ENGLISH SPEAKING TEST

Name of student: La Thanh Lam

Class: 11 English Major

INTRODUCE YOURSELF
(1-2 minutes)

It’s my pleasure to meet you today teacher. So let me introduce myself now.
My full name is La Thanh Lam, people often call me Tlam for short. I was born in
Phu My District, Binh Dinh, and at present I am an English Major student Gen 5 at
Chu Van An high school for the Gifted. It’s about 24km from my house to my
school;therefore, I have to live at the domitary because it’s difficult for me to travel to
school everyday. At school I have a lot of friends, they are all friendly and helpful.
Everyone says that I am a very active and energetic person. My favourite subjects are
English and Literarure. I am a big fan of basketball so that I have participated in Chu
Van An Basketball Club since October, 2021. And now I am Head of Finance and
External Department of this. I play basketball every afternoon with my intensive
passion. Moreover, I am considered as the best girl baller of my club by other
members and friends from other basketball club in Hoai Nhon. In the future, I hope
that I will become a professional baller to join many basketball league in Binh Dinh or
even in Vietnam.

TEST 1: TALK ABOUT PARENT – CHILD RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS

In family life, it is inevitable that arguments among members, especially

conflicts between parents and children, cannot be avoided. There are even some cases
of serious conflicts that can lead to serious and unfortunate consequences such as
children running away from home, stealing money from parents, acts of violence.
Problems between children and their parents are something like missing curfew, time
of using cellphone, having boyfriend or girlfriend, and so on. When kids make
mistake, their parents get worried. A worried parent becomes a scolding parent. Then,
children may be able to get an earful and a stiff punishment. So what are the reasons
for those conflicts? From my perspective, there are a big generation gap between
parents and children, so their thinking is different from each other. Parents always
follow the traditional norms and set them as a crucial thing for their children to learn.
In contrast, teenagers are born in modern age, so they acquire the modern knowledge
to pursue the new lifestyle. Due to that, conflicts between these two generations are
always a big issue. However, there are still some ways to solve that. Parents should
talk to their children to understand their problems and help them to overcome.
Violence is not a good way to solve something. Beside that, it is important for you to
reckon with yourself first and be able to realize what is the real reason behind you or
your child’s temper. Parents often consider their kids as small child. No matter how
old their teenage children are, most parents still treat them like small kids. As they try
to help their children to discover the surrounding world, parents strongly believe they
know what is best for their children.

 Do your parents let you make your own decisions on something?

Not entirely so. Because of my young age, I am not able to think mature like my
parents. Therefore, they often give me advice when I have to decide something. Or if
it is an important issue, they will ask me about it and make decision for me. They
claim that they shouldn’t impose me on anything, my opinion is always a crucial thing
for them to consider first.
 What do teenage children expect to have from their parents?
Parents are the best role model in children’s life because they have raised their family
and stuck with it in thick and thin since the day children started to understand the
world around them. Well, I think their personalities is the best thing for children to
have. They are really funny and charismatic. They always cheer their children up
when they're down. They are also willing to listen and to help if needed. What’s more,
parents are always friendly and caring. They are respectful of children’s personal life
and space.

TEST 2: TALK ABOUT TEENAGE RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS

To be honest, I reached the age of puberty, so that there are a lot of relationship
issues between me and my friends at school. One of the most remarkable problems of
teenage relationships is peer pressure. Having studied at one in two High schools for
the Gifted of Binh Dinh is a big challenge for me. There are all excellent students
surrounding me here, they study very hard and very well. That sometimes makes me
think that I am not good enough to study in the same environment with them and I feel
very stressed. At those situations, I have no idea how to deal with them or even
expressing my feelings. In some case I just want to isolate myself from others and this
lead to many behavioural issues. However, I am very proud of me as I can overcome
them. My parents always support me when I discuss my feelings with them, so that I
can understand well on how to recover from such issues. Moreover, I realize that my
duty at present is studying as this is the time to decide about higher education and
career and not wasting time on unreal affections. Besides, I never consider such
feeling and issues as a serious thing, I control it not to affect my academic and
personal life.

 Do you have any problems with schoolwork or relationships at school?

As students, especially with the pressure of learning, I always want to get good marks,
but sometimes I get the scores that are not as good as expected and that makes me feel
so sad. Therefore, I am very disappointed with my scores. When there are some
exams, I am very worried before and after those, I am afraid of my bad marks can lead
to sadness of my family, my teachers.
  Whenever you have problems, who do you talk to?
Nowadays, teenagers face up with many problems in their life such as pressures from
school and family, problems with classmates at school, unsafe living environment, or
negative feelings about themselves. Just like others, I also have many troubles. When I
have these problems, I often talk with my parents. They are older than me, so they
have more experience. Moreover, my parents are the people who understand and love
me the most. Both of them always sympathize with me and supports me. I think they
have many good ways to help me solve these problems. I believe in them.

