Describe Image for Duolingo English Test, Speaking | Super Method and Sample Answers

hi guys i'm luke an expert duolingo english test teacher and today we're gonna talk about one of the speaking tasks on this test the task we're gonna look at is describing a picture orally so through speaking and this is probably one of the hardest tasks on the whole test it's difficult because you have to describe something in a lot of detail and you've got to do this spontaneously without much planning so it really tests your fluency your pronunciation and your organizational skills it's pretty hard but in this lesson we're gonna go over a simple method

you can use to make this task easier for you but guys if you're new to my channel hi i'm teacher luke and i make english lessons like this to help students like you improve your english so if this is something you're interested in hit that like button and subscribe as well so what happens in this task well firstly you're given one image an image like this this this or this and you have to describe one of these images in a lot of detail so being able to describe an image is not as easy as it

seems a lot of students that do this they start off quite well but then they get stuck because they either run out of things to say or they don't know how to organize their answer that's why learning a method like the one i'm going to show you today is extremely helpful but before i show you my method let's look at how this task is actually scored so to get a high score on this task you have to think about three things content fluency and pronunciation so let's take a look at content first content refers to

how well you describe the image so the first point is about labeling versus describing do you actually describe the image or do you just label it if you just label an image you'll get a very low score let me show you what labeling means so let's say this is our image some people will just answer this task like this this picture has two people in it there is a building there is a bench there is a park there are leaves on the grass there is a path and so on this will not get you a

high score on this task you have to be able to describe the picture not just label it and you have to use descriptive language when describing we'll talk more about that later next on the content section we have vocabulary range and precision and grammatical range and accuracy so for vocabulary range do you use topic related vocabulary adverbs of place and also descriptive adjectives and do you use the correct grammar to describe the image of course this is a test of your english ability so it's not surprising that vocabulary and grammar are scored quite highly on

this task okay moving on next we have fluency this refers to how smoothly you describe the image so for this you should think about your speaking speed smoothness and phrasing you also want to avoid hesitations and repetitions i've seen a lot of students who answer this task they get a little bit stuck when they're speaking so they say uh a lot or they simply just pause during a sentence this is what we mean by hesitation and repetition is starting a sentence but then not finishing it and then starting again students usually do this when they

think they've made a mistake but it's really important that you avoid these two things as they do affect your fluency score and the third criteria is pronunciation this refers to how clearly you describe the image to get a high score you're looking for native like pronunciation which means that you can be easily understood by a native english speaker so things like pronunciation of phonemes connected speech and also your intonation you should definitely focus on these three things in order to improve your pronunciation score okay then let's get to my method of answering this task this

method will help you to organize your answers step by step so on test day when you're taking the test you don't have to think oh my god how am i going to even answer this question by using this method you'll know exactly how to answer so on test day all you have to do is think about the actual image and describe that image correctly so what's the method well here it is okay we start off with planning you have to analyze the picture you should be thinking of questions like what is in the picture what

is happening etc but remember don't speak here then we have general summary which can be done in one or two sentences then number two describe the location this is the most important part part three we have add detail and four speculate only do speculate if you have enough time okay so let's get started by talking about the planning stage so how do you plan well let's take a look so let's say this is our image that we have to describe on test day first i recommend that you analyze the picture in your head without speaking

you should ask yourself these questions what do i see in the image and what is the most important thing in the image usually if there are people in the image then people will be the most important so in this image i see a man and a woman i see a bench i see a building in the background maybe a church i see a park some trees a path and another building on the left which looks like it's under construction the most important thing is of course the man and the woman and you should notice that

they look upset angry or irritated at something so that's the most important thing in this image so remember to do all your planning without speaking you have to just think in your head of course on a duolingo english test you're not allowed to have a pen and paper so just do this by thinking then you can start speaking you want to start your description with a general summary usually one or two sentences you should ask yourself what's the most important thing in your planning stage you've already answered the question what's the most important thing so

