Shadowing Practice: How to pass Speaking Part 1 | B2 First, C1 Advanced C2 Proficiency - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Welcome back language enthusiasts.
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Are you ready to conquer the speaking exam in either the B2 first or the C1 advanced Cambridge English exam?
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Well you're in the right place.
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I'm Izzy from English with Izzy
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and today I'm going to spill the beans on the ultimate game-changing strategies for the speaking part one interview questions.
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Now whether you're just starting to prepare for your exam
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or you've been working towards that certificate for a
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while perhaps you're a Cambridge English exam preparation teacher
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and you want to make sure that your students are really understanding the exam, well this video is going to be your secret weapon.
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But it's going to get even better because these aren't just your average textbook tips.
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What I'm going to be sharing with you today comes straight
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out of my student favourite Cambridge exam preparation online course which I have been fine-tuning over the last few years.
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So if you're ready to supercharge your speaking skills and walk into
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that exam feeling really confident because you're very well prepared and you know what the examiners are going to expect from you,
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then stick around because we're going to dive deep into the world of speaking part one for Cambridge English exams.
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Let's dive right in.
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So let's start with speaking part one.
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Speaking part one is called the interview part because that's exactly what's going to happen.
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The examiner is going to interview you by asking you three or maybe four short questions about yourself.
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They will ask you an individual question
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you will answer it and then they will ask your partner a question and they will answer it.
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In this part of the exam you are not going to
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talk to your partner you're just going to respond to the questions that the examiners ask you.
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This part of the exam is about two minutes long so it will really be over before you know it.
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Because this part is called the interview part and it's
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so short people tend to think that it's unimportant or
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that there is no strategy but that could not be further from the truth
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and because it's so short that is exactly why you have to use
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that time to prove to the examiner that you know what you're doing okay
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and that's why strategy is absolutely fundamental here
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so let's get down to the important information as you can
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see here from this diagram you're going to be sitting next
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to your speaking partner in front of you there's going to be an examiner
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and behind kind of in the corner there's going to be another examiner.
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The only person who's going to speak to you during the
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speaking exam is the examiner who is in front of you and also your partner next to you.
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So you should not even interact with the other examiner.
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When you enter the room for the first time please say hello to both examiners.
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Okay be friendly because that will leave a really good impression.
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Aside from that you don't need to talk to the other examiner that's at the back of the room.
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Let's start with the questions that are absolutely guaranteed to come up in the exam.
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As soon as you sit down the examiner is going to ask you to hand in your mark sheets
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and they are definitely going to ask you for your name.
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This is probably the only question where you're going to give a really short answer
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and you can simply answer it by saying hello I'm Izzy or my name is Izzy.
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Okay, nothing longer than that.
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And the second question that they're going to ask you is where you're from.
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A lot of people, they get quite nervous and they say, I'm from Oxford.
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You know, they throw the name of their city into the answer and they stop there.
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But I really recommend doing what I'm going to also explain further in the rest of this video.
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I really recommend that you give a very complete answer.
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This is one of the most important tips in the speaking exam and I'm going to give you an example right now.
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Look at this example answer which is what I would answer because I am from Oxford.
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If the examiner asked me where are you from I would say I'm from Oxford
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which is a small historic town in the southeast of England
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and is famous for being the home of the oldest English speaking university in the world.
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As you can see, I've mentioned not only the place, but I've mentioned exactly where it is in England.
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And I've mentioned one characteristic about the town, right?
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It's famous for this.
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So that when I give my answer to the examiner, they have a really good idea of my city.
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I don't just say I'm from Oxford, but they really understand a lot more about it.
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And that's exactly what you're going to do as well.
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Now, this is a strategy that you're going to apply to every single part of both the speaking and the writing exam,
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which is not to give really short and boring answers, but you know, to make your point and then go on to give some extra information.
