How to Prepare for a Band 9 in IELTS Speaking

Hi!

Do you ever wonder how Band 9 students prepare for IELTS speaking?

Well I’ve been chatting to some amazing people,

who have got a Band 8 and even a Band 9 on IELTS speaking.

And I want to share with you how they did it.

So come inside, let's find out.

So my name is Keith.

I run the website www.keithspeakingacademy.com

I’m helping you, well, speak better English, give better answers

and get a higher score on IELTS speaking.

So today I’m going to tell you how Band 8 or 9 students

prepare for IELTS speaking.

What is it they do?

What is it they think?

I think it's really interesting to find out.

I’m going to couple that together with the Band descriptors and what they tell us,

what IELTS tells us about being a Band 9.

Now a word of warning.

This really is for advanced level students.

I think if you're a Band 7, it's a great goal to go for 8.

If you're a Band 5, your goal should be the next level up, Band 6.

So this really is for high level students.

So if you're a Band 5 or 6, turn off now.

Go away.

Well, you can stay if you like.

It might be interesting to find out, right?

How these higher-level students,

who achieve Band 9 how they think and what they do.

Now in addition today, I have a bit of a special surprise.

Because I am going to do today together with our or my, no our.

It's our video with our sponsors Cambly, we're gonna do a lucky draw.

Now if you don't know Cambly, they are a fantastic online platform,

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You can practice speaking, practice your fluency,

practice your IELTS questions and answers if you like.

It's a great quality platform.

I love what they do.

They very kindly sponsored this video.

They also have online courses, which you can access on your computer,

on your phone.

Even for IELTS as well.

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You could do a mock test.

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All you have to do right, is comment on this video,

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That's it.

Great.

So I’ll remind you at the end.

Right now let's jump in to how Band 9 students prepare for IELTS speaking.

So first of all, oh! By the way, just one thing, right.

As I’ve chatted to these students,

what I’m about to tell you is not true for a 100% everybody at Band 8 and Band 9.

You know, students can be a little bit different.

They don't all do the same things.

But what I’ve got here are themes or things that I notice

are repeated and come up again and again.

And that the majority of your Band 8 and Band 9 students do.

These are the traits, the characteristics and behaviors of most of them.

But of course not all of them, right?

So not everybody is exactly the same, fortunately.

Okay, number one is Band 9 students realize

that IELTS is not about tips and tricks, right?

Now this is important because a lot of students at lower levels

are looking for the quick fix.

The tip or the trick that can get them that extra level up.

Your Band 9 student realizes it's about learning a language.

They're in it for the long haul or the long game, right?

It takes a long time to learn a language.

Years and years and years.

So whilst you may pick up a few tips and tricks on the way,

really it's about learning English over a long period of time.

Now what often happens is students go onto Facebook and they see somebody say,

“Oh! I just got a Band 8 and I prepared for 3 weeks”

But what they don't know is that, that person has spent years and years and years

working and developing their English level up to the Band 8 level.

And has probably just spent 3 weeks looking at exam technique.

So you have to be really careful when you look at what other people are doing.

Don't compare yourself to others, right?

Compare you to you several months ago.

And see the progress that you've made.

But that's the first tip.

So that's the first thing, right, that

Band 9 students realize it's about learning English

and most of them grow to love language learning.

It doesn't become a chore or a headache, but it becomes a thing of love.

A passion that they can see has benefits for the rest of their life.

The second point which is slightly related is that Band 9 students are patient,

right?

As I mentioned, it takes years to learn a language, right?

I mean take British people.

If you took a 12 year old British person,

they probably wouldn't get a 9 on IELTS speaking

for fluency, grammar, hopefully pronunciation maybe.

But vocabulary probably not.

Because they've not had their full education in English yet.

And they won't have all the ideas to talk about global warming and things like that.

So you know, that's 12 years for a native speaker.

So it's a lifelong investment.

So you do have to be patient and what's more,

the language learning curve right, for a beginner is in a short space of time.

You improve very quickly.

