How Do I Get a Band 9 in IELTS Listening?

Summary

In this IELTS Advantage video, Chris addresses how to achieve a high score in the IELTS listening test, emphasizing that relying solely on strategies and practice tests is insufficient. He highlights the importance of developing listening skills, vocabulary, and focus, especially on understanding connected speech and guessing word meanings from context. Chris introduces 'micro-listening,' a technique where learners listen to native English content they enjoy and repeatedly pause to write down sentences until fully understood. This method aims to improve listening comprehension and vocabulary retention simultaneously.

Takeaways

• 📘 The IELTS listening test is divided into four parts with increasing difficulty, making parts three and four the most challenging.
• 🎯 Students aiming for a band eight or nine often struggle with parts three and four due to the complexity of the language used.
• 🚫 Relying solely on strategies and doing lots of listening tests is ineffective for achieving a high band score.
• 👂 The three key areas to focus on for improving scores are listening skills, vocabulary, and the ability to focus, especially on multiple speakers.
• 🗣️ Understanding connected speech is crucial for success in parts three and four of the listening test.
• 🤔 The ability to guess the meaning of words from context is an essential skill for IELTS listening.
• 🎵 Listening to real English, such as native speakers conversing naturally, is more beneficial than listening to English learning content.
• 🔍 Micro-listening involves stopping and re-listening to parts of audio until fully understood, which helps improve listening skills and vocabulary.
• 📝 Writing out sentences as you understand them from the audio is a key part of the micro-listening technique.
• 📒 Keeping a vocabulary notebook to record new words and reviewing them regularly is advised for long-term retention.
• 🎯 The speaker emphasizes that consistent practice with enjoyable materials is more effective than quick tips for achieving a high IELTS band score.

Q & A

What is the main difficulty students face in achieving a high band score in the IELTS listening test?

Students typically struggle with parts three and four of the listening test, which are the most difficult sections, often due to the natural and connected speech patterns used by native speakers.

Why do strategies and listening tests alone not help students achieve a band eight or nine?

Strategies and listening tests are not sufficient because they do not address the core issues of listening skills, vocabulary, and focus, which are essential for understanding more complex parts of the test.

What are the three key elements that can help students improve their IELTS listening scores for parts three and four?

The three key elements are listening skills, vocabulary, and the ability to focus, especially on multiple speakers at the same time.

Why is understanding connected speech crucial for the IELTS listening test?

Connected speech is how native English speakers communicate naturally, and the test assesses the ability to understand real English. Without this skill, students will struggle to comprehend questions, even if they have good strategies.

How does the speaker suggest students improve their vocabulary for the IELTS listening test?

The speaker suggests that students improve their vocabulary by guessing the meaning of words from context while listening, and then reviewing and adding new vocabulary to a notebook for retention.

What is the technique called that the speaker recommends for improving listening skills, vocabulary, and focus?

The technique recommended is called 'micro listening,' which involves intensively listening to and analyzing short segments of speech until fully understood.

Why does the speaker suggest avoiding English learning YouTube videos for improving IELTS listening skills?

The speaker suggests avoiding these because they often do not present real English and can make students' English worse by not exposing them to natural speech patterns and vocabulary.

What is the role of context in guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words during the IELTS listening test?

Context plays a vital role as it allows students to infer the meaning of words from the surrounding text, title, or general topic of the conversation, which is a skill necessary for parts three and four of the test.

How often should students practice micro listening according to the speaker?

Students should practice micro listening daily or at least three to four times a week over weeks and months to see improvement.

What is the importance of reviewing new vocabulary after learning it through micro listening?

Reviewing new vocabulary is important to reinforce memory and ensure long-term retention, which can be done through various methods such as using the words in example sentences.

What is the speaker's stance on quick tips for achieving a high band score in the IELTS listening test?

The speaker is skeptical of quick tips, stating that they do not work and that anyone promising a quick fix to achieve a high band score is likely not a real IELTS teacher.

Outlines

00:00

🎧 Strategies and Listening Tests Limitations

Chris discusses common issues students face in achieving a high band score in IELTS listening tests. He emphasizes that relying solely on strategies and doing numerous listening tests is insufficient for excelling in parts three and four, which are the most challenging. He highlights the importance of three key elements: listening skills, vocabulary, and focus, especially on multiple speakers. Chris suggests that students often approach the problem incorrectly by overemphasizing strategies and test practice rather than developing these core competencies.

05:00

🗣️ Understanding Connected Speech and Vocabulary

The paragraph focuses on the necessity of understanding connected speech, a common challenge in parts three and four of the IELTS listening test. It points out that native English speakers often speak in a connected manner, which can be difficult for learners. The importance of vocabulary is also stressed, as misunderstanding key terms like 'jazz' or 'festival' can impede comprehension. The summary advises on the need for long periods of focused listening and the ability to guess word meanings from context, which are critical skills for IELTS success.

