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Shadowing practice: IELTS Speaking Part 1 - Questions with Jay & Alex

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  1. Hello everybody, my name is Jay.0:00
  2. I'm Alex and welcome to the E2 task of the week.0:01
  3. What are we going to do today?0:05
  4. Today we are working on IELTS speaking and in particular we're going to practice part one of the tests.0:07
  5. Okay, and what are we going to do specifically Alex?0:14
  6. Well, I'm gonna start with a speaking test overview.0:18
  7. Then we're gonna practice a full part one.0:21
  8. Mm -hmm.0:25
  9. We'll have a look at the criteria and do some self -evaluation and then at the end we'll go through some tips to improve your speaking.0:25
  10. Now, correct me if I'm wrong but today I'll be participating.0:33
  11. I'll be doing the exam, right?0:37
  12. Okay, that sounds fun.0:39
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  1. So you'll get to hear my responses which should be good for you, hopefully.0:40
  2. Okay, so Alex, can you give me just a bit of a background and overview of IELTS speaking?0:45
  3. Sure.0:51
  4. Well, basically the exam is one -on -one with an examiner.0:52
  5. It takes about 11 to 14 minutes and there are three sections or three parts to the exam.0:56
  6. Okay, and we're just doing part one today, right?1:03
  7. That's right, just part one.1:05
  8. Okay.1:06
  9. The easy part.1:07
  10. What about scoring?1:07
  11. Well, the examiner actually gives you four scores and there are four separate criteria.1:09
  12. So you'll get a score for fluency and coherence, lexical resource, that's your vocabulary, grammatical range and accuracy, and of course pronunciation and your final score is an average of1:14
  13. those four.1:29
  14. All right, and you're going to do a separate video on the scoring, right?1:31
  15. Yeah, we're going to talk about this in another video.1:35
  16. So just make sure that you subscribe to keep up with that.1:37
  17. And also like, comment, share with your buddies who are preparing for the test.1:42
  18. Okay, cool.1:47
  19. That sounds good.1:47
  20. All right, so let's imagine it's test day and I'm waiting in the room there with the other candidates.1:48
  21. What's going to happen?1:55
  22. So basically the examiner will pick you up from the waiting room, take you to the private examining room.1:58
  23. And in there, they will start a voice recorder and a timer, read an introduction, and then there will be a very quick identity check.2:05
  24. Okay, no problem.2:14
  25. Let's have a look at this.2:16
  26. So what happens here?2:18
  27. So the examiner will introduce themselves formally like this.2:21
  28. Hello, my name is Alex.2:25
  29. And then they'll ask you these questions.2:27
  30. Could you tell me your full name, please?2:30
  31. What shall I call you?2:33
  32. Can you tell me where you're from?2:36
  33. Okay.2:37
  34. Can I please see your identification?2:38
  35. Now this part of the test is not assessed.2:40
  36. So you should just give short factual answers.2:43
  37. So let me get this right.2:47
  38. So those questions we just saw, the examiner always asks those questions at the start.2:49
  39. Yeah.2:55
  40. Okay, can we practice this?2:56
  41. Let's do it.2:57
  42. Okay, I'm ready.2:58
  43. Short factual answers.2:59
  44. Short factual answers.3:00
  45. Hello.3:02
  46. Hello, Alex.3:03
  47. It's so good.3:04
  48. Hello, my name is Alex.3:04
  49. Could you tell me your full name, please?3:06
  50. My full name is Jay.3:08
  51. Jay.3:10
  52. Thank you.3:11
  53. What shall I call you?3:12
  54. You can call me Jay, but most of my friends, no, just short factual answers, right?3:13
  55. Okay.3:18
  56. What shall I call you?3:18
  57. Jay.3:19
  58. And can you tell me where you're from?3:20
  59. Well, I grew up in a really Australia.3:22
  60. Can I please see your identification?3:26
  61. Yes.3:29
  62. That's it.3:30
  63. Short factual answers.3:31
  64. This is not assessed.3:33
  65. So once you've done that, then we get into IELTS speaking part one.3:34
  66. Okay.3:38
  67. And what happens here?3:39
  68. Yeah.3:40
  69. All right.3:40
  70. So in this part, it goes for four to five minutes and you're going to talk about three topics.3:41
  71. And within each topic, there will be three or four questions.3:46
  72. All of these questions are simple, personal ones.3:51
  73. So they're pretty easy.3:55
  74. The test always begins like this.3:57
  75. Let's talk about what you do or let's talk about where you live.4:01
  76. Okay.4:07
  77. So it's going to be one of those two questions or start starting points, right?4:07
  78. That's it.4:12
  79. It always starts with a 50 -50 chance of these.4:13
  80. So you should really prepare to talk about what you do, work or study, or where you live.4:16
  81. Okay.4:22
  82. Great.4:22
  83. So then after that, there are two more topics and these could be about anything.4:23
  84. Okay.4:27
  85. Some of the common ones are sport, food, family, TV.4:27
  86. What's your favorite TV show?4:35
  87. Do you like watching TV?4:37
  88. Mobile phones, fashion, holidays, animals, anything.4:38
