PTE: SPEAKING

About Speaking

So, the Speaking segment of the PTE test consists of 5 major exercises in repetition.

1. Read Aloud
2. Repeat Sentence
3. Describe Image
4. Retell Lecture
5. Answer Short Questions
3 major things to understand

1 Content 2 Oral Fluency 3 Pronunciation

- What are you being - How fluently you speak - How you enunciate
asked? - The rhythm and pacing words
- Changes according to of your speech - Your accent does not
the question - Consistency is key matter
- Affected by - Make sure that a Native
pronunciation English Speaker
understands
 Read Aloud
● 30 to 40 seconds to prepare
● 30 to 40 seconds to speak
3 very common mistakes

1. —s, —ed, & —ly sound at the end of words

walk/walks/walked ; quick/quickly; pond/ponds

2. Skipping over or replacing short words

is, if, in, on, at, of, a, an, the, for, etc.

3. Trying difficult words that you can’t really pronounce

Genre; Photosynthesis
How to avoid these simple mistakes?

Simple!

Read the same paragraph twice.

- You’re free to make mistakes in the first round. Even your fluency can be
stuttery.
- Just make sure you correct your mistakes and be mindful of where you made
them.
- Reading it the second time should be a lot easier making the response more
accurate and fluent.
 Repeat
Sentence
● One sentence; Spoken once
● Repeat exactly what you hear
3 basic strategies

1 Chunking 2 Chanting 3 Imitation

- Try to break sentences - Repeat the chunks - Mimic the speaker.

down into manageable mentally. - Pretend that you are
chunks. - You will not have teasing them with their
- 3 to 4 chunks, with 3-4 enough time to do it out accent.
words each. loud. - Be confident.
A new article was published

regarding the university

last week.

Content 3 3
Fluency 5 5
Pronounciation 5 5

11
A few tips!

BE CONFIDENT!

- You have to believe that what you’re saying is the perfect way to say it.
- Try to recite the whole sentence as it was spoken to you, but don’t worry if you
miss a few words.
- Here, the point distribution is 3:5:5, for content, oral fluency, & pronunciation.
So, how you speak is a tad bit more important than what you are saying as a
whole.
 Describe
Image
● 25 seconds to prepare
● 40 seconds to speak
Types of images

- Graph: Bargraph, line graph, histogram, curve.

Basically anything with an x-axis & a y-axis

- Diagram/Chart: Pie chart, flow chart, cycle chart, table, map, etc.
(Anything that is not a photograph or a graph)

- Photograph: Everyday objects, historical landmark, natural landscape

How to describe?

- What type of an image is it?

- What is the information being shown?

- What are the features of interest? OR What caught your attention?

The Template

The image to be described here is a (graph/diagram/photograph). To be more specific, it is a (say type of

image).

I have about 40 seconds to talk about this image, and upon closer inspection I can see a few ideas worth
noting.

To start with, I can see that the image shows (say topic). I can also see many interesting features.

Firstly, there are a number of important elements in the image like (say elements/read words).

Also, I can see many significant numbers like (say numbers).

Finally the use of colors like (say colors) makes this image vivid and easy to read. All in all, this is an
informative image.
 Retell
Lecture
● 30-90 second lecture
● 10 seconds to prepare
● 40 seconds to speak
How to answer?

- What was the lecture about?

THE TOPIC

- What were the ideas discussed?

Keywords / Stressed & Repeated phrases
3 terms to know
1 Keywords
- The words most
relevant to the topic
- Usually Nouns
- Usually words that
strike you as important
2 Stressed Phrases
- The words that the
speaker stresses in the
lecture
3 Repeated Phrases
- The words that the
speaker repeats
multiple times in the
lecture
The Template

The lecture was mainly about (the topic), and during the course of the discussion
the speaker mentioned many ideas and arguments worth noting.

Firstly, the speaker described concepts like (keywords) in detail.

Also, concepts like (stressed and repeated phrases) were important to the lecture
as they were stressed and repeated many times over the course of the discussion.

All in all, this is an informative lecture on (the topic).

The Template (Listening)

The lecture was mainly about (the topic), and during the course of the discussion
the speaker mentioned concepts like (keywords) in detail.

Also, concepts like (stressed and repeated phrases) were important to the lecture
as they were stressed and repeated many times.

All in all, this is an informative lecture on (the topic).