In this episode we’re going to listen to Peter, who tried one of the free Part 2 practice tests we’ve published.
Task
Describe a restaurant that you like to use. You should say:
- where this restaurant is
- what kind of food it serves
- how often you go there
and say why you like eating there so much.
Comprehension
The first time you listen decide if Peter answers all parts of the question.
OK … a restaurant where I really enjoy very much eating is a salad bar.. bar …. which is located in Karlsruhe … that is in Germany for the other people listening to this … and I really enjoy going there because they offer a variety of vegetables with a lot of different dressings … so for example you can easily I don’t know … choose from the the very fundamental stuff like tomatoes cucumbers or olives … different types of salads but they also sometimes offer chicken and turkey and salmon and this overall makes it a really … really a … a great experience to to eat there because… it goes for me it goes hand in hand with my healthy way of living so … for me it is yeah important to you know not always eat meat to not eat meat everyday and try and … because it is on the one hand it’s not good for your health but on the other hand it’s also not good for the environment and therefore I really try to to eat there at this salad bar once in a month to … well to to also contribute my to contribute to to a kind of better world but yes overall I only eat there once in a month because it is quite expensive since you always have to pay for .. for … for 100 grammes grammes of each type of thing you choose and this however … if you you know crunch the numbers in the end … reveals that the actual price for for a decent .. weight of … weight of food is quite expensive.
Assessment
Peter responded to the task well and gave a full answer. Now listen a second time. How well do you think Peter did using the IELTS assessment criteria? Focus on ONE of the following criteria as you listen.
- Grammatical range and accuracy
- Lexical resource (vocabulary)
- Fluency and coherence
- Pronunciation
Feedback
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Peter’s use of English was very good and throughout the talk his statements were well formed. There was excellent use of cohesive devices to help us follow his talk. Words and expressions such as ‘for example’ and ‘like’ were used to give examples. ‘Because’ and ‘since’ were used to give reasons. And ‘on the one hand’ and ‘on the other hand’ were really helpful in signposting different issues. Look through the transcript again to see how these words and expressions were used. Can you find any more?
Lexical Resource
Peter showed he had a good range of topic vocabulary and used a couple of very good set expressions such as:
to go hand in hand with
to crunch the numbers
Fluency and Coherence
There were some pauses at certain stages of Peter’s talk. However, judging by his use of advanced vocabulary, these pauses do not appear to be due to difficulties with English. They are perhaps more likely the result of the context in which he was speaking – namely to a computer screen without any speaking partner. Nevertheless, Peter could try reducing the frequency of any pauses to gain the highest grade possible in fluency.
Pronunciation
In general Peter’s pronunciation was clear and listeners should have little trouble understanding him. There were a couple of individual words that were pronounced incorrectly or with unnatural word stress.
vegetables is pronounced with three syllables with the first one stressed ‘VEGetables.
and the correct pronunciation is TURkey.
the first syllable is also stressed in the word CUcumber.