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Shadowing practice: What a Band 9 IELTS Speaking Test Actually Sounds Like

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  1. We're going to start off by talking about art and photography.0:00
  2. Do you like art?0:03
  3. Hmm, that's interesting.0:05
  4. Depends on what.0:08
  5. I like cinema, for instance, movies, music, but I don't know too much about paintings or modern art.0:10
  6. I'm not too familiar with, so it depends on what kind of art.0:21
  7. Do you like to take photographs?0:24
  8. Yes.0:26
  9. I wouldn't say the photographs are good, but I do enjoy taking pictures.0:28
  10. Yeah.0:33
  11. Do you prefer to take photos of yourself or other things?0:33
  12. Of other things.0:37
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  1. It's kind of hard to take pictures of yourself unless it's a selfie and that's limited.0:39
  2. So pictures of other things, mostly.0:45
  3. Now let's talk about animals.0:48
  4. Do you like animals?0:51
  5. I love animals.0:52
  6. Land animals, friendly, so to speak, animals, not insects and not anything from the ocean.0:54
  7. What is your favorite animal?1:01
  8. Probably a dog.1:03
  9. Dogs, for obvious reasons, you can keep them as pets.1:05
  10. In terms of non -domesticated animals, probably jaguars.1:09
  11. Do you have any animals in your home as pets?1:14
  12. Yes.1:17
  13. I have two dogs.1:18
  14. They're both from the shelter, the animal shelter.1:20
  15. They're rescues.1:23
  16. I've always had pets.1:25
  17. Our family really likes keeping animals around.1:27
  18. Now let's talk about bags.1:30
  19. What type of bags do you like?1:32
  20. I prefer purses that are a little bit on the larger side just because I like to put everything of my life in my purse.1:34
  21. So it ends up weighing maybe 20 kilos.1:48
  22. Yeah, larger bags, probably structured larger bags.1:52
  23. How often do you carry a bag when you go out?1:58
  24. Every day.2:01
  25. I think that's the case for most women.2:01
  26. I think they carry a bag every, even if you go down to the grocery or the supermarket, you take your bag with you usually, right?2:03
  27. What sort of bags do women like to buy?2:12
  28. It depends.2:16
  29. It depends on your outfit.2:19
  30. It depends on where you're going.2:20
  31. For the day, if you're going to the office, you probably want something bigger that can fit your laptop, your phone, paperwork, everything that you might need during the day.2:23
  32. If it's nighttime, you'd want something smaller, like a clutch, something more sleek, elegant.2:37
  33. So it depends.2:45
  34. If you're traveling, you'd want a much bigger bag that's able to fit.2:46
  35. Not just you, but all of your family's stuff as well.2:50
  36. So everything, women like all kinds of bags.2:53
  37. That's why we have so many of them.2:56
  38. Now, let's talk about birthdays.2:58
  39. What did you usually do on your birthday when you were a child?3:01
  40. So when I was a kid, when I was a child in school, we had a uniform.3:05
  41. Everybody wore a uniform to school.3:11
  42. So when it was your birthday, it was the one day of the year that you were allowed to wear whatever you wanted.3:13
  43. So it was a big deal.3:19
  44. I mean, at least I would pick out my outfit like two months in advance.3:21
  45. It would be like a little dress, like a princessy frock, matching shoes, matching accessories for your hair.3:25
  46. And then you would take some kind of chocolate or candy to school.3:32
  47. And then you could take like a period off and go and give the candy out to other teachers and other kids in the school.3:37
  48. And we looked forward to it every year.3:45
  49. It was the highlight to get to not have to wear the uniform, to wear whatever you wanted and to basically be able to skip class and go out and3:47
  50. hand out chocolates because it's your birthday.3:57
  51. How do you normally celebrate your birthday now?3:59
  52. Very differently.4:03
  53. Everyone's allowed to wear whatever they want now, so it's kind of not does not have the same charm.4:04
  54. It depends.4:10
  55. I like to do a little dinner with my friends, something low key.4:11
  56. I'm not a very big party person.4:17
  57. So dinner is usually good, followed by probably like a games night or a movie movie night at home or at the cinema, something low key.4:21
  58. Do you think it's important to give someone a card on their birthday?4:31
  59. Like a handwritten birthday card?4:35
  60. I think so, yes, because I'm quite sentimental.4:40
  61. And emotional, so I prefer more emotional, sentimental gifts.4:45
  62. So I think if someone takes the time to write something by hand for you, I think that I mean, I hold on to stuff like that.4:51
