Shadowing Practice: MOCK TEST SPEAKING BAND 8.5 - Learn English Speaking with Video

all right

so welcome to your speaking test uh first of all can

you tell me your name uh my name is phu look

long you can call me long for short okay for sure

so this will be your mock test

which will be divided into three different parts

and i'll try my best to mimic the real ielts exam as much as i could okay

so in the first part i'm gonna ask some several questions

about yourself let's talk a bit about color what is your favorite color well

I don't think I have a specific favorite color.

I practice art, so I have learned myself, I have trained myself to fall in love with like a whole spectrum of color,

you know, but I'm actually quite bad at coloring.

So I think that normally for my color picks, when I do art, I just go for very simple color combinations, like complimentary, for example.

Okay.

So do you usually wear clothes in your favorite color? uh for clothing that's a different story

because my skin tone is kind of dark

so i have to specifically go for colors that kind of flatter it

so for me it would be very muted colors uh i don't usually go for vibrant ones

because it also doesn't suit my vibe right

so i don't want to like carry myself in a way

that's a bit you know not who i am yeah

so are there any colors

that have a special meaning in your country um i mean

the obvious answer would be red uh you would see

that ubiquitously in ted holiday

and in very uh you know jubilant occasions of vietnam like wedding ceremonies

or uh other celebrations you know i think red kind of

you know in vietnamese culture means something like not just jubilation

but also joy and prosperity

so that's why it's like a very common pick for those occasions yeah okay

so do you think different types of people like different colors

um that's a pretty interesting one i've never really thought about

that i think people like naturally gravitate towards different colors uh

based on like historically how they have like get exposed to them you know uh for example

if someone you know as a child uh

and as someone as a child they learned art

and they tended to use very vibrant colors maybe they would grow up

and picking those colors more but

if someone has gone through like a very i would say

difficult period in their lives then maybe they would have the tendency to pick uh more muted

or like you know just monotone colors just to reflect their uh their minds a bit better okay

so how about in terms of personality um i think joyful

people bubbly personalities uh they go for um they go for vibrant colors a lot

but having said that uh there's still some exception where people get experimental

and they they want to try out with uh you know color schemes

that are not really showy not really flashy you know i do respect their picks

but i think that you know it's best to to go for the colors that describe your personality the clearest to people.

Okay, for sure.

So let's move on to the second part of the test.

In the second part, I'm going to give you a topic.

You have two minutes to talk about it and one minute for preparation in advance.

And here we go.

Describe a photograph of yourself that you like.

Okay, now let's start.

Okay, so I would like to preface firstly that I don't usually take photographs of myself.

And I don't often let people take photographs of me mainly

because I'm quite insecure about my look but um

when it comes to like this photograph specifically I kind of like

that so I think I'm gonna tell you about it now

it's actually the photograph that I'm using as my Facebook avatar um it depicts me and my sister

looking at a glass ceiling

and in the photograph is basically the reflection of us from

the glass I took this photo on our trip to Singapore

and Malaysia it was on a tour

and it was also our first time traveling abroad right so this photograph is very special to me because it's

kind of it's kind of connected to a lot of memories not only is

that the first time that I travel abroad but it's also the time when I think I've learned the most about myself.

Right.

So traveling abroad, you know, kind of brings with you like a lot of anxiety because you are going to a totally different land.

You just don't know the culture and you're not sure if the people that would understand language, although I've spoken English for a long time.

And, you know, I know people that also speak English, but, you know, during that trip, I kind of learned that,

you know, when you are talking to native speakers of the language, you don't usually have to like show yourself as much,

showcase yourself, or like try to present yourself as someone who's good in English, but you more likely are going to focus on communication.

right and so whenever i look at

that photo i kind of remind myself of that lesson

that you know whenever i try to uh impress my students for example for the record i'm teaching english

so i tend to do that at times look at

that photo and i you know kind of relearn

that lesson okay that's it okay thank you very much

so how do your students react to the photos when you show them

they usually mistake my sister for my girlfriend

which i always have to clarify you know i mean she looks

so much younger than me i just kind of i it's

hard for me to comprehend why they would make such a mistake okay all right

so that is the end of the second part of the test now let's move on to the third part

when i'm asking you some related questions to the topic we just discussed a little bit

and since we just talked about you know photograph yourself

so let's talk a bit about photographs

so do you think it is easy to take good photographs

um i mean as an artist i kind of tempted to say

that it is because you know there's kind of this tension between artists who paint pictures

and photographers who just take photos

that is like we are the people who are creating true art not them

but you know after trying out for photography for like um

for a decent amount time I've gotten my fair share of experience in

that I did realize that you know photography also comes with all the sophistication

that it comes with of painting you still have to prepare

for the lighting you still have to make sure the composition is right

and not to mention

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that you also have to like pay very acute attention to

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the technical details like choosing the right lens for the

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that you want to take right and um

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when you take photographs you just don't have that uh

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that leeway with the scene you know as an artist you

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can set up the scene however you want like basically pull it out an image from your head

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but for photography you have to wait for the right moment

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and that is actually what makes street photography

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so fascinating to me you know

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because you always have to be there be present at the moment

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and you have to make sure that your camera is ready when there's an interesting snap.

