What should you do when the interlocutor doesn't talk too much?

What should we do when the interlocutor doesn't talk so much in the OET Speaking test?

We had a great question from Maria, one of our YouTube community, who asked "What should we do when the interlocutor doesn't talk so much?"

It felt more like a monologue

Maria was worried because the interlocutor didn't interact as much as she expected her to. Perhaps they only gave brief replies to her questions, and / or didn't ask any of their own so that Maria could provide an explanation. It made Maria feel that it was more of a monologue and she was worried it would affect her score.

Don't panic!

Well, it's natural to be worried, but the first thing to say is try not to panic. You're probably doing better than you think.

Your job isn't to assess!

In the exam, your job is not to assess yourself as you go along - yes, it's normal to do this in practice sessions, and it's actually a good thing to do. But in the exam, just be yourself. You are the healthcare professional, you're not the examiner - so try not to think about your performance in criteria-terms because this will only weigh heavily on your chest and get you down and may stop you performing as well as you could.

There are two role-plays

The other thing to note is that there are two role-plays and when the examiners do assess you, only take the best of both - it's not an average score. So, if the first one didn't go as well as you hoped, don't worry. Take a breath and think about what you can do in the second role-play to really shine.

Here are some easy ways to get to 5 minutes:

1. Remember to use 'staging and signposting language' to explain what you're doing. This not only takes up time, but it's really good practice. It allows the listener to know what's going on and process information. For example:

   
   

   1. I'd like to ask you a few questions about what you're experiencing so that I can really understand the situation. Firstly....

   2. Just a few more questions before we move on to discussing treatment.

   3. Can I just summarise so I can check I've understood everything correctly?

   4. Now, let's go through what we can do.

   5. There are three things you can do immediately which should help and also some medication you can take. In terms of what you can do...

   6. Now, on to the medication. I am going to prescribe something called...

      
      

2. Remember to pause between each phase of the consultation.

   
   

   This allows time for the listener to absorb the information - remember, it's probably all new to them. You might be familiar with the advice and give it out 10 times a week in real life, but to the patient, it might be the first time they've heard about it and they need those few secods to take it all in.

   
   

   They also need time to ask questions - and you can aid this by saying something like:

   "I've given you a lot of information. Do you have any questions for me?"

   
   

3. Recap

   
   

   Summarise as you go along - so as mentioned above, go thorugh what the patient has told you after that part of the consultation.

   
   

   Then, run through everything again at the end. You can say something like:

   "OK, so let's just run through what we discussed to day. You told me that you were experiencing ..."

By employing these simple techniques you are bound to get to those 5 minutes!

For more help with OET speaking, take a look at our playlist on YouTube.