Academic Speaking Tests Commentaries 1 - 4 and Film

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Commentary on the Example Speaking Recordings and Film for the ieltshelpnow.com Academic Practice Tests 1 - 5 Below you will nd reports by an IELTS speaking examiner on four recordings and one lm of example IELTS test interviews - tests 1 - 5. The questions asked in the recordings are the questions in the Speaking Test sections of ieltshelpnow.com Academic Tests 1, 2 , 3, 4 and 5. While listening to the recordings or watching the lm, it would be helpful for you to have the question sheets with you to refer to. The recordings are not real IELTS test recordings but the interviewer is a real IELTS examiner and the recordings are conducted in the exact way that an IELTS Speaking Test is done. The students interviewed were IELTS students who were doing an IELTS preparation course in the UK. The reports on each interview were written by the IELTS examiner who conducted the interviews. The examiner has tried to analyse the strong and weak parts of each of the students and this will give you a better understanding into how give a better performance in the IELTS Speaking Test. To further help you, if you have not done so already, please look at the right hand side of the ieltshelpnow.com Home Page where you will nd a series of free Academic Test Tutorials including Speaking. Here you will nd advice on how to do and prepare for the IELTS Speaking Test.

Speaking Practice Test 1 Examiner’s Commentary The student interviewed was Ilaria, an Italian female. The Speaking Test is in three sections. Let’s rst look at each of these sections in turn to identify the strong points as well as the weaknesses. Section 1 Ilaria was very condent and gave full answers to all the questions. It started well when Ilaria gave a very full answer to the rst question about her family and, without being prompted, went on to talk about where her family lived as well. This kind of full answer going further than the question asks is a good sign that the student is comfortable in English and can talk with easy uency. The rest of Section 1 went equally well. Ilaria was not sporty so the questions from Topic 1 on Health and Exercise could not have suited her that well. In spite of this Ilaria gave full answers to all the questions. This is important as Ilaria showed that she could speak capably on a subject about which she knew little and had little interest in. On the other hand in Topic 2 Ilaria showed the examiner that she could answer the questions at length in English. Because of this Ilaria only needed 2 questions to be asked in Topic 2. Also in reply to the second question in Topic 2, Ilaria answers  Yes, absolutely and then goes on to explain her answer without the need for the examiner to have to ask Why. This is often a good sign of a good, uent candidate. Section 1 was very well answered by Ilaria and I do not feel that there were any bad points. Section 2 Ilaria continued with the same uency as Section 1. The examiner allowed Ilaria to talk for the full 2 minutes and she had no problem doing this. Not all IELTS interviews are this long but it is always

up to the examiner to decide the length of the interview and not the candidate. Ilaria hardly took any of the one available minute for preparation. This is absolutely no problem. It is wholly up to the candidate to decide to take all or part of the minute. It does not affect the marking of the test in any way. However, the longer that a student has to prepare the talk, then the easier it will probably be for the student to speak well. Therefore I would always advise candidates to take advantage of the full minute. Ilaria does not talk that fast, says erm quite a lot and has frequent, short hesitations. None of these is a problem. It is not a mistake to speak slowly. Indeed, if candidates talk slowly, then they are less likely to make any uency, grammatical or vocabulary errors and subsequently are more condent and comfortable. The hesitations and erms are only normal features of someone who has to talk for 2 minutes on a quickly prepared subject. Ilaria talked with some uency on the subject in the question and covered the areas that the question asked to be talked about with detail and relevant examples. Finally the examiner asked a question to nish off Section 2. Ilaria gave a short answer to this and that is all that is required. This Section 2 is shorter than a lot of others but this is because Ilaria did not use the minute available for preparation. Again there are no bad parts in this section. Section 3 In Topic 1 Ilaria’s answers were not as full as earlier. She does say though often that she didn’t know much about the subject. Despite this she still managed full answers to all the questions. However, as long as a student answers each question to some extent, the student can then wait for the question(s) that they can really take advantage of and speak longer about. Then in Topic 2 she had more to say and spoke at greater length in reply to the questions. So, although some answers were shorter than others, there are no bad parts to Section 3. Marking

