IELTS Speaking Test Barnala 2020
PART 1 – Introduction:
[This part of the test begins with the examiner introducing himself or herself and checking the candidate’s identification. It then continues as an interview. In the interview, the examiner asks the candidate about his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics. ]
Topic: Family:
Q. Do you have a large family or a small family?
A. I come from a small family. I live with my parents and two siblings. As I recall, we used to live with our grandparents, uncles and aunts many years ago. But now we have a nuclear family as we live in a city which is far away from our grandparents’ house.
Q. Can you tell me something about them?
A. Yes, sure. My father is a doctor and he has been practising medicine for more than 15 years. He is a devoted doctor and possesses an exemplary personality. People think that he has a very controlled personality but we know that he is very kind. I am proud to have such a great father. He is my idol and perhaps the greatest influence in my life. My mother is an angel and she is the most kindhearted woman I have ever seen or met in my life. She is a teacher in a school and she teaches literature. She is my best friend and I adore her very much.
My brother is 3 years senior to me and he is working in a telecommunication company as a “System Analyst”. He is around 28 years old and a very good friend and mentor to me. My younger sister is only 14 and she is busy with her homework, study and computer. She is very sweet and helps my mother often to finish her household chores. I love her very much and she talks a lot to me. In our house, I am her best friend and I often help her with her homework.
Q. How much time do you manage to spend with members of your family?
A. I live with my family and spend most of my time with them except for the time when I do have classes to attend and play football with my friends in the evening.
I have a close relationship with my parents, younger sister and my brother. We often go out together to watch a movie or to go shopping. I sometimes play computer games with my sister and brother. On average, I spend 5-7 hours with my family members on a typical day and that’s excluding the sleeping hours.
Q. What sorts of things do you like to do together?
A. I like to discuss my plans with my parents. I often seek their advice on important personal issues. They discuss their experience, tells me about interesting historical events they know about and teach me morality and the importance of being honest in life. My dad recommends good books to me and then we discuss these books in our free time.
I do everything with my brother John. We hang out together, watch movies, read books, sometimes we fight, we often complaints to our parents about what I or he should not have done, play football and the list goes on! Though he is very friendly, he often scolds me whenever he thinks I did something wrong. Besides, I play computer games and chess with my sister and she often seeks my advice regarding things she can’t decide alone. We watch cartoons and documentaries on History Channel together.
I love to talk to my mother and she is very fond of classical music and I have become a fan of her favourite singers. So I often listen to music with her. There are many more activities that I actually do with my family members and those are the frequent ones.
Q. Did/ Do you get on well with your family? Why?
A. Yes, absolutely I go pretty well with my family. They are the most precious things I have in my life. They care for me a lot, they help me in my difficult times and my whole existence is surrounded by them. Whomever I am now and whomever I will become in the future would be because of my family and their unconditional love, care and affection for me.
I feel a strong kinship about my family. They share their thoughts and life experience with me. They always try to support me no matter what, and all those mutual understandings make us a perfectly happy family.
PART 2 – Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card
Topic:
Describe a teacher who has influenced you in your education.
You should say:
- where you met him/her
- what subject he/she taught
- what was special about him/her
and explain why this teacher has influenced you so much in your education.
[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]
[Examiner: All right? Remember you have one to two minutes for this, so don’t worry if I stop you. I’ll tell you when the time is up. Can you start speaking now, please?]
Model Answer 1:
I consider myself exceptionally fortunate to have been taught and guided by some excellent teachers throughout my academic life. Among them, I’d like to talk about Mr Smith, who has been an extraordinary teacher, a really good mentor and who has a great influence on my studies.
I met Mr Smith for the first time when I was in fourth grade. He was our math teacher. Initially, we thought that he would be a tough teacher and we would have to be very polite in front of him. We got this impression mostly because of his serious face and tidy dress-up. But soon we found that he was a very friendly person and we did not have to be “very polite” with him. He never made things complicated and tried over and over again to explain something to us. He had a unique way of teaching and could explain complex topics very easily. Thus everything we learned from him was interesting and that’s why we remember most of the theories and techniques of math he taught us.
I’d say he has a great influence on my education because he helped me build a strong foundation in mathematics. My major in college was science and mathematics was the most important subject at that level. I have always been good at math and that’ mainly because of Mr Smith who had a major role in making the subject interesting to me. Before I learned math from Mr Smith, my impression on math was not good and I considered mathematics to be a complex and uninteresting subject. But his teaching and influences changed my way of thinking about math and later on, math became my one the most favourite subjects for which I admire him greatly.
Sample Answer 2:
His name was Mr Malcolm Tyler and I met this great science teacher personally for the first time after one of my science classes about 10/11 years ago when I was just a 6th grade student. He asked me why I needed to see him, and I said that I was having a tough time understanding one of his physics lessons. Inspecting the “little me” with a great smile on his face, Mr Tyler told me to see him the next day as if he was expecting this kind of “trouble” at the end of his class!
Anyway, I had to oblige and saw him the next day as per the schedule. And, it took one of my favourite teachers, if not the most favourite, of all time only about 30 seconds to explain the entire lesson as clearly as the water of Lake Mashu in Japan. Having received an award for the “teacher of the year”, a couple of years ago, Mr Tyler wasn’t just good at teaching Physics, but also was equally adept at teaching Chemistry and Biology. In fact, very rarely have I seen a teacher explaining difficult lessons/things at such ease! My Tyler sir, indeed, was a special teacher not only because of his “depth of knowledge” in his subjects but also because of his great helping attitude.I still remember how my favourite teacher encouraging us for “private lessons” to study and understand science so that we could take our country forward with our talents and hard works. In fact, it was because of the constant push and encouragement of my dear teacher that I got admission in one of the most prestigious engineering colleges in my country. Being a great mentor both inside and outside of my school, Mr Tyler never hesitated to admonish us if we ever failed to do things on time. Million thanks to him, for he has truly inspired me to be the better person that I am today!
