Aims
In the following lessons you’ll learn how to give good discussion answers to IELTS Part three questions.
In this lesson you’ll master the formula for giving and supporting opinions. This is a skill that you will need to use in all part three lessons. It is a basic native speaker discussion skill.
Do you think children should be made to wear a uniform to school?
Do you believe it is acceptable that animals are used for cosmetics testing?
Do you feel that city life is suitable for elderly people?
What do you think about there being a single international language?
The formula
To give and support opinions, you should:
Answer order
- Introduce and state your opinions clearly.
- Support your opinions with reasons or examples.
Language steps.
Use native speaker expressions for giving and supporting opinions.
I believe that…
I feel that…
I hold the opinion that…
Use native speaker expressions for introducing opinions.
I think that…
I don’t think that…
I am convinced that…
Use native speaker expression for supporting your opinions
It is good for…
It is essential for…
It has a positive effect on…
Language step 1 Giving and supporting opinions.
Interview: Do you think that children should wear a uniform to school?
Sophia: Yes, I think that children in middle, school and high school should wear a uniform to school. I strongly believe that it is essential for giving children a sense of identity and unity. Young children can be very snobbish about fashion and often ridicule and pick on children who won’t wear expensive or designer clothes…
Interviewer: Do you believe that children can learn a lot from team sports?
Mike: Yes, I do. Children need to learn to work in groups and co-operate as well as build leadership skills. Sport is also good for children to learn to be competitive in a mature manner. It’s also very important that children keep fit and healthy. For example, it’s been proven that children who learn to play team sports grow up to be more understanding and co-operative adults.
Giving and supporting opinions is a basic skill you’ll need for any type of IELTS Part III answer. You should use this skill in every one of your Part III lessons and consider it as a basic requirement for all native speaker discussion.
Notice how Sophia and Mike both follow their introduction of opinion with reason and examples. Sophia says that she believes that children in middle school and high school should wear a school uniform because:
… it is essential for giving children a sense of identity and unity.
…children can be very snobbish about fashion and often ridicule and pic on children who don’t wear expensive or designer clothes.
When asked whether university students should wear a uniform, Sophia says that she thinks they certainly should not and gives her reason:
We are all adults… we should have the freedom to choose what we want to wear…
Remember to state your option and then give a reason or example to back it up. It’s a simple formula:
Opinion
Reasons/ examples.
Language step 2 Introducing Opinions.
Let’s see how the two IELTS candidates, Sophia and Mike, introduce their opinions.
Interviewer: Do you think that children should wear a uniform to school?
Sophia: Yes, I think that children in middle school and high school should wear a uniform to school. I strongly believe that it is essential for giving children a sense of identity and unity…
Interviewer: What about in university? Should university students all wear a uniform?
Sophia Certainly not! We are all adults by the time we get to university, so I believe that we should have the freedom to choose what we want to wear and when we want to wear it…
Interviewer: Do you thin that young people should do more sport in schools today?
Mike: I certainly do. I think that young people today are getting quite lazy and this is bad for their health. I’m convinced that schools put too much emphasis on academic subjects, so I firmly believe that good sports classes and sport facilities are very important.
Interviewer: Do you believe that children can learn a lot from team sports?
Mike: Yes, I do. Children need to learn to work in groups and co-operate as well as build leadership skills…
Notice how Sophia and Mike both use native speaker expressions to introduce their opinions.
Expressing agreement or disagreement with the question
Yes, I do.
Sure.
Certainly.
Certainly not!
Absolutely not!
Not really.
I’m not sure I agree.
Introducing opinion expressions.
I believe that… / I think that…
I don’t believe that…/ I don’t think that…
I really think that…
I strongly believe that…
I am of the opinion that…
For me…
The way I see it…
Example:
A: Do you think that vegetables are an important part of a diet?
B: Sure. I think that they give people a lot of vitamins.
A: Do you believe people should pay to enter public parks?
B: No, absolutely not! The way I see it, all public parts should be free for everyone.
Language step 3 Supporting your opinion
Let’s look at how the IELTS candidate Sophia explains why students should wear a uniform.
Sophia… I strongly believe that it is essential for giving children a sense of identity and unity…
Supporting a positive opinion
Look at these other positive expressions to say why something is a good thing:
It’s good for + verb-ing
It’s essential for + verb-ing
It’s vital for + verb-ing
It’s very important for + verb-ing/ that + clause.
People should all + verb.
It gives us the opportunity/ freedom to + verb.
People should make an effort to + verb.
Examples:
I really thing that people should all try and eat healthily.
A solid education is essential for finding a good job.
Better public transport gives us the opportunity to stop using private vehicles which hurt the environment.
Look at how Sophia expresses why making students in university wear a uniform would be bad.
Sophia … It would certainly be inappropriate to make university students wear a uniform, and incredibly patronizing too!
Supporting a negative opinion
Look at these other negative expressions to say why something is a bad thing:
It would be inappropriate to + verb/ for + noun
It could have a bad effect on…
It’s not good for society if people…
It’s unfair to + verb / somebody…
It’s not necessary to + verb.
It’s unethical to + verb
It’s unreasonable to + verb.
Examples:
I’m convinced that it would be inappropriate to make children under the age of 12 work for a living.
I feel that it’s unfair to deny people health care just because they are poor.
For me, it’s not necessary to make education free because it’s already extremely cheap.
Extra language point Techniques for supporting your opinions.
Here are some useful techniques for supporting your opinions.
Example
For example…
For instance…
Let me give an example…
For example, whenever I go to a bar there are always people smoking and I breathe in their smoke. This makes me a smoker even though I don’t want to be.
Common sense
Everyone knows…
It’s common knowledge that…
It’s common knowledge that birds do not enjoy being trapped in cages!
Statistics
Use numbers.
User figures to support an argument.
You don’t have to know lots of complicated statistics, but if you do know some very general figures to back up what you want to say, then use them.
Traffic should be reduced in Ho Chi Minh City. Over 1.000 new cars go onto the roads every day. This is becoming a major problem.
Expert opinion
According to…
To quote…
The book says…
I heard/ read/ saw somewhere that…
According to many experts, global warming is not actually scientifically proven to exist.
Source: 31 High-scoring Formulas to Answer the IELTS Speaking Questions
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