10/05/2024
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄-𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄-𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄-𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 - 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑𝐒.
If there is one practice exercise that my students find the most useful, it would be the one I'm about to share with you today.
And the best part! It only takes 5 MINUTES A DAY to practice.
One of the big problems of taking the IELTS exam is that we spend too much time thinking about what to say.
We think about our answer.
We think about our logic.
We think about our vocab and grammar.
We worry about what the examiner is thinking.
Just too much thinking!
In fact, most students spend some much time thinking about what to say instead of just 'saying what they think'.
However, one way to help you improve in this area of fluency is to improve your ability to use discourse markers.
Discourse markers, when practiced and used naturally, give you so many options and a ton of flexibility in your answers.
Also, they allow you to speak without thinking because they naturally give you ideas about things to say as we use them.
But most students don't practice their discourse markers!
And most students don't use enough in the exam to see their full potential.
Or, even worse, they try to practice, but they do it in the context of answering other IELTS questions.
But that's a terrible strategy.
When you practice IELTS questions, you should be practicing your strategy for answering the question appropriately, and not focusing on discourse markers.
When you practice pronunciation, you should be focused on pronunciation, and not answering IELTS questions.
And when you are focusing on improving your discourse markers, you NEEED to ISOLATE AND FOCUS on your discourse markers.
That is because, if you constantly repeat and practicing using your discourse markers in a practice session especially devoted to improving your use of linking words, then you will automatically start using them naturally in your regular conversations.
But first, we have to learn how to stop thinking.
Thinking is the enemy of discourse marker practice.
So, with this practice activity, you don't have to think about anything.
You don't have to worry about your logic.
You don't need to care about your grammar or vocabulary.
You don't need to worry about your pronunciation.
You just need to practice using your discourse markers.
HERE'S HOW - THE RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS
ACTIVITY: THE ONE MINUTE NONSENSE SENTENCE
• 5 times a day, stop what you are doing, wherever you are, and just start to speak about your current situation or a topic. You can even set an alarm for yourself.
• Your goal is to speak for only 1 minute and use 10 discourse markers.
• Print out the list of connectives and discourse markers in the comments and look at them while you are speaking.
• Your sentence doesn’t have to make any sense - hence the nonsense part.
• We aren’t overly concerned about grammar, vocab or pronunciation either.
• The focus is on developing new habits, with new connecting words that you will be able to use fluently on the exam.
• Again, the ONLY goal in this activity is to use 10 unique discourse markers in 1 Minute.
That's it!
FOR EXAMPLE:
Maybe you're sitting at the restaurant waiting for a friend to come and meet you.
You could pull out your list of discourse markers and say the following:
𝐀𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 I am eating at this restaurant 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 I’m super hungry, 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲, I didn’t have any time to eat breakfast. 𝐀𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭, I hope this food is really good 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥, this restaurant has great reviews, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐲, my friend recommended it to me. 𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫, I don’t have a lot of money, 𝐬𝐨 I’ll have to be careful with how much I spend. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲, I will get paid from my job later, 𝐬𝐨 I can spend a little bit of money today. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, I will tell my friends what I think 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 they will be interested. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞, one of my best friends is a big foodie 𝐚𝐧𝐝 loves trying new restaurants, 𝐬𝐨 she will be really keen to hear all about it. But right now, I’m going to really enjoy this meal!
That's it! It's that easy.
Most importantly, don't worry about whether you are using your discourse markers correctly!
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐚 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬. 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞.
You'll start to develop new patterns of speaking.
You'll start hearing these new words when other people speak as well.
It truly is a magical exercise. But you just have to be consistent and do it every day.
So, do you have 5 minutes today to start practicing your discourse markers?
Here are some more prompts to get you started.
𝐈𝐟 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐈’𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨…
𝐌𝐲 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞…
𝐌𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐬….
𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰, 𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥…
𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠/𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞…