Hello, everyone.
It's Chris from IELTS Daily.
Welcome back to this video where we're going to be looking at another mock speaking test.
In this session, we've got a practice test with Chiara and Chiara is originally from China.
She's lived for quite a while in the UK, so you might hear a little bit of a British accent.
Are you ready to listen to how she does and learn a little bit about how you could apply some of the things that she says, and also maybe learn from any mistakes that she makes?
I'm ready.
I hope you are.
Let's go.
Wonderful.
So if you're a new viewer to the channel, very warm welcome to you.
And just a reminder that we make many of these practice sessions with IELTS speaking practice candidates and I hope they're a useful tool for you.
We've got students from lots of different countries, different levels, different styles of examiners.
We've got Jed and Saskia and Talia.
We've also got Kiara and we've got some new students who are coming up very soon.
And the idea is that you can learn from how students apply their language in the test and how they approach the test, and hopefully you can take something away from that.
So if you're watching this on the train or on the bus, I do hope that it's useful for you.
And if you're watching from your living room or from your bedroom.
Well, a big hi to you and thanks for coming back.
I want to start with a little test for you today, and it's gonna be a bit of a pronunciation test, because in today's session you will hear Chiara make a couple of the same mistakes all right now.
In the test we've got um, a pronunciation is worth 25 of your score, and so you have to really focus on that.
And you're going to see a couple of words.
You're going to see a word here and a word here, And then I'm going to say a word.
It may be this word or it may be this word.
And the idea is that you need to tell me, is it this word or is it this word?
OK, so you're going to see a word here and also here.
And you need to decide which word is live.
Live. okay is it this word or is it this word well actually the word is live and it is this word live live now this word here is actually leave leave notice the difference between live and leave and you really need to focus on that because you'll you'll see that in the test today you've got kiara who does make the mistake with the short i sound i live and the longer e and a good way to practice that is to say e with a smile so you can say live Live and leave.
E. Live and leave.
And there are plenty of other examples where you could have the word tin and teen.
Tin and teen.
Been and been.
Been and been.
So many different examples, and the reason why I want to point this out is because there are some words in English if you get this wrong okay, the other word is actually quite a rude word.
So you could say a piece of paper, a piece of paper, and the short sound is not very polite.
And it's the same with sheet, a sheet of paper.
If you say the short sound, it's not particularly polite, and you could say ship and sheep, ship and sheep.
I really hope that you can hear the difference between those two sounds.
And if you are a person that struggles, make sure you practice.
Wonderful.
Shall we start with Chiara?
Let me just grab my headphones and we will begin by watching her part one.
And you'll notice that Chiara has really good fluency.
She speaks very fast, but she does struggle quite a lot throughout with her grammar and her pronunciation.
All right, let's click play.
Hello and welcome to this practice exam conducted by IELTS Daily.
My name is May and I'm your practice IELTS speaking examiner.
What's your first name, please?
My first name is Kiara.
I want to begin by talking about you.
Do you work or study?
I study.
I'm a full-time university student and I major in philosophy and criminology.
I'd like to move on to the topic of housework.
Who does the housework in your home?
I did most of the housework because I live alone.
I now live in a student accommodation and I need to clean for myself.
I need to do the laundry and I also need to take care of my meals.
I mostly do deliveries, have deliveries, but I normally cook one to two times a week.
Okay, not a bad start from Chiara.
She expands her answers, which is wonderful.
There are some things though that you will see throughout her speech.
She makes the same grammar mistake and notice that the question said, who does the housework?
Who does most of the housework?
And Chiara actually answered it with, I did most of housework.
So she made two mistakes there.
She said, I did, and it should have been I do.
I do most of.
And in English, we normally say the housework.
I do most of the housework.
So she would probably be marked down a little bit for that.
Do you enjoy doing the housework?
Not really.
To be honest, if I have a choice, I would like a robot who can do housework for me.
But it's all right, because sometimes when you get stressed, like doing some kind of housework calms you down.
All right.
This is a really great feature of her language.
She creates a little bit of a rapport with the examiner.
She laughs and she says, not really, haha. as though she doesn't enjoy doing the housework.
