Boost Your Vocabulary for IELTS Speaking with Stories

- If you want to discover one of the most powerful ways

to learn vocabulary, keep watching.

(upbeat music)

Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy.

You know, many students struggle

with learning vocabulary, right?

Maybe they see new words,

but they don't really understand them,

or they half learn a word, but can't use it.

Or maybe learn a word and then poof forget it.

(Keith chuckles)

In this video, I'm going to tell you the secret weapon,

(imitates explosion banging)

for learning vocabulary, stories and storytelling.

I'll explain to you first how to learn with stories,

secondly, why they work,

and thirdly, I'll give you an example with a story.

Okay, sound good?

Let's do it.

So how can you learn vocabulary with stories?

There are two basic things you can do.

The first one is to learn vocabulary

by reading and listening to stories.

And the second is to learn vocabulary by telling stories.

Let's take the first one.

When you are reading and listening to stories,

ideally you want to be reading a story

or listening to a story that is slightly above your level.

So if you pick up a story

and you can understand around 80%,

that's ideal, right?

If you can understand 100%,

it might be too easy and a bit boring.

If you can only understand 50%,

it might be too difficult and too challenging.

So look for something just above your level, right?

When you are reading a story, focus on the plot.

Focus on understanding what is happening,

understand the characters, the events, the setting.

Don't focus on the vocabulary, focus on the plot.

Trying to piece together what is happening.

A bit like a jigsaw puzzle, okay?

The vocabulary kind of comes second.

You will learn vocabulary unintentionally

almost in the background.

I recommend that with words you don't understand

to try and guess the meaning from the context.

Most of the time you will be able to.

Don't look up every word, for sure.

If you feel a word is interesting

or a word comes up again, and again, and again,

so it's a key word, then yes, look it up, make a note.

Try and learn that word, okay?

But certainly try not to focus

on looking up all of the words,

focus on the story, understanding that.

Now, the second thing I mentioned

is to learn vocabulary by telling stories.

So the best way to do this is when you've finished listening

to a story or reading, is put it up to one side,

and try and retell the story in your own words.

Maybe you can record yourself.

Maybe if you want, you can write it out

or just speak out loud.

This is not a test, right?

So if you can't do it or you forget some keywords,

go back to the story and check,

oh, yeah, that's the word, and then carry on.

So you can use the original story as a support

as you are retelling the story, right?

Retell, tell again.

The other thing you can do

is just take some of the key words

and make up your own story.

Maybe a story related to that one or similar,

but not the same, just making up your own story.

Either way, you are not trying to reproduce

the same story perfectly.

You're just retelling to practice

using some of that vocabulary that you've been reading.

Great, let's move on.

Right, so why do stories work?

Well, listen, let me tell you, right?

I've got a friend, right, Tom,

and he works over in Manchester.

He works as an accountant for a major tech company.

He doesn't mind his job,

though the job can be a bit monotonous.

But for him it pays the rent,

which is the most important thing.

Now, what's happening, when I start to tell you a story,

your mind engages, and you try to understand

the character, the plot, the events.

Basically what's happening is the story is a great way

of engaging you in the learning event.

What's more, most stories,

for most stories, it can be a fun way of learning.

And that means your retention of vocabulary,

your remembering of vocabulary is gonna be deeper

and better.

If a story is relevant to you,

again, research tells us your, the depth of learning

will be much stronger.

What's more stories help bring out emotions and feelings,

which again can increase your understanding,

and build your interest,

and help your learning become stronger.

From purely a language point of view, having a story,

well, learning vocabulary means you're learning words

in context, which means that it's gonna be more memorable.

You are gonna learn not only the word,

but the phrase the word is used in.

You're gonna learn how to use it from the context.

And you should remember it better

because the story gives that structure

and framework to remember words better.

The great thing about stories

is not only can you learn vocabulary,

and a lot of that is kind of unintentional learning,

you also expose yourself to English,

to the rhythm, maybe the sound, if you are listening.

You expose yourself to lots of grammar, vocabulary.

They're also a great way to review language

just by reading or listening to stories.

Nowadays with the internet, stories are pervasive.

They're everywhere, right?

You can access books, films, videos, podcasts,

all sorts of stories everywhere on the internet.

So there are no more excuses, my friend,

not to use stories.

Get out there and go and find some.

Okay, so we've seen how to learn with stories

and why they can be good.

I'm now gonna give you an example of a real story,

so you can see how your mind works,

how you start to engage with the story,

try to make sense of what's happening.

It'd be interesting to see if you can start guessing

the meaning of some words.

As we go through, I'll explain the meaning of some words

and how they're used to help you understand,

but overall, hopefully you'll see how this can be a fun

and engaging way of learning vocabulary.

All right, let's begin.

I have this friend Tom,

who works in a bustling city center office in Manchester.

He works as an accountant for a major tech company.

He doesn't mind it, although the job can be monotonous.

