These are official speaking samples from IELTS. They are marked according to this rubric (click here for the PDF):
Band 5
The examiner gave this a Band 5 for the following reasons:
- Fluency and coherence: Despite the long answers, coherence is lost due to hesitation.
- Lexical resource: Good vocabulary; errors do not interfere with communication.
- Grammar: Uses only a limited range of complex structures; frequent errors with verb tenses, subject verb agreement.
- Pronunciation: Speaking is overly syllable-timed; stress and intonation are okay; some words/sounds are mispronounced.
Band 5.5
The examiner gave this a Band 5.5 for the following reasons:
- Fluency and coherence: Despite the long answers, coherence is lost due to “repetition and self-correction”, linking words/phrases not always being used appropriately, and word order problems.
- Lexical resource: Problems with word classes (“famous” vs. “fame”, “social workers” vs “social work”); errors somewhat interfere with communication.
- Grammar: Significant word order problems; frequent errors
- Pronunciation: Rapid speech rate negatively affects rhythm; flat intonation (and sometimes inappropriate rising intonation at the end of sentences); problems with certain sounds (“vork” vs “work”, “evryting” vs “everything”)
Band 6
The examiner gave this a Band 6 for the following reasons:
- Fluency and coherence: Despite the long answers, coherence is lost due to “repetition, self-correction, and hesitation”; being unable to answer one question; linking words/phrases not always being used appropriately; excessive use of fillers such as “how to say/how do you say”.
- Lexical resource: Problems with collocations (which rarely interfere with communication)
- Grammar: Despite the variety of sentence structures, overall control of grammar is inconsistent (although these errors do not hinder communication).
- Pronunciation: Speech is divided into “meaningful word groups with good use of stress and intonation” (vs. being syllable timed); problems with certain sounds (“bose” vs “both”, “zen” vs “then”, “word vs “world”) somewhat hinder communication.
Band 6.5
The examiner gave this a Band 6.5 for the following reasons:
- Fluency and coherence: The candidate is able to speak at length without much repetition.
- Lexical resource: There is a wide range of vocabulary, including correct collocations. Word choice problems do not interfere with comprehension.
- Grammar: Despite verb tense problems, there are frequent error-free sentences with a range of complex structures.
- Pronunciation: In general, the candidate speaks clearly. Despite a strong accent, only individual words are mispronounced..
Band 7
The examiner gave this a Band 7 for the following reasons:
- Fluency and coherence: “speaks at length without noticeable effort or loss of coherence; may demonstrate language-related hesitation at times, or some repetition and/or self-correction; uses a range of connectives and discourse markers with some flexibility”
- Lexical resource: Occasional word choice issues
- Grammar: Uses a variety of complex sentence structures and produces many error-free sentences. However, there are verb tense issues.
- Pronunciation: “Very natural pronunciation”; good use of intonation and stress; accent does not impede intelligibility. Some problems with certain sounds.