As you get better and better,

you need a huge investment of time to increase or improve just a little bit

and that's the challenge, the advance and the intermediate

and the advanced students face.

They have to put in a lot of time for a little reward.

So you must be patient.

Number 3 is that Band 9 students understand fluency is developed over time.

So I have noticed that Band 9 students practice regularly,

persistently over a long, long period of time.

And they don't just practice with the same person.

They will practice with lots of different people.

Maybe it's friends, family members, teachers, other students.

But they look for ways to get into communities

and practice with different people.

The thing with practicing and developing fluency is,

it is very much like a tree or a plant growing up, right.

It's nature, it takes time to do it.

You need to water it, to look after it, to let it grow slowly.

You can't push a plant to grow more quickly.

It just doesn't work.

And it's the same with your fluency.

It takes time to come out naturally.

But if you keep doing the practice, then you get there

and this is a key thing I think that Band 8 and Band 9 students do.

They understand the need to practice continually over a long period of time.

Number 4 is the Band 9 students chunk.

Chunk.

That means they don't just focus on words but they speak in chunks.

A chunk of language is a group of words that you speak or pronounce together.

And Band 8 and Band 9 students do this.

They do it all the time.

And they have done it so much that it becomes a natural part of their speaking.

So they will combine shorter chunks and longer chunks together

as and when it feels natural to do so.

So what do I mean exactly, if you've not heard about chunks,

well, because you don't get chunks very much in the course books

or the reference books but it is the fundamental part of language learning

and language speaking.

So let me give you an example, right?

Let's take here this phrase.

“Most days I get up in the morning

at around 7 I have breakfast and then I catch the bus to work”.

Now I’m speaking that a bit robotic and word by word.

But what your Band 9 student does and understands is the need to chunk.

Now they may say something like this.

“Most days, I get up in the morning, at around 7,

I have breakfast, and then I catch the bus to work”,

right?

You can see there are different chunks.

Most days, I get up in the morning, at around 7,

I have breakfast, and then I catch the bus to work.

And these chunks are developed by often by just substitution practice, right?

At around 7, at around 8, at around 9, it's just one sound.

I get up in the morning.

I get up at 7.

I get up late.

Very, very simple chunks and this is the key to fluency and language learning,

in my humble opinion.

So Band 8 and Band 9 students understand the need to practice this

as much as they can.

And they do a lot of imitation, I’ve noticed of native speakers.

Now whether that's listening to a video or a podcast

and just repeating these chunks as you hear them.

I get up in the morning repeating.

I get up in the morning, I get up in the morning.

Repeating these chunks a lot

and quite a few students spoke to me of trying to imitate the native speaker.

Not only the sounds but the way they speak.

Some students imitate the gesture or the mannerisms.

Others try and get the intonation but to try and get what one student called an

“English speaking mode”.

English speaking mode is this feeling of how English speakers speak and talk.

Partly to do with behavior or culture intonation.

But all of that feeling is something that they try to imitate and they do that a lot.

Okay.

Next one up.

Most Band 9 students usually have a plan.

For a certain period of time, they have an organized way of study,

something they're going to do at a certain time each day.

And it's planned out.

At least for the, the time that they have decided to prepare for the IELTS speaking.

So I noticed plans were a common theme for those high level students.

And many students said that they make a conscious decision to invest time

in study rather than play.

Hmm, that's a good point.

Let's move on.

The next point is most Band 9 students understand what is expected of them.

And what I mean by that is that they look at these.

The IELTS Band descriptors.

Although often they actually get a teacher to go through it with them.

And to explain exactly what it means.

There is a public version but it's not crystal clear every time.

But they take time to understand what they are evaluated on

and where they need to focus.

Most Band 8 and 9 students have taken at least one mock test with a teacher,

in order to identify their weaknesses or their strengths

and to know where to focus in order to move up to the level that they require.

Next one up.

Band 9 students invest a lot of time building up vocabulary.

