Shadowing Practice: IELTS Speaking test band score 9 with feedback - Learn English Speaking with Video
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263 sentences
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Okay, I think we can start.
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This is the speaking test of the International English Language Testing System taking place on the 11th of February.
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Centre number, DDC125.
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And the candidate is Mehrnush Hafi.
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The candidate number is 01313458.
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The examiner is Samson Sees.
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Examiner number, 443533.
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Good afternoon, my name is Samson.
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Would you please tell me your full name?
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Sure, my name is Mehrnush Hafi wonderful can I see
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your identification please thank you wonderful
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thank you very much okay in the first part of the
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exam I will ask you some personal questions let's talk about your leisure time
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when When and how much leisure time do you generally have in the week?
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Well, actually I have quite a hectic schedule in the week
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and I'm almost working 24-7 from 9 in the morning to ungodly hours at night
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because I have a full-time job with a very heavy workload which I have to manage.
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So to answer your question I can say that I don't really have much free time during the week these days.
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Right.
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And who do you generally spend your leisure time with?
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If I get the chance to have some free time for myself, I prefer to spend it with my family, since on the other occasions or the other days,
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we don't really have much time.
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And we are so busy with our grueling schedule, so when we have this opportunity, we have to take it to be together.
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And if I want to tell you about the activities we do when we're together, I can say that we just sit and watch our favourite drama series in the evenings,
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which is called This Is Us.
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And we have some junk food, snacks to enjoy this quality time together.
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Wonderful.
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And what are some activities you enjoy in your leisure time?
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Just go through them briefly.
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As I mentioned earlier, I have a very, very busy schedule and I don't have much free time for myself.
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So sometimes I just prefer to sit and relax because I feel exhausted at times.
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And yeah, I need to get some sleep and free up some time just to maybe be with my family.
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That's also something else I would like to do in my free time.
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We can talk with each other about the plans we have for the future.
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Just to, you know, it actually helps me figure out what I want to do about my life and it motivates me.
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and it encourages me to keep on trying as I am.
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These are the things I normally do in my free time.
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Wonderful.
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And what do you like about these activities altogether?
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I really enjoy spending time with my family, especially my mother and my sister,
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because it really gives me more energy after I'm done with my work or with my studies.
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So it really helps me emotionally.
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And I do need to hang out with my friends on the weekends especially
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because we usually go hiking and it is a very good chance to be away from the hectic pace of Tehran.
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And I can just look at the snow-covered peaks in the mountains and enjoy the fresh air.
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So these are the things I really love about these activities I do in my free time.
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Right.
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Okay, let's move on to talk about animals.
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Do you like animals?
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It depends on what kind of animal we're talking about, but I can say that I like farm animals
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because I encounter them from time to time when I go to the countryside to have a walk.
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And I can say that lambing is an extraordinary time of the year and I enjoy looking at the
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lambs suckling up to their mothers.
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I think it's adorable.
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And I think that's the reason why I sometimes go to
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my uncle's farm in the northern part of Iran to just see these animals and enjoy the nature.
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Right, and what sort of animal would you like to have as a pet?
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I would say I would like to have a dog as a pet, but to be honest, I used to be afraid of dogs until I saw Coco,
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which was my student's pet actually.
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And Coco changed, made a big change in me and made me consider taking a puppy from an animal shelter, which I haven't done yet, but I have plans to.
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And I would say dogs are good animals as a pet because they're companionable,
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they can be house trained and they obey commands, which I love.
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Oh, that's wonderful.
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Okay, thank you very much.
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You're welcome.
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Right, now in part two, I will give you a card with a topic, and you will talk about this topic for two minutes.
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You have one minute to think about what you're going to say, and you can make some notes to help you if you wish.
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Do you understand?
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Okay, sure.
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Thank you.
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So, I want you to describe an interesting animal you have seen.
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Here's a piece of paper.
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Thank you pencil and here is your topic.
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OK, so you have one minute to make notes.
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Please go ahead.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Okay, that's the one minute up.
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You now have two minutes to talk.
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You can go ahead.
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Okay.
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So, you asked me to talk about an exciting animal that I have seen.
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To be honest, in my country, we usually see cats, but we rarely see dogs roaming the streets,
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which are not really the people's favorite.
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But I mean in some other countries like Canada, people have the chance to see some other animals like goose,
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bebers, conks, or even bears every day.
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So what I want to say is that if I had the chance to live in a country like Canada, I could name a number of animals right now to answer your question.
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However, I remember
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that I went to a zoo in Africa with my sister back in 2018 where I saw an African wildcat.
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It actually looked similar to a huge tabby cat but it had a thicker a tail with a very a blonde
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tip with some black stripes.
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I can say that it was nothing like the other wildcats I had seen before on TV
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and from what I heard these wildcats are fairly shy and
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and they have been on the brink of extinction for a
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while which is sad and what happened that they was
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that we were allowed to feed the wild cats
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so i tried to do it
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but the cat approached me like it wanted to attack me
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and i was terrified so my sister told me
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that i should have been more careful
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because these animals these wild cats are cannot be tamed under any circumstances
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so in my opinion And that was a really interesting animal because it was different.
