Talking with good English vocabulary involves not just the content words to amplify the meaning inherent in your piece but also the functional and transitional words to have them well backed up with the right expression.
It helps get over any hesitation in speaking fluently and any distraction as to how the dialogues are knit. It creates a positive impression on the examiner and gives a better sense of the value presented in your words.
Social Media IELTS Speaking Practice Questions
IELTS Speaking Part 1
Is social media attractive to you and your peers?
How often do you engage with social media?
Do you find social media haters around you?
IELTS Speaking Part 2
Describe your preferred social media medium?
– What attracted you?
– Where did you see it first?
– Whom/what audience would it appeal to?
IELTS Speaking Part 3
People of what domain/from what sphere of life use social media the most? And, why?
Do you think some people put themselves in a vulnerable position while posting social media content?
What would you recommend to people who might get exposed to dodgy situations just by interacting online regularly?
Tips For IELTS Speaking Section
To organise parts of content while you speak – These parts are Introduction, Main points and Conclusion, read further and frame sentences using these as stepping stones to contextual vocabulary.
Detailed Social Media Vocabulary
To answer all three parts of the Speaking test appropriately, you will need a comprehensive list of vocabulary word that must be used and avoided, along with common phrases and idioms that will increase your vocabulary.
Active Vocabulary Words
- Basic
- Media updates
- To go viral, phishing
- Traffic, live streaming
- Synergy, mentions
- Communities, campaigns
- Platform, engagement
- Online content/Digital resources
- Web influence
- Widgets, Search Engine
- On fleek, keep score, know your meme
- Shares, Stories, Sign-ups, Visits, Views/Impressions, and likewise
- YOLO (You only live once), AMA (Ask Me Anything), FTW (For the win), GOAT (Greatest of all time)
Different Ways to Rephrase/ Express Your Viewpoint
It helps to add good range to your vocabulary. Here are some examples:
- Affects development – hampers growth
- Against all odds – Impossible made possible
- Hard to get – Little chance with it
- From the start – As it began
- Keeping yourself anonymous – Opt for anonymity
- To bother someone – Badger
- To apply privacy settings – Censor
For ex: It’s always better to say Facebook can “censor” people’s posts instead of saying that Facebook allows and applies privacy settings.
Collocations
Collocations are a combination of appropriate verb and noun. They give the impression that you are a fluent user of the language. When referring someone to use social media such collocations are used.
Examples:
- Share/hide/report/ like a post
- Accept/reject a friend request
- Check your newsfeed/notifications/timeline/updates
- Quit social media
- Tag someone in a photograph
- Access/delete/have an account
- Update your status/your profile
For more information on collocations refer to this blog: Top Collocations for IELTS
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Idioms
One can use them while talking about performing tasks on social media,
- Alive and kicking = networking
- Throwing shade = expressing “sad”/ “angry”
- In the blink of an eye = posting
- Get your wires crossed = commenting
- To kill time = surfing/ watching
- A race against the clock = creating videos
- Get a foothold – reading news, watching events
- Blow your own Trumpet – declaring/starting something new
- Cry wolf = trolling/ alerting
- See eye to eye = liking/loving posts (with reactions)
- Keep me posted = sending files
- Hot off the press = knowing what’s latest/trending
- Drop someone a line = direct messaging (DMs)
- To touch base = renewing contacts
- Give someone the low-down = exchanging facts/details
To know more idioms refer to this blog: Latest IELTS idioms
Terms to avoid using in the IELTS Speaking Section
Even though a student is encouraged to adopt a conversational tone while attempting their speaking section. However, one must avoid using some terms as they are not considered polite. We have created a list of such words for easier understanding.
Social Media Pros and Cons Vocabulary
| Pros | Cons |
| Employment-friendly | Cyber-bullying |
| Connecting and socialising with peers | Mishandling of data |
| Enrolling courses | Stalking |
| Sharing opinions | Profile hacking |
| Interacting with different cultures | Difficulty preserving identity |
| Maintaining social image | Distracting |
Social Media Sample Essay
Social media is not all about web marketing!
You might feel trolled, but the word is—you’re unknown without it. ‘Hurry, and jump on the social media bandwagon before you’re left behind!’ Well, hold your horses while you go through this journey. Social media is indeed a great place to emphasise your marketing efforts (with everyone spending their time and money these days on internet sites and social networking), but you needn’t put all your eggs in one basket. What is likeable is simply to tweet, post, email, share and update until the cows come home, but no matter how dynamic these sites are and how actively you take part on social networking sites, your identity is something you can’t afford to neglect. After all, for building your own website, stop and think about all aspects—from what we use social media for to how we bring traffic or lead people to use our websites.
In addition to social media, one should be using SEM (Search Engine Marketing) in order to drive traffic to their site. Forming various PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns using Google Adwords can be a cakewalk. But, will it do you any good or bring you any luck when consumers click on your ad, get to your site, and the design and content are outdated? You might as well have your business reach a futile end in less than a New York minute. After all, you will be paying monthly fees for web hosting, which will vary depending on how big your website is and how many visits you score.
The point is, while it’s undeniably beneficial to put a great amount of focus on social media as well as SEM campaigns, the ROI can be unfavourable if your website is unable to match the competition. Reflect your products or services so that your customers can easily find your business page through a search engine. Your site is your identity, your base, the place people go to after clicking on your Google ad campaign, liking your Facebook fan page, trailing you on Twitter, connecting with you on LinkedIn, and watching your videos on YouTube. So be spot on, get to the heart of the matter, the quality of your website, while you put all your eggs in this social media and SEM basket, and get alive and kicking.
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