Mat Clark ielts speaking

2.5. 
Producing a Good Quality Part Two Talk 
The Fluency-based Stategy 
 
This strategy focuses on the fluency aspect of the marking system. Earlier in this 
book  we  concluded  that  linking  words  and  linking  phrases  can  increase  your  "Fluency" 
score-this  strategy  is  based  on  producing  good  quality  linking  structures  in  your  two-
minute talk and combines these with complex sentence structures. 
 
First look at the following topic card. 
 
Describe a span that you like playing or watching. 
 
You should say: 
 
 
What the sport is 
 
 
How often you play / watch it 
 
 
Why you like it 
 
Whether it is popular in your country. 
 
The first thing to notice is that all topic cards have one thing in common. 
 
Look carefully at the 4 prompts on any topic card and you should notice that they 
all share the same grammar feature. 
 
What the sport is 
 
How often you play / watch it 
 
Why you like it 
 
Whether it is popular in your country 
 
Most  people  think  that  these  are  4  questions.  Look  carefully  -  they  are  not 
questions;  they  are  in  fact  a  single  clause  or  part  of  a  sentence  (statement). This  fact  is 
true for every Part Two topic card. 
 
For  this  strategy,  you  can  divide  your  talk  into  4  parts  (the  4  prompts).  Take  the 
first one for example: "What the sport is". 
 
You can use this to create your opening sentence. 
 
"I guess I could begin  by saying something about what the sport is, and I think I 
would have to choose football. Most people know that football is ..." 
 
This  sentence  has  3  strong  features.  It  contains  complex  linking  structures, 
redundant language and complex grammar (sentence structure). 
 
Another  advantage  of  using  this  type  of  structure  is  that  you  don't  really  need 

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Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking 
 
 
101
 
much content because you will probably spend almost one minute producing the complex 
linking phrases. 
 
If  used  correctly,  this  structure  will  have  a  positive  affect  on  your  "Fluency"  and 
"Grammar" scores. 
 
Now look at the second prompt 
 
"How often you play / watch it (you need to change "you" to "I") 
 
The sentence might be: 
 
"Going on to my next point which is how often I play it, I really need to add that if 
I have enough time I usually play it about twice a week. In fact..." 
 
And then the third prompt: "Why you like it". The third sentence could be 
 
"And now with reference to why I like it, the point I want to make here is that…‖ 
 
And the last prompt: "Whether it is popular in your country". The fourth sentence: 
 
"And  so  finally  then,  if  I  have  time,  in  answer  to  the  question  of  whether  it  is 
popular in my country, really I should mention that…" 
 
So the final structure (without content) might look like this 
 
"I guess I could begin  by saying something about  what the sport is, and I think I 
would have to choose… 
 
Going on to my next point which is how often I play it, I really need to add that... 
 
And now with reference to why I like it, the point I want to make here is that. .. 
 
And  so  finally  then,  if  I  have  time,  in  answer  to  the  question  of  whether  it  is 
popular in my country, really I should mention that…‖ 
Practice  reading  the  structure  above.  Depending  on  the  speed  it  should  take  you 
between 30~45 seconds. This means that you only need about one minute of content. As 
there are 4 points, you only to find about seconds of actual content for each point. 
Now look at the next topic card with a complete structure with content. 
Decribe a famous person you would like to meet. 
You should say: 
Who the person is 
Why he/she is famous 
Why you would like to meet this celebrity 
What you would like to do if you met this person. 
―I  guess I could begin by  saying that something about  who  this person  is, and I 
think I would have to choose the superstar Jackie Chan from Hong Kong. 
Going on to my next point which is why he is famous, I really need to add that he 
is a would-renowned martial arts film star as well as being a successful director. In fact 
he was probably the first Chinese actor to achieve blockbuster success in Hollywood. 
And now with reference to why I would like to meet this celebrity, the point I want 
to make here is that I have always been a big gan of martial arts movies, so if I had the 
chance to meet one of my childhood idols, it would be a dream come true. 
And so finally then, if I have time, in answer to the question of what I would like 
to do if I met him, really I should mention that I would probably ask him to teach me a 

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Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking 
 
 
102
 
few  special  Kung  Fu  tricks  and  I  would  possibly  invite  him  out  for  dinner  at  a  classy 
restaurant or something like that.‖ 
The structure is complete in the example above but it probably needs slightly more 
content (maybe one  more sentence for each  point).  However, there are  many  very  good 
features in the example so far.