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You're going to do this for the rest of the questions in well the whole speaking exam
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but also in the writing exam you should never just throw in an answer without justifying it
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or explaining it further so this is a really important strategy in the whole of your exam
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so regarding the question where are you from this is a really good template you can use
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if you don't like it
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or you already have a really good answer for this question
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you know you don't have to follow it word from word but it's definitely a format that works every time.
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So what you can say is I'm from, you give the name of the town, the city, the village, whatever type of place it is,
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which is a, and you can now start to give some good descriptive adjectives about this place.
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So I said it's a small historic town.
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I mentioned two adjectives.
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If you're taking a C1 exam, you should really try to use some good C1 adjectives
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because you want to really show to the examiner that you have a good range of vocabulary.
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You might say it's a quaint city, it's a manic city, you know, really understand what your city is like so you can describe it well in the exam.
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And then you're going to say, you know, it's a city, it's a town, whatever in the, and then I recommend mentioning exactly where it is geographically.
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You could say it's in the northeast, the southwest, in the center of the country that you're from.
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And now this is just a suggestion.
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You could say it's famous for or it's known for this.
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If it's not famous for anything, you don't have to use this exact phrase.
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But giving a bit of extra information, whatever it may be, is definitely important in this part of the exam.
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All right, guys, we're going to focus on the really important stuff now
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which are the three key strategies to do really well in speaking part one.
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We're going to talk about the phrase list which you can download here.
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We're going to talk about what I've already mentioned
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which is making a point and giving extra information
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and my super vocabulary tip which I'm going to talk about is using three keywords but let's start with the phrase list.
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I've compiled this list of phrases because when native speakers speak English you You know, there's a selection of phrases that we use all the time,
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which are more colloquial, which will make you sound much more natural
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and much more native when you're giving your answers in the exam.
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Remember that this is a speaking exam.
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And the most important thing here is that you sound really fluid and really natural when you're speaking, which is why it's really important to use,
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you know, colloquial phrases, native like phrases, idioms, expressions and things like this.
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and I've put them all together here so you can literally copy them, paste them and put them at the beginning of your answers.
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I recommend using one phrase for every single speaking answer
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that you're going to give in speaking part one and I want to give you an example of why it's really good.
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So look at this first question which is what is your job?
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You could say I'm a balloon twister.
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I know it's a really unusual job.
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However, I'm an extremely jolly person so it suits me perfectly.
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It also comes with lots of perks so I can't complain.
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Now this is obviously already a really good answer but listen to this one.
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It's funny you asked me that as I was just talking to my friend about my bizarre job.
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Now as you can see by putting this it's funny you asked me
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that I've just added this more personal twist right because it shows
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that I'm talking to the examiner like I'm really listening to
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their question you know I want them to relate to me
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like I'm talking to them like a friend not like I've
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just memorized my answer okay let's look at another example now
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imagine they ask you the question what's the furthest you've ever
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been from home now you could say once I went to
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Thailand I think it's the furthest I've ever been it's quite short answer, very boring, it's not really showing off your range of vocabulary.
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Now look at this one.
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I'm really fond of traveling.
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I'm a seasoned traveler actually and when I was a youngster, I went backpacking in Thailand.
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That's where all the adrenaline junkies were going at the time.
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Although I was traveling on a shoestring, I managed to fund my two week trip to Thailand, which is 3000 kilometers from home and the furthest I've ever been so far.
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This is a really good example of a very complete answer.
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And as you can see, I started my answer by saying, I'm really fond of, which is synonymous for I really like.
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At C1 level, we don't want to be using words like like, love, okay?
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Because we really want to show that we have a really good grasp of the language, which is why we need to replace those more basic words with words like this, you know, I'm fond of,
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because that's what native people use.
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And if you're at C1 level, you should try to be using these as well.
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So don't forget, try to use one speaking phrase before every answer in the interview part.
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The next thing we're going to talk about is the strategy I mentioned before, which is make your point and give extra information.
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Always give extra information, okay?
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Don't give short or boring answers because the examiner's going to want more from you.
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So let's look at this one.