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So what are the pros and cons of digital photography?

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All right.

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So I think that nowadays the line between digital photography

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and the more traditional method to produce photos have been kind of blurred

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because nowadays we have a lot of softwares

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that allow us kind of facilitate the process for us to create any kind of look that we wish for our photos.

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You can like set up a more traditional lighting setting in Adobe Lightroom and you can,

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you know, just retouch a photo however you like, as long as you are aware of the,

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you know, the potential artificial quality that might come with over-editing a photo, then I think you should be fine.

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So that's the pros of digital photography, that is that you have a lot of avenue for editing your photos nowadays.

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But when it comes to the cons, I think that to some people,

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especially those who kind of identify themselves as like true artists, it kind of takes away,

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you know, taking a photo digitally and edit them on a software

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and kind of takes away the fun of the process, right?

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And it's not like they can't do the more traditional methods,

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stick to conventionality anymore, but it's more like they are forced into digital photography nowadays, or else they won't get any customer.

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They won't produce photos quickly enough.

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So it's all about efficiency, right?

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Yeah, it's more like that nowadays.

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So should people share photographs of themselves online?

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I think that they have every right to do that, really.

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I don't think there's a law that ban people from sharing photographs of themselves online.

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Well, maybe say for the cases when they infringe or violate some rules,

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terms, and conditions of the platform they're going to be posting photos on.

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I think that it's something that should be encouraged really, because it not only promotes bodily positivity,

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it also like a very effective way to show yourself to the world.

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There are still trolls online, which you should be aware of.

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But generally, I think people are pretty nice on the Internet.

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I see.

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Okay, so what can an image be worth a thousand words?

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what can an image be worth a thousand words well um this is one from when when right okay so

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um this is actually really tricky um i'm not

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so much into literature you know

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so yeah let me approach this in a slightly more scientific way so neuroscience from the neuroscience perspective

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i would say that a picture contains a lot of different information right

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so when you look at a picture you're seeing not only the object

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but also the kind of environment it is it is in uh the condition weather condition lighting conditions all

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that um around surrounding the object and you see the condition of the object itself

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so for example if you were taking photo of a rusty cup a rusted cup then you see

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that right there on the photo right and all

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that coming right into your brain in one shot with just the image right it's uh something that

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if you take the linguistic equivalent of it it would be

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a few different a few long paragraphs right i mean you have seen like um a lot of examples of that

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when uh in a novel a um a writer needs to write a very long paragraph just just to describe the scene,

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but on the movie adaptation of that, it's only like a three minute footage, a three second footage.

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Right.

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So yeah, I think in that case,

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you know, sometimes scientifically saying the image kind of communicates information more efficiently.

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It can manage to do that in a very short span of time.

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All right.

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I see.

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So one last question.

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So is a photograph a reliable form of identification?

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If you asked me this question like three years ago, I would have answered yes, but nowadays not so much.

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So we are being threatened with this introduction of this new technology that is totally harmless called defake.

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And we've seen a lot of cases over the past few years of people using that technology

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to force the appearance of authorities and making fake calls to the citizens, right?

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To try to scam for money.

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Right.

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And they've actually pulled that through a lot of times.

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So yeah, it's a lot riskier nowadays to use it as a form of identification.

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I would dare say that tech giants would consider like completely removing face identification

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from their products in the future in fear of you know

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bad people using the defect technology to harm the customers yeah okay very nice answer

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so i think

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that is all i need to hear thank you very much for your outstanding performance um i think

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if i don't know if i don't know if i don't know if i don't know like that or not.

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I'm sure I'm ready to get to 8-9 because I'm not sure that

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if I can't be able to get

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that I can't be able to find one place I can't find the amount of money

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that you can find the first one is the fluency and coherence then of course, I think that that is the only thing that we need to have to get to

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if we don't want to encounter a question to tell you

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that you can do that it was

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so good for you to be able to talk about one thing you know it's not a dollar bill you know

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go to get out there the next thing you know it's

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about you know this is a little bit there's a lot of I think it is

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I think that's really I think that's where it's about I

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can't think the we can't I think that's not there's no

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So that's the fact that the question is that it can be because of the question and of course,

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so that's the thing So I feel that I'm going to do the best thing that I can do fluency

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is that there is a lot of the question

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that it's not it's not there so you can do

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that the question is that it's not it's not so much like you are a student artists at least of course

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that's the one who loves

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I don't care

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in this topic, you know, to definitely get an eye for me.

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All right.

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Thank you.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

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

Shadowing Practice: MOCK TEST SPEAKING BAND 8.5 - Learn English Speaking with Video

Context & Background

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

What is the Shadowing Technique?