Shadowing Practice: IELTS Speaking Mock Test - Band 8 [+ Free Speaking PDF] - Learn English Speaking with Video

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this part I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.

Let's start with what you do.

Do you work or do you study?

I'm a student.

And what subject?

I'm studying MSc Marketing.

And why did you choose that subject?

Because analytics is big now, big data is everywhere.

I had previous experience in SQL, so I decided to come here and study analytics.

And what do you hope to do with that degree after you finish?

I hope to work as a data scientist in the future.

Why?

Like I said, big data is everywhere and I really like SQL and data.

I like everything about data.

So this degree gives me the opportunity to study it in more detail than I knew previously.

So I think it is a good opportunity to start a career in data analytics and data science.

Now let's talk about your free time.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Since the past year I haven't really had too much free time but usually I just like to read,

travel, talk to, like meet my friends and I also volunteer during the weekends.

And do you prefer to spend your free time indoors or outdoors?

Depends on the weather.

If it's raining I don't like to go outside

but most of the time yeah I would like to go outside rather than stay in my room.

And what did you like to do in your free time when you were a child?

Oh, I used to read a lot.

Just keep reading books all the time.

So I never used to go out and play much.

I used to get scolded a lot by my parents, like go out and play with kids your age.

But I always used to stay indoors and read.

And what are you going to do in your free time this weekend?

Oh, this weekend, like I said, I volunteer.

So I volunteer at the Macmillan Cancer Support.

so I would be going visiting patients and going counseling to them.

So now let's talk about travel.

Do you like to travel?

Yes, I do.

Why?

Because I like getting to know other countries, their culture, how people live, what they like, stuff like that.

It's interesting to me.

And where is a popular tourist destination in your country?

Oh, in my country.

People mostly like to go to Europe because it's like colder

and I come from a very warm country so it's like a pleasant change for them.

So most of us would like to go to America or anywhere in Europe where it's colder.

Is travelling abroad very popular in your country?

Oh yes it is.

It is quite popular.

So people mostly go travel during the summer, but it's always summer in India.

So yeah, I think movies have a huge role to play in it

because they show all these destinations where there's snow covered mountains

and all and that's very fascinating for us because we don't really get snow, at least not where I come from.

And where would you like to travel to in the future?

There are still a lot of places in India that I haven't seen, so I might go there as well.

I like, I really like Bali.

So Bali and Greece, yes.

So I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about that topic for one to two minutes.

You'll have one minute to prepare before we begin and you can make some notes.

Do you understand?

Yes.

The type

of clothing that I like to wear is mostly generally casual, but I wear different types of clothes on different occasions like everyone else I saw.

So, regardless of the weather, in India we have a lot of festivals.

So, usually I do like to wear casual clothes, like just jeans and a t-shirt.

But on occasions, on festival occasions, I wear traditional Indian clothes and I get them specifically made

because you can't really buy traditional Indian clothes in the malls

and all but I for personally I do get them made tailor-made for me

and because then you can choose your own style your designs are a lot of like stuff like

that so yeah um when

when you go to a temple i i wear like uh pure simple clothes

because that is the tradition um so that

that makes me feel like really peaceful and calm

because most of the time you wear like simple clothing

when you go to a temple so it makes me feel calm

when i wear those clothes and during festivals

when I wear like those traditional Indian clothes it makes me happy

because it's like a festival I've been celebrating since I was a kid

so during Diwali and Holi

and all uh yes in Holi I wear like everyone wears white clothes

because they throw colors on you

so you get like you go out with a white clothes

and then when you come back it's like all colorful

so different clothes for different occasions as it was here I have been wearing a lot of warm clothes

and that makes me feel really really warm yeah

and I buy clothes from from different stores I suppose depending on what kind of clothes I want

and so yeah and when I go for an interview I mostly dress informants

so that makes me feel very confident and and that I'm prepared.

Good.

Okay, so I'll take this off you, please.

Alright, so we've been talking about clothing and now I'd like to talk about designer clothes.

So are designer clothes popular in your country these days?

Yes, I think so.

Yeah, they're quite popular.

It depends on the person actually.

designer clothes are usually very expensive, so only people of certain social, I mean, socioeconomic class can buy those clothes.

So they are popular in certain segments of the society, yes.

And why do you think people buy designer clothes?

I think because it has a social status attached to it.

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So when you're buying, like when you're wearing a specific label the people recognize it

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and then it shows like what kind of class you belong to

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and it is a huge thing in India I think

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so I think it's because of

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that it shows like you are from a different class of society

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and it shows your your affluence I think you can flaunt your affluence

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that way maybe that

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so now let's talk about working clothes do you Do you

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think you can judge someone based on the kind of clothes they are wearing at work?

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I personally don't, but I think there is a certain image attached to what you're wearing

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and people build perspectives about how someone is based on what they're wearing, I think.

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But personally I don't.

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And should people be forced to wear certain clothes in work?

