IELTS Speaking Sample Answer Cambridge IELTS 7 Speaking Test 2
IELTS Speaking Test Part 3 | Discussion topics
Some people think that education should be about memorizing the important ideas of the past. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Personally I think it’s important to understand the ideas of the past. History can show us what has been successful and what has failed previously. There are many lessons to be learned, and history has a habit of repeating itself throughout life. If we understand what has been good and bad for us based on past experience then I think we can better shape our future. Simply memorizing facts about things that happened in the past isn’t enough to plan for the future. We need more understanding of past events and why they happened, the consequences and how we can learn from it. It’s all about thinking skills – not memorizing.
Should education encourage students to develop and share their own ideas?I think that’s the general consensus nowadays. There’s a certain body of knowledge that students need to acquire, but the education system should be focused on developing their creative thinking skills and then developing the practical competences to allow them to implement their ideas in the real world. I think it’s clear that the young generation is all about sharing knowledge and ideas. You can see that through social media and many other examples. It’s going to become even more so in the future. Knowledge sharing and working together to solve problems is more common now than in previous years.
How do you think teachers could help students to develop and share their own ideas?I suppose they could design more creative based tasks and project work for students to do and make sure that students are positively encouraged to come up with new ideas and try them out. It probably requires more time and effort, but at the end of the day, there’s little point in all the students working on the same thing. Diversity and the ability to think differently are premium skills in the employment market nowadays so it’s also important that students learn how to be more independent in their thinking while at school or college. By trying out many different ideas students can soon find out what works and what doesn’t and then hopefully their natural curiosity can help them try other things, other methods and techniques until they produce something they are happy with. When it comes to sharing, I think there could be more use made of communication through the internet to share student generated ideas with other students in different parts of the country, or even world.
Ideas in the workplaceShould employers encourage their workers to have new ideas about improving the company? Why? Well, this is pretty normal nowadays isn’t it? I mean, most companies nowadays actively encourage their employees to get involved with things and try to improve the various processes and functions of the company to achieve better efficiency and savings for the benefit of everyone. It’s important that employees feel involved and an important part of the company they work for because it gives them a bigger stake in the company rather than just working for a wage.
Do you think people sometimes dislike ideas just because they are new? Why?Yes, I think that’s very evident and has always been the case. People in general don’t like changes or new ideas, but eventually we adopt them and they become normal. If you look back at some of the things we have today which are now considered normal, many of them were originally considered radical ideas and there was a degree of resistance to them when they were first introduced.
What is more difficult: having new ideas or putting them into practice? Which is more important for a successful company?It could be that both are equally difficult. A lot depends on circumstances. Some people are very creative and can come up with new ideas all the time, but if they don’t have the means or the knowledge to put them in to practice then the idea goes nowhere. Other people have the resources and technical skills to make things happen but they maybe aren’t so good at thinking of new ideas. It takes both of these kinds of people or organizations to come together to actually implement an idea, because until a new idea becomes something in reality it is just an idea and nothing else.
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