Welcome to a special edition of the CELPIP Success Podcast.

Today I'm diving into the importance of recognizing and fixing mistakes in the speaking section of the CELPIP - AND why you just might need someone to help you find them!

I kick things off by sharing a couple of my own quirky mishaps from just today that involved some Krazy Glue and a broken shoe, as well as some broken website links that I ALMOST didn't notice - both experiences underscore how often we overlook our own errors until they're pointed out.

Many of the slip-ups we make in speaking tasks can go unnoticed, and that’s where my upcoming 30-day CELPIP speaking skills boot camp comes in. I'll be working closely together with everyone who joins, giving you unlimited feedback to help you catch those sneaky mistakes before they can pull your score down on exam day!

To grab my free 5 part mini audio course [required listening in order to even get an invite to the 30 boot camp] just go here.

Takeaways:

• When it comes to building your speaking skills in English, you sometimes need someone else to point out your mistakes. (Or you simply don't notice them!)
• Consistent practice combined with feedback will help you build your speaking skills faster.
• Speaking Task 1: Be sure to use real-life examples when giving advice.
• In Speaking Task 2: Use the past tense consistently in your responses to meet the expectations of the CELPIP exam.

Join my speaking skills boot camp for one-on-one practice and feedback on your speaking task responses. We start September 7th!

But to get the invite for the boot camp you need to download and listen to my free audio course: The Top 5 CELPIP Speaking Task Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

About Speaking Task 1- Giving Advice

Think about what to say for 30 seconds.

Record your answer for as close to 90 seconds as you can get.

Points to remember:

Talk to a person. (Use their name!)

Offer 2 or 3 suggestions. (3 is better if you can!)

For each suggestion provide a reason or example

Your Assignment:

Prompt 1: A close friend is considering moving to a new city for a job offer, but they are worried about leaving their friends and family behind. They have come to you to ask for advice on if they should turn down the offer to stay with friends and family, or should they make the move?

About Task 2: Talking About a Past Experience

1. Think about what to say for 30 seconds.
2. Record your answer for 60

Remember: 1. Use your own experience whenever possible. (Or make it up.) 2. A must: use the past tense! 3. Remember to include details and feelings!

Prompt 1: Talk about what your first day in Canada was like.

Hello and welcome to the Celpip Success Podcast, the most introvert friendly podcast on the planet, dedicated to helping you confidently prepare for and conquer the self lip exam.

If you're tired of feeling nervous, stressed and stuck and getting ready for your exam day, my friend, this is the podcast for you.

Who am I?

My name is Aaron and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years and I'm a certificate certified Celpip trainer and I can't wait to help you get ready for your Celpip exam.

So today I had two kind of strange things happen to me.

The first one had to do with Krazy Glue.

The other day, as I was walking, part of, like, a little section of one of my favorite pairs of shoes fell off.

As I was walking.

I picked up the little section and I thought, well, maybe it's so small, maybe I can glue it back on with Krazy Glue or something.

So I kept the little part in my pocket.

And this morning, just before going to work, I had the crazy idea of trying to glue it back together again so that I could keep using my shoe.

I know, I'm weird.

I'm weird, I admit it.

But hey, just stick with me here.

Do you see what I did there with the glue and sticking with me?

But anyway, I tried to open the Krazy Glue and it.

If you've ever used Krazy Glue, you know that it seriously sticks to everything it touches.

And when I unscrewed the little cap on the little tube of the Krazy Glue, some of the glue managed to get on my fingers.

And before I knew it, like in a matter of a split second, my three of my fingers were stuck together like it happened instantaneously and I couldn't get them apart.

I couldn't get my fingers to come apart again no matter how hard I pull.

So I. I obviously kept pulling because I needed my fingers and they eventually came apart, but it kind of hurt.

And that glue stuck with me all day.

Like there was still some, like, I don't know, hard parts left over from the glue on my fingers even after I came home from work.

