ENGLISH IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CARRIER.

Collocations

A collocation is a group of two or more words that are almost always put together to create a specific meaning. Using a different combination of words sounds unnatural or awkward. Some common collocations are:

to make a mistake, but not to do a mistake

a big decision, but not a large decision

to commit a crime, but not perform a crime

Ming Wei used the following collocations incorrectly:

the most enormous city (the correct collocation is the largest city)

business region (a more common collocation would be business centre or financial hub)

tall rise (the correct collocation is high rise)

shopping in the window (window shopping would be the right collocation).

Collocations in the English language can follow several structures:

adjective noun (e.g. He gave me some excellent advice.)

noun verb (e.g. The disease spread before anything could be done to prevent it.)

verb noun (e.g. I have always tried to follow my father’s advice.)

verb adverb (e.g. Consider the proposal carefully before you make a decision.)

adverb adjective (e.g. An ability to speak Japanese is highly desirable for this job.)

noun noun (e.g. The coach pushes the players to perform beyond their comfort zone)

For a single word, there can be more than one collocation. Let’s take the word rain as an example:

There was heavy rain last night. (adjective noun)

At sunset, rain began to pour down. (noun verb)

It rained non-stop all night. (verb adverb)

A few drops of rain had fallen. (noun noun)

Instances of hesitation (i.e. uhm) and unnecessary repetition of words and phrases (e.g. “… It is one of the … one of the…”, “…it is located at the … at the coast”).

Slight overuse of the phrases you know and actually which affects the flow of ideas.

Overly fast speech at times.

Ming Wei’s second attempt improved in terms of fluency because she considered the following features:

Continuity

Effective responses are continuous and have few hesitations. Continuity is affected by three aspects:

Hesitation: This occurs when speakers pause in the middle or at the end of an idea. They usually say uhm or ahh. While this is a natural part of speech, too much hesitation affects the flow of ideas. The examiner considers this in the score for fluency.

Repetition: Unnecessary repetition of words and short phrases in the middle of a sentence should be avoided as they impact the flow of ideas.

Crutch words: Using words or phrases like you know, like and actually can make you sound natural, but not when used repeatedly within one single answer. Other common crutch words are: I mean and so.

Fillers

Fillers are set words or phrases for use when you cannot think of a word or expression, or you want to avoid hesitation or long pauses. They are very useful as they give you time to organise ideas or think of content.

Some common fillers include:

To be honest…, What I mean is…, You know what I mean?…, It’s difficult to say, but…, Actually…, In fact…, Well…, You see…, I suppose…

An effective way of starting an answer is with a filler. For example, if the question is: What do you do on the weekends?

Instead of directly saying: “I go to the beach on the weekends.”

You could use a filler like this: “There are many things I do on the weekends, but I usually go to the beach.”

The fillers below can also be quite useful when starting answers in Part 3 of the test:

That’s a good/interesting question!…, Well, I hadn’t thought about that before, but…, Let me think…, Let me see…, I’m not quite sure about that, but…

Pace

Pace refers to how fast or slowly you speak. Try to speak at a natural pace; that is, do not speak too slowly or too quickly. If you speak too slowly, your flow of ideas may be lost. On the other hand, if you speak too quickly, the examiner may find it difficult to understand you. Both of these can impact your score for fluency and pronunciation.

Speaking practice

Questions about hometowns are common in Part 1. Answer the same three questions as Ming Wei and focus on the features above. Click on this Padlet link, and record your answers. Give some constructive feedback to other participants.

Follow all these steps to improve your English skills for your career