So notice there that she's using inflection in her pronunciation, which is great.
Then she said, I would like a robot.
Robot was, the pronunciation was just a little bit off.
It should be robot, O, the O sound, robot.
And she said, when I get stressed, doing some kind of housework calms you down.
So this is a really nice feature of language, because she's used a complex sentence with when when I do the housework, or when I get stressed, or when I get home.
Then she used a phrasal verb.
It calms me down.
It makes me relaxed.
So to calm somebody down.
It calmed me down by speaking to her.
And that is a good example of less common vocabulary, less common words, idiomatic phrases, phrasal verbs.
Good work.
Now let's think about the topic of shoes.
What type of shoes do you usually wear?
I wear sandals because you don't need socks for sandals and it's easier to wear and is comfortable, and also I wear sneakers as well because I do a lot of sports like fencing badminton, so I need sneakers for that.
We're onto a new topic now, which is shoes.
You may get this topic in your test, so be prepared for a topic like this.
Now, in her answer, she said, I wear sandals because you don't need socks for sandals.
And that's a compound sentence, but she's explaining the reason why, which is wonderful.
I really like that.
And then she starts, these little errors start slipping through.
She said, and it's easy, easier to wear and it's comfortable.
And the problem here is she's referring to the wrong type of noun.
She's referring to a singular noun.
And actually she's talking about sandals.
And the correct form, the correct pronoun there should be.
They are easier to wear and they are more comfortable.
And so she's mixing up the singulars and plurals there.
But then she redeemed herself and she says, because I do a lot of sport.
Notice there how she's changed the because to because because I do a lot of sport and lots of people think that the IELTS speaking test is a formal test and that you can't contract words, you can't shorten words.
Well, that's actually a myth.
And the word because is absolutely appropriate and acceptable in the test.
So I encourage you, if you can use it naturally, then definitely think about that.
Then she's used words like sneakers.
I also, she said, also I wear sneakers as well.
She's actually repeating two cohesive devices there.
She's using also and as well together.
Probably one of them would be redundant and she said like fencing and badminton.
Good start.
I'm just a little bit concerned about these little grammar slips that are coming through.
Do you wear different shoes for different occasions?
Of course, like you have different type of shoes that you wear in different occasions, like in formal occasion, like a formal meeting, like you will wear like formal high heels, like that.
And when you're doing sports, like what I said, you'll wear sneakers.
And also, like when you go to the beach and play with friends, you will wear sandals.
Good explanation of the answer here.
However, she does repeat the word like a lot.
I don't know if you noticed that, but she used the word like probably five or six times within the space of two or three sentences.
Just be careful.
And I know that you're under pressure in the test and you have to really concentrate and focus.
But it is important that you don't overuse words too much.
Then she said going to the And this is where the problem with the short I and E.
She should have said beach E.
Remember at the beginning of this video we talked about the difference between I and E.
She should have said beach with a smile, and she didn't quite say that.
And another example would be chip and cheap.
Chip and cheap, so the the difference between the it and the e.
Make sure you're able to focus on those if you struggle with them.
Is it important for you to wear comfortable shoes?
Yes, of course, like the most important thing for shoes, for me, it's comfortable because um, some shoes do look beautiful but when you wear it it makes you just um nervous, like they're beautiful but just not so suitable for the situation.
So probably you just need to choose the most comfortable shoes for that situation.
Some really nice features of her language here
But again, a few problems with the wrong subject and verb.
She said the most important thing for me is comfortable.
And what she's done there is she's used an adjective in the place where there should have been a noun.
The most important thing for me is that they are comfortable, not it is comfortable.
So and also that would be a complex sentence you could replace it with a noun and you could say the most important thing for me is comfort, and comfort is a singular word there, so you could just use the word is.
You have two choices the most important thing for me is that they are comfortable.
They are comfortable or the most important thing for me is comfort.
Two different choices.
You can decide.
It doesn't make any difference.
Maybe the longer one, that they are comfortable, is more complex grammatically.
So maybe you want to choose that type.
She also said, but when you wear it.
Again, it's a when sentence, which is nice, but she mixes up the it and they.
It should be when you wear them.
And I think that she makes good expansion on her answers.
