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Hello and thank you for joining us in this speaking section of our course.

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In these next four lectures, we're going to be covering the different brand descriptors that you're

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graded on for the speaking section for the ILS exam.

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In regards to the speaking, you are marked or graded on your fluency and coherence, your lexical ability,

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which means vocabulary, grammar, grammar, accuracy and also your pronunciation.

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So in this lecture right now, we're going to go over the, the, the qualities that will make up a

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really good fluency score.

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In order to do that, I'm going to really break down and explain to you what this section of the rubric

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means.

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That way you'll know what you need to do to be able to score very well.

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Let's start.

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So first of all, when we're talking about fluency and coherence, fluency refers to how well you can

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talk without pausing or hesitation or interruption.

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That's what fluency is.

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So if you're talking and there are a lot of well, when you're doing that or you have a lot of pausing

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in your speech, then that's going to hurt your fluency.

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Coherence is a little bit different.

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It's a little bit different.

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Coherence really deals with how well your ideas make sense together.

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Now you've heard me say before.

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They're not grading you on on on what you say, but they are grading you on if your ideas actually fit

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together.

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Do your ideas fit together.

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So really understanding the difference between fluency and coherence and what they mean is very, very

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helpful.

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That's why I'm always trying to cautious caution a student from really rambling on, especially in Section

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one.

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Some students just ramble on and on and on, and eventually what ends up happening is your ideas lose

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their coherence.

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They stop fitting together, they stop making sense together, and you're hurting your grade.

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Now here is just this is this is directly from the the rubric.

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And it's really, really important.

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That you really kind of know what the difference is.

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Right.

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If you're getting a six.

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If you're getting a six in terms of fluency and coherence, that means that sometimes you lose coherence.

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And the reason why is because there is occasional repetition, a lot of self correction.

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Or you're using a lot of connectors and discourse, discourse markers, but not always using them correctly.

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And then if you read four bands, six and four bands, seven for band, eight for Band nine, you can

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see the differences.

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You can see the differences when you move up to band number eight.

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It says you speak fluent fluently with only occasional representative, occasional repetition or a self

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correction.

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Right.

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So you have to be able to really, really fit within the context of that band score.

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Right now when we're talking about coherence.

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When you're getting a high band score, there's rare or occasional self correction, if there's any

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hesitation is related to content, not related to words.

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Look what it says related to content.

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That means that you're thinking of an idea or coming up with an idea, not hesitation related to words.

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Also for a high band, you're able to use a range of connectors and discourse markers when they hear

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when they hear you repeating the same ones over and over and over again, you're hurting your score.

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You can see down there for a low band score, a lot of repetition, slow speech, complex speaking,

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causes you problems.

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Now speed.

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Look, if you want to really do well on the fluency score, then you really should have speed this close

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to a native speaker.

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Now this.

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I'm going to tell you something that's really important.

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When I'm talking about speed.

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I'm not talking about speaking really, really fast because very often that's what some people think

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it means, speaking really, really fast.

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Most native speakers don't really speak very fast, so it doesn't mean speaking really fast, because

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when you do that, very often you lose your you really hurt your pronunciation.

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In terms of low in terms of low, low fluency scores when it comes to speed, if you're really slow

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in creating your sentences or if you have really poor automaticity, which means that it takes a while

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for the word to come from your head to out of your mouth.

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This happens a lot when people are translating from their native tongue into English.

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Now.

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Are your ideas logical and easy to follow?

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Are they logical and easy to follow?

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Right when you're speaking, I hear people speak sometimes.

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And then by the time they finish their sentence, I have no idea what they were talking about.

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Because it logically is not put together very well.

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Right or it's not easy to follow.

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If you're speaking and you're talking like this.

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I like music because it's it's it's a great way for me to be able to.

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To relax and.

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And and take my mind off of things.

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Right.

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That sentence becomes really hard to follow.

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It becomes really, really hard to follow in terms of where you see this a lot, in terms of a low score,

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in terms of fluency, in terms of logic and easy to follow really happens in part number two.

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That's where I really hear from students where there are a lot of gaps in their reasoning and their

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logic.

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There's no order, right?

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There's poor connection of the ideas.

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It really shows up in part number two.

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And that's why part number two is so important to so impressive to a lot of graders.

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Can you speak without much effort?

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Right.

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What they mean by this in terms of a high score is, is your answer not broken or self interrupted?

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Again.

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Low score is all the arms and hesitations.

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So how can you increase your fluency and coherence?

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Number one, use some great discourse markers.

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I'm going to talk about that a little bit later on.