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The examiner asked me, what's your job?
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I start by using my phrase, right?
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It's funny you asked me that as I was just talking to my friend about my bizarre job.
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Now my answer is I'm a balloon twister, but I'm not going to stop there because I want them to be informed.
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I want them to understand what my job is and why I like it.
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So then I'm going to say, I know it's a really unusual job.
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However, I'm an extremely jolly person.
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So it suits me perfectly.
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It also comes with lots of perks, so I can't complain.
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As you can see, I've given four extra pieces of information about my job.
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So the examiner is fully informed.
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They understand exactly what I do and why I like it.
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So there's no missing information here.
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Let's look at the second question.
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What's the furthest you've ever been from home?
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Again, I'm going to start with my phrase.
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I'm really fond of traveling.
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I'm a seasoned traveler.
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This is my extra information.
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I'm a seasoned traveler.
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When I was a youngster, I went backpacking in Thailand.
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I'm giving background information about the place that I went to.
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That's where all the adrenaline junkies were going at the time.
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Although I was traveling on a shoestring, I managed to fund my two-week trip to Thailand, which is 3,000 kilometers from home.
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This is my point, right?
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This is the fundamental answer to the question.
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What's the furthest you've been?
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Thailand.
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So I said, I managed to fund my two-week trip to Thailand, which is 3,000 kilometers from home and the furthest I've ever been so far.
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I kind of did this one backwards because I gave my extra information first
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and I made my point at the end but it doesn't matter
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because I've supported my main opinion by keeping the examiner informed
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and this is a much less boring answer right I could have said Thailand
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but I'm not showing the examiner that I know how to interact with them
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so that's why we have to give a complete answer
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so it feels natural you know just like when you're with a friend if you ask them a question
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and they respond with just one word.
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It's like, okay, you're kind of boring.
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I don't know how to have this conversation with you.
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That's why we have to do this.
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Okay, you want them to be informed.
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You want them to enjoy what you're saying.
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And most importantly, we need to justify what we're saying and try to show off some good vocabulary as well.
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Last but not least, I generally recommend to my students that they learn three keywords for as many vocabulary topics as possible.
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A lot of people kind of fall into the trap of memorizing answers for their exam
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which is a really bad idea because you don't sound very natural
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and you're just not 100% sure of what the examiner is going to ask you on that day.
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So a good trick is you know opening your Cambridge textbook having a look at the different topics
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that appear in it and finding three really good really good phrases, expressions related to that topic.
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So if they ask you any question, or if you have to talk about photos related to this topic,
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you don't have to memorize 5,000 different words related to that topic, but you have three really good,
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really impressive C1 pieces of vocabulary ready to fire at the examiner.
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So let's go back to the same questions that we looked at before.
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What's your job?
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I know that the examiner is probably going to ask me about what I do, my job, university of some kind
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so before going into the exam I prepared three really good words
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which I know I want to use in any topic about work and about me.
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So the questions I chose were bizarre which means strange or weird.
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I chose jolly which is a c1 synonym for happy and
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I chose perks which means you know the advantages of a job.
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Now all of these are really good c1 words
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which is why I chose to write these down and
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when I ask you to do your exercise of writing down some c1 words I want you to make sure
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that they are of a high level.
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Let's go back to the same question.
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What's your job.
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It's funny you asked me
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that as I was just talking to my friend about my bizarre job
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because I went into the exam knowing I was going to use this word.
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I used it, I impressed the examiner and I gave my complete answer.
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Well I'm a balloon twister.
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I know it's a really unusual job however I'm an extremely jolly person
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so it suits me perfectly and it also comes with lots of perks so I can't complain.
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So remember don't memorize answers but start learning three really really good words,
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phrases or expressions for a whole variety of topics in English.
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Let's look at this next question.
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What's the first thing you notice about people when you meet them for the first time?
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The phrases I've chosen to prepare before the exam were painfully perceptive which means extremely perceptive,
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body language and to look past.