  63. So I think it's a very nice, thoughtful present to give someone on their birthday.5:00
  64. The first time I met a new friend, so I'm going to go way back.5:06
  65. It was my first day of school, kindergarten.5:09
  66. And I met a girl named Amanpreet Kaur.5:13
  67. She, we were about, I think we just turned four years old.5:17
  68. We met, obviously, in kindergarten, first day of school.5:22
  69. What I liked about her when I first saw her, I mean, we were sitting together with the teacher made us sit next to each other.5:29
  70. And she had this long hair and it was like sectioned into two parts and it was just braided all the way down.5:36
  71. And she had the cutest face I've ever seen.5:46
  72. She had this little fluffy marshmallow like face.5:49
  73. I guess that's all it takes when you're a kid to want to be friends with somebody.5:53
  74. And then I tried to, so there's like this little thing that kids do where they put their thumb out to show other kids that I want to be your5:58
  75. friend.6:07
  76. And then if you don't want to be friends with them, you do this.6:09
  77. It's like a silly little thing.6:11
  78. So I did this to her.6:13
  79. I put my thumb out to say, hey, do you want to be friends?6:15
  80. And she was like this and I was heartbroken.6:18
  81. I was like, how can she know who want to be my friend?6:22
  82. And then I saw her again the next day and the day the next day after that and the day after that.6:27
  83. And then eventually we ended up becoming best friends.6:33
  84. She did it back to me, obviously, at some point.6:37
  85. She was my first best friend that I ever had in life.6:39
  86. She was from Punjab, which is a part of India.6:44
  87. And her mom used to make the most amazing.6:49
  88. It's called paratha.6:52
  89. It's like this stuffed bread.6:54
  90. It's like they put potato and spices into like into a flat bread.6:57
  91. And my mom used to make something called sira, which is sweet, Samadlina situation.7:03
  92. That's the end of the two minutes.7:10
  93. OK, we've been talking about a friend that you met.7:12
  94. And we're going to now talk about friends at school.7:16
  95. How important is it for children to have lots of friends at school?7:20
  96. To thank you for watching this video, I want to give you a free course that has helped thousands of students improve their IELTS speaking score.7:24
  97. What it's going to do is take you through every single part of the test and give you strategies for part one, part two and part three and also allow7:32
  98. you to practice at home for free and get feedback.7:41
  99. To sign up for that for free, all you have to do is just click the link in the description.7:45
  100. Thanks very much.7:49
  101. And let's get back to the video.7:50
  102. It depends, I would say.7:52
  103. I would perhaps think that quality is more important than quantity.7:54
  104. So I wouldn't say that the objective should be to make as many friends as you can or to be popular as much as the objective should be to build7:59
  105. meaningful friendships with people.8:10
  106. That could be one person that could be five people, that could be ten people.8:12
  107. Situational, I would say.8:17
  108. Yeah, so it's not so much how many friends you have as it's not as important to have a lot of friends as it might be to have people that8:19
  109. you can trust, that you can kind of take with you in life for a longer term.8:32
  110. Do you think it is wrong for parents to choose which friends their children have?8:38
  111. Again, that's a tricky one.8:43
  112. Now, when I answer these questions, I'm thinking back to real life situations.8:47
  113. And in some cases, I have seen parents interfering and trying to make those decisions for their children where they were right to do so because the child was in8:53
  114. bad company and they were too naive or too...9:05
  115. I mean, I guess they were just too naive to see that that situation was not right for them, but their parent obviously was able to identify that my child's9:12
  116. in bad company.9:21
  117. So in those cases, I would say that your parents are able to read a dangerous situation better.9:22
  118. But there's also the flip side where everybody kind of does make bad decisions.9:28
  119. Your parents made bad decisions, you made bad decisions.9:35
  120. And the way that you learn from them is to have a negative experience and then find your way out of it.9:37
  121. So I would say that I can see certain situations, whether it's bad relationships, bad friendships, when you're younger, not relationships when you're younger, friendships when you're younger.9:46
  122. Sometimes it's necessary to have that experience so that you know firsthand how to deal with that situation.9:58
  123. And you may not be able to get that experience if your parents always shield you from every single thing that can go wrong.10:06
