Master the Writing Summary with these Strategies! Duolingo English Test

Hi, friends, Teacher, Luke here. So there is actually a new writing question on the Duolingo English Test. It's called Summarize the Conversation.

And it comes right after the Interactive Listening. It looks like this on the test. First you do the listening part where you participate in an academic conversation.

You then do the summary where you summarize in writing everything you've listened to and did in the academic conversation. And that's what this video is about. Here.

I'm going to teach you all about the key points and give you lots of strategies to do well, on the summary parts of the interactive listening question. A lot of students have asked me to make this video. So I really hope it's helpful.

But very quickly before we start, if you're new to this channel, Hi, I'm Teacher Luke from DETReady. com. If you're looking for some tools to help you prepare for the Duolingo English Test, I recommend visiting our website, especially our practice platform, where you can practice this new interactive listening and summary question.

And you can check your answers immediately. And of course, we have lots of practice questions for all of the question types on the Duolingo test. But anyway, back to this video.

Let's start off by talking about the key points of this summary question. So as I mentioned, it does appear immediately after the interactive listening. And your job is to write a short summary of the conversation in just 75 seconds.

So I'm sure you're thinking 75 seconds, how can I write a summary in that short amount of time? Well, don't worry, I have some strategies I will show you later on. After the listening is done, you are able to read the conversation before you begin writing.

Now that's really important. So after you've done the interactive listening, like you can see on the screen now, you are able if you have time left to go back to the start of the conversation and read it through. And I highly recommend you do that, because that will give you lots and lots of ideas for your summary.

And of course, it will remind you of what was said during the conversation. But remember, you can't take notes. One of the main rules on the Duolingo English test is that you are not allowed to use a pen and paper so you can't take any notes that does make it harder.

But Duolingo are very concerned about test security and making sure no one can cheat. So you're not allowed to use any pen or paper during the test. This summary contributes to your literacy and production sub scores.

And the summary is scored based on the production subsoil criteria. A lot of test takers I speak to find it really hard to get a high score in production. So this is another question type you can use to boost your production score.

And it will be scored in the same way as the other writing questions using the production score criteria. You can see here, the first two points are concerned with grammar, the following two are all to do with your vocabulary. The next point is all to do how well you answered the question.

This is called Task relevance. And the last one is concerned with how much you're able to write in a short amount of time, also known as fluency. So that's the scoring criteria is the same for all the other writing questions on this exam as well.

Now let's think about some different strategies you can use to answer the summary as well as you can. The first one is really important. And that is, before you finish the listening part of this question type, you should read the whole conversation and the situation carefully.

So once again, once you finish the listening part, it looks like this. And you can read the conversation through fully. But I want to stress that you don't just want to read the conversation.

You want to really focus on the situation because you can easily write your first and even maybe your second sentence just based on the situation provided. Actually, that's exactly what Duolingo do in their sample answer. Let me show you what I mean.

So the situation says you are a student in a journalism class. After today's lecture on reporting your approach your professor to ask them more about what it means to cultivate sources. Then if you skip through this all the way to the end with Duolingo provide a sample summary.

You can see here that the first two sentences are basically paraphrasing the situation. I asked my professor question after class today, I asked them to explain the concept of cultivating sources as a reporter. So the first two sentences in this example was basically a paraphrase of the situation.

To paraphrase you typically just keep the ideas exactly the same, but you change the sentence structure and maybe the verb choice or nouns in the sentences. And that's why I'm saying it's very important that you read the situation carefully, because this will likely be the first or maybe even the second sentence in your summary. So that's my first tip.

My second tip is also very important, which is to study opening phrases before you begin your summary. As you know already, you only have 75 seconds to complete this task that's obviously not long at all. So by studying opening for phrases, you will know how to begin, and that will save you valuable seconds.

So what are some opening phrases? Well, let me show you here. So here are eight opening phrases you can use.

Of course, you need to be careful and select the right one depending on the conversation you listen to. But a lot of these can be used for any situation. Again, let's take a look at the sample answer from Duolingo.

The opening phrase Duolingo used was, I asked my professor a question after class today. So I strongly suggest that you study these opening phrases and that you practice typing them quickly. Like I said, that will save you valuable seconds on the test.

On top of that, you will know exactly how to begin and a lot of students struggle with actually getting started on these writing questions. So don't let that be you and learn these opening statements. Remember that during the listening part of this question, type, you were participating in a conversation.

So you were acting as if you were one of the people talking. So when you do the summary, use the word I recommend you use the active voice because that's a lot easier and a lot more natural when you're talking about yourself. Just as in the Duolingo sample.

I asked my professor a question after class today. Okay, next up, you want to write paragraphs, not bullet points. Since this is an English exam, this one should be obvious.

But just to clarify, you want to write full paragraphs and use full sentences, don't use bullet points, try to make your answer as complete as possible. Number six is to follow a simple structure. I've come up with a simple structure you can use for most of the conversations, it's not perfect, because the conversations in the listening part can vary.

If you study and follow this kind of structure, then you should be able to write more in the limited time you have. Like I said, it's not a perfect foolproof structure, but it can give you some ideas of what to write and help you to prepare. Step one of the structure you could write who did you talk to?

And what about, remember the opening phrases I showed you? For example, I had a conversation with my professor about the low grades I got in my English writing class. Step two is to go into more detail.

Think about what were the main ideas or suggestions throughout the conversation. My professor suggested that I use helpful grammar and writing resources on the university's website, because these online tools can help me improve my Advanced Grammar and teach me how to organize my academic essays. So we've got the opening some more detail.

And the last part is all about the outcome. I believe in most of the conversations, there will be an outcome. Basically, what did you say you are going to do during the conversation.

For example, I agreed with my professor and said that I'd begin using these online resources right away. So that's some basic information and some strategies that do the summary. Well, if you haven't watched my interactive listening video yet, I recommend you do so right here because the summary and the listening are very closely linked.

So I'll see you in this video.