Splendid Speaking Interviews

Connect >> Skype Interviews

Are you preparing for an advanced English exam like CAE, CPE or IELTS (Grade 6.5 and upwards) and need to practise for the Speaking paper? Perhaps there's a particular part of the exam that you'd like to try and get feedback on such as making introductions, discussing, negotiating or making long turns. The Splendid Speaking team invite our users to contact us to arrange a free interview through Skype. Interviews last about 15 minutes and if your request is successful you'll be interviewed on your own or in pairs.

Please note that interviews are only carried out with students who are studying at an advanced level, will be limited in number and subject to availability.

If you'd like to get involved, read our terms and conditions first then choose a time you're available. All times shown are GMT. Then use the form to contact us at the bottom of this page.

Please read our terms for applying for an interview first:

During June, July and August 2009 we'll invite our users (aged 18 or over) to apply for a Skype interview with a member of the Splendid Speaking team. We'll choose names at random and if you're selected we'll email you either to confirm the time you've asked for or to make alternative arrangements. In some cases we might schedule an informal chat with you first to find out more about you and to let you know whether your English is suitable for one of our formal interviews.

Before the formal interview we'll email you an outline of a speaking task. Your interview will either be alone with us or also with another student, which means you may need to share your Skype username with this person as well.  When you've carried out the tasks the interviewer will give you some feedback and then the Skype session will end.

We'll be recording the interviews and may decide to use some or all of the content in one or more of our future publications, for example on our websites, in software or ebooks. In order to make the best use of the recording we'll often edit it so that it's in a form we can use. At some point in the future these publications may be made available for free or for a fee to our users. Unfortunately, we're not able to make any payments to anybody we interview - we're offering the interviews for free as a way of saying 'thank you'. We'll include the first name and nationality of anybody who appears in a publication.

We don't guarantee an interview with everyone who contacts us and we won't be able to get into correspondence with anybody who is not successful. The recordings we make of interviews may or may not feature in our publications depending upon whether we feel they are appropriate for our needs.

This invitation will only be available during the dates specified on the online application form. If neccessary, we may have to stop or make alterations to the service without giving people notice. We'll try to carry out interviews at the agreed time but life sometimes throws up unexpected surprises so we may have to make cancellations. We'll do our best to tell you in advance if this is the case.

And now the legal bit...
Sometimes things go wrong or aren't what people expect, so please understand that we won't be held liable for any problems you may have with this service. Remember also that you shouldn't rely solely on the feedback we give you about your use of English to assess your further study requirements or academic progress.  Use of this free service is at your own risk and we shall not be liable for any third party claims or losses of any nature.

2009 Interview Schedule

Period: June 1st - August 31st
Monday - Thursday

Request a time from 10.00 - 13.00 and 19.30 - 21.30 GMT Monday to Thursday.
(Check GMT here)

Connect >> Skype Interviews

Please read our terms for applying for an interview first:

2009 Interview Schedule

Application Form