Shadowing Practice: This Is What Band 9 IELTS Speaking Actually Sounds Like [+ Free Speaking PDF] - Learn English Speaking with Video

So let's start off by talking about food.

What's your favorite food?

I really love Asian food because I live in England so it's harder to get Asian food around but I like spicy,

flavorful and like just generally savory food.

Do you cook a lot at home?

Not as much as I would like to.

I would love to cook more because I actually enjoy the process of cooking

but I just cook out of convenience and like

because every day I've got to you know make sure I get my work done

and then cook for my kids

which takes a lot of time sometimes we get takeaway

but they like it you know what are popular takeaway meals in your local area fish

and chips it's a favorite for everyone so you know that's an easy option but generally because of my own preference.

I love you know just to get Thai

and Vietnamese you know this is something that I could you know just get around my local area it's very easily sourced.

How often do you eat fast food?

I try to eat really healthily

but then I tend to go down the Filet-O-Fish McDonald's route when I'm traveling so I suppose only once every few months.

Now let's talk about seasons of the year.

What's your favorite season of the year?

Well I love any time when the sun starts to come out

so around spring

or early summer before it gets too hot you know I just love a little bit of vitamin D

and it makes me happier as well so that is definitely better than the winter.

What do you do when it gets too hot in the summer?

Hide.

I tend to also you know go into any kind of buildings with air conditioning

and I have the fan on every night when it's really hot so yeah

when it gets really hot in the summer you know I really need a lot of like fans

and you know kind of just anything I can hold with me when I go out as well.

At what time of year do you normally go on holiday?

I try to go

outside of the school holiday season but

because I have kids you know we tend to have to go doing you know the the you know

when when this term breaks you know when the school breaks

but um my favorite time of going away would be during christmas you know

because um i much prefer to be in a warmer climate

when it's really really cold so yeah it's just that time before

or after christmas have you ever been on holiday somewhere very cold yes i love norway you know it was um

amazing it was just everything was like a picture a perfect

postcard you know you could see the fields in the distance

and the what you call them icebergs um it was an experience you know

and to rip to to ride the husky sled you know

was also an amazing experience for me now let's talk about

clothes where do you buy most of your clothes i would like to do, you know, clothes shopping in the shop,

but the reality is most of us do it online now.

You know, and I get my clothes from Zara and ASOS

because I just love the hip and trendy but also timeless look.

How often do you buy clothes for yourself?

I buy it more often than I should because I use online shopping

and clothes shopping as a form of you know like dopamine hit for me

so it's it's um and for me I love to express myself through my clothes

so um because of that then I need to find different clothes for different occasions

and so very often have you always had the same taste in clothes no I have not um

because I see myself as um different identities throughout my life you know before i became a mom during

and also after when work became something

that i could express myself you know true

so yeah i've had different fashion tastes you know throughout the ages now let's talk about social media

which social media sites do you use i use instagram

and linkedin because i feel like um i run a business

and that's where my target audience are you know i built a community through instagram

and then on linkedin where i work on my business to

business leads how much time do you spend on social media way too much

i shouldn't be spending so much time but i find

that it is once you visit you know social media

and you post something it's also about engaging with people to ensure

that you know you build relationships

so yeah a couple of hours a day is there anything

you dislike about social media i dislike the addictive quality about it you know

because so many of us are connected you know through a tablet

or a device now and social media is our form of communication so it's becoming

even though it seems like you're being connected to loads

and loads of people the actual quality of your relationships with

your immediate sphere you know kind of you know kind of falls by the side

so yeah that's on that side to it.

That's the end of part one of the speaking test.

So now we're going to move on to part two of the speaking test.

I'm going to give you a cue card.

You'll have one minute to read the cue card and prepare your answer.

Feel free to make any notes during that one minute.

At the end of the one minute I'll let you know and I'll ask you to speak for up to two minutes.

Is that all clear? Of course.

Here is your cue card and I'll start the one minute preparation time.

Here's a pen if you want to make any notes.

So please speak for up to two minutes on this topic please.

Okay so a job that I really enjoyed is being a speaker

and a storyteller and I love doing this job now because

when I was growing up I loved writing little stories and you know just connecting with people and having conversations.

I never thought that I could become a speaker one day.

I started my career in STEM and then ventured through 16 different industries

because I didn't really know where in the world of work I fit into it.

But eventually I realized that all this became really useful for me to gain all the skills

that I needed in communication and brought it all together in a field that I was deeply passionate about.

that allowed me to channel what I really love about my work and the topic that I love, you know, to make a difference in people's lives.

Being a speaker is the perfect place to do this because you could influence people's thoughts and inspire positivity in people's lives,

which is something that you could do in other places, but the impact is so much more immediate

and you are affecting people in such a big way and affecting a bigger audience as well whilst you're doing it.

And this is something that I'm very lucky to be able to do now.

And I don't take it for granted and know that the journey for me to get here has been really long,

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but I'm deeply grateful for being given this opportunity.

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And why I like it also is that

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to be able to connect with people and the topic

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that is so personal about mental health

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and well-being you know where in some way

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or other you know we're all struggling in life thank you

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very much that's the end of the two thank you I could have gone on

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so now we're going to move on to part three of the speaking test

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and we're going to continue to talk about careers what factors do you think are important when choosing a career?

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I think it's really, really important that we are interested in what we're doing.

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And because if you are not interested, then there's absolutely no chance that you're going to be able to have longevity in that career.

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We should also choose an industry where there's a potential for you to really grow within that industry.

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Because as we're moving now into the technology is very quickly replacing people, especially with artificial intelligence.

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It's threatening a lot of jobs like writing and recruiting and connecting with people.

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So we need to look at how

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the industry that you're going into

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has got the potential to go beyond

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that you know technological capacity what can you bring as a human you know

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that no technology or anyone could replace you you know if you were to go into it

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why do you think some people fail in some careers i

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think one of the main drivers i think for for people is money

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and when you do anything solely

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because of money then it will never work the reason people fail i think the biggest reason is

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because they have felt aligned identity with their work

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because we spend a third of our lives you know in work

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so a very big proportion of it you know needs to feel fulfilled

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and it can only be fulfilled

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if you're you understand you know what what you like authentically inside you know

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and then you know go into a career but then the reality is

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that most people then you know jump in and figure it out explore

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and then we'll work it out you know in hindsight i

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guess that's what life's about now let's talk about working from

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home in the future do you think most people will work from home i think it's just it definitely seems

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that way Anyway, after the pandemic, hybrid working is becoming more common.

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A lot of organizations are offering fully remote working now, which a lot of people like.

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But there are also people who like human interactions,

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like connections, people who live by themselves or just need some accountability.

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So being among people could be a good thing.

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But I think if technology were to replace a lot of the work, then people would actually eventually do more remote work.

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And finally, what are the disadvantages of working from home?

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Well, I guess it's the disconnection from people, but also not getting accountability for your work.

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Because I think working from home requires us to have some sense of agency, you know, and some level of organization, which some people might not have.

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So we're dealing with different personalities here and I think

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if we were to ask people what they prefer then there's a better chance you know for like either remote

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or not rework not remote work to work.

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That's the end of the speaking test well done.

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Right.

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I hope you enjoyed

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that band nine performance what you should do now is watch one of these videos

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if you want to compare band nine with a band eight performance

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click on this video or if you want to know why

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that was band 9 and exactly what you can do to improve to the score

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that you need click on this video where i'll explain the key differences between lower bands and higher bands

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: This Is What Band 9 IELTS Speaking Actually Sounds Like [+ Free Speaking PDF] - Learn English Speaking with Video

Context & Background

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

What is the Shadowing Technique?