You are now listening to the IELTS podcast. Learn from tutors and ex-examiners who are
masters of IELTS preparation. Your host, Ben Worthington. IELTS Speaking Vocabulary. Hello there. In this tutorial, we're going to look at the
topic of social media. We're going to look at a list of vocabulary terms, and then we'll
look at some model answers. And of course, we're going to go through each part with some
sample questions for speaking part one. Speaking part two, we'll have a look at a sample cue
card and then a model answer. And then obviously as well, we'll get to speaking part three
more difficult questions. And throughout it, throughout the whole tutorial, I'll be highlighting
some of the vocabulary that will help you score high. Now, this is all topic specific
vocabulary that you definitely need to use if you're going to get a band seven or higher
Now, obviously, it's not a case of just using this vocabulary. You can't walk into the exam
and go flogger, blogger, meme, DM, emoji. Hell no, that's not the case. There are other
criteria such as your pronunciation, your task response, your fluency, your accuracy
But today we're going to mainly focus on the vocabulary part. Now, just before we get started
social media is a popular topic and I think it's a popular topic because it's pretty much
everywhere nowadays. And the examiners, obviously, they are influenced by everyday events. So
if they are constantly reading and hearing in the news about stories about social media
then it's going to get into the head and they'll start using it in the questions. Just like
environmentalism, climate change is a very common topic as well in both the writing and
the speaking, actually. Now, also, the good thing with social media is that it's not a good thing
but I think it's quite amusing. Some of the stories that happen because it's quite a fast
moving topic, a fast moving area. And so you always get these like funny stories. I remember
one story about a guy who he was in a messenger group and he changed people's names and gave them
all nicknames. And I think it was like a company group, you know, like all your work colleagues
And he changed all the names and he thought that it was anonymous and that only he could see them
And he changed one of them to something like muck bulge pants or something like that. And
anyway, after a few days, the colleague contacted him and said, hey, could you mind changing my name
to my normal name, please? And the guy who changed these obviously thought that it was all anonymous
and it wasn't. And it was quite embarrassing for him, especially with it being his work colleagues
So this is a yeah, I personally I find it quite interesting. We're all not all of us, actually
But I was going to say we're all getting to grips with it, but probably not nowadays
Just one last thing. I think there's two interesting groups of the three groups of people
There's like the digital natives that grew up with this and are much more adept than this sort of like
the maybe the millennials or Gen X. I'm not entirely sure, but these are the ones who had
who sort of like got the crossover. So when it came, when Facebook and all of this and Instagram
were introduced, they jumped straight into it. I wouldn't say they're natives, but the natives
would be the ones who've had it all their life. They grew up and it was never new
Like my cousins, for example, who are about 15, 16. For them, YouTube has been around forever
And then there's the middle group who saw it introduced. And then there's the older group
probably like our parents that kind of saw it introduced and then hesitantly got involved
In fact, I just heard another funny story about my girlfriend's stepdad
who was in Facebook groups asking people how to build a house. And
it was like a facepalm moment, you know, which is like, oh, no, this is not what Facebook groups
are used for. But anyway, I think there's lots. This is quite an interesting topic for myself
So let's jump into it. First, I'll go through the vocabulary. And this way, it'll make it easier
for you to identify it once you hear it. So we've got vloggers and influencers
followers. I'll just basically very quickly go through it. So vloggers, it's a word I hate
personally, but vloggers are people who blog, but with videos online, like YouTube
or maybe even TikTok. I don't think they'd be called vloggers, but yeah, usually it's for
YouTubers. Then we've got this lovely species of people called influencers that get a really bad
name online, I think. But we've got influencers. I think the Kardashians would come to mind
And yeah, personally, I find it irritating that I know all about the Kardashians, but I've never
I never want, I never wanted to, never ever researched them. But I know everything about
them. It's just pushed in my face. Anyway, then we've got followers, people who follow those
influencers or the YouTube channels, and then DMing, it's like direct messaging, memes. I love
some good memes. Recently, with all the Royal Family scandal, there has been a quality
the level of quality of the output of the memes has been fantastic. I sent one to my friend and
he replied, it was just like, I snorted out my coffee. He's drinking his coffee in the morning
he's sorry. He just burst out laughing. So memes, very important part of today's society
And then we've got viral videos. We've got scammers. I've got a friend actually in Spain who
via Twitter, he sent all his Ethereum, the cryptocurrency, to Elon Musk, because he
thought Elon Musk was messaging him, and needed some help with some Ethereum wallet
something like that. And he sent all his cryptocurrency to Elon Musk. And then
