IELTS Speaking Practice: Music, Media, Outdoors and Feedback

Let's talk about music. How often do you listen to music?

I think I listen to music mostly when I'm driving. I think it puts me in such a good mood when I'm out there on a drive and I play my favorite music. I'm usually into Afro music a lot, hip-hop, and R&B. So, I prefer listening to music when I'm driving or sometimes when I'm working out, at the gym, something like that.

Is music an important subject in schools in your country?

In schools in my country, it is because, you know, I'm from India. So, in India, music and dance and expressing our emotions is usually through music and dancing.

So, in every school, they teach classical music or they have a subject where there is something about music, usually.

So, I think it is important.

Do you ever go to live concerts?

Oh, I've been to three concerts, and three of them are my favorite artists. And it was actually on my wish list, and I made it happen. And it was one of the best experiences.

And in live concerts, it's a lot different than you would imagine. You just have to keep your energy straight. And it's like, it's like you can't believe it's happening.

Now let's talk about magazines and newspapers. Do you prefer to read magazines or newspapers?

Definitely magazines, mostly on topics of fashion or interior design. This is what I really like because I like to see creative sides from all over the world. I like to see what people are talking about, what's new, what's trending.

And I like to learn. I like to have knowledge of things, of like, what is this called? What is that called? Because usually when you see pictures, you don't usually know what it's called. So when you read a magazine or where you get the knowledge, that's where you get to know. Oh, this fabric is called this, or this decoration is called that.

So I think it's very good on information.

Do you think you can learn as much from a magazine as a book?

Definitely not, because a magazine is like a shorter version of what's in a book. So I definitely prefer books over magazines.

Do you think that you will continue to read paper-based magazines in the future?

I think I'm very old-fashioned like that. I need to have a physical book in my hand, and that's how I think it produces serotonin in my brain. Otherwise, no. Digital, it's very different. It's—I like physically reading a magazine or a book.

Now let's talk about outdoor activities. Do you like being outdoors?

I love being outdoors. I usually spend my time planning an activity or just being out with my friends. Even if I'm not doing anything, I must stay outdoors. I'm not a very home-based person. I can't stay home much. I have to keep moving all the time.

Which outdoor sports do you enjoy doing?

I like going out with my friends and playing football or some kind of activity like swimming, going to the beach. This is something I really, really enjoy.

Which outdoor activities are most popular in your country?

Definitely, it's like the game of India. Everybody loves cricket. When you go out of your house, you're always going to see some kids playing. Or also badminton, actually. People enjoy that a lot as well.

I'd like to describe my favorite actor and actress. So, my favorite actor will be Benedict Cumberbatch, and my favorite actress is Angelina Jolie. I like their movies so much. They usually star in action films or mystery films, and that's very similar to where I am. Like in my personal life, I love mysterious stuff. I'm always into detective theories or mystery books and stuff like that. So, I always watch movies as such, and their acting is on point. It's always number one.

I like Angelina Jolie also for her humanitarian work that she does throughout her life. She's been very present with charity work and making sure that a lot of kids are fed in countries which are unfortunate, and I really like that about her. I also like how fierce she is, and when she presents herself, it's very divine feminine. I really, really like that, and I feel like she has that sort of energy where a woman can feel powerful about herself just by looking at her and kind of understanding where she comes from. She doesn't really come from a very mentally stable place, but now at this point in her life, she's a very strong woman, and she's done it all herself.

Benedict Cumberbatch, I actually watched his TV show, which was called Sherlock. I am a crazy Sherlock fan. I love mystery, like I said, and detective stories and everything. Him playing that really showed me what kind of an incredible actor he is because I felt like I was watching Sherlock Holmes from the books and not an actor on screen.

He's also done a movie that I really love. It's called Doctor Strange. That's my favorite superhero from the Avengers, and he has just done an amazing job in that movie.

So, we've been talking about a famous actress and actor that you enjoy, and we're going to continue to talk about movies and theater. What are the most popular types of movies in your country?

It would be—

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It would be action and drama. Definitely something that has to do with emotional connection. It's usually fictional, that I would say. And also comedy. Yeah, there's a lot of comedy that goes on in the films that are coming out now and from India.

Do you think that going to the cinema will be as popular in the future?

I think 50/50. I'm not sure about that, but it looks like people enjoy watching movies at home, and it's not as much exciting as it used to be back then.

And I think probably yes, it would be more digitally available at home, and probably yeah.

Now let's talk about the theater. How strong a tradition is it today in your country to go to the theater?

Mostly, I think, in out-of-city areas, actually. It's mostly now as an activity that families go to with their kids, just to show a play to their kids and to introduce them to this form of culture and activity. I think it's more of that now.

Theater is not as much popularized back in India as much as cinema and film and movies are. So, I think that is kind of on the back seat. It's not so much as it used to be.

Do you think that theater should be run as a business or as a public service?

Ooh, I think both. I think it goes hand in hand so that people can be employed as well at the same time. And it is of a public service at the same time.

I think, I think that people do enjoy it, but at the same time, it could be used as an excuse and used as like an opportunity. What I mean is, what I mean to employ people. And because there's a lot of people who would love to do acting, but they can't really make it in the movies. So maybe they could use theater as their hobby.

So I think, yeah, both can go hand in hand.

In some countries, governments pay theaters to put on shows for the public. Do you think this is a good use of public money?

It depends on if whether or not it's free to the public, because if you're charging for them to see that play, then it doesn't make any sense, is what I think.

And I think that it shouldn't be this way in the first place. I think it should be available freely to the people.

Yeah.

