IELTS Speaking Part 2: interesting house

 Let's return to the part 2 task below.

Describe an interesting house or apartment that you have visited.
You should say

- where the house or apartment was
- who lived there
- what it looked like on the outside and/or inside
- and explain why you found this house or apartment interesting.

If I were working on this topic with students in a lesson, we would begin by preparing some good vocabulary ideas. I would ask my students to develop some vocabulary 'themes'.

For example, if we imagine that we are describing an apartment, perhaps a key theme could be that it is modern. Now we can develop the 'modern' theme:

• up to the minute
• contemporary
• fashionable, cool, trendy
• decor, lighting, furniture
• open-plan
• colours and their effects e.g. relaxing, soothing
• materials e.g. glass, metal, granite
• rooms e.g. kitchen, living room
• gadgets, appliances
• windows, heating
• remote control, digital, phone app
• overall feeling e.g. sharp, clean, efficient, spacious

Try using some of these ideas to describe the inside of a modern apartment and to explain why you like it.