straight away afterwards, I think he realized it was a scam. Anyway, that's a scam
further up was one. Trolls, these are the nasty side. Trolls, people who just
just try and get a reaction out of people, and then haters who, again, are just posting negativity
online. So let's have a look. Question one, is social media popular in your country
Very much. This is an answer, typical answer from a person called Philippe. Very much. Many people
especially the young, are trying to become vloggers and influencers. They try to accumulate as many followers as possible. Apparently, there are people in my
country earning a considerable income from this. Great answer. We don't have to go into the more
complex or like high scoring answers here. Remember, this is part one. The goal is just
to get you relaxed, get you feeling comfortable, so that you can show your ability in the most
natural way possible. Next, do you use social media often? As model answer, I must confess
that I am an avid user of social media. I am constantly DMing my friends, the news memes
and the latest viral videos. It's a way to connect with them, even when we can't be together
Good. Next one, why do some people choose not to use social media
Well, the internet is still in many ways like the wild west, with very little legislation or
controls. It is extremely easy to fall prey to scammers trying to trick you out of your money
or even worse, your identity. Social media sites are full of trolls who only post in order to
incite a reaction. So, just a side note here. Now, you may think that, okay, social media
easy topic. I'm using social media every day, and I can easily answer any of those
questions I just heard. However, it's still a good exercise just to write out your answers to
these types of questions, because you might find that you'll stumble across a topic that you
feel passionately about, or you might want to say, oh, okay, I'd love to tell a story about that
And you think, and writing it out will help you just structure it and help you discover the
vocabulary that you will need to explain that story. And it's much better just taking that
preparation time and just fleshing it all out on paper before the exam, rather than stumbling
through the story, searching for the vocabulary on exam day. So, just some questions that you
could write out for yourself, some answers. So, what you could write out, how ironic I'm stumbling
through my own speaking podcast. So, what I want to say is you could write out your answers to
these questions. Is social media popular in your country? Do you use social media often
Why do some people choose not to use social media? Just straightforward questions
couple of sentences, and you're good. IELTS Speaking Part Two. Let's have a look
Let's work through a sample QCAD. Talk about your favorite social media site or application
Say when you first used it, why you use it, how often you use it, and if you recommend it to
others. Now, in the Speaking Confidence course we have, we have a structure for you to follow
And it's basically where a very, very brief overview would be, you know, we're brainstorming
for ideas, then we number those ideas, and we make sure that we're answering every single part
of the QCAD. Now, that's kind of like your preparation stage. Now, after you've done that
you want to look for opportunities, or even better, while you're brainstorming, look for
opportunities where you can use your language skills, such as comparisons, superlatives
examples, and all these other features that we would love to, that we would do well to include
in our answer. Now, I've got a model answer in front of me talking about Snapchat and TikTok
and personally I don't use these. My girlfriend, she, she likes TikTok, but she's hesitant about
like, fully diving into it because it's another time sink, time sink. So, you know, we're just
going to another channel for us to waste our energy. I'll give you my personal answer here
I'm going to talk about Reddit. Okay, so my favorite social media site is Reddit. I use it
because I'm not a digital native, so to speak, and I still like having a non-anonymity
Oh my word, I am, it keeps going. I like having the privacy with Reddit because it's not connected
really to my social media, and I'm very much what's called a lurker, where I don't post much
I just consume a fair amount, and very seldomly I might upvote it. But anyway, I use it because
I just find some, I can set it to the feeds or the channels that I find interesting. So
I'm subscribed to such channels such as Futurology, Heavy Seas, Thorgasm, just these weird ones
where Thorgasm, for example, is just video clips of lightning strikes, and then Heavy Seas is just
boats going through these heavy waters. So, I can get a really personalized feed of just stuff that
I find casually interesting, so that's why I use it. I would say I start my day with it. I'm not
proud, but each morning while I have my morning cup of tea, I'll just start browsing through it
and see some interesting posts about future technology, or about lightning strikes
and all of these other topics, as well as football, and cricket, and some of the other events
some of the other topics I follow. And sometimes I do recommend it to others, and it is a little
bit geeky, so I approach it with caution about who I recommend it to, but my geeky and nerdy friends
we are all on Reddit, and we all agree it's a time sink, and from time to time, we'll delete the app
just to get, just to basically perform a digital detox. So, maybe for a few days, just delete it
