Interview 23: Speculating & Hypothesising
This week we’re listening to Stefania from Italy who gives a short talk on the subject of winning the lottery. The podcast looks at speculating and hypothesising when dealing with subjects such as this.
N.B. Transcripts are available to subscribers of our newsletter. If you have already subscribed, please check your email inbox for one of our newsletters, which contain a link to the transcripts. If you haven’t yet subscribed, click the button below:
To listen now click the player below - allow a few seconds for the recording to play. To download the recording to listen to offline put your mouse cursor over ‘Download‘, then right click. Slide the cursor down to ‘Save target as‘ and then click …. decide where you want to download the file to and click ‘Save‘.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
hmmm….interesting podcast! I wish I had the opportunity to listen to it integrally, however. Apart from praising Stefania’s good use of English and captivating style of expressing her opinions and ideas (which are probably due to her time spent in an English environment), I can’t help making a critical remark about this presentation - although I agree that fillers render the short talk more cohesive, saying ‘you know’ at least 10 times within 2 min becomes truly annoying!!!
It’s rather odd not to find any other comments over here as there are so many people who claim to benefit from these podcasts. I mean, don’t you guys have an opinion about anything?
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I’d like to congratulate Stefania’s nice presentation. I just would like to point out that although she expressed herself very well, she should pay close attetion to her pronunciation since her Italian has a great influence on her English mostly when it cames to the vowels and the ‘t’ sound. Would that have any bad mark in the real test?
Anyway, she was really execelent when it comes to task itself and the proper use of vocabulary and grammar.
June 10th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I’ ve just listened to Stefania’ s talk and I don’ t think there is much Italian language transfer, as the previous person that wrote pointed out. I have studied Italian as a second language at the C2 level and I come from an Italian family and I know how difficult is for Italians not to let there mother tongue interfere when speaking English. In Stefania’ s talk what surprised me it is just this: she doesn’ t sound Italian native speaker when speaking in English.
Appart from the language mistakes that Pete explained, what I have noticed is an strong American accent, but she was very consistent in this, so I think it wouldn’ t mind in a CPE examination. I don’ t know if I am well informed, but I think that as long as you’ re consistent it doesn’ t matter if you have one accent or the other, that is Br.English or American.
Finally, I would like to thank Splendid Speaking because I have my CAE exam tomorrow and it is helping me quite a lot!!
All the best,
Adriana Virgilio
January 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Hello,
Stephania’s speach seemed really OK. I’m from Romania, consequently my mother tongue is of Latin origin too, so I thought the Italian accent passed through pretty much, but it was’t annoying. She seemed very relaxed about it and her age and experience with English helped her have a broad approach on the topic too.
I’ve recently discovered this website and I have the feeling I shall visit it quite often.
I have one small question. Adriana Virgilio said, and I quote ” what I have noticed is an strong American accent, but she was very consistent in this, so I think it wouldn’ t mind in a CPE examination. I don’ t know if I am well informed, but I think that as long as you’ re consistent it doesn’ t matter if you have one accent or the other, that is Br.English or American. ”
Is that correct? Because my influences in the learning English proccess have mostly been pop culture elements, especially Hollywood pictures, and it is really hard for me to get that British English touch of it all.
Looking forward to receiving a reply.
All the best,
Adriana Radu
March 1st, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Dear Adriana,
I’ve just seen your question about what I said. I am sorry I can’t give you an answer because I am not sure. May be Pete Travis can help us with this doubt.
Best regards,
Adriana