It pays the rent, and for Tom,

that's the most important thing.

We both have this other mate, Peter,

who lives up in Scotland,

and he has a starkly different career.

Okay, so to clarify.

Tom who works in a bustling city center office.

Bustling means busy or full of activity, right?

You can't say I am bustling.

No, you say a place is bustling.

You can talk about a bustling city,

a bustling office, a bustling workspace, okay?

Don't pronounce the T, bustling.

We said he doesn't mind his job.

That means his job is okay.

He doesn't like it, but he doesn't dislike it.

The job can be monotonous.

Monotonous is an adjective meaning unchanging

and boring, okay?

We can talk about a monotonous job, a monotonous speech,

a monotonous meeting, a monotonous voice, and so on.

Finally, this other mate, a mate is a friend.

Peter, he has a starkly different career.

Starkly, what a lovely word.

Starkly different career.

So starkly is an adverb meaning very used with different,

very different.

It's a collocation, starkly different.

Right, let's carry on with the story.

I wonder what Peter actually does.

What do you think?

Let's find out.

So Peter is a freelance website designer

and he loves the thrill of creating something new

and unique from scratch.

He's responsible for making his clients' ideas

come alive visually.

Basically, it's up to him to ensure each design is perfect.

Peter has the advantage of flexibility

because he works from home,

which actually suits him down to the ground.

He tells me his day starts with a hot cup of coffee,

a flip through his latest design briefs,

and then hours of dedicated work.

So yeah, he's a website designer.

What a great job, right?

So he creates something new from scratch,

from scratch.

Scratch is literally (groans) scratch,

is from the beginning.

It's idiomatic, from scratch, from the beginning.

So you can start from scratch

or you can create or build something from scratch.

We said that the job or the fact he works from home

actually suits him down to the ground.

Another great idiom to suit you down to the ground

means it's a perfect fit.

It is perfect for him.

So you could talk about a job suits you down to the ground.

The weather, the hot weather suit, doesn't.

The mild weather suits me down to the ground,

or maybe certain clothes,

like this shirt suit me down to the ground, maybe.

Finally, we talked about his day starts with a flip through

his latest design briefs.

So a flip is a turning over.

The verb to flip, to turn over.

You can flip a page in a book.

You can flip a pancake.

You can flip an egg, right?

So he's flipping through his design briefs.

His briefs here are the design instructions,

not his briefs, like his underpants.

That's a different meaning, nothing to do with that.

Okay, that's the story so far.

Let's carry on.

What's gonna happen?

Let's find out.

Tom on the other hand,

says there are often days when he is bored silly.

He shuffles papers, crunches numbers,

and is constantly snowed under with work.

But he seems to carry on, I guess, you know,

always reminding himself of the stability

and security his job provides.

Interestingly, last month, the three of us met up

and the strangest thing happened.

So the story so far.

Tom, well, he says he's often bored silly.

Bored silly, idiomatic means very bored, right?

And he's constantly snowed under with work.

To be snowed under again, idiomatic.

It doesn't mean you are covered in snow.

It means you are very busy and you have a lot of work to do.

You can be snowed under with work,

snowed under with emails,

snowed under with requests to do something, and so on.

Notice the end of the story, there's a bit of suspense.

What's gonna happen next in the story?

Well, I'm not gonna tell you today.

Oh, no.

In fact, I would like you to tell me

what you think happens next.

Leave me a comment down below.

Let me know what you think happens next in the story.

I do hope with this story that you noticed,

well, maybe did you notice that you were trying

to guess certain words,

that you were trying to make sense of what's happening?

And I hope if you try to learn some of this vocabulary,

you will realize later that the context

helps you remember some of these words.

So in today's video you've seen how you can learn vocabulary

by reading, listening, and telling stories.

You've seen why it works,

how it can engage your brain and your learning.

And we've had that lovely story about Tom and Peter.

Do let me know what you think happens.

Listen, if you've enjoyed the video, please do subscribe.

If you want the story and the vocabulary,

and all the ideas there is a free PDF.

You can download that by clicking on the link just below.

And listen, if you want more stories to help you

build your vocabulary,

as well as develop your speaking skills,

why not think about joining my online course,

IELTS speaking success?

Get a band seven plus gold.

It's aimed at students preparing

for the IELTS speaking test.

But also we have plenty of students who are not doing IELTS,

but just want to develop their speaking skills.

In the course, we use stories to review vocabulary

that students have learned throughout the course,

very engaging, very fun, and a great way to remember words.

So listen, if you are interested, there's a click.

There's a click.

There's a link down in the description.

Just click on that and if you join through that link,

you get 10% off the price of the course

for all YouTube learners or viewers.

That's it.

Thank you so much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed the story and the video

as much as I have enjoyed telling it to you today.

Take care, my friends,

and I'll see you in the next video.

All the best now.

Bye-bye.

(upbeat music)