  124. So I can kind of see...10:13
  125. Depends on the situation, I would say.10:16
  126. Now let's talk about making new friends.10:18
  127. Can you think of any disadvantages of making new friends online?10:21
  128. Disadvantages of making new friends online?10:25
  129. I think there's more disadvantages to making new friends.10:27
  130. I mean, there was a show recently that came out on Netflix called Tender Swindler.10:33
  131. The thing is with most of what we see online isn't real, whether it's social media or even news for that matter.10:38
  132. Everything is kind of edited and monitored to present a certain kind of image.10:49
  133. So if you meet somebody online and you know nothing about them, they can really present any version of reality or a completely curated, sometimes dishonest form of their reality10:56
  134. to you.11:14
  135. So it's a very dangerous game to play.11:16
  136. Friendships or relationships?11:19
  137. Both.11:21
  138. Friendships.11:22
  139. Friendships.11:23
  140. Yeah, it's...11:24
  141. Somebody you know nothing about is a very...11:27
  142. Everything can go wrong there, right?11:29
  143. Would you say it is harder for people to make new friends as they get older?11:33
  144. Yes.11:38
  145. I think it becomes harder for people to make friends as they get older.11:39
  146. I think adults are perhaps a little bit more structured.11:46
  147. I mean, the older that you get, the more set you get in your ways, your routine, where you work, your family, your gym.11:55
  148. Children, for children it becomes...12:04
  149. Like if you put two kids in a room and three seconds they're talking to each other, without any restrictions, they're talking about all of their family secrets and everything,12:08
  150. you know, they're comfortable.12:16
  151. But with adults, obviously, people tend to be more filtered when they interact with other adults.12:18
  152. Also, I think if you've been friends from the time that you were a child with somebody, you've lived through so many life events together that that kind of bond12:27
  153. is hard to build with someone that you meet in your mid -30s, because you've just lost so much time that you're learning something, you're learning about them from scratch,12:36
  154. where they went to school, about their family, about their relationships, about their siblings.12:47
  155. So, yeah, I think it's a...12:53
  156. It's not impossible.12:55
  157. You can make a lot of incredible friendships later in life, but it's probably harder to come by than if you were a kid in play school.12:56
  158. So, what I'm going to do now is give you feedback on each part, because each part is a little bit different.13:07
  159. Give you some tips on how to perform as well or even better next time.13:13
  160. And then there are four marking criteria, fluency and coherence, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.13:20
  161. And I will give you a band for each of those and tell you what band.13:28
  162. The top is band nine.13:33
  163. So, let's see if you can get right at the top.13:35
  164. So, thank you for making it this far in the video.13:37
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  168. We do that by simplifying the whole IELTS process, supporting you with some of the best IELTS teachers in the world, and being with you every step of the way13:55
  169. until you get the score that you need.14:04
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  171. If you have any questions about the VIP course, always feel free to get a touch with us.14:10
  172. We answer 100 % of the questions that we get.14:15
  173. Hope that you become a VIP.14:18
  174. If not, enjoy the rest of this free video.14:19
  175. So, part one is just normal, everyday questions, and you answer those very, very naturally.14:22
  176. Again, it was like talking to a friend or a colleague, and the length of your answers was also quite good.14:29
  177. This is not a criticism, and it's just kind of who you are as a person.14:34
  178. You're a very friendly, chatty person who wants the other person to interact.14:39
  179. So, you're offered like girls like buying bags, right?14:43
  180. That is fine in normal conversation.14:46
  181. If you were to do the test for real, the examiner could be quite stone faced, because they're doing their job.14:48
  182. They're not being unfriendly.14:54
  183. They just have a job to do, and they're trying to think about your grammar, and your vocabulary, and your pronunciation, and your fluency, and there's a lot going on14:56
  184. there.15:03
  185. And for them, they cannot start to interact with you.15:03
  186. And on test day, you might not get a very friendly examiner like me.15:08
  187. I don't know whether I was friendly or not.15:14
