I have got a very simple yet powerful OET speaking practice that you can do on a day to day basis. If you’ve got your examination coming up and you’re not getting a lot of practice right now for speaking. Then this is a good method that you can use. When you’re practicing your role plays, you have to do two role plays as part of the OET speaking examination. And before that you do a quick warm-up with the interlocutor. They will first ask you a few questions just about your professional background etc.
But, the tool that I really want to go into today is what we use for our classes and it’s called www.zoom.us. This tool is much better than Skype, where it basically allows you to download a free application. You can download the software ideally to your laptop or PC but you can also download it to your phone as well.
What you need to do is you need to get a speaking partner, maybe your friend or a colleague. Your colleague will play the role of the interlocutor or patient. And you will play the role of the nurse or the doctor whichever one you are and you will connect on zoom. Then you can go through the role play scenarios. There are lots of role play examples and materials on the OET official websites. We also have them available for our Swoosh paid students here: www.swooshenglish.com/oet-mock-exams. You can go there and get some example role plays.
Essentially, on Zoom, you’re able to record the session as well as doing it live. So, you’re able to record the role play that’s going on between you and your friend. If it’s not your friend, the best scenario would be if you could sign up for an OET speaking mock exam service. We do them here at Swoosh English but you can also find other schools online. But if you cannot get that, then have one of your friends play the role of the patient. You’ll then be able to record yourself on Zoom with your friend.
Once the role play has completed, you then have an mp4 video that is generated. You will then be able to find someone who’s already passed this examination or who has a higher level of English than you. Or even someone who’s in a similar position to practice with. Maybe, they can identify mistakes or spot things that you didn’t know about your English before. Maybe they’re good at grammar and that’s a weak area for you. They can identify mistakes that you’re making because you’re able to watch it back.
Even though nobody likes to look at themselves on camera, I would highly recommend you to get used to watching yourself on video. Reviewing your videos will help you identify some things that you know you didn’t do correctly. You’re being tested on various criteria like fluency, overall communicative effectiveness, grammar intelligibility, appropriateness and so forth.
As you do the role plays, I would absolutely ask you to share the love with your partner. When I say ‘share the love,’ I’m talking about helping them as well. So you can also play the role of the patient and they can play the role of the nurse or the doctor. That is a big, big tip if you put that into practice and do it consistently and you’ll achieve success in your OET exam.
Ideally, the best-case scenario is you could get a native English speaking OET teacher. Or someone from the UK, Australia, or America to practice with and give you feedback and corrections. Someone that will give you crystal clear feedback and will give you an estimated score or will tell you what you need to improve on. You can look at our packages to help you with this at www.swooshenglish.com
We’re not affiliated at all with Zoom but we really love what they do and we use them for our live classes with our current students. It’s a free app and you can download it on your side and your friend will download it on their side. Then you’ll be able to connect with each other and have that invaluable speaking practice.
Hopefully, this was helpful for you today and if you have any questions, make sure you put them in the message box below!
If you’re planning to take the OET exam, we’ve got live group classes, speaking mock exam classes, video courses and writing corrections as part of our OET packages. You can click here to learn more: Swoosh English OET Courses
I would love to help you pass!
Your OET teacher,
Alex
Do you prefer a video of Alex explaining these OET speaking tips above? Click on the video below to watch!
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