Great. So overall you did really well. You probably wouldn't score a band 9 So band 9 is the full mark. and this is quite surprising for many native speakers because they think they're going to ace the test One of the difficulties for you, cause you finished all your answers quite soon, it just doesn't give the opportunity to, for the examiner to hear everything they want. Also, occasionally, you mumble a little bit. Now, what does the word mumble mean? Mumble's like when I don't speak clearly? Exactly. Yeah. So at times I was really straining to listen to what you were trying to say. and I couldn't catch exactly what you wanted to say. And you might lose half a mark for this one; So you probably get a band 8.5 overall. I mean you did really well, but because you've never taken the test before, you don't know about it. And so, if you were to take the test again, just try and elaborate on your answers a little bit more. Okay. Overall, well done. Awesome. Thank you, Chris. In the speaking test, it is incredibly important that you develop your ideas and that you speak as much as possible. In today's video, we're going to be looking at Tom and we're going to be joining his speaking test where sometimes he gives a few short answers. Now, Tom is a native English speaker and this is an example when maybe he would be marked down a little bit because of his short answers. So if you're ready to start watching, let's go. Hello and welcome to this practice exam conducted by IELTS Daily. My name is Maddie and I'm your practice examiner. the questions in this test are designed to simulate the IELTS speaking test. Let's start. What's your first name, please? First name is Tom. Thanks Tom. At the beginning of the IELTS test, you'll be required to provide some ID, but as this is a practice test, we don't need to do that today. I want to begin by talking about you. Where do you live? Oh, I'm from Melbourne, from Yaraville. Alright. So, Tom answered this question in quite a short way. I will forgive him in this case, because yes, you could just say, "I live in town". That's okay. But you could say, "I live in Paris and Paris is the capital city of France. I live in a neighborhood just to the east of the city center. Do you notice how that is a different answer to Tom's, which was very short? So just bear that in mind in the test, I want you to develop your answer a little bit more. And do you enjoy living there? Yeah, it's a really nice neighborhood. And where do you think you'll live in the future? I'm not sure where I'll be in the future, but I hope to stay in Australia. So he said, "I'm not sure where I'll be in the future, but I hope to stay in Australia". It's quite a short answer. It is a little bit developed because he has some grammatical complexity. It's a complex sentence, but what more could he say? "I'm not too sure; it depends on my job. It might mean that I go and work overseas, but I really kind of hope to stay in Australia. This is where I was born and this is where I was raised. Most of my family's here". Do you see how that's a little bit of a longer
answer? And would you like to live in a house or an apartment? I'm definitely more of a house person. I've grown up in a house and that's where I want to be in the future. Again, very short answer. Explain why. Why is a house better for you? Not just because you've grown up there, but what are the features of a house that you like? What are the disadvantages of an apartment? All of those things could be expanded on and he's giving really short, fast answers at this point. This could be problematic in the test; it could mean that he loses some marks. Okay. Let's move on to the topic of walking. Are you a fan of walking? Yeah, I'd say I'm a pretty fast walker. Okay. So, are you a fan of walking? He answers, "Yeah, I'm a pretty fast walker". Well, the examiner asked about whether he's a fan of walking, which means, does he like walking? Now in the test, there is no right or wrong answer. You won't be marked for how accurate your answer is. But I do think this would give you a lot of opportunity to expand more. Are you a fan of walking? Yes. I love going to the countryside and spending a day walking. Or no, I'm not really a fan of walking. I tend to enjoy sitting in the garden. Sometimes if I'm bored, I might go for a walk with my friend. Try to develop the answers because it will give you more opportunities to show grammatical complexity and to really, really give the examiner more meat so that they can mark your vocabulary, your lexical resource. Yeah. And do you like it? Yeah, I like walking. More than running? Oooohhhh..... Yeah. I think I've gotten like, to like walking a bit more than running. And where do you normally walk? Now, around the house and the hospital. So it's nice to go outside as well. Where do you normally walk? Around the house. Do you think that there would be more opportunities to expand on this answer? I think there are so many opportunities. Even if you're not a fan of walking, you could show off to the examiner. You could say, Yeah, I love going for walks with my friends. We'll often take a stroll. So, S-T-R-O-L-L. A stroll. You could say, "I often go for a wander with my friends. We like to spend time together by going for walk and taking in the sights of the city, getting some fresh air." All of these pieces of language you could use, you could incorporate into your speech, so that you could show the examiner just how great you are. I think at the moment, Tom's answers are just a little bit too short. He's not giving the examiner the opportunity to mark his really great language. