Part 1 of the MUET speaking paper requires you to present your ideas on a given topic. It is going to be a two-minute individual presentation. This therefore means that you only have a very short time to get your ideas across clearly and share them in a very convincing way. To do this you would need to structure your answer properly. Start by reading and understanding the question. After that consider answering these WH questions namely what, why and how regarding the topic. This will provide an overall perspective of the task set for you.
Within the two-minute presentation time you would want to focus on providing a response that fulfils the task. The suggestions and response that you give should have the information needed to merit you very high marks for content.
And because there is only two minutes for you to provide your ideas with explanations regarding the ideas, your presentation should be done in a very concise way. The sentences that you use would be aiming to provide clarity to what you are saying.
How to approach the question?
The first thing that you need to do is to read the question carefully. Then identify the topic and the task that you need to complete. It is very important that you understand the question and what you need to do. Only then would you be able to answer the question correctly.
Most of the time, it is very safe to approach the question by answering the WH-questions. So for each question that you get for the MUET speaking paper, try to provide your answer based on these WH-questions.
WH-questions to help structure your answer
Base your response on these questions:
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- When?
- Why?
- How?
So to structure your answer for part 1 in the speaking paper, focus your presentation on answering this WH-questions. For sure you will not be able to complete all six WH-questions. So choose the few that you think are relevant to the topic that you are talking about. It is all up to you how you would like to present your ideas so long as they are answering the question. And most of all you are fulfilling the task.
Nevertheless, there are a few of these WH-questions that I believe are always very relevant and correct for you to use in your presentation. These are what I would suggest to students to use during the individual presentation. Let’s take a look at how you could approach the individual presentation using these selected WH-questions.
MUET speaking structure
Part one: Introduction
Part two: (What?) Present your idea for solving the problem – which is the task that you get
Part three: (Why?) Give reasons for your idea
Part four: (How?) Explain the way it gets done
Part five: Conclusion
So these three WH-questions that you see could be used time and time again for most tasks (but not all). They are the – what, why and how regarding the idea you are suggesting.
Let’s look at the structure of your response for part 1 of the MUET speaking paper a little bit closer. To do this let’s look at a sample of the question for the MUET speaking paper for part 1.
MUET speaking individual presentation sample question
Let’s provide a response for this question, based on the structure that we are going to talk about here.
Part one: Introduction
You will first of all get two minutes to prepare for part 1. Once you are ready to present, start with a short introduction. Your introduction should be made up of only two sentences.
The first sentence: greetings
The first sentence of your introduction would be your greetings. Greet the Examiners and the other candidates. You can say something like this “Good morning to the examiners and fellow candidates.”
Second sentence: introduce the topic and your task
The second sentence in your introduction, you would need to introduce the situation and your task. Say something like this-
“Today, I would like to talk about how rearranging the furniture can improve our homes.”
It is important for you to state the topic and your task because the other candidates would not know the question that you got. So mention the topic and your task. Make your introduction sound natural like when you are talking to friends.
Part two: Present your idea for solving the problem – your task
Next is for you to talk about the idea for solving the problem. This is the task that you get as candidate A, B, C or D. Your task is in the red box in the sample question).
So now you are going to give more information about your suggestion for rearranging the furniture to improve your homes. Here you will be presenting your ideas on what is involved in rearranging the furniture. This would include what you need to do and what will happen in the process of moving the furniture.
Part three: give reasons for your idea
Here you will need to state the reasons why you are suggesting your idea for rearranging the furniture to improve our homes. There would surely be some positive reasons for rearranging the furniture in your house.
Think about how doing this will impact certain rooms. Also how moving the furniture will perhaps breathe in new life to different parts of the house. Further, you can also add on how this activity would affect you and your family living there as a whole.
Part four: explanation on the way it gets done
Once we already know the positive impact for rearranging the furniture, add more details on how your ideas can be done. This is when you provide more details on how you are going to do this. You can first of all start by stating what is going to be needed to get this started.
You can mention the people who are going to be involved, the time and how long it will take you to complete this activity.
Part five: conclusion
Once you have the three WH-questions on what, why and how clearly addressed, your presentation is then almost complete. What you need now is the conclusion.
The conclusion would be made up of only one sentence. This is when you re-state, the situation in your task for Candidate A,B, C or D. You can say something like this,
“In conclusion, I truly believe that rearranging the furniture can without a doubt improve and beautify our homes.“
So this is the structure of how you would present your ideas in part 1 of the MUET speaking paper. If you are interested, you can continue reading my next blog, where I provide you with a complete response for Candidate A, for this question. In the blog, I will provide the answer according to the structure that we have discussed in this MUET part 1 question paper.