So that was the first strange thing that happened to me today.

The second strange thing happened about an hour later as I was listening to my podcast again, the one that the newest episode that just came out this week because I just wanted to make sure that it sounded okay.

And I actually did something that I haven't tried doing in a long time, and that is I checked the links and in my show notes, I was talking about a set of, well, a link in my show notes that I was inviting you to click on.

And I thought to myself, maybe I should make sure that it's working.

Just.

Just to be sure.

And wouldn't you know it, I clicked on the link and it wasn't working.

Oh, no.

Oh no.

It was broken.

And I wouldn't have noticed it unless I had gone back and and checked.

And believe it or not, this has to do with what I'm talking about here today.

Mistakes and noticing them and fixing them.

I eventually was able to, I think, resolve what was going on in with the link in my show notes.

But it wasn't like an obvious mistake, like what had happened with my fingers getting stuck.

That was a very obvious mistake and one that I had to fix in the moment or else I wouldn't be able to use my hand.

But that other mistake kind of was going unnoticed.

I wouldn't have noticed it.

I normally don't check the links in my show notes.

I just assume that I have it right.

I assume that I set up the link correctly.

But today I just happened to think, well, maybe I'll give it a try and make sure it's working.

And lo and behold, there was a mistake.

So I had to go and try to redo the link and make sure it was working.

And what does that have to do with my speaking skills challenge that I'm starting this September 7th?

Well, that's a great question if you're wondering about it.

And here's the thing.

Sometimes the most dangerous or most damaging mistakes that we can make when we're getting ready for the speaking section of the CELPIP exam is that we don't notice.

Like you don't notice some of the mistakes that you're making unless someone points it out to you or unless you know what to listen for.

And that's one of the biggest things that you will get out of the 30 day speaking skills bootcamp that I'm starting this September 7th.

You will have unlimited feedback with me.

One on one.

We're going to be working together, you and me, on each of the speaking tasks.

And what I thought I would do today is really quickly begin to share what prompts we're going to be using together in the boot camp so that you can follow along with us and practice if you want to.

And if you want to get feedback on your practice, then maybe you should join the boot camp.

All right, so let's talk about speaking task one.

Speaking task one is all about giving advice and There's a couple of things that are really important for this speaking task.

Number one, let's talk about the time you're going to have about 30 seconds to brainstorm to think about what you're going to say before you actually start recording your answer.

Then after those 30 seconds, you will have 90 seconds to actually record the answer that you were thinking about just a few seconds ago.

And there are some really, really important things for you to be remembering as you're giving or as you're offering your answer.

And these are the things that I'm going to be helping you make sure that you're including in your answer because they will help you to score better on your exam.

The first one, when you're giving advice, make sure that you're that it sounds like you're talking to a real person.

And one of the best ways that you can do that is actually use their name.

Maybe think about your best friend.

Use their name as you're giving your answer.

Don't just make it a generic response.

Pretend that you're actually talking to them.

Number two, make sure that you offer two or three suggestions.

Actually, three is probably the best option.

If you can do it.

Offer three suggestions and then for each of those suggestions, make sure that you provide a strong reason or an example to back it up.

And whenever you can, especially when you're giving advice, make sure that you, well, try your best to include real life examples.

Like if you've actually experienced what you're giving advice on, I highly suggest that you include that in your answer and some way.

Why?

Because it helps your answer to be stronger.

All right, so that's some of the things that I'll be helping you include in your speaking task.

For speaking task one on the SELPIP exam.

And here's the prompt, at least one of the prompts for this speaking task that we're going to be working on.

All right, so this will also be in the show notes today if you want to work on this on your own.

And like I said a moment ago, if you want to get feedback on this response, you totally can.

You don't have to do this alone.

Join my 30 day Celpip speaking skills bootcamp that's starting this September 7th.

All right, so here's prompt number one.