and get back to normality, get back to the real world. So, yeah, and that's my talk about a social
media, my favorite social media site. Okay, so there we go. It's quite straightforward. I stumbled
through some words like anonymity, switched it to privacy, you know, we've got followers, threads
subtopics, lots of different vocabulary in there, and I worked through the bullet points
I didn't really include some of the higher level features, like superlatives, or the comparisons
but I did include plenty of examples and anecdotes, which are quite helpful as well
Anecdotes help you to, they force you to kind of go into more detail and use more vocabulary
and often they give you the opportunity to use different tenses as well. So, some other
vocabulary we can use there, again, influencers. Maybe if we did do the model talk about TikTok
and Instagram, we could talk about influencers, DMs, filters, blocking, and catfishing, and all the
other lovely aspects of those channels, of those apps. IELTS speaking part three. Now, this is
an ideal opportunity for anecdotes and your comparisons. So, I will try and encourage
I'll try and use a few of these in the next answers. So, at what age are children generally
allowed to use social media in your country? Model answer. I think it really depends on which
application the child is using. Some applications generally expose a child more to potential
predators or cyberbullies. So, I think children should be at least 15 to use them. I have heard
that predators create fake profiles in order to groom children. This is despicable. There's one
reason why parents should monitor their children's device. Okay, next answer. So, just the vocabulary
there, we've got cyberbully, grooming, fake profiles, and then monitor. All of this is useful vocabulary
Next question. Do you think people will use social media more or less in the future
Now, hopefully, you probably spotted that this question gives you an option
Now, if you've got an option, it's an ideal and appropriate opportunity to use a comparison
So, let's have a look at this model answer. With so many things changing so quickly
it's rather difficult to predict what the future holds. A few years ago, we were sending emojis to
one another. Now, everywhere you look, people are dancing in front of their cameras for the world to
see. So, I imagine our obsession with social media will continue, although I hesitate to predict
what form that will take. So, we've got a conjunction there with although, which is
very useful, also especially useful for these when we've got an alternative in the question
Do you have like a mild comparison? You said it's rather difficult to predict as an implied
comparison there. That's not a bad answer at all. Why do you think bullying on the internet has become so widespread? Again, cyberbullying is
one of these topics that's in the media quite a lot nowadays. And, you know, it's definitely
worth reading up about it. This is quite an interesting topic. So, again, it's one of these
ones that you could definitely see in your writing task and in your speaking exam
So, just writing a few paragraphs about this, do some research, do some summaries of some articles
get that vocabulary, get your ideas fleshed out on paper, organize your thoughts, and you'll find
that these kinds of questions, this topic will become immensely much easier. Let's see. Why do
you think bullying on the internet has become so widespread? I think cyberbullies and trolls
generally feel that a shield of anonymity protects them. Many people are on social media
are out there with dummy profiles harassing people at will. And I guess like in all kinds
of bullying, it makes the bully feel important or worthy. So, the bully gets the validation
he or she needs without any of the repercussions that might occur if the bullying were to take
place in the real world. So, again, we've got some of that vocabulary we mentioned before
the cyberbullies, the trolls, anonymity, and also we've got some extra vocabulary such as
harassing and validation, all higher level vocabulary terms that the examiner would expect
to hear. So, let's just go through a list before we finish up. We've got meme, anonymity, troll
viral, emoji, derogatory, censor, harass, catfishing, influence of Photoshop, filters, block, scam, quite a lot there. I didn't need to go into the definitions. I'm pretty certain we are
all fairly aware with them. Maybe catfishing, that's where you create a false internet profile
in order to deceive or scam someone. So, I think my friend, which I mentioned earlier, who sent
a few hundred euros of Ethereum cryptocurrency to Elon Musk got catfished because the person
asking for them was only pretending to be Elon Musk. So, that's it from me today. If you need
more help with your speaking, then have a look at the Speaking Confidence course. Also, we've got
the speaking feedback service where it costs about $9 and you can send in your model answer and we
will give you feedback to help you improve, just like we do with the writing exam, just like we do
with the writing correction. By the way, we've got the $5 essay correction back. If you go to the
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might want to look into that, especially it's just a quick way, easy, inexpensive way to improve
Normally, these corrections are around $19, so it's a massive discount and we're doing it because
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You can carry on improving and it's just a very inexpensive way to get started
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Thank you for listening and good luck with your IELTS exam