Speaking Activity for Lorne James Inglis –

The art of giving a good monologue

Even though it’s the shortest, the speaking portion of an English language exam such as
the IELTS exam or APTIS exam or EOI exam is often the one that students find the
most difficult. The prospect of speaking for a couple of minutes at a time without
anyone prompting or responding to you can be daunting, but with some careful
preparation and a pragmatic attitude you’ll be able to go into the exam feeling confident
and assured.

During the monologue you will be asked to speak about issues related to a given topic
for one to three minutes. As no structure is provided by questions or responses from an
interlocutor (as is the case in the second part of the exam), it’s up to you to organise and
deliver your response as a coherent whole. You’ll have to make sure you communicate
a series of clear, well-justified ideas, with connective phrases between them to mark the
progression of your argument.

This clear progression is key, as it helps the examiner to easily grasp the direction and
range of your argument (which helps them to give you more marks for clarity!). Here
are some tips on how to structure your response:

Tip 1.

Start by outlining the themes and arguments you’re going to engage with. It’s a good
idea to rephrase the issue, as laying out the question in your own words shows a strong
grasp of the concepts. Try using indirect questions (e.g. the issue of whether X has
changed over the years…). You can also consider starting with a rhetorical question, a
fact or an anecdote. Inversion also works well.

• No one can deny that..

• I can say without hesitation that..
• I´ve been asked to talk about the changes in education over…..
• Is it a good idea to...? (rhetorical question)
• This topic reminds me of….(anecdote)
• Did you know that….? (fact)
• Inversion (e.g. Not only am I going to talk about education, but also…)
• It is clear that….

Tip 2.

As you continue with your monologue it is useful to punctuate your response with
connective phrases to mark the progression of your argument. If you are asked to talk
about three different points, try and divide you time between the three equally. Rather
than leaving yourself too much time at the end. For example, to move on to a new point:

• This leads directly to my next point…

• Let’s now take a look at…
 • This brings us to the next question / prompt…
• Firstly, first of all, secondly, then, next, after this…
• First, I’d like to point out..
• I would like to draw your attention to…
• Discourse markers – provided that, as long as, in addition, on top of that,
What’s more, with regard to.., come to think of it.

Tip 3.

Or, to return to an element of an argument you’ve previously made:

• As I mentioned/pointed out earlier…

• To return to my earlier point…
• Taking you back to
• As I was saying..

Here are some useful phrases for giving your personal opinion on a topic:

• To my mind…
• As I see it…
• As far as I’m concerned…
• I have the impression that…
• I (strongly / firmly) believe / think that…
• In my opinión / personally I believe..
• From my perspective…
• I reckon..
• I am quite aware that….
• Personally…..
• To be honest

The balance between personal opinion and more factual or objective statements will
depend on the topic you are talking about. Don’t expect to love the topic, there will
always be areas you feel more or less confident about.

In order to project confidence and present a solid, logically sound argument, you should
include plenty of impersonal statements as you construct your points, for example:

• It is imperative that…
• X is of paramount importance
• Studies have shown that…
• Many scientists/researchers agree that…
• It should be noted that…
• It is important to remember that…
• I would also like to draw attention to…
• It could be argued that…

To bring your monologue to an end, consider using some of the following phrases to
sum up the points you have made and to introduce your concluding remarks:

• Finally, I’d like to highlight one key issue.

 • I would like to finish by mentioning…
• As a final point I’d like to add/emphasise that…
• Let me summarize by saying…
• To recap what I’ve said so far…
• In short…
• To sum up,…
• In conclusión…

Tip 4.

Try to throw in some more advanced idioms, vocabulary and grammar:-

• Phrasal verbs!!! – sum up, point out, set out, it comes down to…, end up, look
forward to… etc.
• Intensifiers – Painfully (clear), absolutely (necessary), terribly (interesting),
awfully (difficult), incredibly (hard) etc.
• Advanced grammar – Cleft sentences - I can’t stand when… (what I can’t
stand is when..) Inversion – If I had believed.. (Had I believed..) Modals or
language like – I am likely to / I am bound to..
• Idioms – “I have learned my lesson”, “spark my interest”, “see eye to eye”, “It’s
only the tip of the iceberg”, “Butterflies in my stomach”, “They’re a dime a
dozen”, “Don’t add insult to injury”, “It’s not my cup of tea”, “Beat about the
bush”etc.

The examples and arguments you will use will depend completely on your chosen topic,
but here are our main tips for delivering your monologue:

Though it might seem like a long amount of time to speak uninterrupted, it can go very
quickly. Make sure you don’t linger too long on any singular points, and if you get
stuck on one, try to move on fairly quickly. In order to be able to present a well-rounded
argument (and to have time to introduce the topic and then deliver concluding thoughts
at the end) you will have to make sure that you express your ideas concisely. It’s a good
idea to do some timed practices at home to get a sense of how much you are able to say
in the time given. This will help you to get a good sense of how many points you can fit
into your monologue, and at what point you should start wrapping up your answer if
you’re running short on time. A good idea is to practise by recording yourself. This is
something you may not enjoy but it is hugely beneficial. Then listen back to yourself.
How do you sound? How is your pronunciation and intonation? Do you over “um” or
“er”? Do you have any tics or words you tend to over abuse? (like…like…like)

You should incorporate sophisticated vocabulary and grammatical structures, but

always while making sure that you’re responding directly and concisely to the subject
matter. You shouldn’t try to memorise phrases or arguments in preparation for the
exam, as you’ll risk missing the heart of the question and sounding like you are
delivering a rehearsed script. It’s certainly helpful to learn vocabulary and key
phrases that will help you to structure your speech, but you should always make sure
that you’re responding as directly as possible to the exercise. And besides, you can
always point to general examples and common-sense arguments if you’re struggling to
recall a specific statistic or figure.

Lastly, confidence is key: maintain good posture and eye contact, and don’t be derailed
by any errors or slip-ups. If you make a mistake and you’re aware of it, the best
approach is to quickly correct yourself and move on. In a pressured situation it’s easy to
make small errors that you wouldn’t normally make in class or practice, so don’t let it
knock your concentration. As always it is really important to strike a balance between
fluency and accuracy. Overdoing one and forgetting the other can make your English
sound unnatural.

Possible Topics

1. Your dreams and ambitions

2. Your future job
3. A good book
4. A good film / television series
5. The environment
6. Someone you admire
7. Your family
8. Your studies / degree
9. School
10. Places you have been
11. Tourism
12. Your friends
13. Spain
14. Your hometown
15. Your region
16. Yourself
17. Shopping
18. Translation
19. Languages
20. Your worries
21. Learning English
22. How to improve your English listening skills
23. Your hobbies
24. Social Media
25. The internet
26. Sport
27. Health
28. Current Affairs
29. Clothes
30. Wildlife & nature
Marking Structure

Grammatical Resource: the grammar you use /2.5

Lexical Resource: the vocabulary you use /2.5

Discourse Management: how appropriate your ideas are, the clarity and speed of your
speech and how well you link your ideas together /2.5

Pronunciation: how easy it is to understand you, how appropriate your intonation,

word stress and sentence stress are /2.5