And this is really interesting

because as I mentioned before with the 12 year old British kid,

whilst your fluency, pronunciation and grammar take a long time to develop,

vocabulary is the one area you can probably make the biggest impact

in the shortest time.

If you remember my interview with Steve, Steve Kaufman, the polyglot, right?

He said it's all about vocabulary.

In fact, there are whole teaching methods.

The lexical method based on vocabulary, saying that you know,

the grammar is all well and good but the key to language learning is vocabulary.

And how does your Band 9 student develop that vocabulary?

Well the first thing is without a doubt is reading

and listening to a wide range of resources.

Not just the course book that they have.

Not just the same films on Netflix.

But a wide range of things.

So videos on how to cook, on how to train a dog,

on places to have a picnic,

magazine articles on furniture, interior design,

The scientific journal on space exploration.

Reading and listening really widely is so important not just for the topic

but for the vocabulary that's connected to that topic.

So this huge desire to read and listen widely is very, very common.

And your Band 9 student understands that you need to learn vocabulary in context.

So just having word lists is okay.

But you need to have got them from a context, so you know how to use them.

And it seems they have this kind of curiosity.

This sense of being curious about language vocabulary

and the different ways it can be used.

And one of the things I have talked a lot about with Band 8 students is

the different connotation or nuance that a word can have

and it's so important to understand the nuance.

Because that again is where the examiner will differentiate a 7 and 8 or 9,

is that do they really understand

the nuance or the connotation of different words.

So for example, when a student came up to me like several weeks ago and said,

“Keith, it's great, your videos are really notorious”

I said, “What? What's happened? Why?”

he said, “Well, no that's great. I mean you're becoming famous”

I said, “Whoa! Wait a minute, what do you mean famous or notorious?”

and he said, “Well, it's the same”

ah! I said, “No, it's not”

Notorious has a very negative connotation.

That's when you're famous for something bad that you've done.

Famous is just neutral.

“Oh!”

so different words have different connotations, right?

And I have--

okay.

A pet hate, I’m going to tell you about.

When I started using Instagram, I honestly didn't like it

because I kept seeing lots and lots of these memes showing synonyms.

A bit like this one.

Right?

So synonyms.

Curious-nosy, old-ancient, right?

Well, okay.

They may be synonyms but the big problem is it doesn't take into account the

context and the connotation, right?

You can't say “I bumped into an ancient man in the street”, right?

It's an old man.

Ancient has a different connotation.

We use that normally for buildings for example.

Or if I’m out with my wife and we're shopping

and she's being very careful with her money,

I may say, “Oh, you're being thrifty today!”

But woe, woe betide me if I say, “You're being stingy today!”

because that is not a synonym.

Well, yes it means you're saving and being careful but

stingy has such a negative connotation.

I’d get into real trouble if I said that.

Thrifty has a positive connotation.

So although synonyms are useful, if they're out of context and

if you don't know the connotation,

you're going to get into more trouble.

So your Band 8 and 9 students

are curious about connotation and learning connotations.

And the best way is through context.

Oh! Yes and making mistakes.

Make lots of mistakes and you start to learn how to use them correctly.

Let's move on.

Next up, I think it's number 8.

Band 9 students know that seeing a word is not the same as knowing a word.

So it's one thing to see a word and to know the meaning, right?

You recognize it but that is not the same as being able to use it successfully.

And your Band 8 and 9 students understand the different levels

or stages you go through in learning vocabulary.

You have to see it, you have to start using it, you have to make mistakes with it.

You have to make mistakes, so you can learn how to use it properly.

So mistakes are great, you know.

And advanced level students will embrace mistakes

and will be happy to make lots of mistakes

as a part of the learning process.

I’ve also noticed you know, successful students usually keep vocabulary records

and at a Band 9, it's most of the time monolingual.

So it's in English without translation.

So they're keeping records in English definitions in English,

examples of course in English.

And also they learn by theme.

They often group vocabulary words and lexical items by theme

to help them, connect them and learn them in a better way.

And so in order to reach the highest stage of knowing vocabulary,

they need to activate it.