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So I put a really good C1 phrasal verb here.
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It's funny you asked me that.
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So I'm using my natural speaking phrase.
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As right before the speaking exam I was talking to my friend about this.
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Now I'm a painfully perceptive person
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and one of the first things I pay attention to when meeting someone new is their smile.
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I think body language is extremely important and it's hard for me to look past a fake or uncomfortable smile.
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So that's the last point I really want you to take into consideration
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and to help you really show off your language to the examiner without stressing too much you know
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and thinking I have to use 5,000 different words if they ask me about this topic.
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No, just have a handful of really good words and that's all you need.
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The three things I want you to remember are to use your natural speaking phrases to make your point
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and to give extra information and last
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but not least try to think of at least three really good words
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that you can use in the topic of the question.
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The last thing to bear in mind as I'm sure you
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saw from the videos before your answers should be about two
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sentences long okay enough time to make your point to give extra information
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but because this is just the interview part your answers should not be too long.
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Okay so they're going to last about 20 seconds.
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And there you have it language learners.
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I hope you found these strategies useful and
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that they've managed to give you some insight
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and at least a little bit of confidence on how you're supposed to be facing part one of your speaking exam.
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But I've got an extra trait for you.
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I know how important it is to get your hands on the right resources
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and ones which go straight to the point so you don't waste your time preparing for this exam.
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So what I'm going to do is give you access to a free sample of my course.
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I call it a sample but there are hours of useful strategies in this.
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So it's the perfect way to dip your toes into what could be a life-changing exam preparation course.
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I'm going to drop the link in the video description below
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so you can start watching it right away if you want to.
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Anyway don't forget to subscribe, hit that notification bell so whenever I release a new video
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which is every single Monday then you'll be the first to know
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when it comes out because it would be really sad
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if all I'm doing is creating these videos for my grandparents to watch them
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so hit that button you know you want to.
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Also if you could do me a favor
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and share this video with just one friend who's also preparing
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for their Cambridge English exam you might be helping them out more than you realize.
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Anyway that's it for today guys thank you for joining me in sitting through this video
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and investing your time in your own education which is always a fantastic thing to do.
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I can't wait to see you in the next lesson but until then stay curious, stay learning.
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What You'll Learn: Mastering Speaking Part 1 for Cambridge Exams
This video equips you with two key skills to ace the interview-style first part of B2, C1, and C2 Cambridge speaking exams. First, you’ll learn to maximize short answers—even simple questions like “Where are you from?” can showcase your fluency with a brief, expanded response. Second, you’ll discover how to manage exam room dynamics, from greeting both examiners to staying focused on the lead interviewer. These strategies are perfect for anyone using YouTube to learn English, as they turn quick practice sessions into confidence-boosting wins.
Listen For These Sounds: Natural Speech Patterns in the Dialogue
As you watch, notice how the speaker uses connected speech to keep the flow smooth. Phrases like “spill the beans on” and “dive deep into” link words naturally, with reduced vowels in “on” and “into.” Also, listen for the relaxed pronunciation of “you’re” as “yer” in “you’re in the right place”—a common reduction that makes speech sound native. These details are gold for IELTS speaking practice too, as they mirror real-world conversation.
Say It Like a Native: Rhythm and Stress to Mirror
To sound confident, mimic the speaker’s rhythm—she pauses slightly before key points (e.g., “But it’s going to get even better because…”), which builds anticipation. Stress words like “ultimate,” “game-changing,” and “fundamental” to emphasize importance. This is where the shadowing technique shines: repeat her lines aloud, matching her pace and stress. Try “shadow speak” with short clips—pause, then repeat—to train your mouth to move like a native. Over time, this will make your answers in speaking part 1 (and IELTS) sound natural and polished.
Whether you’re prepping for Cambridge or IELTS, these tips turn short exam moments into opportunities to stand out. Grab your device, hit play, and start practicing—your confident speaking self is just a few shadowing sessions away!
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.