When starting part 1 of the MUET speaking paper, you need to remember these two things. One is that it should be short. And two is that you will need to sound confident.
The starting of your presentation for part one should take a maximum of two to three sentences only. It should not be more than that.
This is because the huge part of your presentation for Part 1 should be on your:
- content points
- your explanation and
- your elaboration for your content points
As a teacher I want to put this point out earlier on – you need to sound confident when speaking. I have a blog that focuses on how to gain instant confidence for speaking. So do read the blog after this one.
Like I said, when speaking you will need to sound confident and natural. Being confident means that you sound like you truly believe in what you are saying.
And natural means you seem at ease when talking. It’s like speaking in English is easy for you and you do not have to stress about it.
This is how to start MUET Speaking Part 1. For the start of the individual presentation in part one you need to do these two things.
1. Greeting
The first thing you need to do is for you to do your greetings. Greetings involve you saying hello or good morning to another person like you normally do when you see them.
During your MUET speaking test, there will be 2 examiners in the examination room. There will also be the other candidates in the room. So, you can greet them this way.
You can wish them using these phrases here. I need to stress here that because there are more than one examiner and more than one candidate in the room, you would need to use the plural forms of examiners and candidates.
This may not seem that important but because MUET is a language test you need to be accurate with your plural forms. So don’t drop your s’s in examiners and candidates.
Another option of greeting is for you to simply say “Good morning, everyone”. As a teacher I would prefer for you to use this. “Good morning everyone” is short and correct.
Let’s now move on to the second thing that you need to do when starting your individual presentation in part 1 which is this here.
2. Rephrase the situation and the task
After the greeting you will need to introduce your situation and your task. This will be your introduction.
This introduction will involve rephrasing your situation and your task. Rephrasing means you can use most of the words found in the sentence but add in some changes to the sentence to make it your own.
To understand how to start your presentation better let’s now look at the sample question for MUET speaking part 1.
Part 1 is the individual presentation. This is where you are given two minutes for you to present your individual opinion about the issue or the task given.
MUET speaking part 1 sample question
Right at the top of the page states Candidate A. Different candidates will get a different task with candidates B, C and D written at the top of the page.
As you read the instructions you can see that for this task you are given 2 minutes for you to prepare for the individual presentation. Then, you will get the next 2 minutes after that for you to present on your own.
Once you get your question paper, the first thing you will need to do is for you to read the question carefully. Read and understand what the question wants.
And in order for you to understand the question, you will need to identify the key phrases for the situation and the task.
The key phrase for the situation is here. It is – ways of becoming a good friend.
And we know now that the task for you as candidate A is for you to talk about being a good listener.
A good listener is a person who is ready to listen to another person and give support when the other person is facing some sort of difficulty.
So, your task in part 1 as candidate A is for you to talk about your opinion of why you believe that being a good listener is one way of becoming a good friend.
We now know the question and the task for part 1. But how do we start part 1?
How to Introduce your task
You can introduce your task by first mentioning the situation and the task in one sentence or two separate sentences.
You know now that when introducing your situation and task you would need to rephrase the words used in the question.
And you also know that in order to rephrase you can use most of the words found in the sentence but to add in some words of your own.
One way for you to rephrase your sentences is for you to add in phrases such as:
- I believe that
- it is in my belief that
- in my opinion
- in my opinion I believe that
Adding these phrases also shows that you have confidence in your opinion. It is good for you to show that you have confidence when presenting your individual presentation in part 1.
This is due to the fact that students who are in the higher band in MUET would normally show a lot of confidence when speaking. You therefore want to be in this group of students and the first step for you to take is by showing your confidence.
Here are examples of sentences for your introduction.
Rephrasing the situation and task in 2 sentences
- There are many ways of becoming a good friend. In my opinion, one way of becoming a good friend is to be a good listener
- There are several ways of becoming a good friend. For me, one such way is to become a good listener.
- It is nice to have a good friend. I believe that one way we can be a good friend is to be a good listener.
Rephrasing the situation and task in 1 sentence
- There are many ways of becoming a good friend and one such way is to be a good listener.
- It is nice to have a good friend and in my opinion being a good listener is one way of becoming a good friend.
- There are several ways to be a good friend and I truly believe that being a good listener is one way to be a good friend.
Additionally, I would also like to show you the dos and don’ts of your introduction.
The dos and don’ts in your introduction for speaking part 1
I would like to point out what you should not do when introducing your situation and your task.
The first thing that you should not do is for you to simply read the whole situation and the task word by word. This will make your introduction sound very odd.So don’t do this.
Also, you shouldn’t say phrases like this – “The question that I have been given today is…” and then you read the question. So, don’t do this because this sounds forced and very far away from sounding natural.
So let us remind ourselves again of the situation and the task that you need to do in this question together with the greeting.
So, by now you should know very well how to start part 1 of the speaking paper.
And after this you can straight away start talking about your content points that support your task.
So let me just remind you again that to start part 1, you need to have the greetings and the introduction. It needs to be short with a maximum of three sentences only.
Why don’t you write in the comment section of your version of your greetings and introduction. I am really interested to know what you would say.
Remember to read my other blogs on speaking to prepare you for the speaking test. Good luck!