But again, lots of little grammar mistakes that are peeking through.
In the next part of the test, I'm going to give you a topic and I would like you to speak for one to two minutes.
Here is your paper and pencil.
Thank you.
You have one minute to prepare.
Have a look at the question on the screen now.
What do you think?
Is this a question that you would feel comfortable with if you got faced with this during the test?
Are you able to name a restaurant?
Or would you maybe have to invent a restaurant or a cafe?
Maybe you're not the type of person that eats out a lot.
Maybe there's not a lot of restaurants.
Maybe you live in a small village.
Lots of reasons why you might not be able to answer this question as easily as other students.
So just make sure that you are prepared to invent or talk about something length, and what we will see with Kiara is that she doesn't or she's not prepared enough for the time.
So make sure that you practice your timekeeping, thank you.
Now I would like you to talk about a cafe or restaurant you visited recently, 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?
Sure, motherless.
So I ate in a restaurant called Universal yesterday in Lightroom Street in Colton, Melbourne.
It was an Italian restaurant and it was amazing.
And I had some chips and garlic bread for the entry.
And then for the main, I have Tuscan chicken with mushroom risotto and it's delicious as well.
And also for like, some sweets I got some brownies and for drinks I have coke and some white wine and I particularly love Moscato for that and I went to the restaurant after my opera class and with my friend Wendy, and we go there because it's the closest place, like after my opera class, and I love Italian food and also some kind of European food, but normally I would also go to some other restaurants, like Chinese ones and also Japanese ones.
But Italian food, like including pizza, it's the most comfortable food for me after a long day having opera class.
Notice here that the examiner is asking Chiara to speak a little bit more.
Chiara's just gone over the one minute mark.
It is really important that you guys are prepared so that you know just how long two minutes is, because it may be that you think that you know how long two minutes is, but in reality you don't.
What else?
We still have...
For Wendy, she got some pasta with seafood and garlic.
She particularly hates garlic, so we need to point out that, oh, sorry, I don't eat that.
But it's all right.
They are really friendly and nice because they could adjust the dish according to your preference.
And also after that we also have some A little pizza with barbecue as well.
So that's not included in the main dish.
Thank you.
Let's talk about Chiara's part two.
Overall, I'm really impressed with Chiara.
She has lots of ideas, struggled a little bit with the time and pushing herself a little bit more.
But I would say that her fluency is great.
Just in the middle when she was looking for new ideas, she wasn't looking for vocabulary.
So this would be called content related hesitation.
It's not language related hesitation, so it's not too bad.
However, there were a number of very simple grammatical mistakes which creeped through throughout, and I just want to go through them now.
She said, I have Tuscan chicken.
So she wanted to talk about something in the past and she began talking about the past, but then she slipped into I have Tuscan chicken.
She then said it is delicious as well.
It should have been.
It was delicious as well.
She also said i have coke and we go there because it should have been we.
I had coke and we went there.
She said we need to point out.
It should have been.
We needed to point out.
She said we also have some, and it should have been.
We also had some.
So throughout the part two there there was mistake after mistake after mistake and all the same mistakes.
So they are mistakes which the examiner would notice, but they would be called systematic mistakes.
They're kind of mistakes that people really struggle to get rid of, and they might slip in every now and again.
But I do think that this will probably limit her to a band seven, because many sentences are not error free.
There were also some great features.
She expanded her answers well.
There were a couple of pronunciation slips throughout.
She said brownies and it should have been brownies, brown.
And she also said cheeps and it should have been chips.
Remember that we've talked about it and e, so just be careful with cheap and chips.
Really good, good work, but I do think that Chiara will probably be kicking herself when she watches this video because of these very small grammar mistakes.
I want to stay on the topic of restaurants and eating out.
Are restaurants or cafes more popular where you live?
I would say it's cafe because it's Melbourne.
Everyone drinks cafe and it's particularly popular that everybody wants a brunch and a cafe is where you go for a brunch.
Great.
So we're now on part three and we're talking about eating out and restaurants, which is a continuation of the topic from part two.
Now, please note here that Chiara does make a quite a noticeable pronunciation mistake, because she started talking about cafes, cafes.
