Speaking lab test 2

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Speaking Lab 2

Part 1: Analysis

Why this answer would score well

The Basics: The candidate's voice is loud and clear enough to be understood

Pronunciation is clear and easy to understand The candidate's vocabulary is appropriate

in relation to the questions asked There are no grammatical inaccuracies

Presentation: The candidate sounds very relaxed, friendly and confident!

Structure: The candidate responds appropriately to the questions asked The answers are well structured: the questions are answered and in all cases additional, related details are given

Content: The responses answer the questions the examiner asks in detail (no one or two word answers!) The candidate's friendly personality is evident right from the very

beginning making the experience an enjoyable one for both candidate and examiner The candidate answers the questions with good examples and involves the examiner with a rhetorical question

This is a good, confident start!

Speaking Lab 2

Part 2: Analysis

Why this answer would score well

The Basics: The candidate's voice is loud and clear enough to be easily understood Pronunciation is excellent and the candidate's use of words/vocabulary shows he can communicate on the topic effectively There are no grammatical inaccuracies

Presentation: The candidate sounds relaxed and confident The personality of the

candidate comes through and through the use of vocal variety, the topic is made more interesting

Structure: The candidate responds appropriately to the questions asked on the Candidate Card The first two questions are answered almost immediately leaving most of the time

to expand upon questions 3 & 4 (personality and influence of the person) A point is made and then additional, related details are given

Content: Remember the question required the candidate to discuss:

1 who he or she is

2 how you met him/her

3 what his/her personality is like

4 explain how this person has influenced you

All of these aspects of the question were answered Good idiomatic expression ('comes out of her shell') and general expression ('centre of attention')

One of the interesting things about the presentation is that the candidate ran out of things

to say She decided to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of having children The use of Advantages/Disadvantages was a good way to further elaborate on 'how this person has influenced you' She used 'A-D' (See speaking lesson 3)

This is a good, confident continuation of the test!

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Speaking Lab 2

Part 3: Analysis

Why this answer would score well

The Basics: The candidate's voice is loud and clear enough to be easily understood Pronunciation is excellent and the candidate's use of words/vocabulary shows she can communicate on each topic raised by the examiner effectively There are no grammatical inaccuracies

Presentation: The candidate continues to sound relaxed and confident The personality of the candidate continues to come through and builds upon the rapport established through Parts 1 & 2

Structure: The candidate responds appropriately to the questions asked Firstly, she answers the question then conversationally, she expands upon the topic In other words, a point is made and then additional, related details are given

Content: The information presented in the conversation clearly answers the questions The candidate demonstrates very well that she has a diverse vocabulary on many

different topics - a demonstration of a very advanced knowledge of the language Some good, academic words are used (eg: functions, wisdom, assume, realistic,

theory/practical) When she was not sure about an answer, she made a funny statement ('you seem to know how to ask difficult questions') which reduced the tension and

allowed her a little more time to think about what she would say

This is a good, confident conclusion!

Speaking Lab 2

Part 1:

Q1 Can we talk about your home town? Tell me about the biggest industries in your town.

A1

Yes um, I’m from Mitchford which is a coastal town We've got a lot of white, sandy beaches and a pleasant climate all year-round so, I'm sure you can guess what our main industry is? Tourism Each year we get about a quarter of a million visitors to our town so as a result another big industry is building and construction so all our visitors have got somewhere to stay!

Um restaurants the food industry is another big industry in my town We have all kinds of restaurants – Indian, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Turkish, you name it, we've got it! If you like eating out, Mitchford is a wonderful place to visit There's one

restaurant called 'Curry in a Hurry' which, you can probably guess, is an Indian restaurant if you ever visit Mitchford I highly recommend it!

Q2 It sounds like you really like your home town Are there any things you dislike about it?

A2 Mmm, that's a difficult question Honestly, there aren't many things I dislike about

Mitchford but I guess I'd have to say one of the things I dislike about Mitchford

is the fact that my grandparents don't live there! My grandparents live about 9 hours away by car, so we don't get to see them that often It would be great if they lived in Mitchford

Q3 Fine Let’s move on to the topic of food and restaurants What kinds of foods

do you like to eat?

A3 Food my favourite topic! Well, that's an easy one for me to answer Ever since I

was a child, my favourite food's been Chicken Kiev Have you tried it before?

[Examiner: No, I haven’t] It's made from the leg and thigh of a chicken The

chicken is wrapped in butter and garlic It's then covered in bread crumbs and fried The chicken comes out golden brown and when you cut it, the butter and garlic runs out it's absolutely delicious probably not too healthy for you but the taste is

incredible!

Q4 What about dislike? Are there any foods you don't like to eat?

A4 Well, the first thing that comes to mind is brussel sprouts! I remember the first day

my mother served them for dinner Needless to say, my brother and sisters

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complained loudly! They have such a sharp taste I don't like them at all Also, at times um zucchini has the same kind of sharp taste In fact, I had zucchini on top

of a home-made pizza recently and in my opinion, the sharp taste of the zucchini ruined the pizza

Q5 What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of home-cooked

meals?