10:01

🎵 Micro-Listening Technique

Chris introduces the micro-listening technique, which involves selecting enjoyable native English content to listen to repeatedly until fully understood. He advises against using English learning YouTube videos, recommending real-life conversations or podcasts instead. The technique requires stopping and re-listening to parts that are not understood, focusing on connected speech and vocabulary. The goal is to improve listening skills, vocabulary, and focus through regular practice with content that genuinely interests the learner.

15:03

📒 Expanding Vocabulary and Practical Listening

This paragraph delves into the practice of guessing word meanings from context and the importance of expanding one's vocabulary. It suggests that learners will inevitably encounter unfamiliar words and must develop the skill to deduce meanings based on the surrounding text. The summary also touches on the benefits of reviewing new vocabulary and the use of subtitles for verification. The paragraph concludes with a call to action, urging learners to apply these techniques in practice rather than seeking quick fixes or relying on ineffective methods.

Keywords

💡IELTS

IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System, which is a standardized test of English language proficiency. The test is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who need to study or work where English is the language of communication. In the context of the video, IELTS is the central theme as the speaker discusses strategies to achieve a high band score, particularly in the listening section.

💡Band Score

In the IELTS test, a band score is a measure of a candidate's proficiency in the English language. The score ranges from band 1 (non-user) to band 9 (expert user). The video focuses on how to achieve a band eight or nine, which are considered high proficiency levels, especially in the listening section.

💡Listening Test

The listening test is one of the four modules of the IELTS exam. It assesses the candidate's ability to understand spoken English in different contexts and accents. The video script emphasizes the difficulty of parts three and four of the listening test, which are more challenging and require advanced listening skills.

💡Strategies

Strategies in the context of the video refer to techniques or plans that students use to tackle the IELTS listening test. The speaker mentions that while strategies are helpful, they are not sufficient to achieve a high band score without the foundational skills of listening, vocabulary, and focus.

💡Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the stock of words and phrases that one knows and can use in a language. In the video, the speaker highlights the importance of vocabulary in understanding the IELTS listening test, especially for parts three and four, where specialized or less common words might be used.

💡Connected Speech

Connected speech refers to the natural way native speakers link words together when they speak, often omitting sounds or blending words for fluency. The video emphasizes that understanding connected speech is crucial for the IELTS listening test, as it mimics real-life English communication.

💡Focus

Focus, in the context of the video, refers to the ability to concentrate on the listening task for extended periods. The speaker points out that IELTS candidates need to be able to focus while listening, reading, thinking, and writing simultaneously to succeed in the listening test.

💡Micro-listening

Micro-listening is a technique introduced in the video where students listen to short segments of native English speakers and repeat the process until they understand and can write down what they hear. It is a method to improve listening skills, vocabulary, and focus simultaneously.

💡Context

Context in the video refers to the situation in which a word is used, which can help in understanding its meaning. The speaker advises students to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context, which is a valuable skill for both the listening and reading sections of the IELTS exam.

💡Subtitles

Subtitles are textual representations of the spoken content in a video or audio file. The video script suggests using subtitles as a tool to check one's understanding of the listening material after attempting to comprehend it without visual aids, which is a part of the micro-listening technique.

💡Real English

Real English in the video refers to the natural and authentic use of the English language by native speakers in everyday communication. The speaker advises students to practice listening to real English through various media like podcasts, movies, or TV shows to improve their language skills for the IELTS exam.

Highlights

IELTS listening tests are divided into four parts with increasing difficulty.

Students often struggle with parts three and four of the listening test.

Rely on strategies, but they are not enough on their own.

Doing lots of listening tests alone won't help you get beyond a band seven.

Three key areas to focus on are listening skills, vocabulary, and focus.

Ability to focus on multiple speakers is crucial.

Analyze sentences to show the importance of listening skills and vocabulary.

Speakers in parts three and four do not speak as clearly as in practice tests.

Understanding connected speech is essential for higher bands.

Vocabulary knowledge is critical; you must know the meaning of key words.

Focusing for long periods is necessary for parts three and four.

Introduce a technique to improve listening skills, vocabulary, and focus.

Enjoy the learning process while improving your IELTS score.

Choose real English content that you enjoy for micro-listening practice.

Micro-listening involves stopping and re-listening to parts you don't understand.

Guess the meaning of new words from context.

Add new vocabulary to a notebook to retain what you learn.

Review new vocabulary regularly to reinforce learning.

Use subtitles to check your understanding, but not as a crutch.

For more help with listening, visit ieltsadvantage.com.

The key to improvement is consistent practice and application of techniques.

Transcripts

- [Chris] So today I'm gonna answer a very common question

that we get at IELTS advantage which is,

how do I get a band eight or a band nine

in IELTS listening tests?

