Part 2 of the MUET speaking test is the group discussion. To start your discussion in Part 2, you would need to remember these two things.
The first is for you to get everyone – that is all the other candidates to get ready to start. And the next is for you to choose one point, to start talking and get marks for yourself.
As you know there are going to be two tasks in the MUET speaking paper. You will start with part 1 which is the individual presentation. After that will come part 2 where there will be a group discussion among the four candidates.
This discussion will be based on one topic with 5 prompts given. These 5 prompts are suggestions on what you can talk about during the discussion in part 2.
These prompts are there to help you in such a way that they would:
- give you instant ideas on what to talk about
- allow you to speak with ease
- let you have a continuous flow of ideas
Let’s now look at how to start your discussion in MUET speaking part 2.
1. Call to action
So, after the 3 minutes preparation time for Part 2 is up, the examiners are going to say “All right candidates you can start your discussion now you have 8 to 12 minutes to discuss the topic”.
And so, the first thing for you to do is to call everyone to action.
Calling everyone to action means to get everybody ready to start the discussion. You are calling them to get their attention. This is to signal that the discussion is starting.
Unfortunately, this is where sometimes the problem starts.
Sometimes certain candidates do not want to start first because they are not sure of who should be the one to start the discussion. Also, they are not sure of how to start.
Well as a teacher my advice is this – YOU should start first.
It doesn’t matter if you are candidates A, B, C or D. If you are the first one to start the discussion, it will show the examiners that:
- one – you are a good candidate
- two – you have confidence
- three – you have initiative to get the discussion going
Therefore, you should start first.
You can call the other candidates to action by using phrases.
Phrases to use to start the discussion
Try out these phrases. Read them aloud. Memorise one or two of these and use them during your MUET speaking part 2. Which ones of these would you use in your discussion? Write the phrases in the comments section below as I would like to know which you would likely use.
To get a clearer idea of how to start the discussion in part 2, let’s first of all look at one sample question for Part 2.
Sample question for MUET speaking part 2
For Part 2 you are going to be getting the situation with one mind map with 5 prompts. And this is where all four candidates will be discussing the topic given.
The instructions
Let’s now go through the instructions for Part 2 of the speaking paper.
The instructions clearly state that you:
- will get 3 minutes to prepare for the discussion
- can supports which is to agree with the other candidates
- can appose which is to disagree to the other candidates’ points
- use any of the five suggestions given
- come up with your own point and lastly
- decide on the best suggestions (as the conclusion)
Now let’s go through the situation and the mind map.
The mind map
The situation here states that sometimes students need some help with their studies.
And the task here in part 2 is for you to discuss the suggestions of people who can help students in their studies.
The suggestions of people who can help students in their studies are:
- A good student
- a teacher
- a sibling (a brother or sister)
- a counsellor
- a parent
We shall look further and understand the question more in the later part of this blog.
Let’s look at what to do next after the call to action.
2. Mention the task and choose one point
After calling everyone to action the next thing that you need to do is for you to mention the task and to choose one point from the 5 points given.
First of all, you need to mention the task given for Part 2 which is written in the middle of the mind map. You need to mention the task clearly to remind everyone that the main discussion will be based on this topic.
Next, what you need to do is to link this task to one point that you have chosen from the 5 given.
Some students are not very sure of which one of the five prompts to use in the discussion. My advice is for you to choose the one that you find the easiest. This is the point that you will have a lot more ideas to talk about.
How to link the task with one point
To make this clearer, let’s refer back to the question in Part 2. So, this in the middle here is the task given. You need to be talking about people who can help students in their studies. And you have chosen one person from the five suggestions given.
Say for example that you have chosen a teacher. And what you do now is for you to mention the task with the one suggestion that you have chosen.
These are the sentences that you can use to mention the task with the point that you have chosen.
Sample of sentences to use
Let’s look at these two sentences again. So, in this first sentence here I have rephrased the task by adding this phrase – “There are..”.
And then I stated the point that I have chosen, I have added this phrase “For me I believe that”.
After that, I mentioned my point by pointing out that a teacher should be the one to help students in their studies.
You need to link the task to the point that you want to talk about and you are going to say it clearly and confidently. This will give you a very good start to the discussion that follows.
Elaborate the point you have chosen
Of course, you are not going to stop there. After mentioning the task and choosing one point, you are then going to elaborate your point. Elaborate means you are going to develop this idea by adding more information about it.
Let’s now look at how you can elaborate a point.
The first thing you need to do after mentioning the point, is for you to explain the point. Here you would need to maybe explain who a teacher is.
Next, give added information about the point. You can do this by showing HOW the point that you have chosen, which in this case is the teacher can affect the task given which is helping the students in their studies.
You can for instance show how the teacher would have the capacity to help the students to do well in their studies. You can mention that the teacher is fully trained to teach certain subjects and will be the best person to impart knowledge to the student.
Also, to make your point even clearer is for you to add an example to this idea. This example could be taken from what you can observe around you and also from your personal experience.
You can also mention that some teachers are also examiners and so they would teach the students the correct way of answering questions based on the examinations criteria. And because of this, it will help the students in their studies and do well in their exams.
Reminder when starting Part 2
Apart from this I would also like to add that there should not be any more greetings in Part 2. This means that you do not need to say good morning to everyone again, because you’ve already done this earlier in part 1.
So do not greet everyone again in part 2.
And the second thing is – at the start of Part 2, it is best that you sound like you are going to start a conversation between friends. This is going to give the idea that there will be sharing of ideas and opinions and also responding to them.
So again, in order to start your discussion in part 2 is for you to call everyone to action. And secondly is for you to mention the situation and choose one point from the 5 suggestions given.
Start talking to gain higher marks for your speaking test. Do add in more explanation to your choice and give an example that will connect your point with the task given.
Good luck in your speaking test!
Be sure to check my other blogs on speaking that will help you prepare for your MUET speaking paper.
