Michigan Test Oral Interview success starts with learning first things first…

When sitting the oral interview, it’s a good idea to know how to use some of the following expressions. The following are common and fluent ways of expressing yourself rather than the over-used, “I think.”

Try to avoid saying “I think” in the oral exam. In fact, when you do oral interview practice with your teacher or friends, try to do the whole interview without saying “I think” even once.

Trimming the over-use of “I think,” will go a long way to adding fluency to your speaking. Remember, the proficiency level of the language is all about eliminating the “little” mistakes.

By eliminating “I think,” you’ll force yourself to use other ways of introducing topics, expressing your opinions, or making suggestions.

Learn some of the following fluency builders. They should help you go a long way towards passing the oral interview.

Alternative ways to express opinions

As I see it,…

As far as I’m concerned,…

From where I sit, I feel that,…

It seems to me that,…

In my opinion,…

I feel strongly / I firmly believe that…

If it were up to me, I’d say that…

Personally speaking,…

Generally speaking…

I believe that…

To my mind,…

Alternative ways to express preferences

I’d much rather … than …

I prefer …-ing to … -ing

There’s no comparison. I’d much rather …

To be honest, I’d much prefer to …

Given the choice, I’d …

If it were up to me, I’d…

Ordering or sequencing your ideas

Well, for one thing / to begin with …

Another thing is that …

I also believe that …

What’s more …

Finally, … / Last but not least, …

Giving reasons or justifying yourself

I say this because …

The main reason why I feel this is because …

One of the reasons why, is that …

Looking at, or considering both sides of sth

On the one hand, … . On the other hand, …

Some people feel that … , but others say …

Although it is true that … , it could also be argued that …

One way to look at the situation is to … But you might also say that …

It’s true that … , but there’s also a disadvantage to …

Generalizations and Conclusions

All in all, …

In general, …

On the whole, …

Finally, …

To sump up, …

At the end of the day, …

Needles to say,…

Fillers (avoiding long, silent gaps in conversations)

Just a second / hold on a sec …

Hmm, it’s on the tip of my tongue …

Umm – as I was saying …

What did I want to say … – oh, yes …

You know, uh … ,

So!

Making suggestions

If it were my choice, I’d …

If I were in his shoes / position, I’d …

I think the government should / ought to …

I’d suggest that the government / they …

Perhaps we could / should / ought to …

I’d advise the following …

What society / the government needs to do is to …

Expressing uncertainty

It’s a bit hard to say, but …

I suppose that …

My guess is that …

It’s possible that … , but …

I’m not sure, but if I had to say one way or the other …

Expressions showing certainty

Without a doubt, …

I’m certain / positive that …

There’s no doubt in my mind that …

Undoubtedly,

Clarification of your position

What I mean is, …

What I’m trying to say is that …

In other words, …

Asking for clarification of the others position

Would you mind repeating that, please?

I’m sorry, what do you mean by …?

Excuse me, I didn’t quite catch that.

Sorry, I don’t quite understand. Do you mean …?

Agreeing with an examiner

That’s how I feel too.

 I couldn’t agree more – very well said.


To go to another page with information about how the oral interview is scored, click on oral interview.