  89. Okay.4:43
  90. I have a question.4:44
  91. I don't like watching TV.4:45
  92. That's fine.4:48
  93. That's fine.4:48
  94. Yeah.4:49
  95. I can talk about that.4:49
  96. Of course you can.4:50
  97. And why I don't like watching TV.4:51
  98. I'd love to hear about that.4:52
  99. Okay.4:54
  100. Sounds good.4:54
  101. So let's practice.4:56
  102. All right.4:58
  103. So I'm going to play the role of the candidate and you'll be the examiner.4:58
  104. You're going to ask me the questions, right?5:02
  105. That's right.5:04
  106. Okay.5:05
  107. I'm ready.5:06
  108. So now I want to hear a bit more extension.5:06
  109. Okay.5:09
  110. So I need to extend my answers.5:10
  111. That's right.5:11
  112. So let's start.5:12
  113. Let's talk about where you live.5:13
  114. Do you live in a small town or a big city?5:15
  115. Big city.5:17
  116. I didn't extend my answer today.5:20
  117. So you have no idea about my language ability.5:22
  118. That's right.5:25
  119. The examiner is trying to rank you really from zero to nine to expert user.5:25
  120. So if you give a short answer, what are you zero or are you nine?5:30
  121. I can't tell.5:34
  122. It's hard to tell.5:35
  123. So what I need to do is extend my answers, try and use some good vocabulary, some different sentence structures, right?5:36
  124. Let's try it again.5:43
  125. Let's try it again.5:45
  126. Give me your best English.5:45
  127. All right.5:46
  128. And I'll speak for about 20 seconds.5:47
  129. Great.5:49
  130. Okay.5:49
  131. Cool.5:50
  132. So let's talk about where you live.5:50
  133. Do you live in a small town or a big city?5:51
  134. Well, actually I grew up in a small town, but I've been living in a reasonably big city for how long?5:54
  135. I guess about six or eight years now.6:00
  136. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Melbourne, but I've been living here and as far as I'm concerned, it's a beautiful city.6:03
  137. I'm nervous.6:11
  138. And what can people do for fun?6:13
  139. In Melbourne.6:15
  140. Well, it's actually a really sporting city.6:16
  141. We have the Grand Prix.6:19
  142. We have the football.6:20
  143. We have the cricket.6:21
  144. We're also surrounded by beaches.6:22
  145. So if you're a sporting person, it's very good for you.6:23
  146. But apart from sport, there's also shopping, lots of live music and fantastic restaurants.6:27
  147. I'm probably speaking a bit quickly because I'm getting nervous.6:33
  148. So I need to be conscious to slow down.6:36
  149. But the examiner is ticking off.6:38
  150. Very nice linking word.6:40
  151. Very nice intonation.6:41
  152. Oh, past perfect.6:43
  153. Oh, present perfect continuous.6:44
  154. Okay.6:46
  155. Okay, good.6:47
  156. I'm doing okay.6:48
  157. I'm doing okay.6:49
  158. One more question.6:50
  159. Okay.6:51
  160. Would you like to move to another place in the future?6:51
  161. Well, recently I visited New York City in America and that was the most amazing city I've ever been to.6:55
  162. Apart from Melbourne.7:02
  163. So perhaps I'd like to live there.7:03
  164. But to be quite honest with you, I'm very happy living in Melbourne.7:05
  165. Well done.7:09
  166. Okay.7:10
  167. I passed.7:11
  168. Cool.7:13
  169. Your turn, I think, right?7:14
  170. That's right.7:15
  171. All right.7:17
  172. So grab your phone because you're going to record your answers and listen back later.7:18
  173. You should aim for around 20 seconds per answer.7:23
  174. I'll have a timer on the screen so you can watch that.7:26
  175. Obviously in the real test, you won't have that advantage.7:29
  176. Are you ready?7:33
  177. Let's talk about where you live.7:35
  178. Do you live in a small town or a big city?7:37
  179. What can people do for fun there?8:01
  180. Would you like to move to another place in the future?8:25
  181. Let's move on to talk about clothes.8:49
  182. What kind of clothes do you like wearing?8:52
  183. How often do you go shopping for clothes?9:16
  184. Do you prefer to shop for clothes alone or with someone else?9:39
  185. How often do you go shopping for clothes alone or with someone else?9:45
  186. How often do you go shopping for clothes alone or with someone else?10:38
  187. Are you healthier now than when you were a child?10:58
  188. What could you do to have a healthier lifestyle?11:25
  189. How often do you go shopping for clothes alone or with someone else?11:56
  190. How often do you go shopping for clothes alone or with someone else?12:13
  191. How often do you go shopping for clothes alone or with someone else?12:24
  192. How often do you go shopping for clothes alone or with someone else?13:13
  193. What was the best word you used?13:24
  194. Did you paraphrase effectively?13:59
  195. Did you use a wide range of structures?14:10
  196. Did you use a wide range of structures?14:20
  197. Did you use a wide range of structures?14:41
  198. Did you use a wide range of structures?15:34
  199. Did you use a wide range of structures?16:02
  200. Did you use a wide range of structures?16:09
  201. Did you use a wide range of structures?16:39

