Day 17 — Listen & Repeat + Take an Interview
Phase II · Targeted Drills · Speaking · Day 17 of 30 · ⏱ ~2 hours
📍 You are here: Day 16 · Listening Simulation → Day 17 · Speaking drills + your first feedback submission → Day 18 · Write an Email
Productive tasks begin 🎙 Today you drill both Speaking tasks — Listen & Repeat (prosody) and Take an Interview — and record your first interview set for Hasmik to review.
🎯 Today's goal: Sharpen rhythm and intonation on Listen & Repeat, and deliver a natural, structured 45-second interview answer.
✅ You're done when: you've done 2 dictations, drilled prosody, and recorded + submitted Interview Set 1.
⏰ Step 1 — Warm-Up: Stress & Rhythm
Trains the anti-robotic delivery the 2026 rubric rewards.
👉 Open the Warm-Up Exercise
4 items · auto-graded.
📖 Step 2 — Understand the tasks — Strategies & Sample Tasks
Watch these before you drill (PDF versions available too):
🎥 Listen & Repeat — Strategies & Sample Tasks
📄 Listen & Repeat — Strategies & Sample Tasks
🎥 Take an Interview — Strategies & Sample Tasks
📄 Take an Interview — Strategies & Sample Tasks
🎙️ Step 3 — Take an Interview — Template
Use this as the frame for your 45-second answers: bridge → direct answer → reason → example → land the plane. Fill it with your own ideas — don't memorize it word-for-word.
📄 Template
🧠 Step 4 — Take an Interview — Mind Map (video)
With zero preparation time, a quick mind map is how you find ideas fast: put the question in the centre, then branch out to a reason, a personal example, and a counter-point in a few seconds. This video shows you how to build one instantly and turn it into a structured 45-second answer.
🎧 Step 5 — Listen & Repeat: prosody drill
Dictation + shadowing train your ear and mouth together. Do 2 dictations, then shadow each sentence aloud, copying the rhythm exactly:
🟢 Band 4→5 Stress the content words (nouns, verbs), swallow the small words. Pause only at commas/periods.
🔵 Band 5→6 Add pitch movement on opinion words (really, actually, enjoyed) — flat delivery is a memorization tell.
🎥 Step 6 — Take an Interview: strategy refresh
Keep the Connector & Phrase Bank open — and remember the three non-negotiables: answer in the first 6 words, one concrete anchor, land the plane.
⭐ Today's Individual Task — Speaking Task 2: Interview Set 1
Theme: Technology & daily life. Answer all four questions. 45 seconds each, no preparation time. Record yourself and keep a written script of what you said.
- Q1 · Personal recall
Think back to the last time you used your phone for something important — such as contacting someone, finding your way, making a payment, or translating. Why did you use it at that time, and what did you like about how it worked for you? - Q2 · Reaction & preference
Some people prefer texting, while others prefer calling. Which do you prefer, and why? - Q3 · Opinion with support
Do you think smartphones have made people better or worse at communicating face to face? - Q4 · Broader issue
Should schools ban phones in classrooms? Why or why not?
📤 Submit your individual task for Hasmik's feedback: post both the recording 🎙 and the script 📝 of your four answers in the "Tasks for Review and Feedback" section on Telegram and indicate which day's task it is..
💡 Pro Tips
- No preamble. "That's an interesting question…" wastes your first seconds — lead with your answer.
- One concrete anchor per answer — a place, a person, a number. Generic answers cap at Band 4.
- Land the plane. End with a clear closing line; never trail off, and don't reuse the same closer twice.
- Record daily on the same device — it builds "voice memory" and makes progress obvious.
📁 Portfolio Entry — log Day 17
- 📅 Date · ✅ Steps completed (Y/N) · ⏱️ Time spent
- 📊 Warm-up score: ___ / 4 · Dictations: ___ / 2
- 🎯 Interview Set 1 recorded & submitted? (Y/N)
- 🎯 Confidence today (1.0–6.0) · 🏆 One Win + 🤔 One Challenge
📞 Your 2 one-on-one meetings with Hasmik are included — if you haven't booked yet, message us to set the dates.