  188. But they might be like, you know, don't do that.15:16
  189. Or some of them could be having a bad day, and they just don't ask questions.15:19
  190. I have experienced with, not myself, but other students have said, when they did that, they thought the examiner was criticizing them or being rude.15:25
  191. They took that to heart and thought, oh my God, I failed my test.15:35
  192. And they went from doing very, very well to everything fell apart.15:39
  193. Because if you feel nervous, if you're uncomfortable with someone, then it really affects your fluency.15:44
  194. You can clam up.15:50
  195. You don't want to really show your language and who you are.15:51
  196. You don't want to, because one of the great advantages or great strength that you have is you're very open about who you are as a person.15:55
  197. And that's great because it allows you to speak in a very fluent way.16:07
  198. If you go and do the test for real, probably don't interact with the examiner as much.16:11
  199. Part two, you did a great job because you just picked a real event, a real person from your life.16:17
  200. And it's much easier to talk about that.16:22
  201. Some students try to pick something high level or impressive to impress the examiner.16:24
  202. There's no such thing.16:30
  203. The best thing to do is pick something from your real life because that's easy to talk about.16:32
  204. Part three, you did very, very well because you really extended your answers.16:36
  205. Again, you use real situations from your own life.16:41
  206. You don't have to do that, but it really did help you develop your answers.16:44
  207. In terms of the scores, pronunciation is pretty much perfect.16:48
  208. The examiner will be thinking about, can I understand every word this person is saying?16:52
  209. 100%, I can understand every syllable.16:58
  210. Then the examiner will be thinking about high level pronunciation features, such as your intonation.17:00
  211. So our voices go up, our voices go down.17:06
  212. You speak like a native English speaker in that respect.17:08
  213. Sentence stress is when we emphasize certain words.17:12
  214. This is my phone, not your phone.17:16
  215. So you emphasize certain words at times.17:18
  216. Again, you do that 100 % naturally.17:20
  217. And then you use connected speech.17:23
  218. The way native English speakers talk, we wouldn't say, I want to talk about my friend.17:25
  219. You'd say, I want to talk about my friend.17:31
  220. The flow of the language.17:33
  221. So absolutely perfect.17:34
  222. No problems there.17:36
  223. Coherence and fluency, coherence is did you answer the questions?17:37
  224. Did you develop them enough?17:40
  225. You did that 100 % of the time.17:42
  226. And then fluency is did you speak without any unnatural pausing?17:44
  227. You did pause at times.17:49
  228. But the reason why you paused is important.17:52
  229. So in the last, I think it was the second last question, you were talking about adults and you were saying their lives are more structured.17:55
  230. So you weren't trying to think of the correct vocabulary because your English isn't good enough.18:03
  231. You were trying to just formulate your thoughts and come up with the appropriate, precise word, which you did.18:09
  232. So that demonstrates to the examiner that you have a very high level of vocabulary.18:15
  233. Because if you were, because you're trying to think of the current, what's the word?18:19
  234. So when people don't really know the language, then they would stop.18:24
  235. And also because you approach this not as a test, but more as a conversation.18:28
  236. And you are very open and talk about your life in a very open way.18:33
  237. That really helps with fluency.18:38
  238. So again, top marks for fluency and coherence.18:40
  239. Grammar, I didn't hear a single grammar mistake.18:44
  240. The examiner will be thinking about the accuracy of your grammar.18:46
  241. Did you make any mistakes and the range of your grammar?18:50
  242. So if I talk to you about a birthday party in the past, did you use the appropriate past tenses?18:52
  243. And then I asked you about, well, what do you do today?18:58
  244. Did you switch tenses?19:00
  245. Did you use the appropriate grammatical structures and tenses to talk about each situation?19:02
  246. And again, you did that perfectly.19:07
  247. Vocabulary, very natural.19:10
  248. You use a nice mixture of just normal everyday words, which everybody uses.19:12
  249. And you also use idiomatic language very, very well.19:18
  250. So as you can see, you're using very natural English.19:21
  251. And overall, you would get a perfect bad line, which is very rare.19:25
  252. Oh, wow.19:31
  253. Very, very rare.19:31
  254. Okay.19:33
  255. So, well done.19:34
  256. Thank you.19:35

