Ielts 雅思 口语全攻略 Ideas and Examples for ielts speaking Jeremy Chiron

Where did you study?

1. 
   got a Master’s in Education from the University of Lyon III. I studied there for 5 years, and I got to go on exchange at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania as a junior in college. This was another turning point in my life. You know, an Ivy League school, excellent teachers and classmates．It was an invaluable privilege for the young student that I was．I majored in American History and Literature there.
   

PART 2

Tell me about your experience as an English learner.
．Started in middle school: lots of grammar＋reciting words
．Went to the US at the age of 15：exchange program for one year: Rotary Club
· Small town: immersed in English＋no Internet＋limited international phone calls
．Took 3 months to get used to speaking and reacting English＝started dreaming in English
· The importance of making friends with locals＋practice. If you have to speak, you will！
Okay, well, I started learning English at the age of 11 when I entered middle school in France．I clearly remember my first English teacher. She was a young lady who had just graduated from a teachers’ college but she was extremely patient and clear in her explanations. As a result, I enjoyed studying this foreign language immediately. For the first two years, we did a lot of grammar, and of course we had to recite a lot of words in order to build up our vocabulary. I have always been good at learning things by heart, so I guess it was not a big problem for me, and my results were quite satisfactory in her class．
I studied English conscientiously all the way through school, because it seemed to come naturally, you know, pretty easily to me. At 15，my mother encouraged me to present myself at an interview with my school’s headmaster in order to apply for a position as an exchange student in America. Although I was the youngest candidate at school, the principal picked me. And before I could realize it, I was on my way to Washington State, in northwestern U.S．The program was sponsored by the Rotary Club.
I ended up in a small town of 5 thousand people called Colville. And it’s definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I was immersed in American culture and language for a whole year, and it was without a doubt an eye-opening experience. At the time in 1997, we didn’t have the Internet, and making international phone calls cost a lot of money, so I barely spoke French for a whole year, and my English improved dramatically.
I was speaking English on a daily basis, and it took me 3 months to fully get used to communicating in this language and to reacting in English. I got there late in August, and in December I stopped looking up words in the dictionary, and that’s about when I also started dreaming in English.
I would recommend that anyone who’s going to study overseas join some local sports teams and other social organizations in order to make friends and get to use the language as much as possible. They say that practice makes perfect, but I disagree：practice makes… improvement. But it’s the only way to get considerably better. We all learn a language if we HAVE TO speak it and even a simple-minded person will learn if he or she has no other choice but to use the language.
Later on, I came back to France and decided to specialize in English and education. Because I had acquired all the foundations in the U.S．，I was able to concentrate on more specific vocabulary and to work on my writing style. It’s always difficult to speak a language perfectly well, and there is always more to learn, but it’s definitely possible to learn enough to keep a conversation going. I guess that’s what IELTS is all about.