I'd like to ask you some questions about television.
How often do you watch television?
That's an interesting question.
I don't have a TV maybe for...
...for more than four years now.
So I watch TV when I sometime go to see my friend
at their home.
But...
I prefer... I'm very happy not to have a TV.
I prefer watching movie or watching a documentaries,
or listen to the radio.
But when I was a teenager,
I think I watched TV every day...
...just to relax.
Do you enjoy the advertisements on television?
No, I hate advertisements
and that's why I'm very happy to...
I'm sorry...
No, I don't like...
and I remembered when I watched TV,
I was very angry when they cut my movie
for advertisements that I don't want to watch.
I don't like they...
push me to watch something I don't like.
Do you think most programmes on television are good?
Now, yes, because you have many channels
so it's quite diverse.
You have a wide range of different kind of TV...
documentary channel, you have news channels,
you have operas channel.
So, now, there is some interesting kind of programmes.
Hi, my name's Pete Jones
and I've been helping IELTS candidates
through YouTube videos, my IELTS blog,
and of course my free online IELTS course
for a number of years now.
Marie, who you've just seen,
got a band score 6.0 for her speaking
a couple of months before we made this recording,
and after we finished making the video,
Marie asked me how she could improve her speaking
and get a higher IELTS band score.
What I explained to Marie,
and what I'd like to explain to you in this video,
is that you need to use particular types of vocabulary
to get a band score 7.0 or above.
You may have thought that
Marie had enough vocabulary
to answer my IELTS Speaking Part 1 questions,
but to get a band score 7.0,
it isn't enough.
You also need to use some less common vocabulary
and some idiomatic vocabulary.
Less common vocabulary are words or phrases
that are not frequently used in everyday conversation,
and when I was listening to Marie answer my questions,
I didn't hear any examples of less common vocabulary.
For example, when Marie talked about
how she felt about advertisements on television,
she used the common word 'hate'
even though it sounded like
she really hated advertisements.
Here, she could have used a less common word
like 'loathe' or even 'detest'
to express how she felt.
She could have said that
she loathed television advertisements.
Idiomatic vocabulary are words or expressions
that are natural for native speakers to use
or that contain an idiom.
And again, I didn't hear Marie
use any examples of this type of vocabulary
when she answered my questions.
An idiom, by the way, is
a group of words that has a different meaning
to the meanings of the individual words.
When Marie was talking about
how much television she watched as a teenager,
she could have extended her idea
by using an idiom.
Here, Marie could have said that,
when she was a teenager,
she didn't watch...sorry...
she wasn't glued to the box
like children are nowadays,
but she did watch television every day.
Here, the idiom 'glued to the box'
means watching TV and ignoring everything else.
So, to get a band score 7.0 for vocabulary
in your IELTS Speaking test,
you need to use less common and idiomatic vocabulary.
I've included a list of some idioms
related to the topic of television
at the end of this video.
If you need more help with your IELTS preparation,
check out my free IELTS course at
www.freeieltscourse.com
If you don't want to miss my next IELTS video,
subscribe now.