IELTS speaking practice with a real Band 9 interview

This clip is an IELTS Part 1 interview, the small talk section examiners open with: art, animals, then bags. The examiner asks a question, the candidate answers, and the exchange moves on. That back and forth is exactly the shape of the real test, which makes it useful IELTS speaking practice rather than a scripted monologue.

The recording runs at 181 words per minute, faster than 45 percent of the catalogue, so the candidate answers without long gaps. There are 268 lines in total, and the level is set at B1, closer to how a natural, unrehearsed answer actually sounds than to textbook English. If you are working through IELTS speaking topics for the first time, this is a good place to hear what a fluent, confident answer looks like without notes or memorised phrases.

The hedging and thinking out loud that make these answers sound natural

Good IELTS answers rarely start with a flat yes or no, and this candidate keeps circling back to qualify what they just said. Practise english speaking by copying that shape line by line, not just the vocabulary.

  • "Hmm, that's interesting." is a full two seconds of thinking time before any content arrives. Learners often rush to answer; this line shows a stall that still sounds composed.
  • "I wouldn't say the photographs are good, but I do enjoy taking pictures." pairs a hedge with a genuine opinion in one breath. Say it aloud and notice how the stress falls on "good" and then on "enjoy".
  • "It's kind of hard to take pictures of yourself unless it's a selfie and that's limited." strings three clauses together without a pause, which is harder to reproduce at 181 words per minute than it looks on the page.
  • "In terms of non -domesticated animals, probably jaguars." swaps a plain word for a formal phrase mid answer, the kind of register shift examiners notice.

How to shadow this British accent interview line by line

Work through this one in short passes rather than playing the whole clip once and moving on. It is a two speaker recording, so treat it as english speaking practice for daily use, not just exam drilling.

  • Start with line 15, "Now let's talk about animals.", and the short answers that follow it, lines 16 to 29. They are shorter than the bags section, so they are the easiest place to build confidence in british english pronunciation practice before the pace speeds up.
  • Take line 9, "I wouldn't say the photographs are good, but I do enjoy taking pictures.", on its own and repeat it five times before moving on. One line you can actually say beats a whole answer you only half caught.
  • Move to the bags section, lines 30 to 49, where "So it depends." appears three times as line 40, 41 and 45. Shadow all three together to hear how the same short phrase gets a slightly different stress each time.
  • Finish with line 43, the longest sentence in this stretch, and break it at each comma before trying it whole. It is the clearest test of whether you can keep up with the candidate's pace or need to slow the clip down first.
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