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Well they shouldn't be forced

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but I think ever since like we were young we are told to wear certain clothes in certain settings because it's appropriate.

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So in schools we wear uniforms and we are trained that way.

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When we go to a temple we have a certain set of clothes.

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When we have festivals we have certain set of clothes.

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So I think

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when we are trained to dress in a certain way in a certain setting you get used to it

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so I don't think it's a it's a like people are

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forcing you to wear formal clothes in an office setting

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but oh it's a tricky one well I don't think someone should be forced

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but as individuals we should be aware enough of what not to wear in our official setting

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so we should make that decision by ourselves you don't feel like you're forced to do it.

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And how have work clothes changed in the last couple of decades?

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I think it has become less formal now in a lot of settings.

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I think companies like Google have made it really popular, like engineers, they are the smartest of people.

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They just go to office wearing casual clothes, they just wear a teacher in jeans which is very casual and they lay more importance on your work ethic,

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like how you work and how much you contribute, rather than what you wear.

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So that is really a refreshing change, I think.

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So it doesn't matter what you wear, but like how you work and how much you contribute.

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So I think times are changing and people are really getting more relaxed about what you wear.

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Okay, that's the end of the test.

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Well done.

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Thank you.

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The speaking test has four criteria.

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So pronunciation is number one.

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Then we have lexical resource, which is just another way of saying vocabulary.

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And then we have grammatical range and accuracy.

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So let's just call that grammar.

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And then we have fluency and coherence.

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Okay so let's start off with pronunciation.

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So I could understand a hundred percent of what you were saying which is very very important.

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If the examiner couldn't understand a hundred percent of what you

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were saying then they probably would give you a at least a six

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or below for pronunciation but I could understand a hundred percent of what you were saying

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and you do have a tiny little bit of what we call accent interference but

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that didn't stop me actually understanding what you said at any

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time it was very very easy to understand what you were

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saying now we'd also think about higher level pronunciation features things like intonation sentence stress word stress connected speech

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and you're actually at a very high level in terms of the higher level pronunciation features

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and so for pronunciation I would give you a band-aid

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because I can understand 100% of what you're saying without any effort whatsoever

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and you have a very strong use of those higher level pronunciation features in terms of vocabulary

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and your accuracy is very very good

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and you rarely slip up in terms of that your accuracy for vocabulary

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and your range is also very very good

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and you have some topic specific words for nearly everything

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that I asked you for you're not searching for vocabulary you

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you know you can access the vocabulary very very easily

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and use that very very well I think for you

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if you were to do the IELTS test again

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and I would encourage you during your preparation to take some some more chances with vocabulary

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and and maybe show how broad your vocabulary actually is

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because I think your vocabulary is much much broader than what you actually showed there today.

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But we didn't give you any coaching or anything like

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that before we did this but next time you I would just try

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and during your preparation to take some more chances

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but in the real test you use the 100% rule only use vocabulary that that you're 100% sure about.

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And grammar, you had a couple of very small slips, but the vast majority of your grammar was 100% accurate.

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Nearly all error-free sentences, you used a wide range of structures, complex sentences, simple sentences, you had no problem with tenses,

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so I asked you about the past, the present, the future, I asked you how things have changed since, you know, how they changed over the last few decades,

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no problem with any of those tenses

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so your grammar is probably your strongest point i have no

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worries really with your grammar you had a couple of little small problems um

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but that is totally natural even native speakers have little slips um

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so for your grammar i would give you a band eight as well and And for your vocabulary, I would also give you a band eight.

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But that would be something that I would, if you were to do the test today immediately,

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you might get a seven for vocabulary if you didn't show the range of vocabulary that you're capable of.

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So if you were to do the test tomorrow, I would say, you know,

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just use some more advanced adjectives and nouns and show how good your vocabulary actually is.

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Your fluency is also very very good.

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You don't speak with any noticeable effort, so you don't have to think about the grammar or the vocabulary.

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Linguistically you're very advanced, so that doesn't affect your fluency and you're able to speak without much effort at all.

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However, the one thing that I'd say is your,

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not your weakness, but this is something that many advanced students like you are not aware of,

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is that you need to develop your answers as much as you can, especially for part three.

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So part one, they're just normal everyday questions about yourself, but you were giving sometimes one word or just a few word answers.

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So I often had to say like, why is this?

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So I said, what are you studying?

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And you just said, I'm studying this.

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Why do you like that?

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So if we were having a normal conversation, no problem, because that's totally normal to say that.

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But remember you're in a test

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and the examiner has to judge your pronunciation your vocabulary your grammar your fluency So just one word answers.

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They don't they don't have enough data To go on really differently in India then hmm did they teach you differently?

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Yeah, what do they say?

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Because I have a tendency to like

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Just go on until they stop me

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because that's what I saw on YouTube video

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But then they told me like just answer the question don't go off on a tangent

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So I I just take it I think that's that's a few different things

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so one going off on a tangent you shouldn't do that

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because that you're going to lower your score for coherence and

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because coherence is that did the answer make sense so

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if I ask you about clothing and you start to talk about your favorite music that that's a problem.