you should describe and talk about that important thing you can begin your sentences like this this picture shows this image shows or in this picture there is or in this image there are you should also include a little bit of detail in your summary and the grammar you should use is either the present simple or the present continuous so let's again take a look at this image can you think of one sentence you can use for a general summary well i have a couple answers for you so my first answer is simply this image shows

a man and a woman do you think this is a good answer well not really i would say this is a poor answer even though the sentence is grammatically correct and it does give a general summary this sentence just doesn't include enough information or enough detail remember that this is an english language test so your job is to show off all your english if you just use simple sentences like this then the duolingo english test computer can't give you a good score because it doesn't know how good your english is just because you're using simple

sentences so you want to include more detail in your sentences next example this image shows a man and a woman sitting on a bench is this good well this is not bad this of course includes more detail sitting on a bench and this is considered a complex sentence we actually call this a reduced relative clause in its full form you can say this image shows a man and a woman who are sitting on a bench so this sentence gives more detail and it's not bad but i still think you can do better okay so the

next sentence has a little bit more information this image shows a man and a woman sitting on a bench in a park this again is a little bit better because it includes more information it includes the location where the man and woman are they are in a park however i still think you can do better than this so take a look at my last example this image shows a man and a woman sitting next to each other on a bench in a park and they look upset about something so i think this would be considered

a very good answer because it includes a lot of information and actually it talks about the emotions of the people in this picture of course the man and the woman look very upset so you should mention that this sentence also includes some prepositions like next to each other this type of prepositional phrase is very useful in an activity like this okay so that was the first part of this method it is to give a general summary of the picture remember that you should include some detail in your general summary because again this is an english

test so you have to show off your english so be prepared to answer in more detail than you probably would in real life okay so part one is probably the easiest part of my method now let's take a look at the most difficult and the most important and that is part two which is describe the location so in part two we have to think about what is in the image and where it is positioned overall this task of describing an image is a descriptive task so you have to use descriptive language and describe where things

are positioned in the picture and it's very important how you organize your answer there are three ways to do this we can go from left to right or right to left top to bottom or bottom to top or from far to near or near to far in your planning stage i highly recommend that you pick one of these and stick to it throughout the whole task also you should use different adverbs of place and different adjectives to describe the objects or the things in the picture adverbs of place are a little bit tricky so but

here's an image to help you adverbs of place are usually spoken in these types of phrases so we have on the top or above at the top in the center in the corner at the bottom under beneath underneath and below we also have things like to the left to the right and there are lots of extra phrases you can use too for example in the background or in the foreground in the background and in the foreground are essential phrases if you want to describe the picture from far to near or near to far the background

would be far and the foreground would be near we also have in the front of directly opposite exactly in the middle of roughly in the middle of in close proximity to just above and parallel to these are just some of the phrases you can use to describe the location of things in the image there are lots more and i promise i will make a whole lesson just on these phrases for you but give me some time okay so again let's take a look at this image how could we describe the location of things in this

image well here's a sample answer so for this i use the far to near approach i started off by describing things in the background and then i move slowly to the foreground or the front and this helped me to describe this image in a very coherent and natural way so this was my answer there is a tall white building that looks like a church which is in the background in the top right hand corner there are some people waiting outside in front of that building there is a narrow path which leads to another building on

the left that building is under construction there is also a small park in front of the white building that has several trees and lots of crisp autumn leaves covering the grass the two young adults are sitting on a brown bench in the foreground of this image so as you can see from my example i described this image from far to near and i use lots of different adjectives they are the words in purple we have tall white narrow small crisp autumn young brown and i use lots of adverbials of place which are in prepositional phrases

so these are the ones in green in the background in the top right hand corner in front of on the left and in the foreground so using lots of adjectives and adverbials of place will make your answer very descriptive which is the aim of this task the task is to describe an image so again you have to use descriptive language and don't forget this is the most important part of this task so make sure you take your time and do this part very well and after you finish part two then you can move on to

