SPEAKING/ ORAL Exam Task 1 (Monologue  4 -5 minutes)

These are the monologues that have appeared in the exam over the years. Write your name next to one of them to prepare and deliver in the class. The person who has prepared the topic will have to give his/her presentation after having submitted the text to the teacher for correction. Alternatively you may deliver your presentation on a topic of your choice, one related to your field of interest.

1^st: St prepares topic and outline. Time it and make sure you don´t exceed the time limit. Check pronunciation of new items

2nd: Give presentation and outline to the teacher. Teacher will correct it and give it back to student with feedback

3rd: Student practices at home. (make sure you know how to pronounce every Word)

4rd : delivery to the class (Ss gives presentation, using the outline)

4^th: Teacher emails monologue to all the class. Be prepared to answer your teacher's questions on your production. 

1.     Family: Changes in the last two decades. New type of family in the 21^st century. Having Children in the current social & economic situation. Parental authority. Ideal Parents: Qualities, Rights, Duties & Changing Relationship with Their Children. Leaving the nest vs living with your parents. Divorce in Spain: Social aspects. 

2.     Winners or Losers in life: Personality, Education, Luck. Becoming successful at a young age 

3.     Crowdfunding. Advantages & disadvantages. Other ways to get funds. The role of the Internet to get a job.

4.     Productivity and how to improve it in Spain. Unemployment: Causes & solutions. Youth unemployment. 

5.     Learning English: Type of learner; learning process through the years, English compared to Spanish. Learning Languages. Dealing with problems/difficulties involved in learning.

6.     Important People Who Have Influenced Your Life

7.     Your Other Half. Dating agencies, meeting online, social interaction on the internet. Other ways to meet people in our society. 

8.     Another kind of conflict: Bullying. Causes. Effects. Solutions.: Youngsters: Discipline vs. Freedom; role of the media; responsibility

9.  Spanish Legal System & Crime Rates In Spain. What could your government do to reduce crime? Street crime

10.  Ubiquity of music: Reasons for; right to silence; importance of music in your life.

11.  Big cities. Public transport in big cities; advantages and disadvantages; strengths and weaknesses (Madrid). Travelling by train. Self-driving cars

12.  Self-help books: Reason for their success.

13.  Royalties: Illegal copying/downloading, future of books, films & music. Why. Possible solutions. Intellectual property. Problems faced by artists. Protecting copyright.

14.  Having a good sense of humour. Importance of humour. Pursuit of Happiness, The. What makes us happy. Role of money in happiness.

15.  Shopping habits. Small vs. large shops; evolution of shopping; future of shopping.

16.  Charities, money handled, and their role in society. Aid or Business. Working for a charity and raising funds for charity in the current economic climate. What type of events are the most popular? Is fund-rising widespread in Spain? 

17.  Health & Beauty: Trends. The perfect body. Obsession. Cult of Body, The. Physical appearance. Role of the media. Plastic Surgery: Obsession with looking good.

18.  Mass Media: ICTs (Information & Communication Technologies). The future of the media. No more paper: Consulting information in the digital age.

19.  Social Networking: Friends or Audience? Facebook, Twitter, Tuenti and modern communication. Social relationships: Popularity of networking websites; advantages/disadvantages of online relationships; Meeting people & keeping in touch in the future. Computer Skills: Acquired by teenagers and young people. Internet dependence. Video games (positive and negative features)

20.  Neighbourhood Problems: Drugs, Filth, etc. Street crime. Street Drinking & Anti-social behavior associated with it. Solutions. CCTV: Security vs. privacy; threat of police state; Other forms of surveillance. Concern about security

21.  School Homework. Is it necessary? Importance of free time and creativity. Schools: State vs. private. Home schooling. Bilingual education in Spain. Drop-outs. Current Problems of our education system. Importance of having a university degree. Education & Exams. How to increase motivation. Poor school results. Measures to improve the present system. Free to choose: practical vs. vocational studies 

 22.  Graffitti. Urban art?

23.  Alternative medicine & commonly-held beliefs about health & medicine. Healthcare System & the economic recession in Spain. Maintaining the National Health System. Health in the 21^st century (lifestyles, anxiety disorders…) 

24.  the post-holiday syndrome. Bank holidays. Number of holidays in our country- too many or not enough?

25.  Tourism In Spain and abroad. Ecotourism (vs. Mass Tourism). Being Eco-friendly

27.  Animals and us. Services they provide to humans today. Animal Rights: Should bullfighting be banned? El Toro de la Vega, etc. 

