Task 1: Giving Advice

Instructions:

1. The situation for this task that is given on the exam is most likely related to school or

work, and the individual who receives the advice has little to no experience. So, you must give advice to the inexperienced person.

2. The test-taker must speak to the person as if they are a work colleague (role play), a

relative, or friend for approximately 90 seconds.

3. The idea is to persuade the friend, colleague, or relative with advice.
4. There will usually be two (2) choices of advice for the test-taker to choose from, but

the test-taker can argue the other side of the argument and give reasons as to ‘why

not’ to use the advice given on the alternative side of the argument.

5. The speaker/ test-taker has 30 seconds to prepare and 90 seconds to respond.

 

Procedure:

1. Always give advice using strong modal verbs of obligation, advice, suggestion, and add a reason.
2. Support your advice with examples and/detail.

 

Modal verbs of Obligation (very strong persuasion):

You can say:

You must …, You have to…., You must not …,

Negative modal forms:

You can’t…, You aren’t allowed to ….

 

Modal verbs of Advice (most useful for this task):

You can say:

You had better …, You should …, You ought to …,

Negative modal forms:

You had better not …, You shouldn’t…,

 

Modal verbs of Suggestion:

You can say:

You could …., You might …

Negative modal form:

You don’t have to ….

 

** Remember, since this is a form of ‘role play’, where you imagine you are really giving advice to a friend, a colleague, or relative, you will not have to use the past tense form of these modal verbs – always keep your advice in the present tense.

 

Task 1:  Giving Advice Examples

Example 1: Your friend has been dating his girlfriend for 2 years and would like to propose marriage to her as soon as they graduate from university. Give your friend advice on how to propose to his girlfriend (you have 30 seconds to prepare, and 90 seconds to give your response).

30 seconds to prepare: in this time frame, you can write down three reasons or things your friend can do.

1. Expensive restaurant (mention a consequence if yo don’t go to an expensive restaurant)
2. Have a diamond ring in a box (mention a consequence if you do not have a diamond ring)

iii.                Drop to one knee when you ask (mention a consequence if you don’t drop to a knee)

Tip: Always mention the outcome or consequence if your advice is not taken. Test-takers need to mention the other side or possible negative outcome because you have to fill 90 seconds of recorded time.

Use a modal verb form before your advice:

1. You should take her to an expensive restaurant.
2. You had better have a diamond in a box with you.

iii.                You must drop to a knee when ask her to marry you.

 

You have 90 seconds to respond –  add detail and the consequence:

There are several things you should do when you propose to your girlfriend. You should take your girlfriend to an expensive restaurant. She won’t guess what is about to happen because she will probably be thinking about her new surroundings, which is what you want. Whereas, if you went to a cheap restaurant she might be asking you all kinds of questions, which is what you do not want because you want this night to be special. You had better bring the diamond engagement ring with you. If you don’t, you will look silly because you want to propose marriage and without the ring, she won’t think you are serious. So, after dinner is over and the coffee or tea arrives, you tell your girlfriend that you have a question to ask her. You must drop to one knee while extending your hands with the box and you say ‘will you marry me?’ – then open the box and show her the ring before she has time to answer. Again, if you don’t drop to one knee she will think you are serious about the marriage. Also, she wants to tell her friends all about this night, so if you do not drop to a knee everyone will know you didn’t. She will raise her hands to face in disbelief, but she will say yes. Besides, girls know they can say ‘no’ later on and return the ring!

Finally, add signal words: If you want to step-by-step instructions, sometimes it helps to add signal words to keep your response organized. For example,

There are several things you should do when you propose to your girlfriend. First, you should take your girlfriend to an expensive restaurant. She won’t guess what is about to happen because she will probably be thinking about her new surroundings, which is what you want. Whereas, if you went to a cheap restaurant, she might be asking you all kinds of questions, which is what you do not want because you want this night to be special. Then you had better bring the diamond engagement ring with you. If you don’t, you will look silly because you want to propose marriage and without the ring, she won’t think you are serious. Finally, after dinner is over and the coffee or tea arrives, you tell your girlfriend that you have a question to ask her. You must drop to one knee while extending your hands with the box, and you say ‘will you marry me?’ – then open the box and show her the ring before she has time to answer. Again, if you don’t drop to one knee, she will think you are serious about the marriage. Also, she wants to tell her friends all about this night, so, if you do not drop to a knee, everyone will know you didn’t. She will raise her hands to face in disbelief, but she will say yes. Besides, girls know they can say ‘no’ later on and return the ring! Haha.

If you follow these directions, everything will go smoothly for you – Congratulations!

Statistics: (247 words – read with ‘delays’ and ‘gasps’ and ‘ughs’ – in 81 seconds)

Tip: you do not have to speak for the entire 90 seconds if you give an organized response like this one. Undoubtedly, you will pause at times to remember or to think what you should say, BUT this normal, so you do need to remember everything just the three points and ‘what if you don’t consequences’ and work your way through your answer. Modal verbs are what you use to introduce your 3 points.

Tip: in the history of debates or arguments, 3 reasons or ideas prove your side of any argument. Two (2) ideas never quite do it, so always give 3 reasons or ideas in any argument where you have to explain.