part three which is add detail so here you add detail to the important parts of the image don't add detail to everything so ask yourself what is the most important part of course in the image we've been describing the two people are the most important parts so we want to describe those two people for vocabulary you want to use things like action verbs so you want to describe what the people are doing and of course you should use adjectives to describe the nouns in more detail and adverbs to give more detail and more information about

the actions or the verbs that are taking place and for the grammar again you can just use the present simple and present continuous so let's take a look at this image one more time so i'll show you a few answers i want you to think if they are good or not so i could just say the two people both look sad so i would consider this a very poor answer because it's too simple and not descriptive enough also the word sad is a very simple word remember on how you are scored one of the aspects

you're scored on is vocabulary range and sad is a very high frequency and common word so you won't get a very high score for using sad so what other words can we use instead of sad well have a look at my second answer the two people both look irritated and they're not talking to each other so this is better it's not great but it is better irritated is a better word than sad for this picture you could also use words like annoyed or frustrated also this answer is better because i added more information and i

use the conjunction and so and they are not talking to each other so this is better but again i think you could do better than this so take a look at my third answer the two people both look irritated and they're not talking to each other the man is holding his forehead with both hands and staring down at the pavement while the woman has her head in her right hand and looking in the opposite direction to the man of course this is a much better answer than the previous two it goes into a lot more

detail and it's very descriptive about the actions that are taking place so it definitely adds more detail to the most important elements of the picture which is the two people so again try to remember that this is a test of your english skill so you have to show that you are able to do things in english so always remember to answer and elaborate answer and elaborate so let's move on to the fourth part of my method and it is to speculate to speculate simply means to guess about what is happening or what has already happened

before i talk about this in more detail i want to let you know that if you have run out of time by now and you don't have time to speculate that's okay this is probably the least important part of this task remember this task is a descriptive task so your main job is to describe the image and describe the most important parts of the image but if you still have some time left then you can speculate so let's talk about that so firstly don't speculate about everything again just speculate about the most important parts of

the picture so you want to ask two questions why is something happening now the grammar you can use to speculate about now the present you could use modal verbs might may could must etc also you can use probably or i suppose the most common one is just maybe but i recommend you use one of the previous ones first because maybe is a very high frequency word and to get a higher score you want to use lower frequency and more advanced grammar such as modal verbs probably or suppose you could also think about what happened in

the past and how that past has affected the picture now so for this you want to use the past modal verbs like might have or must have so here are four examples you could say they could be arguing about something very important because she probably wants to end the relationship because blah blah blah they must have discussed a sensitive issue because blah blah blah they might have just broken up with each other because blah blah blah the ones in green could be arguing and probably are speculating about the present so about now the ones in

purple must have discussed might have just broken up are speculating about the past but that past is effect in the present right now okay so that's the simple method you can use it's important to think about a method of answering these types of questions because on test day you don't want to be thinking oh my god how do i even answer this question you want to already know how you're going to answer so that you can just look at the question or in this case an image and answer that question directly using a method that

you've already practiced that will make your life so much easier so a quick sum up we have the planning stage this is about 5 to 15 seconds of thinking remember you should think about what's in the picture and what is the most important thing about the picture but don't speak during this stage then the first thing you should do is give a general summary you should do this in one or two sentences you can go into some detail but don't go into too much the second part is the most important here you want to describe

the location remember to use adverbs of place when doing this part three you want to add detail to the important part of the picture and part 4 if you have time you can make some speculations about what has happened or what is happening in the picture this is my sample answer you can pause this and read it and i'll also copy and paste this into the description below okay now it's your turn i'm going to show you an image and i'm going to give you three minutes just like in the test to describe this image

definitely try this orally by yourself and if you want some feedback from me write your answer below in the comments and i'll check it for you okay let's go okay so that's it from me today i hope this was helpful let me know what you think of this method in the comments below and if you haven't already be sure to like and subscribe to my channel okay i'll see you next time bye