IELTS LISTENING – ‘Student Life’. Video Project S30T3

TUTOR: Is it the first time you’ve operated one like that?

CRISTINA: Yes, it is.

TUTOR: Well the results were very good! Anything else?

CRISTINA: I also enjoyed visiting one of the British students we filmed. I’d never been inside a British _Q21 home before.

TUTOR: OK Cristina, thanks. What about you, Ibrahim? What did you enjoy?

IBRAHIM: Well for me it was a very good chance to get to know students who are on other courses, because everyone in our group is studying English, and we don’t usually have much to do with the rest of the college.

TUTOR: Yes, good. Do you think you’ll maintain the contact now?

IBRAHIM: I hope so. I’ve invited three of them to have _Q22 dinner with me next week.

TUTOR: Great! If you haven’t decided what to make yet I can tell you they’ll love trying Arab dishes. And of course, it’s good for your English too. Cristina, what did you find? What was the most useful aspect of the project from the point of view of the English practice?

CRISTINA: I think, when we were being shown how to edit the film, we had to follow the instructions. And that was very good practice for me. And I also learned some _Q23 technical words that I hadn’t heard before.

TUTOR: What about you Ibrahim? What was the most useful for your English?

IBRAHIM: It was listening to the British students because they don’t speak as slowly as most of the tutors on our course. I think they speak at natural speed, so it forces me to get used to it. And they use a lot of _Q24 slang.

TUTOR: So you learned some new words which will be useful?

IBRAHIM: Yes.

TUTOR: Good. I’m glad it helped. Well, we’ve talked a little bit about enjoyment, and about language practice. Were there any other benefits? What else did you feel you’d learnt from the project? Was it useful in other ways?

CRISTINA: Yes, well firstly, I learned how to use a video camera. And also, I think I really learned a lot about working together with other people. I’ve never done anything with a group before, and we had to find ways of _Q25 cooperating, erm, and compromising, and sometimes _Q26 persuading people, when they don’t agree with you.

TUTOR: Yes, that is a very useful experience, I know.

TUTOR: What about you, Ibrahim?

IBRAHIM: Well, I think I learnt a lot about how important _Q27 editing is. When you’re filming you think that everything’s going to be interesting, but in fact, we cut around half of it in the end, and then it was much better.

TUTOR: Good. Well, one last thing I’d like to ask. What mistakes do you think you, as a group that is, made? I mean, to put it another way, if you had to do it all over again, is there anything you’d do differently?

CRISTINA: We didn’t plan very well. For example, we didn’t decide on dates when we’d _Q28 complete each separate step of the project, and we should have agreed about that in the beginning, because we were always late with everything!

TUTOR: Right. Anything else?

CRISTINA: I think we should have tried to _Q29 experiment more with the camera. I mean with angles, and the focus and that kind of thing.

TUTOR: So you should have been more ambitious? Do you agree, Ibrahim?

IBRAHIM: Not really. In fact, I think we were too ambitious. We were inexperienced, and we didn’t have a lot of time, and we tried to do too much, to make a _Q30 long film.

Next time I would make a shorter one and try to get quality better.

TUTOR: Well, that’s very interesting. Next semester we will have another video project – with different content, of course – but you’ll have an opportunity to put into practice what you’ve learned this time. Do you have any ideas about…

Attempt full listening test…