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And I had never seen something like that before.
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So I can say that's the reason I just explained about this animal.
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It was something extraordinary to me.
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And to talk more about that, I can say that...
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Thank you very much.
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Okay, that's the two minutes up.
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I can take your papers back now.
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Thank you very much.
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Alright, in part two you talked about an interesting animal that you saw.
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Now in this part I want to ask you some questions related to this topic.
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Now, how can animals cause problems for humans?
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To answer this question I can say that they can only pose a problem
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when they pose a threat to our safety or when they haunt the animals that we herd herd.
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What I mean is that maybe some kinds of wild animals may bite us
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and that can result in some injuries and infections which in some cases are considered as irreparable harm to our health.
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On the other hand, in my opinion, maybe they can cause emotional problems like when we have a pet
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and they die due to some reasons which can contribute to some, to a very deep sorrow and sadness.
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I would say that's a problem actually.
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Right.
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And what kind of animals do people keep as pets in your country mostly?
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I don't really have much information to answer that question
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because I'm not an animal lover and I don't know many people who have pets.
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From what I have heard, many Iranians keep some birds like parrots and budgies, I can say.
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However, they are allowed to fly free within the apartment,
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but their owners just make sure to keep all the doors and windows closed or they may escape.
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And on the other hand, in the past few years,
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Iranians have been showing some interest to take care of some stray puppies,
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which I consider a really nice job.
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Wonderful.
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And do you think animals will still be important in the future?
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What I predict is that yes, they will absolutely have the same significance in the future,
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or even more because they are actually essential for maintaining a balanced ecosystem
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and for the production of livestock which is which influences the water air
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or soil and as I mentioned earlier due to the reason
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that many people not only in Iran
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but also in other countries have been showing an interest to take care of puppies or pets generally.
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And they have been supporting animal rights.
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Yes, in the future we can have even more of these animals
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or we can bring some of them back with other cloning technology maybe.
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And how do you think we can stop animals going extinct, the ones that are critically endangered now, this day and age?
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I think it's something that both the government and the people have to do.
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First of all, the government has to take some steps to just take care of some animals or establish some rules
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to forbid some acts which can harm the animals or their lives.
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And on the other hand, we have to just improve our own culture, like the culture we have among us, and not to harm the animals.
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Or, I'm not just talking about harming the animal.
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If we just teach ourselves to take care of the animals or just do nothing to them, that would also work.
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We don't need to just do something to improve the situation, you know.
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Thank you very much.
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Okay, that's the end of the test.
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Do you want to know what band score you'll get in the IELTS Speaking Test?
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Perhaps you want to improve your performance and prepare yourself for the real test,
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then why not book an online mock test with us that will last for 25 minutes, 12 minutes of the test itself,
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and 13 minutes of comprehensive feedback.
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Plus, we'll give you useful tips on how to make your performance better.
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Remember, all our examiners are especially trained by British Council instructors.
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So, we know how to help you.
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Join us.
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Now we can quickly just go to your band score and then we can look at the other situation.
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So all I can say is, at the very beginning is wow.
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Thank you very much.
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It was brilliant.
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That wow had a lot of meaning to it actually because you know we're looking at, we're clearly looking at a nine here
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because you're very much in control of not only the English language
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but also all the structures and all the techniques that are required for the IELTS speaking test tests.
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So let's go through them one by one, and you can hear me out here.
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I mean, fluency and coherence.
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We'll look at that first.
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I mean, your linking words, they were wonderful.
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They were all in the correct spots as we were looking at.
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Answering, the way you were answering the questions, referring to the questions, even that you didn't know what the questions were, you made some reference towards the question.
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You gave the answer, and then you went on to your off topic, particularly with the discussion side of things, which is absolutely fine as long as there's a reference towards
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the actual answer then you're good to go basically then you'll get your marks for the speed
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and also connecting your ideas together which was also
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fantastic you had your ideas you had your sub ideas I
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would say you had a very you know great speed of
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the way you were talking normally we would you know tell candidates to speak a little bit slower
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but in your case obviously you had no problem with being able to produce your idea
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and keep your idea going
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so speed didn't get in the way of anything as as we could see clearly see there
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and you know your intonation it sounded very natural again adding to all this fluency
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and coherence business just having a general conversation
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and being able to express the language the best you can
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and then okay let's look at vocabulary now you had a
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wide range of vocabulary I could see you could just easily paraphrase any word
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and have the same meaning
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and use different words just to connect all those different vocabulary together
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and it was a wide range and you use them all in the correct places, depending on the topic and depending on the question that was asked.
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So again, I didn't really see any difficulty or any struggle with your vocabulary.
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Wonderful stuff.
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Okay, now to grammar and accuracy.
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Again, grammar, I didn't even see you have any grammatical errors at all, actually, to be honest with you.
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That's wonderful.
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It would be great if everyone could do that.
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Structure, again, I mean your simple sentences, no problem at all.
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Complex structures, you didn't have any problem with that, and you didn't even stutter.
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Okay, there were a few ums here and there, maybe just a very tiny bit.
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That would happen with any native speaker, any English speaker, being asked a question they didn't know about.
