Shadowing Practice: CELPIP Speaking Task 7 - TIPS! - Learn English Speaking with Video

- Ooh, this woman is going to take the Selpip

exam and she's studying for task 7 on the speaking part of the exam and task 7 is about your opinion.

You have to give your opinion on a certain topic.

Just like this question here.

Some people are allergic to fragrances such as perfumes and colognes.

Thank you.

Do you know what a cologne is?

Cologne is men's perfume.

Men don't wear perfume, men wear cologne and women wear perfume.

Okay?

Do you think fragrances should be banned in public places to make life easier for people with these allergies?

Hmm...

Fragrances.

Okay, a fragrance is anything that has a smell.

you know, like perfumes and colognes, those things are fragrances.

And lots of people are allergic to fragrances, right?

So this is a very good question.

Do you think fragrances should be banned in public places?

like shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, those kinds of things.

to make life easier for people with allergies?

Hey, this is one of the questions from my book, called "Cellpip Speaking Practice".

It has over a hundred questions and answers and tips and vocabulary to help you improve your

score on the speaking part of the exam and actually a lot of the vocabulary and and the tips and the reading,

I think that will help you on the rest of the test, not just on the speaking part.

So definitely check out my book.

If you want to buy a copy, you can just go to my website, metv .cool, and you can download a PDF copy of my book.

Okay, so for this question, task 7, you have 30 seconds to prepare and you have 90 seconds to speak.

Okay, that's a long time.

90 seconds to be speaking when you only really had 30 seconds to prepare.

That's not very long.

What are you going to say?

What strategy are you going to take with this question?

Well, here are my tips.

Okay, the first tip is to state your opinion clearly in the first place sentence.

Just very simply say what your opinion is and very clearly.

I think fragrances should be banned in public places for the following reasons, or for several reasons.

Okay, first off, That's very clear, you're just stating your opinion.

A lot of people, their opinion is not clear enough.

So your opinion should be right away, don't wait, till like 30 seconds into your answer to give your opinion, say it right away!

In the very first sentence.

That would be my advice.

Okay?

Now sometimes people ask me, "Can I answer 'it depends '?" It depends and give sort of two reasons,

you know, well, it depends on this, but also this could be true.

It depends on that.

Sure, you could answer your, you could, you could make your answer like this, you know, because very often in life,

we don't have a strong opinion on something.

So we might say, yeah, I mean, it depends on the situation.

It depends on maybe different factors.

So you could answer it this way.

But I would say if you try to answer it this way, it's going to require a higher level of English.

And you have a higher chance of getting confused.

You have a higher chance of your answer sounding very unclear. to the listener.

Okay, so when the person is listening for this answer, I think they want to hear a clear opinion.

Okay, so I think you could do this if you were really really good, but I would advise against it just because it can get really confusing.

Okay, that would be my tip.

Now, here's how you can make your opinion more clear.

Alright, so here's the question: Do you think fragrances should be banned in public places?

Okay, so you should say one of these two things: I think fragrances should be banned in public places for several reasons,

or I think fragrances should not be banned in public places.

Now, do you see how I italicized these words should and not.

Okay?

This makes it very clear that you are agreeing with this and disagreeing with this.

Okay, so this means that I'm putting emphasis with my voice.

Okay, so listen to how I say it.

I'm adding emphasis on these words, okay?

I think fragrances should be banned I think fragrances should not be banned.

Okay, I exaggerated it a little bit there so you can hear it.

This is how it would sound naturally.

I think fragrances should be banned in public places for several reasons.

I think fragrances should not be banned in public places for several reasons.

Okay, do you hear that?

That helps add a lot of clarity to what my opinion is.

You don't want the cell pip person to be trying to figure out what your opinion is.

Then you're giving all your reasons and they don't even know what your opinion is.

Okay, so your opinion should be very clear.

I think that is probably the most important aspect Really articulate your opinion and then give some good reasons.

Okay, so one more thing I want to say about this.

Now these words that are emphasized, like the word "should", it's because the word "should" is in the question.

If the question was something else, if it had a different verb, like let's say the question was...

Um, is Canada the best country in the world.

Do you think Canada is the best country in the world?

Then the verb is "Is".

Do you think Canada is the best country?

Then your answer should be: I think Canada is the best country in the world for several reasons.

Or, I think Canada is not the best country in the world.

because blah blah blah.

Okay does that make sense?

So these words if you emphasize them it will help make it more clear what your opinion is.

Okay, so another tip I want to give you is that you should try to think of three points.

Now realistically, in 30 seconds, it's very hard to come up with three good points.

So maybe you might just have two points, or even just one point.

You can't think of enough.

That's okay, but you should try to talk for the and,

without repeating themselves over and over.

You don't want to say the same thing again and again.

You want to have some new

some new content in your answer right now these are some great ways to fill up time.

Okay?

100

Telling stories, talking about your personal experiences.

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You know, when I used to practice this question with my students, they rarely used stories and personal experiences.

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But these are very valid in the formation of a person's opinion.

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Remember, this is your opinion.

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There's no right and wrong answer.

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If you think Canada is the best country in the world, Great!

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If you think it's not the best country in the world, that's fine.

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There's no right or wrong answer.

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As long as you have some good reasons.

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Now, why do you think Canada is the best country.

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Or why do you think it's not the best country?

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Well, it must be based on your personal experiences.

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Maybe you came to Canada and you had a really bad experience in Canada.

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Okay?

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I mean, then you should put that in your answer.

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Okay?

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Or if you had a great experience, put that in your answer.

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That's a very valid part of...

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our opinions.

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Okay?

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So, let's think about the question: should Fragrances be banned in public places.

