Read Aloud Strategies

READ ALOUD

Tips for Read Aloud:

• We get around 7-8 questions in this section.
• Fluency carries maximum weight age so speak without any hesitancy.
• Be clear and confident. Speak with enthusiasm.
• Speak at a pace that is comfortable for you and try to sound as natural as possible. I feel if you try to impose a speed that is not comfortable to you, it may do more harm than good.
• Search for difficult words and pronounce it clearly in your mind before it starts recording.
• Fluctuation in the tone and stress for some words is important.
• Watch for plural words, don’t pronounce them wrongly.
• Use the given 35 seconds to read through the text and identify the difficult words with which you might struggle.
• Pay attention to flow of the sentences. Take care of the commas (,) colons(:) semicolons (;) inverted commas(“—–“) and give an appropriate pause and stress as and when required.
• While reading aloud, you should not speak in a flat tone. Just remember the way a radio Jockey or announcer speaks i.e. clearly and in a rhythm. The listener should feel that the information you are giving is interesting, and is able to understand easily. When there is a full stop, your voice should also fade away to make the listener feel that your sentence has ended.
• Try to read the sentence like a news reader with some intonation and purpose.
• Take care of inappropriate stress and incorrect pronunciation of some words.
• Before it starts recording, read the entire sentence once .
• Don’t speak too fast and too slow (record at an appropriate speed)
• Also do not speak loudly. Speak at a normal pitch. Firstly when you speak loudly the computer cannot understand. Secondly it will disturb the other candidates and in return they would also speak loudly, which will disturb you.
• Time for this section is more than sufficient.
• Start speaking as soon as the recording bar appears or when you listen to the beep. If you do not speak for 3 seconds during the process, the computer will stop recording your voice.
• Do not try to speak in foreign accent. Speak in a neutral accent i.e. in your natural way.

All the best

Happy Practising

PTE Academic – Describe Image in (Speaking) Tips

Dear Readers,

Greetings,

Describe Image is a very important part in the speaking section of PTE Academic.

What is all about

In Describe Image section you will have 25 second to read and analyse the graph/picture/map/life cycle/process. After understanding the given image you will have to speak about it for 40 seconds.

Tips for Describe Image

• Two very important things to be taken care of is to speak fluently and with right pronunciation.
• Time allotted is 40 seconds.
• Speak clearly and concisely.
• Firstly introduce the graph type/picture or the Image type. Paraphrase the topic of the graph.
• Secondly explain about the horizontal & vertical axis or the parts of the graph or the contents of the picture or the product or life cycle.
• Thirdly clarify about the most striking feature of the graph/picture. Point out about the highest/lowest/general trend/noticeable trend/main features.
• Lastly conclude.
• Be sure to wrap up the speech in the stipulated time.
• Try not to repeat he words again & again.
• Do not try to explain the minute minute details.
• Keep on speaking the full time and conclude before the recording bar ends
• Practise with different images.
• Identify trends. A trend is the overall idea of the graph
  • what is happening/what happened
  • the main change over time
  • the most noticeable thing about the graph
  • the pattern over time
  • the pattern for different places or groups or people.

Words to be used in describing images

1. For Starting – The given(Chart,graph, table) shows/illustrates/describes/gives information on/ about……..             According to the, as shown in, as can be seen from the, it can be seen, it is clear/apparent/evident. Shows , depicts , illustrates , represents , elucidates , throws light on, portray, represents, introduce, represent, interpret.
2. Maximum – Highest, acme, zenith, summit, topmost, peak, pinnacle, greatest, top, apex. For e.g The sales soared to its acme/peak/zenith/summit/pinnacle during this period.
3. Minimum – Smallest, tiniest, bottomed, low point, least, modicum , merest , slightest. For e.g the foreign tourists visit was at a low point in the year 2001.
4. Average – stable, constant, moderate, mediocre, intermediate, medium, adequate.
5. Increasing – rise, jump, growth, booming , enlarging , up surging , acceleration, upswing, soar, swell.
6. Decreasing – decline, fall, low point, the bottom, nadir, base, sink diminish, curb, deteriorate.
7. Fluctuating- Flutter, oscillate, rise & fall, go up & down, ebb & flow, see saw.
8. Peak – highest point, topped, pinnacle, tip.
9. Ground level – lowest point, nadir, base, bottom
10. Adverbs to be used -(with Increasing) Suddenly, rose dramatically, shot up significantly, climbed up steeply, went up sharply, swelled rapidly, jumped up quickly, smoothly
11. Adverbs to be used – (with Decreasing) continually, dropped gradually, fell suddenly, went down slowly/slightly/steadily.
12. Prepositions: from/between 1990 to/and 2010
    Movements up: increased, rose, grew, went up
    Movements down: decreased, declined, dropped, went down
    Adjectives: slight, gradual, sharp, sudden, steady
    Adverbs: slightly, gradually, sharply, suddenly, steadily
    No movement: remained steady/stable, was unchanged, stabilized.

All the Best.

Happy Practising.