IELTS Speaking Practice with Jay and Alex, B1 Pace

This clip is an IELTS speaking practice session, not a scripted classroom drill. Jay and Alex, hosts of a B1 level lesson, sit down to walk through the exam format before Jay actually sits the test as a candidate. That structure, one host explaining, one host about to perform, gives you two different kinds of speech to shadow in a single recording: relaxed planning talk and then a formal exam exchange.

The pace sits at 146 words per minute, faster than most of the catalogue, so this is not a slow warm up clip. The accent is Australian, and the opening runs through the exam overview, how scoring works across four criteria, and what happens on test day before the examiner even asks the first question. If you want ielts speaking practice that sounds like two real people talking rather than a recorded prompt, this is that.

Casual Planning Talk Versus Formal Exam Language

The opening half of this clip is two people planning out loud, and it is full of the small reductions that make native speech hard to catch. Alex says "Well, I'm gonna start with a speaking test overview." and later "Then we're gonna practice a full part one.", both using the same contracted "gonna" you will hear constantly in everyday English speaking practice, not just in this lesson.

Then the register shifts. When Alex demonstrates how a real examiner opens the test, the line goes flat and formal: "Hello, my name is Alex." Compare that to Jay's own opening line at the very start of the video, "Hello everybody, my name is Jay.", and you can hear the difference between a warm introduction and a scripted, procedural one, useful if you are aiming to speak english fluently in both registers, not just one.

  • "Well, I'm gonna start with a speaking test overview." listen for how gonna collapses into one quick beat instead of two separate words
  • "Then we're gonna practice a full part one." the same reduction repeated, so you can drill the rhythm twice in a row
  • "Hello, my name is Alex." the flat, formal delivery an examiner actually uses, worth matching if IELTS speaking topics are your goal

A Line by Line Order for This IELTS Speaking Clip

Work through this recording in the order the conversation actually happens, not by skipping to the exam questions further in. The scoring explanation is dense and worth slowing down for before you shadow the exam simulation later in the clip.

  • Start with Jay's opener, "Hello everybody, my name is Jay.", and Alex's reply, to get the greeting rhythm before anything else
  • Shadow line 6 and line 7 back to back so the two gonna reductions land the same way both times
  • Slow down on line 24, where Alex lists "fluency and coherence, lexical resource, that's your vocabulary, grammatical range and accuracy", pausing after each criterion the way he does
  • Repeat "Hello, my name is Alex." on its own a few times to fix the formal, examiner register separately from the casual planning talk earlier
  • Once those four are solid, keep going into the rest of the clip and shadow it the same way, one short line at a time, checking your own score against how close you land to the pace
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