The marking of the IELTS Speaking Test is done in 4 parts. Below is how the examiner evaluates this student. Pronunciation

Ilaria’s pronunciation of English is excellent which allows her to be easily understood at all times. There is a trace of an accent in her English but this does not interfere with intelligibility at any time. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Ilaria accurately and appropriately uses a wide range of grammatical structures. Lexical Resource

There is the occasional slightly inappropriate word choice but this does not happen very often and it does not affect the listener’s understanding. Fluency and Coherence

Ilaria’s uency and coherence is very good. Ilaria’s language is appropriate and the joining language is all correctly used. Ilaria’s answers to questions are logically developed and there is little repetition or self-correction.

Estimated IELTS Speaking Band:

9

Speaking Practice Test 2 Examiner’s Commentary The student interviewed was Sandra, a Colombian female. The Speaking Test is in three sections. First of all let’s look at each of these sections in turn to identify the strong and weak parts of the interview. Section 1 Sandra was a little bit nervous and not very condent in her speech. She answered all the questions but some of the questions, particularly in Topic 2, could have been longer and better developed. Most people nd that Section 1 of the IELTS Speaking Test is the easiest section and therefore students should take the opportunity to talk as long and as fully as they can while the questions are at their simplest. For example, the examiner asks Sandra about the advantages and disadvantages of living in her area. She talks about the climate as an advantage, which is good, and then mentions that her area is near other good places but she does not talk more about this. She could talk about other good things regarding her area and she did not even mention one disadvantage. This was wasting an opportunity. On the other hand she answered most of the questions quite well and this was certainly no disaster. Section 2 In Section 2 Sandra managed to get over the one minute mark without any problems but it appeared as though it would have been hard for her to go any longer than she did. Like Ilaria in the recording for the Academic Speaking Test 1, Sandra did not make use of the one minute preparation time. It sounds as though the examiner got her started early but it was Sandra who indicated that she was ready to begin. By not taking the time to make notes on each part of the question, Sandra’s talk was a bit disjointed and lost coherence at times. Here is an example where using the one minute preparation time would have had great benet. On the other hand Sandra did manage to answer most parts of the question. Looking at her actual speaking, Sandra often had long hesitations as she searched for things to say and to connect her ideas. The connections were not always clear and she shifted subject a couple of times in one sentence. If she could have nished each of the sentences by developing the subjects of each sentence and then change the subject coherently, it would have been a much better talk. Again, preparation would have beneted her. She did not lose marks for not preparing but the lack of coherence in her talk that the lack of preparation caused affected her score. Section 3 Section 3 started very well with Sandra giving long and full answers to the questions in Topic 1. In Topic 2 however the answers were not as long and could have been better developed, speaking about the subjects in more depth. For example the last question was not really answered properly at all with Sandra only saying that holidays would change by having more amenities. If Topic 2 could have been answered as fully as Topic 1 then she would have made a much better

impression. Marking

The Marking of the IELTS Speaking Test is done in 4 parts. Below is how the examiner evaluates this student. Pronunciation

Sandra’s pronunciation was not that clear. There were areas where there were no problems but there were also times when her strong accent, intonation and stress problems caused difculties for the listener. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Sandra’s grammar was often faulty. Sandra’s basic sentences were controlled fairly well but more complex grammar often broke down. There were lots of mistakes scattered throughout her speech as well, some of them quite basic. Lexical Resource

Sandra’s vocabulary was good enough to discuss familiar and unfamiliar topics but she had limited exibility. There were quite a few pauses where she had to stop to search for the right word and not always with success. Fluency and Coherence

Sandra’s uency and coherence was sometimes quite good and she showed the ability to talk independently and at some length to questions. On areas that she was not so sure about though her uency and coherence sometimes broke down and this led to quite a lot of hesitation and a bit of repetition. Estimated IELTS Speaking Band:

5

Speaking Practice Test 3 Examiner’s Commentary The student interviewed was Tina, a Chinese female. The Speaking Test is in three sections. First of all let’s look at each of these sections in turn to identify the strong and weak parts of the interview. Section 1 Tina was a bit nervous and hesitant at the start but she gave full answers that addressed the questions. She talked quite slowly but that is no problem. In fact talking slowly allowed Tina to consider what she was saying and so she was less likely to make grammar mistakes and lose control of her coherence. The fact that Tina did not need all the questions from Section 1 to nish

the section shows how well and fully she answered the questions. Section 2 Tina is lucky as she says she is interested in this topic and so she nds it easy to talk about. Candidates in IELTS are not allowed to ask for a change in topic so, if you are given a topic you know little about, you will just have to do the best you can. The topics are all of general interest and anyone should be able to talk about the topics for 2 minutes. The rst important thing in this interview was that Tina took full advantage of the 1 minute preparation time. This allowed Tina to make notes on all parts of the question. At one point at the end of her talk Tina had nished a sentence and did not know how to continue. She checked her notes and saw that she had written something about how often she went to the restaurant. Therefore, after the short gap to check her notes (which is ne) she was able to continue condently with her talk. This shows the value of using the 1 minute preparation time and making the notes on the paper provided. In Section 2 Tina again spoke quite slowly and, as pointed out above, there is nothing wrong with this. Sometimes though she was a bit overly hesitant and stopped in the middle of sentences which affected the uency of the talk a little. On the other hand, Tina covered the areas required in the question and talked without any problems until the examiner asked her to stop. Section 3 Tina continued to give reasonable answers in Section 3. Where she sometimes went wrong was in trying to say too much. Occasionally she nished a sentence but wanted to continue in order to make a better impression. This is good of course but only if you have more to say. If you have no further ideas and you try to carry on, there will most likely be a lot of hesitations and eventually repetition of ideas. This is what happened sometimes to Tina. If you have no further ideas, it is better to stop with the good things that you have already said and wait for a new question. Nevertheless Tina had a lot of good things to say though she was more hesitant and had more breakdowns in uency and accuracy due to the more complicated nature of the questions. She often hesitated at the start of answering questions while she thought momentarily about her answer. This is ne. The examiner does not expect everyone to be able to answer every question instantly without thinking for a short time. Marking

The Marking of the IELTS Speaking Test is done in 4 parts. Below is how the examiner evaluates this student. Pronunciation

Tina’s pronunciation was fairly clear. Most of her speech was easily understood and, although she has a Chinese accent, this does not interfere too much with the listener’s comprehension. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Tina’s grammar was often good but there were basic errors as well. The errors became more frequent in Section 3 as the questions became more demanding and the language became more complicated to answer them.

Lexical Resource

Tina used quite a variety of vocabulary. It was easily sufcient to cope with familiar topics and some unfamiliar topics and, although sometimes she did not know the right word, she could come up with an acceptable alternative and attempted to paraphrase quite successfully. Fluency and Coherence

Tina’s uency and coherence was ne in Section 1 and parts of Section 2 but as the questions and language became more demanding, her speech broke down from time to time and hesitancy came in. However, she showed the ability to talk at length and clearly answered the questions asked her. Estimated IELTS Speaking Band:

6

Speaking Practice Test 4 Examiner’s Commentary The student interviewed was Won, a Korean male. The Speaking Test is in three sections. Let’s rst look at each of these sections in turn to identify the strong points as well as the weaknesses. Section 1 Won seemed fairly condent but was not really sufciently prepared for the initial questions. Students know pretty much the themes of the opening questions and he could have given a fuller answer when asked to describe where he was living. What he said was adequate however. This though was just the start and he soon warmed up and gave logical, full answers. He continued through Section 1 comfortably, speaking fairly uently and in a clear accent. In Topic 1 he gave slightly shorter answers but this would be quite a hard topic for some people. He also gave an interesting image describing parks as lungs for a city which was a big plus point showing he could use the language very exibly. There were some basic errors too but I put that down to nervousness. Section 1 was very well answered by Won and, although he could have given slightly longer answers to some of the questions, there were no major weak areas. Section 2 Won only took about 30 seconds of the available minute to prepare but this is ne as I have mentioned before. He spoke for only just over 1 minute which is just over the minimum allowance.  As he was quite uent and had showed that he had a good command of the language, I stopped him but I thought about making him continue. I think that Won would have been better off preparing for longer and speaking a bit further into the second minute. Apart from that Won was ne. He answered all the required parts of the question and used good vocabulary, uency and even humour. Section 3 Won was a little hesitant but the questions were quite tricky. He still gave good, well thought out answers though. He made more slips here in his language, eg: the pluralisation of the uncountable