28.  Taxation: Pros & cons of paying higher or lower taxes. How taxes should be spent. Taxing fattening food (a good idea?)

28.  Importance of manners. Generational differences. Worldwide. On The Dot: Punctuality & Arriving Late. Political Correctness: Necessary or not?

29.  Culture Shock: Comparison between different cultures. Shocking aspects.Immigration: Current Situation in Spain. Pros & Cons of Emigrating. Integration of Immigrants. Multiculturalism: Multicultural classrooms. Immigration trends. Future of multicultural societies. Working Abroad due to Spanish recession. Opportunity or Necessity. Living and working abroad. Reasons.

30.  Football celebrities: Overpaid jobs. Money is killing sport. Limiting sportspeople’s earnings. Celebrities & The Right To Privacy.

31. Gender issues. Gender equality: Toys & games; traditional jobs for men/women; reverse discrimination. The situation of women in Spain. 2016 

32. Global warming. Mankind’s effect on nature. Natural Resources. Protecting the environment: Saving energy, Consumerism. Alternative sources of energy.

33.  Reality shows & the reasons for their success. Influence of television on our daily life. Trash TV: Gossip programmes

34. Globalisation and its effect on developing countries.

35. Meritocracy. 

We will mark your presentation following these criteria:

-        Range of vocabulary and grammar

-        Accuracy

-        Organisation (Cohesiveness, signposting, …)

-        Register and appropriateness  (giving enough information, varied and relevant...)

Signposting

Section of presentation	Signpost language
Introducing the topic	The subject/topic of my talk is ... I'm going to talk about ... My topic today is… My talk is concerned with ...
Overview (outline of presentation)	I’m going to divide this talk into four parts. There are a number of points I'd like to make. Basically/ Briefly, I have three things to say. I'd like to begin/start by ... Let's begin/start by saying that/commenting on ..... First of all, I'll... … and then I’ll go on to … Then/ Next ... Finally/ Lastly ...
Finishing a section	That's all I have to say about... We've looked at...
Starting a new section	Moving on now to … Turning to... Let’s turn now to … The next issue/topic/area I’d like to focus on … I’d like to expand/elaborate on … Now we'll move on to... I'd like now to discuss... Let's look now at...
Analysing a point and giving recommendations	Where does that lead us? Let's consider this in more detail. Why is this important?
Giving examples	For example,... A good example of this is... To give you an example,... To illustrate this point...
Summarising and concluding	To sum up ... To summarise... Right, let's sum up, shall we? Let's summarise briefly what we've looked at... If I can just sum up the main points... Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues I've covered... To conclude... In conclusion ... In short ... So, to remind you of what I’ve covered in this talk, … Unfortunately, I seem to have run out of time, so I’ll conclude very briefly by saying that ….. I'd like now to recap...
Paraphrasing and clarifying	Simply put... In other words....... So what I’m saying is.... To put it more simply.... To put it another way....

More interesting vocab and structures to be successful when delivering your monologue

YOU'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT

First... In the first place... To begin with...First of all... I'd like to start by giving my opinion on the impact of tourism on the environment (it's a good idea to rephrase the issue)

To start with... let me express my view on the pros and cons of working as a teacher (use synonyms whenever possible)

Then.... In the second place... Besides, I'll move on to the issue of whether video games are dangerous... (Use an indirect question)

I'd also like to answer / deal with the question of how new technologies have changed our daily life in the past ten years. (Use an indirect question)

EFFECTIVE OPENINGS

In order to grab the attention of the audience you may employ one or two of the following devices:

- Rhetorical questions: 

Can crime really be prevented?

Has the role of teachers changed in the past years?

- Interesting facts:

According to an article I read recently,...

Did you know that...?

I’d like to share an amazing fact / figure with you.

Have you ever heard of...?

- Starting with an anecdote:

Let me tell you what happened to me.

- Problems to think about: (use conditional type 2 or 3)

Suppose / Supposing you wanted to... 

Imagine you had to...

Have you ever wondered what would happen / would have happened if...?

- Quoting a well-known person

As X once said,...

To quote a well-known writer,...

To put it in the words of...

INTRODUCING A POINT 

When delivering a monologue on a particular subject it is important to introduce the key points first.

You may use one of the following phrases:

First of all I'd like to point out...

The main problem is...

The fact is that...

The question of...