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What your Indian teacher was probably referring to might have been that,

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but it could also be that certain students just talk on and on and on and on as much as possible.

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And in part one, I know this is frustrating advice, but not too short, not too long.

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So what does that mean?

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So too long, the problem with that is the examiner has to ask you a range of different questions

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so they will keep stopping you

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and often students will be like oh what did i do did i do something wrong

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and they will get very flustered

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so a good teacher should not tell you just keep talking on

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and on and on and on especially for part one and

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so a good way to answer part one questions is answer the question

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and then give a little bit more detail or an example

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or an explanation just a little bit more information for the examiner to judge your answer on

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and understand your answer fully for that question.

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So I don't like giving exact number of sentences because then people are thinking about number of words and number of sentences.

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But for example, what do you study in university?

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I like to study data science or I like to study business

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because and then explain why you like it

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or what would you like to do in the future I would like to be a data scientist

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because I really you know you like this you like that

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or I would love to work for Google

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because my brother works for Google or something like

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that you know a real example part two you did very very well in terms of coherence

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because you spoke for the full two minutes

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and you you had a little slip at the end

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but that's no big deal the The examiner is not judging you on one little slip.

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They're judging you on your whole performance and you did very, very well for part two.

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Part three is the part where you really do need to develop your answers because part one is just questions about you,

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whereas part three are more abstract questions about ideas in general.

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So I didn't ask you, you know, what are your favorite clothes? asked you why do people buy designer clothes like a more abstract question

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so that requires you to

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to answer the question and then develop your answer provide reasons for your answer provide explanations

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and then you could also develop by giving some examples

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so one way you could immediately improve your coherence would be to throw in some examples in there so for example

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Let me have a look at the question that we asked you.

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So the last question was, how have work clothes changed in the last few decades?

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And you talked about Google and that was really good.

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You could also maybe talk about 20 years ago, what were software development companies or tech companies like?

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Should people be forced to wear certain clothes?

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could say you know someone working as a police officer yes

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or someone you know you're not being judged on the content

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you're being judged on how you say it you're as I

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said fluency pronunciation grammar vocabulary is not the content is not important

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but coherence is important developing the answer especially for part three

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so if you I think if I was to give you any advice

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that would be the main thing to work on would be

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the coherence part one give a little bit more more information

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and then part three fully explain it give some examples

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and you can also answer them by saying well some people

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would think yes people should wear be forced to wear clothes

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and this is why they would think this and here's an example of this for example police whereas other people

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who work in the tech industry would say absolutely not you can wear anything you want

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but I think personally you know so you're

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so you can really develop it by looking at things from different angles

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and but the the difficult things for most students are pronunciation

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and grammar and vocabulary you don't have any real issues with those whatsoever they take a very long time to improve

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fluency can take a long time to improve no problems their coherence you can improve it in a day

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so you would be I think

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that you could do even better than the last time you did the test

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which you got a band eight I think with a little

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bit of practice you could do even better all right thank you do you have any questions

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Boost Your IELTS Speaking Fluency with This Band 8 Mock Test

If you’re aiming for a Band 8 in IELTS Speaking, this video is a goldmine. It targets natural conversational flow—a key milestone for high scores. The dialogue shows how to answer questions with detail, connect ideas, and sound authentic, even when discussing everyday topics like studies, free time, and travel. Perfect for english speaking practice, it models the fluency and coherence examiners love.

Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions to Elevate Your Answers

“Since the past year I haven’t really had too much free time but usually…” – Great for balancing past and present.
“It depends on the weather, if it’s raining I don’t want to go outside but most of the time…” – Shows flexibility in opinions.
“I used to read a lot just keep reading books, all the time.” – Natural way to talk about childhood habits.
“Because I like getting to know other countries their culture, how people live…” – Simple yet effective for explaining preferences.
“Different clothes for different occasion” – Concise phrase to structure a response.

Use these in your own shadow speak practice—repeat them aloud to mimic the rhythm and tone!

Fix Your Weak Spots: Rhythm and Intonation for Realistic Speech

One common issue for learners is sounding too scripted. This video helps you master conversational rhythm—pauses, stress, and linking words that make speech sound natural. Notice how the speaker uses phrases like “like I said” and “so yeah” to connect ideas smoothly. Practice shadowing this dialogue with a shadowing site to nail the flow. Focus on copying the intonation when talking about emotions (e.g., “it makes me happy”) and emphasis on key points (e.g., “big data is everywhere”). Small tweaks like these can take your speaking from good to Band 8-worthy.

Ready to start? Grab the free PDF mentioned in the video, pair it with shadowspeaks practice, and watch your fluency soar. Remember: consistent shadow speech practice is the fastest way to sound like a confident English speaker!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to read · used to go · used to get
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been celebrating · have been wearing · we've been talking
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is based · be forced · are told
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't really had · haven't seen · has become

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 technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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