“expenditures”, the wrong vocabulary choice of “get a ght” and the wrong pronunciation of “chores” but these were minor and did not affect comprehension. So I found Won’s Section 3 very strong. Marking

The marking of the IELTS Speaking Test is done in 4 parts. Below is how the examiner evaluates this student. Pronunciation

Won’s pronunciation of English is fairly good especially for a Korean as the Korean language is so different in terms of pronunciation to English. I had no difculty in understanding nearly all of what Won had to say. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Won used a wide range of grammatical structures with few errors. Any errors seemed to be unsystematic (ie: slips). Lexical Resource

There is the occasional inappropriate word choice but this is infrequent and it does not affect the listener’s understanding. Fluency and Coherence

Won’s uency and coherence is very good. His language is mostly situationally appropriate and his answers to questions are logically developed. Most of the time the joining language is well used. Estimated IELTS Speaking Band:

7

Speaking Practice Test 5 - Film Version Examiner’s Commentary For this example speaking practice test, please nd the lm in 2 parts on You tube. Your product will provide a PDF le with a link to the correct online page. The student interviewed was Vinu, an Indian male. The Speaking Test is in three sections. Let’s rst look at each of these sections in turn to identify the strong points as well as the weaknesses. Section 1 Vinu showed that he was a little difdent. He was condent, but he was a little reluctant to open up and talk as much as he could have done. He was clearly an accomplished English speaker, but did not show this off as much as he could have done. Vinu’s answers were perfectly accurate and he spoke at length in places. He could have gone into more detailed answers though. For example, he

said he could have gone more into his enjoyment of cricket in the past, instead of just saying that he used to watch it. In spite of this, Vinu showed great uency and accuracy in his answers and used a wide range of accurate lexis. Section 2 Vinu spoke clearly and accurately using complex utterances as well as simple and complex sentences. Vinu referred back to his past memories and explained why the location was important to him. He did not speak for very long, although he did fulll the basic requirements of 1 minute. He showed his strong ability at English in this section and also showed that he could speak for a long turn. I would have preferred that he talk for longer than just over a minute though as this would have really proved to me that he could talk uently for long periods. There was the occasional grammatical inconsistency, but this was not serious in any way. Section 3  Again, Vinu showed that he was very uent and that he had access to a wide and sophisticated vocabulary. Again, it would have been nice if Vinu had taken more initiative to show off with his ability, but he spoke for longer than the minimum 4 minutes required for this section. At the end Vinu got a little repetitive in his choice of vocabulary, but in general, Vinu’s vocabulary choice was very sophisticated. Marking

The marking of the IELTS Speaking Test is done in 4 parts. Below is how the examiner evaluates this student. Pronunciation

Vinu had an obvious Indian accent, but this did not affect communication in any way and his pronunciation was clear and his intonation and tone usually matched that of a native speaker. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Vinu made very few grammatical errors and he used both simple, compound and complex structures uently and accurately. Lexical Resource

This was one of Vinu’s strongest areas. He used a wide variety of complex vocabulary in order to develop and explain his points. Fluency and Coherence

Vinu was a little unwilling to go into detail as much as he could have done, but what he did say he said with native speaker uency and his language was wholly coherent, with the ideas he presented being built logically on each other. Estimated IELTS Speaking Band

9