Hi, my name's Pete Jones.
You may have seen me
in some of my other IELTS videos
or read some of the tips on my IELTS blog.
In this video, I'm going to show you
an IELTS Speaking band score 5.5 candidate,
Aya from Thailand,
talk about an IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic
for two minutes.
Then, at the end of the video,
I'm going to explain how Aya can improve her speaking.
Part 2 is the part of the IELTS Speaking test
where you are given a topic
and you have to talk about it for one to two minutes.
I would like to describe my
marketing research competition.
It's about the...
We have to do the research about one company.
It's called Nok Air Company.
It is an airline industry and they want...
...there is a new local airline company
so they need the student do the research.
So we have to...
We find this one by my... our teacher.
They give us to do the project.
It's like a university project,
and then we compare with a friend in the class,
and then between the class,
and then between university.
And what I have to do?
I have to do the research,
make the questionnaire,
and give the questionnaire to the people
around the airport.
And then we have to collect it,
and then analyse,
and then make it the presentation,
and present to the Nok Air company.
And finally our team got the win
so we got the certificate
and got job offer to join with the Nok Air company.
As the marketing research,
? I think maybe this name
and we joined this competition
because it is the one subject that
we need to finish before we graduate the university.
And it is the one chance that we can try to...
...like a...do sample the job...
...like a previous job.
No, no, like a...
We can try to do this job position
that we like or not,
but I think I don't like this job
because I'm not good in the number
so I didn't say yes to do the job with this company.
Yes.
And that is...
Thank you.
Would you like to enter this kind of competition again?
Sorry?
Would you like to enter this kind of competition again?
Yes, if I got the chance, I want
because it's not too bad to join the competition.
We got the knowledge,
we can try,
and we know that we like or not like.
Yes, I think it's a good chance to try.
After talking about the IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic,
Aya asked me what she could do
to improve her speaking from a band score 5.5
to a 6.
What I told Aya,
and what I'd like to explain now,
is how Aya's pronunciation,
or rather her pronunciation mistakes,
may have affected her IELTS band score.
It says in the official IELTS band score descriptors
that for a band score 6,
mispronunciation of individual words or sounds
reduces clarity at times.
What this means is,
if you mispronounce a lot of words or sounds,
and this often makes it difficult
for the examiner to understand what you're saying,
you won't get a band score 6 for your pronunciation.
You may have noticed that
Aya mispronounced some words
during the two minutes she was speaking.
Like many Thai students,
Aya didn't pronounce the final sound in some words.
Listen to how she didn't pronounce the 's' sound
at the end of the word 'chance',
and the 'k' sound at the end of the word 'like'.
If Aya made more pronunciation mistakes
during the rest of her speaking test,
that would add up to a lot of mistakes
and probably too many for an IELTS band score 6.
Aya's pronunciation also affected her speaking
in another way.
After we finished the recording,
Aya told me that she had avoided using the word 'travel'
because she found it difficult to pronounce the sound 'r',
and that this had made it more difficult
for her to answer my question.
So, if you need to improve your band score
from a 5.5 to a 6,
it's really important that you
identify any words or sounds
that you find difficult to pronounce
rather than avoiding them.
I've put a list of sounds
that are commonly mispronounced
by students from different countries
at the end of this video.
To see some students from other countries
answer some IELTS Speaking questions,
check out my other videos
or subscribe now so you don't miss the next one.