A5

Home cooked meals mmm well, the first idea that comes to mind is home cooked meals are generally healthier The idea, I guess, is that if you're cooking the meal at home, you know what ingredients are that have gone into making it so the food should be healthier For example, if you're using oil to cook your meal, it will be with fresh, unused oil I know that some restaurants reuse their oil over and over again I don't think that's good for health

[Examiner: Disadvantages?] Disadvantages um yes well for a start, the kitchen

is left in a mess! I'm speaking from experience here! At the moment I share a flat with 2 other people and every evening around dinner time, the kitchen looks like a total mess! Pots and pans containers half opened the sink full of dishes and

cutlery stuff everywhere! After cooking our flat looks like a danger zone So, related to this point is that it takes so long to clean all the mess up Most times, I couldn't be bothered with all the hassle of cooking I pick up some kind of fast food it's much more convenient!

Speaking Lab 2

Part 2: Transcript

Q1 Ok that was very good I'm now going to give you a topic that you will need to

speak about for 1-2 minutes You can take notes if you want You have 1 minute to prepare what you want to say I want you to talk about a young person who has influenced your life.

Ok You have a maximum of 2 minutes to speak so if you go over 2 minutes, I will ask you to stop Can you please begin speaking now?

A1 A young person who has had a big influence on my life is my niece my sister's child I'll

never forget the day that I first met her it was at the hospital and my mother and I went

to visit my sister and it was only a few hours after she had the baby She’s now six years old Her name’s Kate She's got blonde hair and brown eyes - she's so cute! My sister always dresses her in cute clothes and puts her hair in pig tails She has her mother's personality too! She's quite shy and reserved around strangers but when she's around my family, she really comes out of her shell she starts talking and talking and my sister is actually teaching her how to sing My sister's always asking her to sing for people you know, 'twinkle, twinkle little star', the 'ABC/alphabet song' My parents - her

grandparents - delight in her performances, I'd say she's become the 'centre of attention'

at Dad and Mum's place

I do miss her In some ways, her being born reminded me that I'm growing up and that

I needed to start thinking more seriously about my own future I suppose I began to wonder what it would be like to have my own children For a long time, I didn't care too much about kids, but after spending time with Kate, I realised that I'd love a child or two

of my own Umm let’s see I’d have to say that I think there are more advantages than disadvantages with having children I've learned that of course, it's not all easy looking after a child all day When Kate was really young, my sister seemed to hardly get any sleep and they never seemed to go out all that much But when you see her cute little face and her cute little smile, all that sacrifice seems to be worth it I've never seen my sister so happy since Kate came into her life

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Speaking Lab 2

Part 3: Transcript

Q1Ok, that's great We've been talking about a young person and I'd like to discuss one or two more questions that are related to this Firstly, let's consider

attitudes In your country, what is the attitude older people have toward

younger people?

A1 Hmm…I think, the older generation tend to look at the younger generation as being in

a hurry to go somewhere or do something I suppose this is pretty natural considering when a person gets old, they tend not to move so quickly you know, instead of going

out, most old people tend to just stay at home I don't mean all old people are like

this, but I think it's probably true of a majority of the older generation [Examiner: Right].

Q2 In your country, what are the advantages and disadvantages of being younger?

A2 Well, I'm young so I obviously think it's an advantage! Um, the first thing that comes

to mind is the fact that technology is changing so quickly, it takes an alert, young mind to keep up with it um there are benefits in keeping up with

technology um you can do things quicker For example, if you understand email, then you can communicate faster with people all around the world A lot of older people may use email but they may not know all the functions um to use it to their best advantage If you don't know how to properly use new computer software, you can end up wasting great amounts of time um the disadvantages well the

disadvantage of being young um let's see well, I think one disadvantage is that you have a little life experience What I mean is that you don't have much wisdom, you're starting out You might make a lot of silly mistakes in your life because you don't know any better um that's a definite disadvantage

Q3 Good Let's now consider young people and education Can you tell me about the numbers of young people in your country studying overseas?

A3 I'm not too sure about that the total numbers, that is um I know from my high

school er when I graduated there were 4 or 5 students who wanted to travel and study in England I've lost contact with them, I assume they went ahead with their plans Considering my high school had around 1000 students um and we had 4 or

5 who wanted to study overseas, I assume there are a lot of students who had the same goal

Q4 Do young people receive any government assistance in your country when it comes to education?

A4 Actually, yes and no Yes, because if they decide to study at university and they have

no money - this is assuming they are accepted into a course – um, they can apply for a student loan What happens is the government pays the money for their education – that's the good news but the bad news - and this is the ‘no’ part of my answer - is you have to pay the money back once you get a job I believe if you don't pay it back

by a certain time, the government starts to charge you interest on the loan or

something [Examiner: Ok]

Q5 What future changes would you like to see in your country regarding young people and education?

A5 Oh, that's another difficult question to answer you sure seem to know how to ask difficult questions! [Examiner: Thank you!] Um, I guess a change I would hope for

is that the student loans would not have to be paid back! I don’t think this is realistic, after all, it would be too expensive for the government perhaps removing the

repayment with interest part of the loan would be a good change for the future oh yea another thing that came to mind I think education will become more ‘hands on’ – less theory and more practical I think 'head knowledge' is fine, but it must be backed up with practical application I'd like to see this change in the future

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