Sample Answer 3:
I met Mr John Markus in my elementary school. Actually, I was the student of Agiou Georgiou Elementary School located in Larnaca in Cyprus. He was my mentor and with his direct supports and suggestions, I have crossed many of the barriers of my life – both academic and personal. So, I am really grateful to him and have been greatly inspired by his teaching techniques. If he did not guide me in my education, I think I would not be able to arrive in this position today. This is a delightful cue card topic and I would like to thank you for this topic.
Mr John Markus was the teacher of general science in the school. He was really a great teacher and used to teach in some unconventional methods. He hardly used books or other teaching materials for teaching in the classroom. He also had some other techniques to impress the students. And most importantly, he knew all the names of his students which I had never seen before.
He was special in the sense that he knew how to teach the students. Mr Markus also supported his students in some other matters and mentored like his own children. The other most important thing about him is that he used to keep in touch with the parents of the children. He Regularly updated the parents with the latest information about their kids. As a result, he turned into a popular figure among the parent community.
I and my education have been influenced by this person to a great extent. He had some special ways to complete things. He was straightforward and never turned biased to any of his students. He loved all the kids like his own children which attracted me most. Whenever I met him with some sort of troubles, he guided me the way out of them. So, I like him much.
PART 3 – Detailed-discussion
Discussion topics:
Developments in education.
Q. How has education changed in your country in the last 10 years?
A. I live in a developing country where the education sector went through numerous changes including the government’s increasing budget allocation in the education sector, more women enrollment in higher studies, changes in academic syllabus and so on.
During the last 10 years, the most significant and noticeable change in the education sector in my country is the transformations of people’s mentality regarding the necessity of education. Only a few decades ago, many parents showed little or no interest in sending their kids to school. But that has radically changed and nowadays almost all parents send their children to school. This is a giant leap in my opinion in terms of the advancement of our education. The government has allocated a big portion of its budget to ensure better infrastructure, study materials and salary of the teachers in schools and it has been proven effective to build a solid ground to make an educated nation. During the last 5 years, our literacy rate has almost doubled and I give the major credit to the government for ensuring free education at the primary schools.
Moreover, around 200 to 300 new colleges and universities have been established in the last few years. We had only 4-5 engineering university back in 2005 but we have more than 40 such educational institutions now. More emphasis has been given to vocational education and thus a large portion of the underprivileged population has come under the vocational education system.
Q. What changes do you foresee in the next 50 years?
A. If you ask me about the type of changes that might take place in the next 50 years, I would need to rely both on my past experience and imagination! My best guess is that education would be more practical than theoretical in the future. Women participation and performance in education would excel to a great extent. More women would be in research and higher education than their male counterparts.
I guess, education would be expensive then and private institutes would be more demanding than the public and state-owned ones. More foreign students would come to study here and the number of universities would increase by many-fold. Moreover, digitalization and computer-based education system would replace many traditional education systems and online education would be a very popular form by that time. Finally, academic curriculum and subjects offered in the colleges and universities would see a dramatic change and technology would be the most important and demanding subject in this era.
Not sure if I will be alive to see those changes but I hope many positive changes within the next 50 years in my country including 100% literacy rate, more engineering and research-based education system, some of our universities are ranking in the “World’s best university list” and we are renowned as a country for excellent education system.
A national education system.
Q. How do the expectations of today’s school leavers compare with those of the previous generation?
A. Well, school graduates nowadays are expected to study further and get involved in a part-time job to gain practical experience. The job market is pretty competitive compared to the past. Getting a good job requires talent, some practical experience, good grades in school, soft skills and many other criteria. The competition in public service or government jobs is even higher. In the past, there were very few school graduates in my country and hence securing a job both in the public and private sectors was not that tough.
Nowadays, the education requirement for a job is much higher than in the past. Twelve class degree is not enough to get a decent job now. Recruiters are looking for candidates with prior job experiences and at least a Bachelor degree. Thus the school leavers nowadays have no other option but to continue their studies. Getting a part-time job besides the study is a dream for many.
The population in my country has almost doubled in the last decade and that is pretty obvious that the competition the school leavers nowadays face is tremendous. Among the school leavers, many decide their major in college or university while others prefer vocational education. This facility was very narrow in my grandfather’s generation.
Q. What role do you think extracurricular activities play in education?
A. Extracurricular activities sharpen the minds of students and enhance their creativity. Activities that require physical movements keep their body fit and thus the importance of extracurricular activities is immense. It is often observed that young students who have interests in sports and games outperform others in many fields. Extracurricular activities like singing, debating, painting can be very handy in terms of career enhancement. Students, who are engaged in some kinds of extracurricular activities, possess better leadership and social skills. Finally, from my experience, I can say that such students have better knowledge about the world than students who are solely focused on academic lessons.
Different styles/methods of teaching and learning.
Q. What method of learning works best for you?
A. I prefer to work in a pair for the complex topics and subjects. The group discussion, in particular, works best for me. When I study in a group, I can discuss my views and learn the opinions of others. Thus the discussion is always helpful and I can better perform in an exam and remember the details for a long.
Q. How beneficial do you think it is to group students according to their level of ability?
A. If a group comprises students of similar calibre and talents, it is proven to be more effective. Similar abilities of students in an assembly can be advantageous from mainly two points of views. They are more frank to participate in any discussion and value each other’s opinion. Secondly, they understand each other better and work together pretty well.
If a group is formed with different levels of students, chances are a highly talented student would get bored with the silly discussions by the others while a dull student among a highly talented group would not dare to opine whatever he/she thinks.
