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Please assess my speaking

Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 3:11 pm
by saqibali
Can you kindly give me a feedback on my current band level and improvement tips and improvement areas?
1.My weak areas
2.Tips to improve
3.My current band
4.What activites I should involve to improve my level

Thanks
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0CfaDf5SwLE

Re: Please assess my speaking

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 3:31 am
by Larry
Hello Saqibali,

I'll try to give you some feed back on your speaking.

The first and most important thing that I noticed right away, was that your answer sounded memorized. Especially during the beginning. Examiners really don't like memorized answers. So if you answer sounds memorized or sounds unnatural the examiner will switch to different questions or take off marks or both.

When native speakers speak we have lots of natural pauses with "ummm"s, "hmmm"s, and other interjections thrown in. Don't be afraid to pause, as long as it's not too long it makes your answer sound more natural.

Yes, the examiner will always ask about your hometown, work, or school but you shouldn't memorize your answer. Although I know it is tempting to try ;) . A better way is to just remember main points about your hometown, work, or schooling. Like a bullet list. Not full sentences.

Also, your answers were a little bit long for Part 1 of the speaking test. Part 1 is mostly just supposed to be small talk and chatting. Save the long answers for Part 2 and 3 :) . Also try to avoid saying "I'm going to talk about... "

As for your vocabulary, you used some advanced vocabulary correctly like education industry, but you also used a lot of vocabulary in an inappropriate way (e.g. We participated our money.). My advice, only use vocabulary that you are totally comfortable with. You'll lose more points for an incorrectly used difficult word than lots of simple words used correctly. Vocabulary is very important for the test but make sure you know the vocabulary well before you use it.

Your grammar was good for the most part. It was simple but there weren't many mistakes. There were some subject verb agreement mistakes but they weren't common and aren't too serious. You might try using more complex grammar if you are able to use it correctly. I had some problems accurately judging your grammar though, because I had some difficulty understanding some words.

I would try to focus your work on your pronunciation. There was clear separation between words so that helped, but I had some difficulty understanding some of the words. This made it difficult to follow your answer. I would definitely stress "with" more, at times "with" was so reduced I wasn't sure if you dropped it. Also you might practice some common words like excellent and enjoy.

Pronunciation is really hard to correct on your own, so having a teacher really help. If a teacher isn't an option I would try taking a recording of a male native speaker (since you are male) and try to copy their pronunciation, stress, and intonation exactly. Record your voice as you try to copy them. Try to make your recordings match the recording of the native speaker exactly. This might help some, but really a teacher is ideal.

Unfortunately I can't really give you an accurate band score because your answer sounded memorized which means I can't judge your accurate level. The examiner might take marks off for memorization or they might not.

I hope this helps! Good luck with your studies! :D

Re: Please assess my speaking

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:00 am
by saqibali
Thanks a lot

Re: Please assess my speaking

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:25 pm
by saqibali
Dear Sir,
I have my test on 02 August.
Can you kindly check my speaking
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1RZBMjKfwXk