A close friend is considering moving to a new city for a job offer, but they're worried about leaving their friends, you and family behind.

They've come to you to ask for advice on if they should turn down the offer in order to stay with friends.

And family or should they make this move, what would your advice be?

All right, so that's speaking task one.

Now, if you're interested in joining this 30 day boot camp, the first thing that you need to do is download my 5 part mini audio course called the Top 5 Celpip Speaking Task Mistakes and how to avoid them.

It's totally free.

Each of the episodes are short.

They will help you with practical advice, but it's absolutely something that you need and should be listening to first.

Before the bootcamp begins.

Only those who have downloaded this audio course will be invited to join my boot camp.

So if this is of interest to you, act now.

Do download the top 5 celpip speaking task mistakes and how to avoid them.

The link is in my show notes today and I hope to see you inside.

Speaking Task 2 is all about talking about a past experience and on my 30 day boot camp, this is going to be tackled in our very first week of work together.

So task one and task two, we're going to be going after them both in the very first week of our work together.

And here are some important things for you to keep in mind as if you are practicing or getting ready on your own.

And I highly recommend that if you are getting ready on your own, that you join the speaking skills bootcamp and work with me.

Let's work together.

Let's work together to get you ready for your exam.

All right, so here are some things that you need to keep in mind for this Speaking task number one, you will also for this one, have 30 seconds to think about what you're going to say before you start talking.

And in the boot camp, I'm going to be making sure that you are sticking to those 30 seconds.

That's super important.

It's a skill that you need to get good at for the exam number two, you're going to have just 60 seconds to actually make your recording.

And that's different from the very first speaking task.

If you remember, you had 90 seconds to actually record your response.

And in this one, Speaking task two, it's just one minute and we will be working really carefully together to make sure that you're sticking to those 60 seconds in your response time.

So that's really important, learning how to work within time limits.

And that's something that you will perfect as we work together over the next 30 days.

If you join the boot camp, some things to keep in mind for this speaking task number one, whenever it's possible, like you're talking about a past experience, use a past experience Whenever you can, think back to something that has happened to you that's in line with the speaking prompt.

Like, if you've actually experienced whatever the prompt is, make sure that you share it in your response.

The more realistic you can make your response, the stronger your response will be.

And if you haven't experienced it before, or if you don't know of anybody who has experienced that you've heard of, you'll just have to make it up.

But I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to draw from your own experience or from the experience of someone that you know.

So that's the first tip.

The second tip, and this is an absolute must.

This alone can kill your points, can kill your score on this speaking task.

And that is you must use the past tense.

And when we're working together, it's if you join the boot camp, I will be making sure that you use the past tense consistently in this response in this speaking task.

And finally, the number three that you need to keep in mind is to remember to include lots of details and feelings about what you experienced.

Those are the things that the test raters are listening for.

All right, so here's the first prompt that we're going to be working on for speaking task two.

Are you ready?

It is this talk about what your very first day in Canada was like.

All right, so if you are wanting to be practicing this on your own or if you're thinking of joining the boot camp and you want to get ready for it, you could start working on this right now.

But remember, in order to get the feedback, in order to get the one on one work, you need to join the boot camp.

We start September 7th and I would love to see you inside.

Remember, in order to get the invitation to join, you first have to listen.

You first have to download my 5 part mini audio course.

It's totally free and it's called the top five CELPIP Speaking Task Mistakes and how to avoid them.

This will help you not only get ready for the CELPIP exam, but I think it will also help you in general with your English skills.

Each episode is short and practical and doable.

You can download it and listen to it anywhere you go.

It's in a podcast format.

So in just the same way that you're listening to me here, you can listen to this audio course wherever and whenever you want.

And there'll be a link for this in my show notes today.

So if you haven't already, make sure you grab yours.

It's totally free and it will help you to begin working on a few of the most important strategies that you'll need to succeed on the speaking section of the CELPIP exam.

Thanks so much for listening.