Ielts speaking strategies

PEOPLE DESCRIPTION

When you describe a person, you should try to use adjectives of evaluation and adjectives of personality .

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  Who the person is? (Relatives or friend...) I would like to talk about my grandmother .
  

I would like to talk about my favorite history teacher . I would like to talk about my next door neighbor .

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  What do they do? (occupation)
  
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  Social position (what do they do in society?)
  
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  How do you know them?
  
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  What they are like (using adjectives of personality & explain the adjectives ) If you tell the examiner someone is strict and hardworking , give them examples about how they are strict and hardworking “I admire my father, bu sometimes he is quite strict. What I mean is if I am 5 minutes late for dinner, he makes me give him a dollar” . So what you should do is you need to have an explanation because if you don’t, it makes the listener naturally feel like that they are missing something . Imagine that you have a conversation with your friend. He is very polite, and he asks you “how was your holiday?” and you say “well, I had a lot of fun. I went to London. It’s very interesting”
  

. Then, certainly, your friend will be asking to himself “interesting? How?” what do you mean for “interesting”? So, you must explain your adjectives. You don’t need to use a lot of adjectives , you just need maybe 2, maybe 3 adjectives but you must explain them .
If you just throw out the adjectives “Oh, I love my father because he is so humorous, friendly, hardworking, thrifty…” that means you are just listing and certainly that’s not impressive ; that doesn’t sound natural .

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  What they have achieved (using phrases of achievement ). These are used a lot in part 2 speaking because in part 2 speaking, we usually talk about people that we like or we admire and we have relationship with)
  

PHRASES THAT TALK ABOUT WORKING HARD :

Through sheer hard work , he has built up his company
My mother was not very successful in high school, but she persevered and graduated from university. Now she is a doctor.

PHRASES THAT TALK ABOUT SUCCESS :

He has the will to succeed .
Something I admire about Barack Obama is he earned a respect of people who met him.

PHRASES THAT TALK ABOUT TALENT :

He has a gift for playing guitar. He has a gift for kicking football. My mother has a gift for cooking.

PHRASES THAT TALK ABOUT ADMIRATION :

I really appreciate what my father did for me.
I will always look up to/ admire/ respect him for his work. I think highly of/ proud of my father and his work.

EXPRESSIONS HOPING TO IMITATE SOMEBODY:

I hope I am as + adjective + as + person
I hope I will be as + adjective + as + person
I hope I am as successful as my father is when I grow up I hope I am as beautiful as my mother is when I grow up. I hope I will be as wealthy as Bill Gates.

EXPRESSIONS OF IMITATION :

I would like to be as intelligent as my grandfather. I would like to be as beautiful as my grandfather. I would like to be as wealthy as Bill Gates.

ADJECTIVES OF PERSONALITY

NEGATIVE PERSONALITY ADJECTIVES LIST

Aggressive: He has a real passive aggressive personality/ he had a very aggressive attitude.
Arrogant: He was so arrogant that he thought he could tell everyone what to do.
That girl is arrogant because of her beauty.
Bitchy: She can be really bitchy sometimes.
Boastful: Peter was too boastful when describing his new bike.
Boring: I don't like Tom because he is boring and unfriendly.
Bossy: I dislike her because she is bossy . Careless: Although he is brave, he is careless . Changeable: She is changeable and stubborn.
Conservative: He is not as conservative as he used to be.
Cowardly: Tom is shy and cowardly .
Nervous: He was nervous so he forgot her name. Obsessive: He was obsessive about food and coffee. Overemotional: She was overemotional in public.
Pessimistic: He is pessimistic about the future
Quick-tempered: My brother is quick-tempered and impatient.
Resentful: She is resentful about being demoted .
Others: Rude, selfish, silly, stingy, sneaky, stubborn, timid, unkind, unreliable, unkind, immature, short-temper = irritable, frugal = thrifty, cruel, deceitful, dishonest, evil, flirtatious, foolish, fussy, greedy, grumpy, impatient, impolite, inconsiderate, intolerant, inflexible, indecisive, lazy, jealous, materialistic, mean,
moody, narrow-minded, naughty, nasty, etc.

POSITIVE PERSONALITY ADJECTIVES LIST

Affectionate: She is affectionate to her animals.
Ambitious: He is ambitious to succeed. Friendly: Tom is friendly to everyone. Amiable: He is amiable and gracious. Funny: Joe is funny .
Generous: My father is generous with his money.
Gentle: She is gentle with children.
Brave: Peter is brave , and Tom is humorous.
Bright: My nephew is bright .
Broad-minded: He is broad-minded and straightforward.
Hard-working: She is a very intelligent and hardworking student.
Charming: She is charming and beautiful.
Humorous: I think Tom is humorous .
Sociable: He is a sociable , reliable man.
Others: communicative, compassionate, impartial, passionate, patient, persistent, polite, powerful, practical, pro-active, reliable, romantic, self- confident, self-disciplined, sincere, sociable, straightforward, sympathetic, thoughtful, tidy, tough, understanding, versatile, warmhearted, willing, witty , adaptable, fair-minded, passionate, adventurous, faithful, persistent, independent, romantic, considerate, intellectual, smart = intelligent, supportive, charitable, approachable.

PEOPLE DESCRIPTION MODEL ANSWER

SAMPLE 1 :

Describe a person (you know), much older than you, who you admire. You should say:
Who this person is
How you know this person
How this person has influenced you
And explain why you admire this person.

MODEL ANSWER:

Today I’m gonna talk about one of my favorite teachers who taught me at high school. Her name is Taylor. She had a great influence on me and was the most well-mannered person whom I look up to very much . Ms. Taylor taught me English for 3 years of high school. She was in her 40s, and she had a lot of teaching experience. In fact , we met each other almost every day since she was also my form teacher. She was always kind to students, treated us with respect and cared about us as if we had been her children. To be specific , she always brought some kinds of medicines so that whenever any student had a cold, cough or something like that, she would give them the medicines immediately.
Above all , the way she taught us in class influenced me the most . Her thoroughness and dedication in teaching inspired me to study English, even though I had not been interested in this foreign language before. Thanks to her inspiring teaching method , I was able to pass the university entrance exam with a high English grade. Moreover, she was very friendly and approachable , far more than I expected, in fact. She was willing to share her ideas and answer to all my questions. I was also influenced by her lifestyle , which was so worthy of respect and simple that I really wanted to imitate her. As she is a kind person, she always gave us the best advice and solutions about any problems we faced. From time to time , I felt that she was like my close friend who I could comfortably share everything with .
Although we have now all graduated from high school and have different goals
to chase in life, we usually visit her at the weekends to share with her about our daily life at college.

SAMPLE 2 :