Talking about changes: globalisation, urbanisation & technology (GUT)

A very common IELTS Speaking Part 3 questions is for the examiner to ask about 'changes in your country'. For example if the topic is tourism, the question may be ''How has tourism changed in your country?'' or for leisure time, ''In what ways has leisure time changed in your country?''

Often these questions will contain a time expression, such as ''in the last 10 years'', ''since you were a child''. These are unimportant. The question is about changes. Your answer needs to be focused on two or three changes.

Myanmar is a developing country and this means answering this type of question can be quite easy because developing countries are experiencing some common changes. These are:

• Globalisation

• Urbanisation

• Technology

You can remember these three changes as G.U.T or GUT. Memorise this mnemonic (=letters that can help you remember an idea) and use it to prepare answers about changes.

Listen to the model answer to a 'change question' about fashion and note how the speaker uses GUT to structure his answer.

Quantifiers (= words that indicate quantity) are also important when we talk about change. Listen again and complete the seven gaps in the transcript below with the quantifiers.

'Okay..yep..fashion...ah...that's a good question. Fashion has changed (1) _______ in my country in the last ten years or so. Um...I think two things have...ah...caused changes in fashion in Myanmar.

Firstly, globalisation has meant that people in Myanmar are now (2) _________ aware of fashion in other countries and combined with that...ah...improved technology means that people can now access changes in fashion trends very quickly. Um, and there's (3) ________ importing of ...ah...different fashion, particularly from places like South Korea. So, in my country, especially among young people, they are wearing (4) ___________ ...ah...sort of western style dress and clothes and also hairstyles and the way they look.

Ah...having said that... I think there is a difference between the city and the countryside, so while...ah...changes in fashion are (5)_________ visible in the city areas, in the urban areas ...ah...in the rural areas,(6) ____________ and (7) ____________ people..ah...still wear traditional Myanmar clothes, traditional longyis, particularly women.

Um..so...yeah fashion has changed...ah...but I think there is a difference between..ah...fashion in the cities and fashion in rural areas.''

When you are ready, enter you answers in the sheet below