TEST 3: TALK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SKILLS NEEDED

FOR BEING INDEPENDENT
Modern life focuses us to be more independent than in the past because you
must take care of yourself and not rely on anyone else. However, this ability does not
develop naturally or innately, which means you need a number of life skills to stop
relying on your family. First and foremost, time-management is probably the most
important one. With good time-management skills, you will become a responsible and
wise person. You can use your time more wisely and not waste your time. Problem
solving is another crucial skill to become an independent guy. You can gain
confidence in your ability to make good decisions and don’t avoid any issues. The last
skill that makes you become independent is coping with loneliness. Lacking these
skills may make you feel depressed and you may make the wrong decisions on your
life. To be honest, I am a quite independent person. I live in the domitary so that I will
do everything by myself such as washing clothes, washing the dishes, cleaning the
room, and so one, which at home my mother do all for me. Moreover, I am self-
conscious about my study at school and self-study, there are no one remind me to
study here. These things can be some good preparement for my university life and my
future. What’s more, having good life skills is very important in my life. Life skills
can include the ability to manage my emotions, my health, my relationships, etc – and
my ability to master these things has a direct impact on how I feel about myself, my
emotional balance, my physical health and my independence. Having a handle on
some basic life skills can also protect me from dealing with a lot of problems in my
life.

 What kind of person do your parents want you to grow up to be?

My parents often say that they just want me to become an independent person. They
want me to do everything with strong desire and determination to get success. I am
very respectful for that. None else understands me better than myself. It's me who
knows what I want, and what I can do or need to do to get it. Success never comes
easily and naturally. It requires our effort and even sacrifice. Try your best and your
dream will come true. Therefore, I will depend on myself and live a good life as my
parents said.
 What will you do to make sure it will come true one day?
Everything can be improved over time. I tell myself that I will follow my lifestyle and
make it come true. To do so, I will find out what constructs an independent person,
then reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses for this. I'll list them down,
reinforce my strengths and overcome my weaknesses step by step.

TEST 4: TALK ABOUT THE VOLUNTARY WORK

Voluntary work is a volunteering act of an individual or group freely giving
time and labor for community service. Travelling around the world, you can see that a
lot of people need support now. For instance, there are a large number of people who
are homeless and they need a home to live, children don’t have mother or father, even
all their relatives, so that they don’ have chance to go to school, the elder people don’t
have children to take care of them, and so on. The question is that what we can do to
support people with disabilities? From my perspective, we can connect sponsors and
philanthropists with people with mobility impairments but very talented for their
success in later life. We also give those people hope by hosting a number of events
where they can integrate into the community and gain confidence in showing their
talents. Morever, we can donate to charity, get everyone to donate books, pens,
briefcases and other school supplies. After doing volunteer, we will have a lot of
advantages. You will gain more confident in volunteering and in the future you can do
more things than that. Doing a good activities will help you feel happier as you have
just help other people be happy. Whatever how rich you are, when you do a voluntary
work successfully, that means you have already supported other people who are more
impoverished than you to become better. Although not being lucky enough to have a
normal life, many disabled people are able to be very success in their life because they
are very positive with their life and work very hard to show others that although they
are physically disabled, they still able to make great things in this world.

 Have you ever volunteered or done the voluntary work?

 If yes, what did you do? What do you benefit from these activities? If no, what
is your plan to help people in your community?
Yes, I was a volunteer for a group named Lovely Spring in our organization. The
group organizes lot of activities for the underprivileged children and I was part of their
three day workshop. During that period, lot of kids from the adoption homes and other
sections of society came and it was great to listen to them, their stories, their
experiences and so much more. After that, I can increase my social and relationship
skills. I have made a lot of friends during these activities and in some way I feel I am
more connected with the society. Even more, it help me counteract the effects of
stress, anger and anxiety.

TEST 5: TALK ABOUT ASEAN MEMBER STATES

Being a citizen of Vietnam, which is a member of ASEAN, I am very proud of
this. ASEAN stands for the Association of Southest Asian Nations, which was formed
on August 8th 1967, in Bangkok, Thailand by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand. At present, ASEAN has 10 member states. It was founded
with aims to promote economic growth, social progress and cultural development. At
the same time, it focuses on protecting regional peace and stability, and providing
opportunities for its member states to discuss differences peacefully. The bloc's motto
is: ‘One Vision, One Identity, One Community’. In 2020, ASEAN envisioned this
region to be in full reality, a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality. ASEAN
established a peaceful and stable Southeast Asia where each nation is at peace with
itself and where the causes for conflict have been eliminated, through abiding respect
for justice and the rule of law and through the strengthening of national and regional
resilience. The ASEAN Flag represents a stable, peaceful, united and dynamic
ASEAN. The flag consists of four colours: blue, red, white and yellow, which
represent the main colours of the flags of all the ASEAN Member States. Each colour
has its own meaning, the blue represents peace and stability, red depicts courage and
dynamism, white shows purity and yellow symbolises prosperity.

 Do you know how many people speak English in Southest Asia?

Of course yes. As I know, there are quite a lot. The ASEAN region has the third
largest number of English speakers, after the US and UK, around fifty million people,
mostly in the Philippines.
 Why do more and more young people in Vietnam learn English?
Young people in Vietnam are increasingly intending to learn English due to many
reasons. Nowadays, English is the most widely used language and the official
language in a lot of fields, that most countries including Vietnam, regard it as the
second language of their country. Beside that, English opens many opportunities for
youngsters, English helps you to be more attractive in the eyes of employers.