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So there will always be pauses.
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In fact, pauses are good in the IELTS speaking test.
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That gives you a few seconds to pull yourself together and give out your answer.
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So, great grammar and accuracy, it was wonderful.
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Pronunciation, again, with the simple pronunciations and complex, harder words to pronounce, I think you were spot on
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and you were very clear and I don't think you would have any problem at all with that.
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So, we're clearly looking at a 9 here.
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This is a typical 9 in the IELTS speaking test speaking test.
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I mean, are there any questions you'd like to ask me regarding the whole situation?
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I was a bit confused with part two because the question that I was asked, I didn't really have much to say about it.
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But what I did was going off the topic for the first, I think the first minute, I guess it took me one minute to talk about some other things,
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my own experience, and then I just came back to the main topic topic so is that a problem?
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No, no it's not a problem at all.
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In fact we encourage candidates to do that and I was going to make a reference to that actually.
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You spoke for you know the full two minutes and I even stopped you in the middle.
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That's what the examiner does.
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They stop the candidates when the two minutes is up that's fine and going off topic like that.
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I mean you you gave reference to the answer straight away
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so you clearly understood what the question was even though you didn't have much information
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or maybe you couldn't talk too much about the actual topic that was asked.
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So we actually encourage candidates to do that.
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And you did that perfectly.
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You made the 30% reference towards the actual topic and then you went off topic and it's absolutely fine to do that.
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That's not a problem.
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In fact, that's a technique that we would always encourage for our IELTS candidates to do that because it will save you.
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It will definitely kill off the two minutes of time.
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And then again, made another reference to the actual question.
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So that just proves to the examiner
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that you've understood the question even though you don't have much information about it
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and you're there to talk and it was all fluent and I didn't have any problem with your telling.
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It's more like telling a story, the two minutes of...
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Yeah, actually I didn't, I mean going to Africa didn't really happen to me.
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I just wanted to say something and that's why I refer to an experience I never had.
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Oh, there's nothing wrong with that.
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I just wanted to explain about the topic.
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Absolutely, because it's about talking for two minutes, and based on the four criteria, so it doesn't matter if that never happened.
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It could be a complete fake story.
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It doesn't matter.
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If it's true or false in the IELTS speaking test, I mean, some people know this, some people don't know this,
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but being true or false really doesn't matter in the IELTS speaking test.
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It's all about just understanding the question and getting through it with your ideas, going off topic if you have to,
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because no candidate is expected to know fully about what topics there are.
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I mean, the brain would explode if you wanted to go through every single topic in the world and memorise everything.
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It's impossible.
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Unfortunately, some academies do that, in fact, which is not a good thing.
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They tell them to keep studying different topics.
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It's not about studying different topics and memorizing stuff from...
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I think that's impossible.
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It is impossible.
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You're absolutely right.
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And what candidates would do, what you just did, I would encourage all the candidates to do it.
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When you don't know about a topic, which is very likely to happen, it's very natural, because you are actually tested on not knowing about a topic
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and dealing with the situation about a topic you don't know about.
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And you did that clearly, you made reference to the question, I'm not very well informed about this topic, but I can talk about this.
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And then you answer the question in 30% and then you go on to your own topic, that's absolutely fine.
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So definitely what you did was, we're looking at the correct techniques of a band score 9.
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So very, very well done.
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Thank you very much.
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And do you, there's no other questions and I guess...
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No, thank you.
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Thank you so much for that feedback.
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Oh, it's my pleasure and hopefully we'll see you around.
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Sure.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “IELTS Speaking test band score 9 with feedback”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: animal, topic, test. This video has 263 sentences and 3136 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:14. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| examiner noun | /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/ | A person who investigates someone or something. |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
| leisure noun | /ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/ | Freedom provided by the cessation of activities. |
| puppy noun | /ˈpʌpi/ | A young rat. |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| coherence noun | /koʊˈhɪɹ.ən(t)s/ | The quality of cohering, or being coherent; internal consistency. |
| fluency noun | /ˈfluːənsi/ | The quality of smoothness of flow. |
| hectic adjective | /ˈhɛktɪk/ | Very busy with activity and confusion. |
| memorize verb | /ˈmɛm.əˌɹaɪ̯z/ | To fully learn so as to have entirely available to the memory; to learn by heart, commit to memory. |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| lamb noun | /ˈlæm/ | A young sheep; especially, one younger than nine months. |
| pose verb | /poʊz/ | To place in an attitude or fixed position, for the sake of effect. |
| budgie noun | /ˈbʌd͡ʒi/ | A budgerigar. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go off verb | To explode. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| give out verb | To utter, publish; to announce, proclaim, report. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Would you please tell me your full name?
- Do you like animals?
- I would say that's a problem actually.
- We'll look at that first.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been showing · have been supporting |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is called · were allowed · was terrified |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | while which is · reasons which can · people who have |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't done · have seen · have been |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 53 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: leisure /ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, extinction /ɪkˈstɪŋkʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
- Long words — get the stress right: examiner /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, criterion /kɹaɪˈtɪɹ.i.ən/, grammatical /ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like examiner, vocabulary, leisure.
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.