Let me give you some feedback on your performance. So, you're hoping to get a band 9, and I'll go through the 4 marking criteria.

Okay.

So, pronunciation, fluency and coherence, grammar, and vocabulary.

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Pronunciation is one of your strong points.

Okay.

The examiner will be thinking, can I understand what this person is saying? How clear are they? And then some higher-level pronunciation features, like intonation, for example. I can understand 100% of what you're saying. You do have a hint of an accent, but it is extremely clear listening to you, or anyone watching who has an Indian accent. They shouldn't feel bad about it or anything like that. You know, you shouldn't try and remove your accent. I think it's about speaking as clearly as possible. But you certainly do. You also use intonation extremely well.

So we use intonation to convey meaning. For example, when you came in here today and I said, please sit down, very flat intonation going down. Do I sound happy or rude or serious? A bit rude. Yeah, a bit rude, a bit serious. But if I said, please sit down, my intonation is going up. Sounds completely different, but the words are exactly the same.

So you use intonation like that a lot to show that you're excited about something, that you're happy about it, that you're talking—you're serious about something in a very, very high-level way, which is very difficult to learn.

Okay.

And you do it very naturally. You also use connected speech.

So, for example, if you were talking about movies, someone learning English might say, "Do you want to go to the cinema?" But someone at a high level like yourself would say, "Do you wanna go?" "Wanna go" sounds like one word, "wanna go," because you're connecting all the speech up. You do that a lot and very naturally.

You also use sentence stress, which is where you emphasize certain words. "That's your coffee." So, you're emphasizing that word because that's the most important word. It's very difficult to teach that. It takes a long time to learn.

Wow.

You're doing, you're doing very well in that area. Fluency is, are you able to speak without unnatural pauses, without unnatural hesitation? And there's, there's two reasons why people pause and that type of thing, audible pauses like that. One reason is they're learning a language and they're trying to think, should I use present simple or present perfect? Or, you know, what's the correct adjective to use? You don't do that because your language is at quite a high level. You do sometimes pause and think and hesitate a little bit for the second reason, which is trying to think of ideas.

So you can tell, especially in Part 3, you were formulating ideas and you were, "Let me think about that," and pausing a little bit. But that's natural. A good examiner knows the difference between those two things. So they're not going to give you a low mark for pausing or hesitating a little bit for thinking of the idea.

Now, coherence is different. It's, did you answer the question? And did you develop your answers a little bit more? You need to be a little bit careful. For example, the first question I asked you, "How often do you listen to music?" And you told me about when you listen to music. So that's slightly different.

Now, the examiner will base their score on all of your answers. It's not like, "Oh, she didn't— she slightly didn't answer that question in one question. Give her a low score." That's not how it works. And the way that you answered that question by saying, "I listen to music in the car," and I listen to it in the— I think you said—

When I drive.

When I drive, you're answering the question implicitly. By implication, I know how often you listen to it. You should try to answer each question explicitly. How often do you? Every day.

I don't think that this is an issue for you today, but imagine you go and do the test. Imagine you have a Canadian visa application. It's like, if I don't get this, I'm gonna—I can't go and meet, you know, my family, or, or, you know, or I can't do whatever I want to do. There's a lot of pressure on you.

So often, when people are under pressure and under stress, they mess up. Just make sure that you answer every question exactly how they want it. The same with the cue card for Part 2. It said, describe your favorite actor or actress, and you did both. So technically, an examiner would be extremely picky if they marked you down for that.

But again, I'm not criticizing you, but I'm being overly cautious because on exam day, if you go and do the test, you might go off and talk about something related to that topic but not really answering it correctly. I think you would be fine, but we just don't want to take any risks.

Definitely.

Towards the end, especially the last question, part 3, what the examiner is thinking about is: Can this person really develop their answers? Can they speak at length about topics?

The last question, it was quite a short answer for Part 3, but that was quite impressive. I'll tell you why. If you get a really, really difficult question in Part 3, you should be happy because the examiner thinks you're good. If the examiner thinks you're bad, they'll just throw easy, softball questions at you.

Oh, okay.

If the examiner thinks that you're really good, they'll throw more and more difficult questions to really just stretch you and test you. And that's what I was trying to do at the end. A really good band 8, band 9 student, even if they get a question that they don't know much about, they're not too sure about, they will attempt an answer.

So your attempt at an answer, even though it was quite short, indicates that you are at a very high level. Coherence is the only area that I'm really, really concerned about. But overall, it's very, very good. I'm focusing on the negative, but it's only because you're—

You should, because otherwise, how would I know?

Yeah. Grammar, the examiner will be thinking, does this person have enough awareness of grammar structures that they can talk about anything? Like, can they use comparatives to compare two things? Can they use superlatives to talk about their favorite things and talk about the best things? Whatever I throw at you, you're able to handle that.

And they'll also then think about how many grammar mistakes are you making? I think I only heard one or two small slips. I think a preposition slip or an article slip, but that is comparable to a native English speaker. If you listen to native English speakers speak for 15, 20 minutes, they'll make little preposition errors or subject-verb agreement errors. That's natural. So you don't need to worry about that.

And your vocabulary is also excellent. For example, this, you use very topic-specific words and idiomatic language, which is great. Only very high-level students actually do that. So your final band score would be the highest one, which is a band 9.

No way. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's amazing.

But, but, but. If on test day you didn't answer the questions in part 1, you didn't really answer the question in part 2, and you didn't develop your answers enough in part 3, that would drop you down a little bit. Not hugely, but just be careful with that. All right. Less than 1% of people get a band 9.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. So there you go. Well done.

Thank you.