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a special place you go walking? Oh, I think, I think the most special places, the places that you don't expect to walk. Somewhere, somewhere in your neighborhood that you've just never explored before. Yeah. And who do you normally go walking with? Normally I go walking by myself. Yeah. But it's nice going on a walk with mom or dad. Again, lots and lots of short answers throughout this section. Try to expand. If you're taking the test, try to elaborate just a little bit more. Now I want to talk about markets. Do you shop at a market? Yeah, usually I shop at a supermarket, my local, what is Kohl's. Markets. So much language that Tom could talk about here. And he just says, "Yeah, I like to shop in supermarkets. And my local one is...". I feel like he's missing the opportunity to show the examiner just how great he is. Markets is a really broad topic. It could be about a local market with fresh produce. It could be a supermarket. And you could describe both. You could talk about the experience. No, I'm not really a person that goes to markets but I do go to supermarkets. I tend to go twice a week. I tend to drop in, in case I have some groceries that I need to buy. So many things that you could be saying at this point, but I'm just a little bit disappointed that he's not expanding on his answers very much. If you listen to some of our other speakers in our other videos, you will notice that they do elaborate and they talk a lot more about their answers. Why do people shop at markets? To buy things, go groceries. Usually a bit of medicine or what not as well. Why do people shop at markets? Well, let's think about some ideas together now. People shop at markets because they're preparing food for the week, for their family and markets tend to sell fresh produce, fresh produce. Markets have a wide variety of goods; You can buy many things at a market. They tend to be well located or conveniently located in the center of an area. So really try to think of many reasons why people would shop at markets. Why do you shop or why don't you shop at a market? Giving these an opportunity to mark your speech is vital in the speaking test. Is food better from a supermarket or a market? I haven't had much experience shopping at a market, like a farmer's market. But... and generally, I've just bought stuff from a supermarket. From what I've heard about markets, my mom tells me it's a bit fresher, the markets. Yeah. Are markets becoming more or less popular? I'm not sure if I could say the trend is becoming more popular. I'm just going to pause there. The answer to this question was just a little bit mumbled and this might affect Tom's pronunciation mark. I have listened to this a couple of times, and I really don't quite understand what he's trying to say. I didn't catch all the words in the middle. So, clarity of pronunciation might be lost a little bit here. He'd probably be marked down at this point. But obviously in more recent times, that there's been an upward trend in the markets I've seen advertised. I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes. Before you talk, you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make notes if you wish. Here's a paper and a pencil for making notes, and he is your topic. I would like you to describe a teacher you remember. Okay, Thank you. So remember, you have one to two minutes for this, so don't worry if I stop you. I'll tell you when the time is up. Can you start speaking now, please? No worries. For my former teacher, we had Mr. Bush, he was young, about in his late twenties. Had a 4-year form, English, Roy economics, which was actually really good cause he was my favorite teacher. So he's, he's always smartly dressed. He's always in boots. Wherever you see him, He's not without boots. He's always at a shirt, and he's always had a smile on his face. So, it's one of the... everyone's favorite teacher, I think. So we liked his posted students. Every form, we talked about via everything go around the classroom, always talks to every student, to catch up and make sure they're doing well. He was just very charismatic person and he's done, he's done a bit of a weird unorthodox way of, with his career. So he used to go, he was in marketing before. Then, he changed careers cause he didn't like it so much. Then he went in to teach you or that was a bit of a very bright move. And I think it suits his personality a lot more this is very good with people. That's one of my favorite things. Before he went into marketing, he did rowing professionally, the great rower. I remember he was telling us he just missed out on the Australian Olympic Team. and then I was really supportive as well cause I wouldn't see it like, like see him achieve great things as good as shape. They didn't make it. I don't know if you noticed that in the beginning of his part two, Tom was struggling a little bit to think of ideas and again, he probably could have developed his answers a little bit more. Be prepared for a topic on teachers or a person. And my advice to you: If you can't think of a person, just try to invent somebody. There are so many stories that you could tell about any person invented or real. It doesn't really matter. The point is for part two, you have to speak fluently for over one minute and you have to include as many ideas and opinions and feelings as you can. And I just feel that Tom maybe was lacking in expanding his answers. So a bit of advice for you guys, if you can't think of ideas, just invent