But then she said everyone drinks cafe and cafe would be what you would say in maybe French.
The problem is that in English, the word is coffee.
So she would say, everyone drinks coffee in a cafe.
And there are two and they're noticeably different.
And so an examiner would pick up on that.
It's a really small error, but there are standard ways to pronounce things in english, just like there are standard ways to spell things in english, and examiners will be picking up on these very minor mistakes and because there's quite a few of them throughout again, i think that she'd probably be limited to a band seven, probably wouldn't reach the band eight.
There She talks about brunch, which is a nice, less common word, which is nice.
Let's continue.
What is the difference between a restaurant and a cafe?
In my personal opinion, I would say a restaurant is more about lunch and dinner, which is more formally conducted, and a cafe is more like they provide drinks like not alcohol drinks for tea and cafes, and then they also offer brunch.
And I think a cafe normally close around 5 or 4 pm every day, but like a restaurant would open, I think, until 9 or 10 at night.
Good.
She's expanded her answers, which is nice.
In the test, you may expect to hear the examiner interrupt you in part three.
So be prepared for an examiner to jump in and say, why do you think that?
Or are you sure?
Or tell me more about that.
In this case the examiner didn't jump in, but it is very possible that in the test that the examiner is going to interject and come in with a different question.
She again made the mistake with cafe and it should have been coffee.
And she made a subject and verb mistake.
I think she said they, it close.
And it should have been it closes.
Subject and verb problems quite common throughout Chiara's speech.
Let's continue with the last question.
Is it a good thing that we now have large international restaurants which sell the same food all over the world?
Yeah, of course, because it's multicultural.
Like you need food from everywhere and people just don't want to like eat a food like all the day or all kinds of in the week.
So it's important that it suits everybody's like habit to have international food.
Especially Melbourne is such an international city and we don't have we don't only have locals here, we have people all around the world, including international students and also international workers who work here, and so therefore it's good to have international restaurants that could help them to getting like, to reduce their level of homesickness.
Thank you,
That is the end of this practice speaking test.
Thank you.
Wonderful.
What did you think of Chiara's attempt here?
I thought she did really well and it's time to give her a score.
Remember that when we look at scores, we should always refer back to the band descriptors.
You're going to see the band descriptors on the screen now.
And I'm going to give Chiara fluency and coherence.
I'm going to give her eight here, because for an eight it says speaks fluently, with only occasional repetition or self-correction.
Hesitation is usually content related and only rarely to search for language.
She said she developed her topics coherently and appropriately.
Definitely band eight there.
For lexical resource, I also think she'd probably deserve an eight here.
Uses a wide vocabulary resource readily and flexibly to convey precise meaning.
She didn't really make any mistakes with her vocabulary.
Uses less common and idiomatic vocabulary skillfully with occasional inaccuracies.
I think she did.
I think she used these phrasal verbs.
They were well used and they were used appropriately.
Uses paraphrase effectively.
Yes, she did.
Now the last two sections, which are grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation.
I'm going to award her seven here for both of those, because for grammatical range and accuracy, notice how it says frequently produces error-free sentences, though some grammatical mistakes persist.
Remember, I told you that there were the same mistakes throughout with subject and verb.
So I think the examiner would pick up on that and for band seven pronunciation she needs to meet some of the features of a band eight, not all of them for a band six, and the seven would be in the middle.
And so the problem for Chiara was that she made these noticeable mistakes and therefore, for example, coffee and cafe.
The examiner would be picking up on those.
So really well done to Chiara.
That's an overall of a band 7.5, which I think is fantastic.
I hope that when she watches this she's not too critical on herself, because she does a really great job at expanding her answers, but she'll probably notice where those mistakes are.
And I hope just like you guys can, you should be able to pick up on them.
Make sure that you try to eliminate them from your language.
Thanks for watching till the end.
It's great to have you on the IELTS Daily channel.
Remember, if you liked this video, please give this video a thumbs up.
It's really useful for us and it helps support our channel.
Come back and watch all the other mock exam videos.
Take care.
My name is Chris from IELTS Daily.
This is hopefully the best place for you to learn English and to prepare for the IELTS test.
Take care and see you soon.
Hello and welcome to this practice exam conducted by IELTS Daily.
My name is May and I'm your practice IELTS speaking examiner.
What's your first name please?
My first name is Kiara.
I want to begin by talking about you.
Do you work or study?
I study.
I'm a full-time university student and I major in philosophy and criminology.
I'd like to move on to the topic of housework.
Who does the housework in your home?
I did most of the housework because I live alone.
I now live in a student accommodation and I need to clean for myself.
I need to do the laundry and I also need to take care of my meals.
I mostly do deliveries, have deliveries, but I normally cook one to two times a week.
Do you enjoy doing the housework?
Not really.
To be honest, if I have a choice, I would like a robot who can do housework for me.
But it's alright, because sometimes when you get stressed, like doing some kind of housework calms you down.
Now let's think about the topic of shoes.
What type of shoes do you usually wear?
I wear sandals because you don't need socks for sandals and it's easier to wear and it's comfortable.
And also I wear sneakers as well because I do a lot of sports like fencing badminton, so I need sneakers for that.
Do you wear different shoes for different occasions?
Of course, like you have different type of shoes that you wear in different occasions, like in formal occasion, like a formal meeting, like you will wear like formal high heels, like that, and when you're doing sports, like what I said, you'll wear sneakers.
And also, like when you go to the beach and play with friends, you will wear sandals.
Is it important for you to wear comfortable shoes?
Yes, of course.
The most important thing for shoes for me is comfortable, because some shoes do look beautiful, but when you wear it it makes you just nervous.
They're beautiful, but just not so suitable for the situation.
So probably you just need to choose the most comfortable shoes for that situation.
In the next part of the test, I'm going to give you a topic and I would like you to speak for one to two minutes.
Here is your paper and pencil.
Thank you.
You have one minute to prepare.
Thank you.
Now I would like you to talk about a cafe or restaurant you visited recently.
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?
Sure, I'd love this.
So I ate in a restaurant called Universal yesterday in Lightroom Street in Colton, Melbourne.
It was an Italian restaurant and it was amazing.
And I had some chips and garlic bread for the entree.
And then for the main, I have Tuscan chicken with mushroom risotto.
And it's delicious as well.
And also for like some sweets, I got some brownies.
And for drinks, I have coke and some white wine.
And I particularly love Moscato for that.
And I went to the restaurant after my opera class and with my friend Wendy.
And we go there because it's the closest place like after my opera class.
And I love Italian food and also some kind of European food.
But normally I would also go to some other restaurants, like Chinese ones and also Japanese ones, but italian food like, including pizza, it's the most comfortable food for me after a long day having opera class.
Um, and also um uh, what else we still have?
Uh for wambi like.
She got some uh pasta like with seafood, like and garlic.
She particularly hates garlic, so we need to point out that.
Oh sorry, I don't eat that.
But it's all right.
They are really friendly and nice because they could adjust the dish according to your preference.
And also, after that, we also have some little pizza with barbecue as well.
So that's not included in the main dish.
Thank you want to stay on the topic of restaurants and eating out.
Are restaurants or cafes more popular where you live?
Um, i would say it's cafe.
Because it's melbourne, everyone drinks cafe and it's particularly popular that everybody wants a brunch and a cafe is where you go for a brunch.
What is the difference between a restaurant and a cafe?
In my personal opinion, I would say a restaurant is more about lunch and dinner, which is more formally conducted, and a cafe is more like they provide drinks like not alcohol drinks for tea and cafes, and then they also offer brunch, and I think a cafe normally close around 5 or 4 pm every day but, like a restaurant, would open, I think, until 9 or 10 at night.
Is it a good thing that we now have large international restaurants which sell the same food all over the world?
Yeah, of course, because it's multicultural.
Like you need food from everywhere and people just don't want to like eat a food like all the day or all kinds of in the week.
So it's important that it suits everybody's like habit to have international food.
Especially melbourne is a such a international city and we don't have we don't only have logos here.
We have people all around the world, including international students and also international um workers who work here, and so therefore it's good to have international restaurants that could help them to getting like to reduce their level of homesickness.
Thank you, that is the end of this practice.
Speaking test.
