Speaking Part 3: Discussion: Question 3

Worked solution

Examiner notes: Speaking Part 3 assessment

Fluency & Coherence

Each answer moves smoothly from a specific example through to a broader evaluative judgement, using cohesive devices that link ideas without being mechanical (“this has clear convenience benefits, but…”, “on the other hand…”). Answers are extended to a genuinely developed length without hesitation or noticeable self-correction, reflecting the sustained, natural speech expected at the top of the band scale.

Lexical Resource

Precise, technology-appropriate vocabulary is used naturally and idiomatically throughout (“biometric entry”, “self-repairing surfaces”, “outsourcing routine mental tasks”) alongside natural spoken hedges (“I’d expect”, “my guess is”) rather than repeated basic vocabulary like “technology is good” or “technology is bad”. Less common words are used with precision and without strain.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

A wide range of complex structures is produced accurately under time pressure: unreal conditionals (“if the technology fails… some people genuinely struggle”), modal speculation about the future (“might operate as a single coordinated system”), and non-defining relative clauses (“a thermostat that learns your schedule”), all with full grammatical control and no tense or agreement errors.

(Pronunciation is also assessed in the real Speaking test (stress, intonation and connected speech) but cannot be demonstrated in a written model answer.)

Common pitfalls specific to this task

See commonMistakes above. At band 6, candidates often name a single gadget they personally own rather than reasoning about the broader pattern of how technology changes everyday objects. Part 3 rewards generalising beyond one’s own possessions to a wider societal view.