s3007 transcript

TRANSCRIPT

EPISODE 7: THE SPEAKING TEST

Hello, and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I’m Margot Politis.
Today we’ll look at the IELTS Speaking Test.
There are three parts to the test. Each part has a particular purpose.
The examiner will record the interview to ensure the test is to standard and
conducted fairly for all candidates.
Let’s watch someone begin their interview. [Part One]
Interviewer: Good morning, my name is Maria. What’s your name?
Interviewee: My name’s Sanjay.
Interviewer: Thankyou. Can I just check your ID please Sanjay. Thank you, that’s
fine. What are you doing at the moment? Are you a student, or do you
work?
Interviewee: I’m currently a student.
Interviewer: And what are you studying?
Interviewee: I’m studying a Diploma in Business.
The purpose of Part One is to settle you down and get you used to the test
situation. So you will only be required to answer some general questions about
yourself on some familiar topics such as: studies … travel … sports … family … food
and exercise.
Let’s see how another candidate answers questions about exercise. The first
question is designed to test her skills at identifying:
Interviewer: What kind of exercise do you enjoy?
Interviewee: I enjoy running, because I think it’s easy, and I think you should need,
er, good shoes and you can run and I can run at morning, it’s really
good …I think.
The next question is to see how well she expresses an opinion:
Interviewer: Is it important to exercise regularly?
Interviewee: Yes, I think it’s really important, because you can, um, keep your body

healthy and you can keep fit, especially for girls’ health, keep fit. And
it’s good for your health as well.
This question tests comparing:
Interviewer: Do you think people are exercising more these days, compared to 50
years ago?
Interviewee: No, I don’t think so. Because, you see, like me, they don’t have
enough time. I think it’s, a lot of people don’t have enough time as
well, so they don’t have enough regular exercise.

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Other skills that are assessed include:
• describing;
• expressing preferences; and
• giving reasons

You are not expected to give in-depth answers at this stage of the interview but you
can extend your answer with a longer sentence.
To help prepare for this section you can develop vocabulary around the topic areas
and make sure you know the verb tense that is appropriate for answering the
question.
For example the question ‘What kind of exercise do you enjoy?’ is in the simple
present tense, so she replies with the same tense: I enjoy running. Listen again:
Interviewer: What kind of exercise do you enjoy?
Interviewee: I enjoy running.
In Part Two the examiner will give you a topic on a prompt card to talk about for one
to two minutes. You will be allowed one minute to make some notes. After your talk,
the examiner will ask you a follow up question.
The topics are of a general nature. You could be asked to talk about an object that is

important to you or a major festival in your country or to describe an interesting
building.
Let’s see how the interviewer introduces the second part of the interview and how the
candidate prepares for the talk.
Interviewer: Now, I’d like you to talk for one to two minutes on a topic that I’ll give
you.
Interviewee: Sure.
Interviewer: You have one minute to prepare, and make some notes to help you.
Do you understand?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Okay. Well, here’s a pencil and a paper for making notes, and here is
your topic. I’d like you to describe a holiday or vacation you took
recently.
Interviewee: Sure.
This is what was written on the prompt card she gave him:
Describe a holiday or a vacation you took recently.
You should say:
• where you went
• who you travelled with
• what you did, and
• explain why you enjoyed your vacation

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Think of 2 or 3 things to say about each prompt and write down words that will help
remind you of what to say. Let’s look at what he wrote.
Where:
Who:
What:

Why:

Bangkok last minute short
Mum, sister, brother
Shopping mall, weekend market, stalls, humungous place
Wonderful experience; sights

Do the notes help him? Let’s listen to his talk.
Er, the holiday which I went on recently was in Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand. Um, we,
we planned this, I guess, two weeks, two weeks in advance, it was kind of a last
minute planning with, with my family, we decided to just go for a short holiday down
to Bangkok. So, er, we called, we called my travel agent, and, er, we got, we got
tickets booked for me, my Mum, my brother and my sister.
It is important to begin your talk by introducing the topic.
He is following the notes he made. For 'who' he tells us “we got tickets booked for
me, my Mum, my brother and my sister”.
For 'what' he talks about shopping:
We went to two shopping malls. It was, one of the malls called Big C, Big C, yeah,
that was the mall. So, er, the mall was very clean and, er, I was surprised, it was very
clean, very big, very, very big, very clean and all. So that was just a normal shopping
centre. Then over the weekend we decided to go and visit this big weekend market
in, Bangkok itself. So it’s called a big, a weekend market, er, it had like thousand over
stalls, it was this big, humungous place. So what we did, we spent our whole time
there, shopping.
For 'why' he tells us what a wonderful experience it was:
But it was a wonderful experience, going to Bangkok, and, er, visiting the sights.
Your talk will be well organised if you follow the same order as the prompts on the
card.
The interviewer ends this section with a follow up question. Let’s listen to what the
interviewer asks him.

Interviewer: Do you think you’ll go back there again?
Interviewee: Er, yeah, definitely, I mean, for shopping is one thing, prices are really
cheap and all but, er, it’s just the place. The people, they’re all friendly
and down to earth, and, um, it was a memorable experience.

He responds appropriately with two sentences. That’s all that is required.
To help you prepare for this part, practise talking about a range of topics.

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The final part of the interview is a discussion on issues related to the topic in Part
Two.
The examiner will be assessing your ability to develop ideas in some depth.
Let’s see what kind of questions he was asked and how the discussion is introduced.
Interviewer: Okay then. Well, you’ve described a holiday you’ve been on, and I’d
like to ask you a few more questions related to this.
Interviewee: Sure.
Interviewer: Is it important to travel and take holidays in different places?
Interviewee: Yeah, I feel, I feel it is important, er, reason being you, you’re exposed
to different cultures, you’re exposed to different kind of people, how,
how do they behave, and, er, you get to see a lot of things. If you just
take a holiday in your own country, or somewhere nearby, er, you
won’t really get to see, er, the world I guess, see how people behave
and all.
By asking him "Is it important to travel?" she is testing whether he can express an
opinion. Next, she sees if he can speculate:
Interviewer: Are people travelling more these days, do you think?
Interviewee: Er, yes, definitely. Er, as you can see nowadays there’s budget
airlines where airline prices all become so cheap so that they can visit

more places and go to other countries.
Then she asks a question designed to see how well he can compare:
Interviewer: Is it better to travel alone, or in a group?
Interviewee: I believe it’s better to travel in a group, where you have a companion.
Maybe not, not in such a big group, but, I guess, maybe two to three
people … where it’s nice to have someone along to share your
experiences with and, you know, to visit places and, you know, have
someone there for companionship and all.
And finally she tests how well he can identify:
Interviewer: What kind of problems is travel and tourism causing?
Interviewee: Um, sometimes people don’t know other people’s culture, and they
might offend them in a rude way, they might not know its offensive,
but, you know, not knowing the culture, and not reading up about it,
sometimes when you go to a foreign land, and you might do
something to maybe insult the host or insult someone there.
To answer questions well in this section you should watch programs on current
affairs and practise discussing topics and using a variety of language functions such
as comparing, explaining and describing.
That’s all for today
Good Luck with your studies.

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