2008雅思口语年终点评：Part 2

　　It is very evident that the IELTS Oral English is harder in the year of 2008 than in the year of 2007 because of four reasons.
　　Firstly, the marking criteria for pronunciation was changed from four levels to nine levels which means that the demand for the accuracy of pronunciation had increased. Even though the examinees are completely ready for the test but their pronunciation is not good enough then he/she still will not have an excellent band score. And not unlike fluency, grammar and lexical resource, pronunciation is very difficult to improve and change. It will take time and huge effort to achieve an ideal pronunciation if the examinee has a weakness on it. In order to improve pronunciation, examinees should imitate excellent pronunciation from English TV programs or radio shows. They have to exert an effort to this practice regularly for a period of time. Another method is to seek for professional teachers’ help to correct their pronunciation.
　　Secondly, the questions are more specific in the year 2008. For example, in part II , in the year 2007, the question would be “ Describe a person who has influenced you ” . For this topic you can say any person you want and any information about him or her, the range of the answer is very wide . Therefore, even if you do not have a knowledge about the question, still, you can say something about it. Plus the fact that it is easier to prepare and to memorize answer for it. But one example of topic for 2008 was “ Describe a police officer “. In this topic, the examinee is required to know certain information about a police officer in order for them to talk about it . Without knowledge about this field, tendency is the examinee can not think of an answer about this topic immediately. It will take time for him/her to prepare, and thus, will affect their presentation and their band score. One good way to prepare is to take note on the topics of the previous test so that the examinees will have an idea on what are the latest topics and have the chance to prepare for it. Another way is to do an outline that has many adjectives on it because adjectives can be used in describing anyone, be it a teacher, police officer or neighbor. For example, the adjective “serious” can be used to describe teacher, police officer, neighbor as serious teacher, serious police officer or serious neighbor.
　　Thirdly, the level of difficulty of the topics was higher in the year 2008. There are topics like “Describe a law” , “ Describe a garden” ,” Describe a place that has water resource” “ Describe a cultural event ” . These subjects are not common for Chinese examinees, they do not talk about this topics even in their native language. Most of their knowledge are limited, thus , can give them a hard time to answer. Therefore, examinees should do a huge amount of reading or research about this kind of hard topics, they have to broaden their horizon. Communicating or brainstorming with their friends or classmate about topics will also be very helpful to gain more information.
　　Fourthly, the examiner was looking for more uniqueness and diversity because most of the time, the examinees answers are similar to each other. Plus, many students are lazy to think or organize their own ideas so they just preferred to memorize from the book. In 2007, memorized answers can achieve at least an 4.5 or 5 in Oral English. However, in2008, prepared answers can only achieve 4 and below. They focused more on the real speaking ability of the examinee. For instance , the topic “ Describe an interesting animal “ Out of 100, 99 students answers were dogs or cats because it is simpler and less complex to answers. But these are already predictable answers for the examiner. Hence, if an examinee can give a different idea for this topic then a higher band score can be achieved. Here is an example answer:
　　Describe an interesting animal that you like
　　You should say
　　What it is
　　How you know it
　　What you know about it
　　And explain why you like it
　　Sheep are known to be dull, foolish and helpless because even if the water has run dry and there is no more grass to eat, they still continue to lick, to bite and to chew as if there were still water and grass in front of them. These creatures couldn’t distinguish between having food and not having food. Their eye sights are poor. Because of this, they often go astray. Even when there are dangerous animals around, they still keep on going. They are not aware of the danger around them. In fact, the Bible described them as always needing guidance and shepherds. They couldn’t take care of themselves. Yet, in spite of these short comings, sheep are beneficial to us. Their fur can serve as our wool for winter. They satisfy our appetites by being delicious lamb chops and stew. Personally, I like sheep because I can almost associate myself with it. I see myself as being foolish in making some of life’s decisions, and sometimes I am afraid to take some risk like them. And also I like sheep because of their behavior and their style. They are so quite and I feel so safe when I see them , it is such a harmless animal. I chose to talk about this animal not only because of these traits but also because I think they are unique and special.
　　The Most “In” Questions for Part II in 2008
　　Place
　　1.Describe a place you have visited or want to visit---city/foreign country/shop/cafe
　　2.Describe a place that has water resources
　　3.Describe the use of water ( recycling and saving)
　　4.Describe a garden ==you have been/you want to have/you like
　　5.Describe a park----in your city/in your country/you have been to/you would like to visit
　　Object
　　1.Describe a magazine or newspaper or book ---you have read/you want to read/your favorite
　　2.Describe a language---you know/you want to learn/your favorite
　　3.Describe an equipment ( except computer )----you like/your favorite/you want to have/you want to buy/useful for you
　　4.Talk about a law ---good/bad/your favorite law
　　5.Describe a film , movie , TV program , performance- your favorite/you want to watched/you had watched
　　6.Describe a website---your favorite/most useful
　　7.Describe a sport , physical activity, game – you played in your childhood/your favorite
　　8. Describe your favorite ---food/music/postcard /dish/photo /gift
　　9.Talk about a help----help you had received/given to other people/gave you an advice or suggestion
　　10. Describe an organization –in your company/big organization/in your country
　　Event
　　1. Describe a happy event/a event that made you happy/recent event that made you happy/happy moment
　　2.Describe an experience of being late/ your feeling about being late
　　3.Describe a recent change –--in your life/in your hometown
　　Person
　　1.Talk about your family/a family member/cousin/a family besides your family
　　2.Describe a person you want to be similar with in the future/when you grow up/ you admire
　　3.Describe one of your friends/one of your best friend
　　4.Describe a person ---young/old/popular/child/kid/ you want to spend time with/ you know/you are willing to know
　　5. Describe a teenager