SPEAKING HANDOUTS FOR TAB1

VSTEP SPEAKING
Part 1
The VSTEP Speaking lasts 12 minutes and consists of three parts:
 Part 1: Social Interaction (3’)
 Part 2: Solution Discussion (4’)
 Part 3: Topic Development (5’)
You are valuated on fluency and coherence, range of vocabulary, grammatical range
and accuracy and pronunciation. Now, let’s study Part 1 and Part 2 of the test.
I. Speaking part 1:Social Interaction (3’)
1. General description
Part 1 lasts three minutes. The questions in Part 1 are about you and your personal
experince and opinions, including topics such as your city or town, work or study, your
family, your free time, your reasons for learning English etc. There are two topics in Part
1 and three questions for each topics. Following is an example of Part 1.
Part 1: Social Interaction (3’)
Let’s talk about your free time activities.
- What do you often do in your free time?
- Do you watch TV? Why (not)?
- Do you like spending your free time alone or with other people?

Let’s talk about your neighbourhood.

- Can you tell me something about your neighborhood?
- What do you like most about it?
- Do you plan to live there for a long time? Why (not)?

2. Exam skills
In Part 1, to demonstrate your English ability to the examiner, it is important to give full
responses. Instead of giving short, one - or two - word answers, try to extend your
responses by providing two or three additional pieces of information. Look at the
example below to see how to extend the answer to a single question.
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One way to extend your answers is to try asking yourself follow - up questionswith
What, When, How, Why…. This will help you think of additional information you can use
in your response. For example, you can think of three follow-up questions for the
question “Do you plan to study abroad?” as in the chart.

Practice 1
Look at the questions and answers from some candidates. You read the answers
and write down the follow-up questions that the candidates ask themselves.
1. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
Yes, I have one sister. She's older than me. We have quite a good relationship now, but
when I was younger it was different - not so good. We had to share a room and
sometimes we argued about clothes and CDs - things like that. I guess that it’s normal
to fight a little with your sister.
Suggested answer: How do you get on with your sister? What is your relationship like?
Are you close?
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2. Where do you live?

Now I'm living in London, but before that I was studying in Ireland for 2 years. Actually, it
was great. I was living in the countryside and it was very peaceful. Not like London - it's
so busy and noisy! I guess I'll get used to London eventually - it just takes time to adjust,
doesn't it?
3. What do you do in your free time?
I enjoy playing most sports – especially team sports. Actually, I'm interested in learning
the rules of cricket. It seems difficult to understand but I’d like to try it. I played baseball
in Japan and I think it’s similar. Also, I like playing soccer too, errr, you say football,
don't you ?
4. Do you enjoy studying English?
It depends. I enjoy speaking with my friends, but reading and writing I find difficult. Also,
I have problems with vocabulary - I don't have enough. I’ve only been learning for one
year, so I think I will continue to improve. I hope so.
5. What’s your job?
Actually, I quit it last month. I was working as a nurse for a very long time, but now I
want to study further because in the future I’d like to become a dentist. I’m not sure why
I want to do this . Most people think I’m crazy, but teeth have always been very
interesting to me.
6. Do you plan to study abroad?
Yeah, I want to go to Sydney in Australia. I want to study business there so I can run my
father’s business.But, actually, I'm more interested in Australia because the sun and the
surfing is good and it’s one of my hobbies . I will study hard too . I must work hard to get
a degree in business - and then go to the beach.
EXPRESS TIPS
In Part 1, you should use words or expressions like actually, well, I’m afraid will make
you sound more natural when you speak.
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Practice 2
Look at the conversations 1-6 between speaker A and speaker B below. What
question do you think speaker A has asked? Fill in the blanks with questions 1-6
in Practice 1. Then, read the speaker B’s responses, and fill in the blanks with the
following given expressions.

It depends I guess I’m afraid Well Actually In fact

Practice 3
Read the conversations in Practice 2 again. Write words or expressions a-f in the
table below. Then match one with its function.
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III. Practice tests

Speaking part 1: Social Interaction (3’)

Let’s talk about holidays.

What did you do on your last holiday?

Who do you prefer spending your holiday with?
Do you prefer going on holiday abroad?

Let’s talk about TV programs.

How many hours a day do you watch television?

Which programs do you like?
Do you prefer watching television alone or with other people? Why?
SPEAKING HANDOUTS FOR TAB1