Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mindmaker]

So my teacher from the optional course "Advanced English" (not exactly what it was called, but the real name sounds stupid) asked me to take part in the national english competition.

What the preselection looks like:

Round 1: Cartoon - talk about the issue adressed in the catoon for 1-2 minutes

Round 2: Discussion (in pairs) - a controversial topic is presented and discussed in pairs (short written or visual impulse) for 7-8 minutes. Best 8 advance.

Round 3: Video or audio-tape from CNN, BBC or FM4. Reproduce the content and give your opinion.
7-8 minutes each. Best 4 advance.

Final Round: Roleplay in pairs in a business-related situation (10 minutes per pair)

Topics:

• Tourism - economic and social impact, problems, solutions
• Job World - canges (influence of technology, new working patterns), qualifications and skills, unemployment
• Global World - working, studying and living aboard, intercultural learning, the global economy
• The world of teenagers - peer pressure, alcohol, drugs, smoking, media, fashion, music, relationship, trends
• Education - trends, problems and solutions
• Computers and Automation
• Current political issues (migration, social issues, polotical, cultural and religious problems
• Advertising
• Business

Any advice how I could prepare myself for it?

[Heliman]

Read a thesaurus. Look up synonyms for words you'll defiantly have to use in this project.

Find good synonyms for one overall topic "Stylistic device", "Cartoon," Metaphor," "Company" etc.

[Idiom]

I'm terrible with language, but if you're in an optional "advanced" course and the teacher sends you to a national competition, then you're probably qualified enough to be just fine.

My only advice would be to put some serious research into the topics beforehand.

[Mr Tk]

Pick a topic and just talk about it for as long as you can as a practice. If possible record yourself, try and record the amount of umms and errs you make during the practice, and then try again except try to cut down on them.

Same with the comic. Go to somewhere like Penny Arcade or XKCD and click random, and then try to talk about the comic for two minutes. Try not to talk about the art styles, unless it's really relevant to the content of the comic. For example if you did an XKCD, do not mention, at all, that the characters are stickmen. The judges have eyes, they can see that.


Other than that make sure you have a general understanding of all the topics you know that could come up.

[Mindmaker]

Thank you for the advice that far.

Problem is that the english class, with our main english teacher(there's a different one at the optional course), consist mostly of means to keep us occupied.
Despite our school praising itself to put heavy emphasis on english, as it should become our business language, we have many students with lacking linguistic skills, so he's trying to keep is easy, which goes on the expense of the better students.

Well most of the time I can make up for it myself, as I basically read books in eglish, watch movies/series/animes in english, play games in english and when browsing on forums and the net I limit myself to english sites.
As a effect of this, my vocabulary and my written english surpass my speaking ability, which I only get to train during the 2 lessons of the optional course.
I believe its quite good, but it still could be a lot better, if I'd get regular practice.

Still over the last few years students of my schools scored well at these competitions, so I probably shouldn't panic.

Unfortunately I have an issue with speaking in public, as many presentations in my school have already shown, but if I borrow a sedative pill from my mother I should do fine.
I tried it on several occasions before and it makes me as silver-tongued as I could never become without it.

[de5me7]

which colony are you from? seek a copy of the Times Newspaper and read it. Also consider eating a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary.

on a more serious note, from your description of the exersize it sounds more like an examination of your general knowledge of the world and issues around you. Just read lots of news/opinions from well spoken/written sources and steel their ideas/language.

[chaoticag]

Addendum to the "umm, err" rule:
Never ever ever use slang that is not English.

A suprising amount of people here take the TOEFL, and say stuff like "yakhi" into the microphone. It just serves to confuse people.

Another thing: Public speaking is more about body language than about speach content. Your feet are cement, but your arms may make motions. Appearing confident is much easier that way.

Lastly, practise practise practise. My dad routinely has to give presentations in English, despite being mediocre in it, but practise helps him out a lot. It gives confidence and will in turn make you a better speaker. Don't do it alone either, get friends and relatives to listen in and provide feedback.

[Heliman]

I hear tongue twisters can help get rid of accents, you could try that.

[Heron TSG]

Here are some examples of great similes based on wordplay and such.

http://www.evilpasta.com/14dx.shtml

[Mindmaker]

Just read lots of news/opinions from well spoken/written sources and steel their ideas/language.

Probably a good start.
When I feel comfortable with the topic, I can start applying my own touch.

Another thing: Public speaking is more about body language than about speach content. Your feet are cement, but your arms may make motions. Appearing confident is much easier that way.

With the earlier mentioned pills, this works out quite well.
So probably no need to worry about it.

Lastly, practise practise practise. My dad routinely has to give presentations in English, despite being mediocre in it, but practise helps him out a lot. It gives confidence and will in turn make you a better speaker. Don't do it alone either, get friends and relatives to listen in and provide feedback.

I wish my parents would understand a word of english :/
Friends are probably also no option, since most of them live far away from me.
I guess I have to abuse the good ol' mirror for that...

I hear tongue twisters can help get rid of accents, you could try that.

Well I think accent isn't that much of a problem, as the English language comes to me quite naturally.
Only issue is that my vacabulary surpasses my speaking skills, which results in me choosing more difficult words, which may result in a interruption of my otherwise fluent speech.
But I think some speaking practice and a more careful selection of words might fix this.

Here are some examples of great similes based on wordplay and such.

http://www.evilpasta.com/14dx.shtml

Interesting read.
Lets see if I can use some of those for myself 
(but probably not for the compoetition though)

Thank you all for your advice so far.
I start reading up on these topics tomorrow.
Still have more than a month to prepare myself for it.

[Iban]

Here are some examples of great similes based on wordplay and such.

http://www.evilpasta.com/14dx.shtml

Those are terrible

[eerr]

They are valid, well-constructed English sentances.

Never ever say those sentances out loud to anybody.

[Mindmaker]

Update on the situation:

So I managed to get the first place in the competition between all the technical schools and was awarded with a 300€ Traveling coupon.
Pretty neat, since I planned to to go on a real holiday, once I'm done with school (probably to England or the USA, still have to decide).

Well It wasn't enough to go on the national competition, since everybody going there seems to have spend several months among native speakers, so that's a different league.

Once more I'd like to thank everybody for their advice and support, it really helped me.

[Heron TSG]

Congratulations!

[Euld]

Congrats!