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So what is your experience with Fragrances.

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you know, maybe you don't have any strong think memories about any experiences you had.

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Well then just make up some experiences.

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Okay?

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So here it is.

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Try to think of three points.

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Now let's say we can only think of two points.

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Our first point is chemicals are unhealthy and the second point is more people are developing allergies to fragrances these days.

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Okay, those are our two points.

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And then, suddenly you hear, "Start speaking Now.

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Huh.

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Okay, we have to start speaking.

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What do you say?

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Well, just take a breath, calm down, and start with your opinion.

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I think fragrances should be banned in public places for several reasons.

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First off, chemicals are really unhealthy.

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for people to be around.

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To be in an environment filled with chemicals, it's very harmful to a person's health.

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Scientists have proven that when people are in an environment, they with lots of fragrances and other chemical products,

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they can develop very serious illnesses like cancer.

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I just made that up.

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Is that true? Who knows?

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When you're doing the CELPIP speaking test, you can just make things up.

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Make up facts, make up stories, make up personal experiences.

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It doesn't matter because the CELPIP people are not going to check anything, right?

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They're not going to go and look to see if your answer is right or wrong.

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If you read my book, you will see how many times I just make up,

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you know, acts or stories or you know, experiences.

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You could say 70 % of people who use fragrances developed cancer.

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Okay, I mean that's probably a very extreme statistic, but I think it's okay.

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You know, it's your opinion.

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Sometimes people's opinions are wrong.

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It's okay if your opinion is wrong, if you give some crazy statistics,

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or you can say, "I read a magazine article last week that said fragrances cause cancer.

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okay just you can make anything up to defend your point remember this is not honest you just Basically,

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you have to become very fast at thinking and you have to sort of become a good liar.

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to make up these experiences and stuff.

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The Selphic people are not testing you on your morality or if you're telling the truth about something.

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Okay, so here is my answer from my book.

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Now you'll notice as I read this answer, that it's not very structured.

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You know, some people might try to have the words "firstly" Secondly, Thirdly, okay.

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Well that would be great if you can do that great, you know I think fragrances should be banned.

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Firstly this, secondly this, thirdly blah blah blah, okay, but in Reality it might not work out that way.

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It might be more free -flowing

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So I don't know let me let me read this answer

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and you can sort of make up your own mind if it's a good answer or a bad answer, okay?

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be banned in public for several reasons.

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First, a lot of people these days are developing Sorry, a lot of people these days are allergic to fragrances.

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If stores and shopping malls were fragrance free, It would improve the quality of life for so many people.

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Even for people who aren't allergic to fragrances, I think they would appreciate it too.

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For example, last week I was on a flight from Houston to Vancouver.

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The woman next to me was wearing such strong perfume, I could barely breathe.

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Then, when I was in a taxi going home from the airport, the driver was wearing really weird smelling cologne.

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Both those experiences are examples of how normal people can have negative experiences with fragrances too.

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I would say that I don't like about 90 % of fragrances on the market today.

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and I'm not even allergic to them.

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That's the first part of my answer.

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Another reason I think fragrances should be banned is because fragrances are basically just chemicals that we breathe into our lungs.

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It's not healthy for the whole population to be breathing in those chemicals.

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There are natural alternatives that people can use instead of perfumes and colognes.

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I realized that my dry skin problem was caused by using soap filled with chemicals.

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I think our society would be so much healthier if we got rid of chemicals completely.

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Anyway, those are the reasons why I think fragrances should be banned in public.

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Ok, so there's my answer.

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I'm not sure if it was 90 seconds, but if you gave an answer like this, it would probably take you at least 90 seconds in real life.

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Now you'll notice here.

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I said first.

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So first a lot of people these days are allergic to fragrances.

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And then I talk about, you know, stores, shopping malls, if they were fragrance free.

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For example, Right?

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Last week, so here I say even for people who aren't allergic to fragrances.

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I think they would appreciate it too so in a way that's my second reason I Right?

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Like here, the first reason is a lot of people are allergic to fragrances.

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The second reason is that even for people who aren't allergic to fragrances, they would benefit too.

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So that's sort of my second reason, even though I didn't say "secondly".

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And then I gave some personal examples of the taxi driver, the woman.

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I don't like 90 % of fragrances on the market.

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On the market means for sale today, that you can just buy at stores.

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And then another reason I think fragrances should be banned.

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And then Do I give any more examples?

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Yeah.

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I say, "Actually, I bought some natural soap a few months ago and it's the best soap I've ever used." Okay,

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so you can see my answer is full of personal examples that shaped my opinion on this topic.

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And then, to conclude, you just say, just a simple sentence like this.

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Anyway, those are the reasons why I think fragrances should be banned in public.

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So the conclusion is sort of just saying the...

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rephrasing the question, right?

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It's just very easy.

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Okay, so if you gave an answer like that, I think you would get a really good score.

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I think this would be a perfect score.

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But, I mean, I don't know.

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I've never actually taken the CELPIP, so I don't know what my score would be.

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So hey, let's do some homework.

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I have a great opinion topic for homework: Should Canada legalize marijuana?

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Now this is a very relevant topic now in Canada because Canada has already decided to legalize it.

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Okay, it is becoming legal in Canada this summer.

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So, if you come to Canada this summer, you'll be able to just go to a store all across Canada and buy marijuana.

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Okay, but for the purpose of this question, let's pretend the government hasn't decided yet.

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So, and they are asking for your input.

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Should Canada legalize marijuana?

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Okay, what's your opinion?

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Let me know your opinion down there in the comments

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and I'll see you over in the next episode of Mad English TV.

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Take care.

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you

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: CELPIP Speaking Task 7 - TIPS! - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?