something. Great. Well, thank you. Well, now, let's talk about education in general. Should all children be required to stay in school until the age of 18? I think so. I think education is a really important part of life. I think everyone would generally agree with that For my experience with people who have dropped out a bit earlier, at the time they think it's right they feel the need to be more independent to work, to be able to support the family early. But oftentimes they will look back and they'll want to... they'll regret not finishing high school. I think just having that foundation of high school I'm not, not just for the education but for your social standing as well. I'll start to study, but social skills be it, interact and talk with your peers. I think it's really important. Tom had some great language in this part, to improve your social standing. Social standing is a collocation of two words, which means to improve your position in society, your social standing. He expanded on his answers here without much effort, which was really positive. So he's doing a little bit better in this section. Is teaching a popular career in your country? I want to say it's the most popular career, but I think it's a well respected career. I think the most popular opinion there is, is that teachers are underpaid for the work cause their work really is invaluable, cause we really do need really good teachers for good students, for the better generation. Could he have spoken a little bit more about how popular teaching is as a career? He talks a little bit about being undervalued and not well paid. And he said that it is invaluable. It's an invaluable career. Good language. Again, I just look for a little bit more from Tom. I just want him to expand a little bit more. Yeah. Why do people become teachers? I think a lot of times, people become teachers to influence the next generation, to give back. I think a lot of them would have had good teachers that would inspire them. There was one other teach- students to the best of their abilities as well. Will technology replace classroom teachers? I really doubt so. There have been online education programs, plus the ed-roller. And I feel like even though they can supplement practical or in-person teaching that they definitely can substitute them. Thank you very much. That is the end of the speaking test. Wonderful. Thanks, Tom and thanks, Maddie. I want to look at the band descriptors today and think about how Tom would have scored if he had taken the real test. Let's have a look at the band descriptors on the screen now, and you will see that for the fluency and coherence, Did he meet a band 9? Speaks fluently with only rare repetition or self-correction. Yes. But he didn't have to repeat himself; he used a variety of different words. Any hesitation is content related rather than defined words or grammar. Yes. Speaks coherently with fully appropriate cohesive features. Coherently understandable? Yes. Develops topics fluently and appropriately. I think this is the area that we would mark Tom down. I don't think that he develops topics fully. I think he could have spoken a lot more. And so therefore, I would award Tom a band 8 in the fluency and coherence section. The next section is lexical resource. It says for a band 9, he uses vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics. He uses idiomatic language naturally and accurately. I would probably say that a generous examiner would give Tom a 9 in this section. He did have lots of idiomatic features. He had less common words and he did use the language flexibly. Grammatical range and accuracy: I would say that he would score about 9 here too. He uses a full range of structures naturally and appropriately, and he produces consistently accurate structures apart from slips. So yes, he didn't have any major problems here. The final category is pronunciation. And this, we've spoken about during the test. He did make some mumbled sentences. He gave us a few sentences where I didn't quite catch what he would try- what he was trying to say. And therefore, for a band 8, it says: is easy to understand throughout; L 1 accent has minimal effect on intelligibility. So he is easy to understand throughout. To meet a band 9, it says: is effortless to understand. And it's this part that I think is problematic because it was not effortless to understand. There were a couple of moments where I had to strain and still couldn't quite understand what he was wanting to say. So overall 8, 9, 9, 8 would be an overall band score of 8.5. And this is an example where a native speaker could just be a little bit more prepared to speak as fluently and as clearly as possible. And many native speakers come out of the test with about 8 or a band 8.5 because they were just a little bit underprepared. Well done to Tom. Anyway, he did a great job and I hope you guys learned something about this in the test. How to evaluate using the band descriptors, they're an incredibly important set of, marking criteria that you should be aware of. You should download those band descriptors. You can find them anywhere on the internet. You can see below. It's just the IELTS speaking band descriptors. You can Google those or put them in a search engine and fine them very easily. Come back for more videos when we'll be looking at different speaking problems and also things that students do really well. My name is Chris from IELTS daily, Welcome to this channel! If you haven't already clicked the subscribe button, make sure you come back and watch future videos. Nice to see you!