And they will spend time practicing, practicing, practicing

substitution drills, different contexts.

Just practicing to activate the language.

Building up that flexibility,

which is really another key thing about Band 8 and 9

is being able to use the language.

The chunks of language flexibly, right?

So memorizing is not good but memorizing chunks that then you can move and

change and put in different orders, yes, absolutely!

That's what it's all about.

Next, most Band 9 students invest in their study

and not just invest time but invest money, right?

It's amazing.

I look at the books and materials and things that they have, that most

Band 8, 9 students have bought a course.

They've bought reference books, course books,

dictionaries, reference books on collocations and idioms,

quite a lot or a significant investment.

And I think again, I mean this is certainly my case,

is that it's to see this language learning as a lifetime investment.

Something that you're going to benefit for you know, the whole of your future life.

It's worth investing in.

The next one is that Band 9 students build flexibility.

I did mention this before the key to language learning

is flexibility at an advanced level.

So one thing they told me they do is that they repeat the answers to questions.

But giving a different answer.

So they'll take the same question for example, do you have any hobbies?

And they will give different answers.

So they'll answer 4 or 5 times but a different answer each time.

Do you have any hobbies?

Yes.

I love cooking, I really enjoy cooking at the weekends when I get some free time.

Yes, I’m a big fan of cooking, I love to go into the kitchen at the weekends,

and rustle up a new dish, try my hand at some new recipes.

You know, just to really relax and enjoy good food.

And so on and so on.

Building that flexibility, it's a great activity, right?

Just take a question and give different answers every time.

Now an interesting thing that several students did

is that they said they practiced making up stories

and they said that they became aware that quite a few questions in IELTS

were a bit strange and they've got no real experience about it.

So they made up stories to talk about that.

But they didn't just make up the stories, they practiced making up stories.

So that, if come the test, they were hit with a completely unknown topic,

they were used to making up stories.

And to talking about things that were just imagined.

Interesting, right?

Probably a good exam strategy.

Next one up Band 9 students are good at noticing.

And this is well researched actually, that the value of noticing in language learning.

You know, most successful language learners are able to notice patterns.

They notice grammatical patterns,

they notice vocabulary patterns and they notice

how language is used in different contexts.

It's a really important skill to build up but a very valuable one.

So for example, you may know that when we say I’m interested in something,

the preposition is “in”, right?

I’m interested “in” this.

But you may be listening to the radio.

Does anybody listen to the radio anymore? I do.

You may be listening to a podcast and all of a sudden,

you hear somebody said,

“Oh! I’m fascinated by this area of science”

And you think “Oh! That's interesting. I’m interested in but I’m fascinated by",

right?

And you notice and you make a note, that curiosity and noticing patterns or

grammar or vocabulary it's really important.

Like noticing collocations, right?

Which are key with language learning, right?

I noticed this when I was learning Chinese.

I was listening to somebody one day and they said to me,

“Keith…[speaking Chinese]”

and I thought “Oh! That's interesting”

and what it meant literally was today big rain is falling

and I thought that's interesting.

In Chinese they say, big rain.

In English we would say well, it's raining heavily

or there is some heavy rain today.

Heavy rain.

But in Chinese it's "Dàyǔ", big rain.

And just noticing, right?

That is the first step to learning really deeply the language.

Now the next one this is interesting.

This is something I recommend a lot and I was surprised and pleased.

I wasn't surprised I was extremely pleased

that actually Band 9 students do this and that is to record themselves.

A lot of students record themselves quite a lot, to listen back

and to improve fluency, grammar, vocabulary use,

pronunciation all different aspects.

And some students even listen you know,

they go through this cycle 2 or 3 times to get better and better.

Of course, I think

that the reason this works really well is you're getting feedback.

So when you have a teacher say, “Oh! That's not right. It should be like this”

When you're listening to your recording of you, it's the same.

You're getting feedback going,

“Oh! That's not right. I shouldn't have said that. I should say this”

So that feedback you can get from recording yourself.

