How long have you been learning English? □
Have you a lot of friends? □
How is your English? □
Is there any generation gap in china? □
Have you any child? □
How many children do you have? □
How many people are there in your family? □
How are the people in your hometown? □
How long have you been living here? □
Would you please tell me some of the Chinese customs? □
What is the situation in the countryside and inland China? □
What do you think of the population problem in China? □

Tick the little box when you have finished answering a question, make sure you know how to answer them in a clear and creative way.

Thirdly, you must respond immediately when you are asked a question. This, does not mean to answer it as soon as you hear the question, it is not about the speed you speak, but the speed you think.
Eg: Q: what is your hobby?
   A: I like music, especially classical music.
   Q: Would you please tell me some of the great name in the classical music world??
(well, here comes the problem, as a student not a musician, a lot of us may not be able to tell the "great names", see how this guy answer the question and then you can understand what does respond immediately means)
   A: I am sorry, but I am not interested in the "great names", I just like the music, when I listening to it, I am very relaxed, I enjoy this kind of feelings very much.
(so, we see here a clear way to answer this question)  

Important:
Those interviews are aimed at testing how well you can use English to communicate, not at any specific knowledge point(at least here), so be quick to respond is the way to do the interview. Also, sometimes the interviewer will ask a lot of question without stop, if you always say yes to the question, then you will have to answer them one by one, this will bring you a lot of pressure.  

Forth, you have to learn to anticipate, which means you have to guess what will the interviewer ask you next, so you can be ready to answer the question.
Eg: Q: Where are you from?
   A: I was borne in Wuhan, or rather Wuchang, the old down town area of Wuhan.
   ( here you can start your guessing job, see here, you mention something like the word "Wuchang", and most likely the interviewer will want to know about this place)
   Q: Would please tell me something about Wuchang?
   A: ………………..  (you say something about Wuchang)
   Q: What do you think is the biggest difference between the old city and the new city?

Note:
  By answering the interviewer's question in a way, will help you to know what the interviewer's next question will be before he ask you, so in this way, you can have time to get ready, or you can lead the interviewer to ask something you are familiar with.

Eg: what is your name?
Has your name any special meaning?
Does your name affect your life or your personality?
Will your personality help you in your work or your study?
What do you think is friendship?

All these questions above can be connected, if you make your answer in a designed way, so if you can master this skill, it will help you a lot in any kind of interview.

Write down other questions you think can be connected by a designed way of answering: