Hello! Welcome to English Like a Native. I’m Anna. Today we’re going to watch
an example of an IELTS band 9 speaking exam. This is part of my IELTS series,
so do make sure to check out my other videos on IELTS - IELTS Speaking Test
Tips and Tricks and IELTS speaking test - mock exam if you haven’t already!
After you watch the test, I’ll show you,
according to the official IELTS test criteria, why this performance would get a band 9.
Good afternoon. My name is Anna. I’m your examiner today. And what’s your name?
My name’s Barbara but you can call me Barbie.
May I see your ID, please Barbie?
Of course. Here you are.
Thank you.
Do you work or are you a student?
I work. I’m an administrative assistant in a mid-sized law firm. It’s not my dream job but
it pays the bills and gives me enough free time to do some of my hobbies.
What’s special about where you live?
Well, let me see… I live in the historic centre of
my city. It’s special because there are a lot of unique buildings there,
dating back to the early fifteenth century. It’s rich in culture and history. For this reason,
it’s quite touristy but as a local, I know where to go not to get ripped off.
How did you celebrate your last birthday?
Oh! My last birthday was quite the let down. It didn’t go as planned at all. I’d planned
to have a barbecue. My birthday is in July so that’s usually a safe bet but in the end,
it rained all day so we had to move everything inside.
We didn’t have enough seats for everyone so we had garden furniture in the living
room and everyone was a bit cramped. At the end of the day, what’s important is spending
time with friends and family and so I had a nice time. It’s not what I would have wanted though.
What kinds of presents do you like receiving?
I’m usually a bit strange about receiving presents because I mostly buy what I want,
so I’m a hard person to find a good present for.
The kinds of presents I most like getting are ones where you don’t have to spend any money,
just simple things like a picnic or time spent doing something together.
What problems are associated with children’s birthday parties?
I’m not really sure about children’s parties, as I don’t have any myself but if I had to guess,
I’d say that one of the worst things is noise. Children tend to be noisy and
a lot of children together, especially if they’re eating sugary foods as well,
will probably mean a lot of noise. The cost is another factor that can make kid’s
gatherings problematic. By the time you account for the cake, the entertainment,
the party bags and the birthday clothes, the costs could be astronomical.
Do you think celebrating birthdays has become too much?
The short answer is yes. I do. I think I would rather prefer something small and
intimate with friends than a big party, helium balloons and lots of decorations
in a hired venue. These kinds of celebrations can take on a life of their own. Especially,
being influenced by TV or social media, young people today want the whole world for one
birthday. It’s over the top and prohibitively expensive. It’s just not my cup of tea at all.
What are the pros and cons of having a small birthday celebration?
Hmm! Personally I like smaller parties so I can see lots of advantages. These are,
but not limited to, being able to really spend time with the people you invite, it’s less
expensive so you can have nicer quality things - cakes, party foods and so on, for the people you
invite. It’s also easier to organise, you invite less people, as I said, so you don’t have to keep
track of so many invites and RSVPs. It’s easier to know who’s coming and what you can expect.
If you have a big party, the disadvantage is that you feel being pulled from different
people so you don’t get to spend the quality time with anyone. It
also costs a lot more money or you have to sacrifice the quality of what you decide to
have and it’s hard to organise. It’s also just not as enjoyable, for me personally,
as I find it a bit impersonal to have large groups of people all together.
In part two I’ll give you a topic to speak about.
You should prepare to speak about this topic for one to two minutes. Before you talk,
you have one minute to think about what you are going to say. Here is a pen and
a piece of paper. You may make some notes if you wish. Do you understand?
Here’s your topic…
Talk about a person who had a positive effect on your life.
Ok, don’t worry if I stop you, it’s only because the time is up. Please start now.
Hmm.. Someone who had a good influence on me, well, I would have to say that
was my grandma. My grandma and I were very close as I was one of only three
grandchildren so she had a lot of time for me. Unfortunately, she passed away,
um, about three years ago so, yeah, it’s been hard. But, when she was alive,
she definitely had a really profound impact on my life. Not only was she kind and generous but she
also made sure I had what I needed when I went to her house - whether that be a blanket or a snack.
She always asked me about my life. I felt like she really cared for me because she made the time to
remember things and asked me about what I told her about and asked me about them the next time. Most
adults didn’t do that but she was different. Hmm.. the way that she was… I remember she
always ate these hard-boiled sweets and so now whenever I see them I always think of her and…
the way that she has, like, encouraged me to be a better person is that I do those things that I
noticed that she did, you know. Like, I try my hardest to listen to people and really hear what
they’re saying and then remember the details and ask them about that again when I see them next.
Thank you. Can I have the booklet and the pencil and paper back, please?
Do you think everyone should have these qualities?
Yeah, well I copied her, so I do think these are nice characteristics to have. I always say,
to be kind costs nothing! You know. This is one thing I noticed that made me feel
special but not everyone has to be this way. Other people can choose their own
way to make someone feel special. So no, I don’t think everyone has to be like this.
Let’s continue to talk about influence.
What are some ways a person can influence others?
I’ve never really thought about that before. I believe, that, well,
first of all, when we talk about influencing others, what immediately springs to mind is
social media. There are a lot of influencers out there, on Instagram, Tik Tok or wherever
that just try to make people buy things, so that’s one form of influence we can have. But,
thinking about it more, secondly I’d like to add that parents are huge influences on children.
Everything from teaching them manners to exploring the world together, right down to what they eat,
um, especially for young children, parents have the biggest impact and they can create this by
leading by example. Parents show children how to act in the way they behave and eh, by, by talking
to them about why they should or shouldn’t do certain things. One final way people can
be influenced by others is because something is perceived to be cool. I’m talking about teenagers
and peer pressure now. It’s incredibly difficult for a teenager to say no to something or someone
when the rest of their group is doing so, so they can often fall into traps and get into
trouble because of it. There are various ways to influence others. Some positive and some negative.
What kinds of people are generally influential?
Well, we usually talk about people with leadership skills being influential. I’m
not quite sure what that means but how I understand it is when people are confident,
self-assured and able to get things done, they can assert influence over people and these
are what most people would consider positive traits in a leader. If I would hazard a guess,
I’d say that these things can be taught but they are often inherited from family members too. So,
the people who have predecessors in positions of power often go on to hold them themselves.
We hear a lot on social media at the moment about nepobabies - I dunno if you’ve heard
about that - what it means is the children of nepotism or people who are famous or powerful
just because their parents or grandparents already are. This is definitely one way in
which we can get power or be influential and, as I said, the other way is to lead by example.
How has influencing people changed over the years?
Hmm that’s a tricky question because it’s not really my field.
I’m not an anthropologist. However, I would imagine that technology has played a big part in
affecting what people do and change. For example, in the 1950’s, with the onset of the television
era, as we see in Mad Men, advertising on TV did a lot to change how people lived their lives and
indeed what they wanted from their life. Since then TV advertisements have been persuading the
public at large and I don’t think that’s going to stop. It’s just that now the ads are on streaming
services and the like. As I mentioned before, influencers on social media also play a role in
the change that has happened over the last few years. I think that we’ve seen an enormous rise
in consumerism with disposable items being more and more used to the point where it’s dangerous
for our planet and our psychology, as well as our wallets! But I hope that in the future,
it’s going to change to be a bit more sustainable for our bank accounts and the Earth. We used to
have different technology but the same thinking behind it prevails, for the moment anyways.
Is it possible to be too influential?
Well, yeah, I’ve noticed are some celebrities, or really their fandoms that are too influential,
like when one celebrity, like Hailey Beiber’s fans started harassing another, Selena Gomez,
just because their fans deems them to be rivals even though they’ve both stated they’re not and
Justin and Selena are ancient history. I think if a fandom starts bullying another celebrity,
which at the end of the day, is a human being, then that’s excessive
too. So that’s why I’d say there’s such a thing as being too influential, yeah.
Thank you, that is the end of the test.
Well, what did you think? She’s good, isn’t she? But what makes this a band nine? Remember,
that you’re graded on the test overall and the speaking examiner refers to the
band descriptors to make a decision about the score for each section.
This is a perfect example, so Barbara has scored nine for Fluency and cohesion,
nine for lexical resource - that basically means vocabulary,
nine for grammatical range and accuracy and nine for pronunciation. You could also score
an eight in one of these categories and still get an overall nine for the speaking paper.
Let’s take a closer look at ‘fluency and cohesion’. Barbara is fluent throughout.