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Of course, your repetition and speed learn some phrases so you can be able to extend your answers.

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In fact, as a matter of fact, what I mean by that is.

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Right.

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Learn some phrases that will help you to extend your answers.

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When you're able to extend your answers, it shows more fluency and then also decrease the hesitation

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in the policy.

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Record yourself.

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Listen to yourself.

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Say it again.

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Keep saying it over and over and over until you can get through a sentence without the pausing and hesitation.

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That's why also in one of the earlier videos I mentioned about you speaking English almost 24 hours

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a day, two or three weeks before you take the exam, speak English.

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Now, some people might say to me, Well, I don't have anybody at home to speak English with.

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Sometimes you just have to maybe go to people in your family and just tell them, Hey, you're going

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to ask me a question sometimes.

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Sometimes I'm going to answer that question in English.

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I know you're not going to understand me.

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I know you're not going to have any idea what I'm saying, but I just have to practice answering sometimes

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in English.

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And then, of course, you can answer again, you know, in your native tongue.

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But just that's what you have to do sometimes, right?

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Make the best of your situation.

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Everybody doesn't have to say everybody doesn't have a perfect situation.

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And what you have to do is make the best of the situation that you have.

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Now here are some of some general discourse markers.

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As I was saying anyway, here the thing is, to tell you the truth at the end of the day.

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Right.

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These are different common discourse markers now with discourse markers.

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It needs to be natural.

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OC don't force it and don't don't say a discourse marker.

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You know, you don't have to say a discourse marker in every sentence now.

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And some of the examples that I'm going to give you, you might see me use a discourse marker, you

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know, in two or three different sentences.

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The reason why I'm doing that is I'm just trying to show you how a lot of them are used in context.

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But what I'm telling you, and I want you to listen very, very closely, is that I don't want you using

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them to too many.

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Don't don't overuse them.

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The greatest don't like that.

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Och many times what you're doing is you're just showing the ability, you're revealing, hey, I can

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do this.

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And then you know what else?

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I can do that.

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Here's an example of some discourse markers in context.

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Right.

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So the first question says, does your name have any special meaning?

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Well, actually, it does.

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Naima is an Arabic name that means paradise.

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Next question.

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What are some places of interest in your town?

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To tell you the truth.

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Marcus has too many exciting features to name.

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The primary reason the visitors come to Marrakesh is for the Medina.

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In addition, some tourists use Marrakesh as a launching point to visit the desert located in Murcia.

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Do you like your hometown?

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Certainly.

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I love Marrakesh.

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Actually, we have the best of both worlds and that a visitor can experience the old way of life in

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the nearby villages and take part in the modernization that has occurred in Marrakesh.

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So the purpose of this was just to really show you how you use some of these discourse markers within

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context.

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Discourse markers are used really in speaking because that's just the natural way that native speakers,

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when they're talking with each other, they use discourse markers.

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You hear it all the time.

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Here are some more.

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Do you work or are you a student?

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Right.

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Well, until last August 2018, I was seeking a master's in computer science.

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But since graduating, I have been working in my field of computer science.

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Currently, I'm employed by the IBM New Products Division, located in Accra, Ghana.

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What do you dislike about your job?

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I'm glad you brought that up, because actually, I was just thinking about the pros and cons of my

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employment.

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At the end of the day, I like 90% of my work, but I would have to say that I disapprove of the long

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working hours and the unusual schedule that results from us having to work with clients in Japan.

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Would you consider changing your job in the future?

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I'm glad you brought that up, because I was recently considering the pros and cons of my employment.

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Right.

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So, again, this is this is actually actually actually a repeat of the previous answer.

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We're not going to repeat that, actually.

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All right, here are some methods to be able to really extend your answers.

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Get used to using the future tense will be or going to number to add reasons always explained why don't

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just answer it and stop.

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Explain why.

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Compare things to the past.

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I used to.

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I used to love sugary desserts.

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But since the diabetes diagnosis, I've had to cut them out of my diet.

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Number four, combine details together.

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I live in an apartment.

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Right.

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Don't say like I live in an apartment.

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I lived there with my friend.

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I also lived there with my cousin.

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Last month, I moved in with a stranger.

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Don't speak in those short those short little sentences, simple sentences is much more impressive.

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If you say I live in a flat with my cousin, friend and stranger that I just met last month.

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Use contrast and also share your feelings.

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Always explain how you feel.

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Thank you very much for listening to this lecture on fluency.

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And next, we're going to move into the we're going to move into the lexical component.

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So I'll talk to you soon.