Speaking Part 3: Discussion: Question 5
Syllabus S.part3
IELTS Speaking Part 3, a two-way discussion on skills and learning. Typical questions:
- What skills do you think are most important for people to learn today?
- Do you think traditional classroom learning is still the best way to acquire new skills?
- How important is it for adults to keep learning new skills throughout their working life?
- Should governments be responsible for funding adult retraining programmes?
- Do you think the way people learn skills will change significantly in the future?
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Examiner notes: Speaking Part 3 assessment
Fluency & Coherence
Each answer builds a clear line of reasoning (position, justification, a qualifying counterpoint, and a closing summary) using natural spoken cohesion (“that said”, “of course”, “having said that”) rather than a rigid essay-style structure. Responses to the policy-type question (4) in particular show the ability to weigh competing responsibilities aloud without losing coherence, which is a strong indicator of a top-band performance.
Lexical Resource
Precise, education-related vocabulary is used with control (“transferable skills”, “self-directed learning”, “subsidised courses”, “human mentorship”) and paraphrase avoids repeating “skills” or “learning” mechanically by shifting to synonyms like “expertise”, “training”, and “practice”. Natural spoken hedges (“I lean towards”, “my guess is”) are used idiomatically rather than sounding translated.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
A wide range of grammar is produced accurately: unreal/hypothetical structures (“I could imagine AI-driven tutoring systems that adapt…”), passive and causative constructions (“skills learned twenty years ago can become outdated”), and concessive clauses (“even though”, “that said… on the other hand”), all with full control and no errors that a listener would need to work to parse.
(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, question 4 in particular is often answered with a flat “yes, the government should pay” with no reasoning about who else might share that responsibility. Part 3 rewards a candidate who can weigh competing views before settling on a position.