Speaking of... 

OR YOU MAY BEGIN BY STATING SOMETHING AS A FACT

As everyone knows...

It is generally accepted that...

There can be no doubt that...

It is a fact that...

Nobody will deny that...

ENUMERATION OF POINTS

If you want to provide several reasons, factors or arguments in a row, you have to organize them in the logical way. In order to structure your answer properly enumerate the main points using one of the suggested phrases:

First of all... In the first place... To begin with...To start with... I'd like to say / to mention that...

Second... Secondly... In the second place... In addition to that... Apart from that... Besides... 

Moreover,...

Furthermore,...

Another example of this is...

Finally,... Lastly... Finally, and perhaps most importantly,...

In conclusion... All in all... All things considered... 

MOVING TO THE NEXT POINT

This leads directly to my next point.

This brings us to the next question.

Let’s now move on / turn to...

After examining this point, let’s turn to...

Let’s now take a look at...

GOING BACK

As I said / mentioned / pointed out earlier,...

Let me come back to what I said before...

Let’s go back to what we were discussing earlier...

As I’ve already explained...

GIVING YOUR OPINION

• I think / feel / believe that...

• As far as I'm concerned....

• As I see it...

• To my mind...

• In my view / opinion...

• From my point of view...

• I tend to think that...

• It seems to me that...

• To my knowledge

• I have the impression that... 

• I reckon...(informal) 

• For my part...

Note: We use from my point of view to express how we see something or how it affects us personally. When we are expressing our beliefs or opinions, we use in my opinion or in my view. E.g. From my point of view, driving is not a good option. I get very tired if I drive more than about two hours. I spent two months working in England. From my point of view, that was the easiest way to learn English. (How the speaker is personally affected by something) In my opinion/In my view, in 100 years’ time people will still be wearing jeans. In my view, everyone should stay in school until they are 18.

GIVING A STRONG OPINION

• I'm absolutely convinced that...

• I'm sure that...

• I strongly believe that...

• I have no doubt that...

• There's no doubt that...

• My own view is that...

• I'm absolutely certain that...

• If you want my honest opinion...

• To tell you the truth / to be honest / frank

EXPRESSING UNCERTAINTY

• I definitely doubt if that...

• I'm uncertain / not sure that...

• As far as I know...

• It is very doubtful whether...

• I don’t know about you, but I ... 

GIVING OPINIONS USING IMPERSONAL LANGUAGE

It is vital that more is done to prevent the illegal trade in wild animals. ◇ (Compare: We have to do more to stop people trading wild animals illegally.)

Journalists play a vital/crucial/essential role in educating the public.

The ability to write well is essential for any journalist.

The Internet has become an indispensable /ˌɪndɪˈspensəbl/ tool for reporters.

In journalism, accuracy is paramount. / ...is of paramount importance.

It is imperative that journalists maintain the highest possible standards of reporting.

This case emphasizes/highlights the importance of honest communication between managers and employees.

It should be noted that / It is important to remember that / An important point to remember is that ...

I would like to draw attention to the role of listening in effective communication.

MAKING AN OPINION SOUND LESS DEFINITE

Most cybercrime involves traditional crimes, such as theft and fraud, being committed in new ways.

Phishing is perhaps/possibly/probably the best-known example of this.

It seems/appears that the more personal data which organizations collect, the more opportunity there is for this data to be lost or stolen.

It seems clear that introducing national ID cards would do little to prevent identity theft.

It could be argued that the introduction of national ID cards might actually make identity theft easier.

It is possible that/It may be that the only way to protect ourselves against DNA identity theft is to avoid the creation of national DNA databases.

GIVING REASONS AND MAKING A POINT

There are several reasons why I think that...

The reason for this is that / why I say that is....

I base my argument on...

I tell you all this because...

What I'm basically saying is...

The point I'm trying to make is that...

Let me put it this way:...

INDICATING THE END OF YOUR MONOLOGUE

Well, this brings me to the end of what I wanted to say about ....

That covers just about everything I wanted to say about...

As a final point I'd like to say / add that...

Finally, I'd like to highlight one final / key issue.

My final comments concern....

I would like to finish by mentioning...

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMING UP

The obvious conclusion is...

Last but not least...

The only possible solution / conclusion is....

In conclusion I can / would like to say that...

To cut a long story short...

All things considered...

Let me summarize by saying...

Briefly said,...

In short,...

To recap what I've said so far...

To sum up,...