She repeats some phrases and words but not because she’s limited by her language
ability. For example, there are only so many ways to say ‘influence’ or ‘influential’
but look at all the synonyms and different forms Barbara uses - ‘influencing others’,
‘a form of influence’ - influence here is a noun, ‘huge influences on’, ‘biggest impact’,
‘be influenced by’, ‘being influential’, ‘assert influence’ - here she’s showing she knows other
verbs that collocate with the word influence, ‘be influential’, ‘affecting what people do’,
‘persuading’, ‘influences’ and ‘too influential’. There is a little bit
of repetition but the descriptor says ‘with only rare repetition or self-correction’.
Barbara uses this and that and other pronouns to avoid excessive repetition.
She makes some ums and ahs but these are natural when we speak and she’s not
penalised for them. The descriptor says ‘any hesitation is content related’.
She speaks appropriately - this means she answers the question. She shows the examiner she has
answered the question by using a strategy called ‘summing up’. She says her main point or points
again at the end of the answer and makes sure to relate it back to the question asked. For example,
she says ‘There are various ways to influence others. Some positive and some negative’ at
the end of one of the questions in part 3. The descriptor says ‘speaks coherently’.
She also uses phrases such as ‘first of all’, ‘for example’,
‘as I mentioned before’, ‘so that’s why’ and various other linkers and
phrases to structure her answer. These are the cohesive features referred to in the criteria.
She also gives examples or anecdotes to illustrate her points so the examiner
considers that she ‘developed topics fully and appropriately’, as the descriptor says.
Now let’s look at ‘lexical resource and accuracy’ (III). Barbara uses a wide range of vocabulary,
some more day-to-day and some less frequently used words and phrases, like, ‘get ripped off’,
‘a bit cramped’, ‘keep track’, and ‘hard-boiled sweets’. She has a lot of vocabulary to talk
about the different topics in the exam so she can answer the questions fully. In the descriptor,
it says ‘uses vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics’. She sounds natural
and doesn’t struggle to find new words. Another part of the descriptor is ‘uses
idiomatic language naturally and accurately’ - we see this with ‘it pays the bills’,
‘can take on a life of their own’, and ‘not my cup of tea at all’. She only uses one idiom and
that’s perfectly fine. One or two over the whole exam will get you a good score, if you use them in
the correct way. Her language is natural, on the whole and she uses ‘you know’ ‘well’ and ‘like’
naturally. Even these small phrases get her points for idiomatic language because that’s how we talk!
Alright, moving on to ‘grammatical range and accuracy’. Barbara definitely uses a
full range of structures - from present simple ‘I work’ to mixed conditional ‘it’s not what I
would have wanted’ to ‘used to’ - ‘we used to have different technology’. She adds this to
the end of the question about how influence has changed over the years. This is a great
strategy you can use too. Find opportunities to use something more than present and past simple.
She uses other structures like cleft sentences - ‘what immediately springs to mind is social
media’, and negative inversion - ‘not only was she kind and generous but she also made
sure I had what I needed’ to add interest to her speech and show the examiner examples of
different structures to get a band score nine. A lot of what she says is not that complex,
but when it’s put all together, it sounds like a native speaker. Not everything is perfect. There
are some inaccuracies - ‘I would rather prefer’, ‘spend the quality time’. These are considered
slips, something that happens naturally when we’re talking because we change our mind about
what we’re saying as we’re speaking. They’re not errors because she never repeats them,
so even though her grammar was not absolutely perfect, she still scored
a nine. The descriptor says ‘consistently accurate structures, apart from ‘slips’.
Lastly, let’s look at ‘pronunciation’. The most important thing here is that we can understand
everything she says with little effort. The descriptor says ‘is effortless to understand’
and she certainly is. She also uses features of ‘connected speech’, like ‘I dunno’ for I don’t
know. This hits the descriptor ‘uses a full range of pronunciation features’. Her intonation also
gets her points here. She never sounds bored or robotic. She is also flexible, for example, when
she says ‘the point’ and ‘the Earth’, the ‘the’ sounds different because of the word that follows.
Her pronunciation is natural. The descriptor says ‘sustains flexible use of features throughout’.
So that’s an IELTS band nine example. Have you learned any new words or phrases from
watching our star student? Let me know in the comments! Until next time, take care and goodbye!