Oral Techniques

Organise thoughts and information
- What does the picture shows?
- When and where was the picture taken?
- What details can I include to enrich my description?
- What else can I infer from the picture?

Explain and interpret picture
- Make sense of picture as best as possible
- What is happening in the picture?
- Why are people and things appearing like that in the picture?
- What is the occasion?
- What is the linkage between people and things?
- Do not give one word answer after examiner prompts
- Refer to specific details in the picture to explain why

Interpret picture
- Do not talk just about what you see in the picture
- Make intelligent guesses (or infer) about what caused this situation, what people involved are thinking about, what might happen next...
- Go beyond what you see in the picture (general knowledge of the situation - only a little)
- Support inference with specific facts from the picture

Vary sentence length
- Use variety of sentence lengths
- Simple sentences "Two children are watching the robot" are good starting for picture discussion
- Use complex sentence as proceed in discussion "Boy seems fascinated by the robot as its head is tilted to one side"

Tense and verbs
- Use present tense
- Use modal verbs to express how certain you are to something (must, ought to, shall, will, might, may, could, would)

Connectors
- Organise thoguhts and ideas using connectors

~ To introduce comments >> certainly, naturally, obviously, really, surely
~ To add a point >> futhermore, besides, moreover, I mean
~ Acknowledge different points >> anyway, despite, nevertheless, in spite of
~ Show consequences >> as a result, so, thus, therefore, hence
~ To contradict >> actually, on the contrary, in fact
~ To show contrast >> but, instead, rather, on one hand
~ To hypothesise >> as if, as thoguh, suppose
~ To enumerate (to mention separately as if in counting) >> firstly, secondly, lastly, then
~ To infer >> in other words, so, then, in that case