Now the next one I’m including although only some Band 9 students

say they do this.

And it's about grammar.

I think actually a lot of advanced level students in the test,

they don't think too much about grammar.

They just go with the flow.

They get into a flow and they start speaking and they just let it come out.

However, I thought it was interesting that a few people said that they actually,

so practice using complex grammar.

So they take certain complex grammatical structures

and they look for opportunities to use it in their practice.

Now as a teacher, I also think this is an interesting practice technique.

But I would emphasize that.

If you find it easier just to speak naturally and get into the flow,

then do that.

But if you want to practice this you can.

So here's a few examples, right?

Let's take the third conditional, right?

Is a more complex tense.

If I had known that you were going to go, I wouldn't have gone!

Nah, nah.

But if I had known…., I wouldn't have ….., right?

So I think especially in part two,

when you're thinking of stories, events and describing activities

you may be looking for a way to use that kind of structure.

Another one is the present perfect and present perfect with modals as well,

right?

So for example, I’ve been to Paris,

oh! It must have been about four years ago, right?

So I have been to Paris, it must have been about four years ago.

So you can take that structure. I have done something,

it must have been ….., ago, right?

Interesting.

Another one just for you is the past perfect.

I had never been there before, right?

I’ve been to Paris, I had never been there before.

So that structure I had never …… before.

I had never done that before.

I had never taken one before.

So using that past perfect to describe something that happened before

the point of the story in the past, is interesting.

So you can take these kind of templates, complex grammatical structures

and look for ways to integrate them into your part two talks or stories.

Yes, you can.

You don't have to but you can.

Next up.

Right, we're at the last one.

Phew.

Band 9 students are prepared to identify and work on

ironing out pronunciation issues.

So ironing is not ironing the clothes.

Ironing out is to make something smooth or better.

So we all have pronunciation problems and especially,

certain languages will have a particular problem

because of their own mother tongue.

Band 9 students will identify that problem

and spend a lot of time sorting it out

because the big problem is you have something called fossilized mistakes,

which is a mistake or a pronunciation feature,

that you've done for so many years.

It's become like a fossil, stuck in the rock.

You can't change it.

But you have to.

Because if you want a Band 8,

let's have a look at the Band descriptors, right.

This is Band 8.

Uses a wide range of pronunciation features, sustains flexible use of.

With only occasional lapses.

So you have to be able to use it sustain its use.

With just one or two mistakes but if you're repeating these

pronunciation mistakes again and again through a 15-minute test,

well, 11 to 14 minutes, then you're gonna be in trouble, right?

You're not gonna get a Band 8.

So spending time the best way I think is either through a

mock test or with a teacher who says,

“Listen, you know that you're saying ……

it's not right and you need to fix that”

and then really working on it through repetition, recording yourself practicing,

maybe do a pronunciation course,

if there's a lot of different areas to look at.

Don't worry about accent, right?

Notice that the Band descriptors say,

“L 1 accent has a minimal effect on intelligibility”.

So your mother tongue accent will be there, that's fine.

So long as it doesn't affect your intelligibility, how you are understood.

Right, my friends that's it.

I think we've had like 110 different things that Band 9 students do.

Quite a lot.

I’m very, very interesting.

Again, this is not everybody

but this is what a lot of your Band 8, Band 9 advanced students do.

So there's something to learn, right?

Some of these you may want to pick up and start doing yourself.

Now then, let me take a moment to remind you of two things, two things.

Bad connotation, good connotation.

Go and ask a British man if you don't know that.

Two things is the first one is just to remind you my fluency course,

fluency for IELTS speaking is up and live is on Udemy.

The link is down below.

If you're looking to improve your fluency go and check it out.

It may be what you need.

And the second thing much more exciting is the lucky draw.

Together with Cambly, who are sponsoring this video.

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to help you improve, well practice and improve your speaking.

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There's even even translation in the chat when you're chatting to each other.

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Guys thank you very, very much for watching today's video!

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If you're taking the test in the coming days, best of luck to you!

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Cheerio!