Band 6 OF TEFL Speaking test coaching

This test taker is willing to give extended responses but there is occasional loss of coherence as a result of hesitation and repetition. He tends to overuse certain fillers (well; like; ‘cos; yeah), although he draws on a reasonable range of linking words (for example; actually; as a result).

Grammatical constructions are also used well to introduce his ideas (by having a hobby; by doing sports).

His range of vocabulary is sufficient to discuss topics at length and he displays some ability to use less common items and collocation (get on very well with each other; increase money for the charity; good for the community; developed country; psychologically; physically). Even when he makes wrong word choices, his meaning is clear and he can convey his ideas and opinions quite effectively (fast speed work; relieve themselves after work; release their body pressures). 

He does not always demonstrate awareness of register or style and he tends to use the rather too informal gonn’ and wanna. He can produce a range of structures and a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. Grammatical control of more complex structures is variable (they just want to get big car big house and that’s the reason that forces them to work very hard than before), but errors rarely cause comprehension problems.

His pronunciation is generally clear and there is some use of stress and intonation to convey meaning, although on the whole his intonation is somewhat flat. His speech is often syllable-timed and this leads to a rather mechanical rhythm.

Certain words are sometimes mispronounced, resulting in an occasional loss of clarity (wail for ‘while’; lerer for ‘leisure’; louts for ‘lots’). Overall, he can be understood without much effort.

This test taker is willing to speak at length, but he does not display the features of performance necessary to lift his score above Band 6.”