IELTS Speaking- Difficult Vocabulary

IELTS Speaking Part One difficult vocabulary questions

Instructions for teachers

Cut up one set of cards per group so the three cards in a row are still connected to each other, i.e. don’t cut vertically. Students put the cards face down on the table and take turns choosing one of them. They must make a question for their partner from the words on one of the three parts, e.g. “If you could live anywhere, where would you choose?”, “What would your dream home look like?” or “What’s your favourite thing about your family home?” for the top card.

When they have done that with most of the cards, ask them to put them all face up on the table and find the nine topics that all of the vocabulary is associated with. There aren’t an equal number of cards in each topic. Give them the list of suggested questions to check their answers with, then ask them to read through and make sure they understand all the questions. They then do a Speaking Part One task with the script and those questions.

 

Instructions for students

Exam practice

Take turns asking each other questions from the last section for four minutes in this IELTS Speaking Part One format:

“Good morning/afternoon/evening. Come in and take a seat. My name is …………. (check ID and name)

First of all, I’d like to find out something about you. I’d like to start by asking you about (name of topic)

(ask two to four questions about that topic)

Now I’d like to move on and ask you about (name of topic)

(ask two to four questions about that topic, then move onto the third topic below if you have time)

I’d also like to ask you some questions about (name of topic)

(ask questions about that topic until time is up)”

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Cards to cut up

anywhere	dream home	family home
flat	local area	suburbs
green spaces	amenities	connections
call	first/ given/ Christian	name
ID	passport	identification
spell	close	distant/ extended
get on/ get along	member	resemble/ take after
strict	younger/ youngest	celebration
busy	cinema	days off
go out	holiday	interests
keep fit	public holiday	lifestyle
meet up	night out	sociable
spend time	stay in	take up

 

 

diet	dish	eat out
fast/ junk	foreign	main meal
ambition	in ten years’ time	look forward to
retire	plan	predict
brought up	entertainment	festival
foreign visitor	grow up	local dish
round here/ around here	time of year	whereabouts
least favourite	major	pass
postgraduate	qualifications	subject
commute	get around	get here
abroad/ overseas	English-speaking	trip

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Admin questions

• call – What would you like me to call you?
• first name – How do you pronounce your first name?
• ID – Can I see your ID?
• passport – Do you have your passport with you?
• identification – Please show me some kind of identification.
• spell – How do you spell your family name/ last name?

 

Accommodation

• anywhere – If you could choose anywhere, where would you live?
• dream – What would your dream house be like?
• family home – Do you still live in your family home? Why/ Why not?
• flat – Do you live in a house or a flat?
• local area – Are there many things to do in your local area?
• suburbs – Do you live in the suburbs or town centre? Do you like it? Why?/ Why not?
• green spaces – Are there many green spaces near your home? Is that important to you?
• amenities – What amenities are there near your home? What other ones would you like?
• connections – Are there good transport connections to your house?

 

Family and friends

• close – Are you close to your family? What makes you say that?
• distant – Do you often meet your distant relations? At what kind of events?
• extended – How well do you know your extended family? What makes you say that?
• get on/ get along – Did you get on with your parents when you were younger?
• member - What do the other members of your family do? Would you like those jobs?
• take after – Do you take after your father or your mother? In what way?
• strict – Would you say that your parents are strict? What makes you say that?
• younger/ youngest – Are your brothers/ sisters younger or older than you?
• celebration – What was the last big celebration you went to? Who attended?

 

Free time/ leisure

• busy – Do you like to be busy on your days off? Why?
• cinema – How often do you go to the cinema? What kinds of films do you like watching?
• days off – What do you usually do on your days off?
• go out - How often do you go out with your family? What do you usually do?
• holiday – When is your next holiday? What are planning to do?
• interests – Do you have any hobbies or interests? When did that start?
• keep fit – What do you do to keep fit?
• lifestyle – Do you have a healthy lifestyle, do you think?
• meet up – How often do you meet up with friends? What do you usually do together?
• night out – When did you last have a night out? What did you do?
• public holiday – When is the next public holiday in your country? Do you have any plans?
• sociable – Are you a sociable person? What makes you say that?
• spend time – Do you spend much time doing sport? Would you like to do more so?
• stay in - Do you like to stay in in the evening? Is that typical for people your age?
• take up – Are there any activities you’d like to take up? Why do those interest you?

 

Food

• diet – Would you say that have a healthy diet? How could you eat healthier?
• dish – What’s your favourite dish? What is it about that dish that appeals to you?
• eat out – How often do you eat out? What kind of restaurant do you usually choose?
• fast/ junk – How do you feel about fast food? Why do you feel that way?
• foreign – Do you like any foreign food? Is that food popular in your country?
• main meal – What is usually your main meal of the day? What do you usually eat?

 

Future

• ambition – Do you have any ambitions? Do you think it’s important? Why?
• in ten years’ time – What do you think you will be doing in ten years’ time?
• look forward to – Are you looking forward to next weekend? Why?
• retire – What would you like to do when you retire? Do you think that is likely?
• plan – What are your plans for the next weekend? Is that quite typical for you?
• predict – What are your predictions for later this year? What makes you say that?

 

Hometown

• brought up – Do you live near here? Is that where you were brought up?
• entertainment - What is there to do for entertainment in your town?
• festival – Are there any festivals in your hometown?
• foreign visitor – What would a foreign visitor be interested in doing in your hometown?
• grow up – Where is your hometown? Is it a good place to grow up?
• local dish – Does your hometown have any famous local dishes?
• round here – Are you from round here? What is your hometown like?
• time of year – When is the best time of year to visit your hometown?
• whereabouts - What is your hometown called? Whereabouts is it?

 

Studies

• least favourite – What was your least favourite subject at school? Why?
• major – What is/ was your major at university?
• pass – What will you do if you pass the IELTS exam?
• postgraduate – Would you like to study for (another) postgraduate degree?
• qualifications - What qualifications do you think you’ll need in the future?
• subject – What subjects did you like at school? What appealed about those things?

 

Transport and travel

• commute – Do you have to commute? How do you feel about that?
• get around – How do people usually get around your town?
• get here – How did you get here today?
• abroad/ overseas – Would you like to live abroad? Why?
• English-speaking – Have you been to any English-speaking countries? How well could you communicate?
• trip – What daytrips would you recommend from this town?