And the problem is really the fact that the listening test

is divided into four parts.

Part one is the easiest part

and then it gets more and more difficult with part three

and part four being the most difficult.

Especially part four.

So most of the students struggling to get a band eight

or a band nine have no problem with part one,

they find part two quite easy.

But once they start getting into part three and part four,

they come across some very common problems.

And then what they try and do

is they try and solve it the wrong way.

So there are two ways that students try

and solve this problem.

And if you are doing these two things,

you're never going to solve this problem

of trying to get a band eight or a band nine.

So the first common problem is they will rely on,

strategies.

Now strategies do work.

They do help you.

But unless you have three other things

that are way more important than strategies,

strategies will be useless.

So strategies are useful,

but they are one piece of the puzzle.

The bigger mistake that we see students doing,

is doing lots of listening

tests.

So often students will come to us and say,

I have done every single listening test I could find,

but I still cannot get a band eight or a band nine.

Strategies and especially listening tests

are not going to help you get beyond a band seven.

They are not going to help you solve part three

and part four.

The three things that will really help you for part three

and part four are number one,

listening skills,

number two,

vocabulary,

and number three,

focus.

Especially the ability to focus on multiple speakers

speaking at the same time.

So let's take a sentence from

a listening test.

And analyze it to show you that

these two things are useless

until you address these three things.

And then at the end we're going to give you a technique

that we teach our students.

That helps them improve their listening skills,

their vocabulary,

and their focus on listening all at the same time.

And you will enjoy yourself whilst you're doing it.

It's not often you enjoy something

while you're studying IELTS.

So let's say on the listening test,

we hear this,

sentence.

Do you want to go to the jazz festival?

So unfortunately,

especially in parts three and four,

the speaker will not speak as clearly

and as slowly as I am speaking right now.

I do not speak to my friends and my family

in this very slow well-spoken way.

If I was to ask this question to one of my friends,

I would not say,

do you want to go to the jazz festival?

It would sound more like,

do you wanna go to the jazz festival?

So that is something that is very difficult for people

in part three and part four.

Not that the person is speaking quickly,

but they are speaking naturally.

The way I am speaking to you right now

is not my natural voice.

I'm speaking to you right now,

because I know that you are an English learner

and I'm trying to speak as clearly

and as slowly as possible.

So what the person really says,

for part three and part four,

when they are saying the sentence,

sounds more like this,

do you

and this connects together,

wanna

connects together,

go to,

go to

the

jazz

festival.

So there's a few problems here for most people

who are trying to get a band eight or a band nine.

They're not used to connected speech.

So here we have connected speech,

here we have connected speech,

and here we have connected speech.

And these (indistinct) sounds reduced sounds.

Because this is how most native English speakers

actually speak to one another.

And they're testing your ability to understand real English.

So one of the skills is understanding this connected speech.

And without this skill,

it doesn't matter how many listening practice tests you do.

Doesn't matter how good your strategies are.

If you don't understand,

do you wanna go to,

you will never be able to answer this question.

Also if we have a look at

two key parts of this sentence,

jazz,

do you understand what jazz is?

Lots of students trying to get a band eight or a band nine,

have no idea what jazz is.

Also do you really know what a festival is?

And then we combine these,

do you really understand what a jazz festival is?

There is no way that you will be able to answer

this question if this is the key part of the listening,

if you don't understand what jazz and festival mean,

and you cannot understand connected speech.

So this is why listening and vocabulary are so important.

Also you have to be able to focus for long periods of time.

Think about the last time that you really focused

on listening to something in English.

And think about how long that was.

It's probably only one or two minutes for most students.

Also think about the fact that you're not just listening,

you're reading,

you're thinking,

you're writing,

all at the same time.

Unless you are able to focus for a long period of time,

listening and thinking and writing in English,

you're not going to be able to get part three

and part four questions correct.

But don't worry we'll show you a really easy technique

that you can use that helps you improve

all three of these things.

So let's say this is person one.

And then person two says,

no

I've got to

study

for

my

finals.

So,

what does this actually mean?

You may have never heard of this word in this context.

So you also have to guess what this word actually means

from contexts.

No I've got to study for my finals.

You might not know what finals means,

but from the context of the conversation,

you might be able to guess that this means

exams or a test.

Their final test.

Normally a university student,

their final test,

their final exam,

they will call them their finals.

So you will never be able to understand a hundred percent

of the vocabulary,

but you need to get used to guessing

the meaning of some words in context.

While listening at the same time

and thinking at the same time

and writing your answer

and deciding your answer all at the same time.

Now that sounds very very difficult,

but it does not need to be difficult.

But before we show you this technique called,

micro

listening,

please do not go and look up some strategies,

do lots of practice tests and then waste days and weeks

and you're still below a band eight or a band nine.

Please use this instead.

So what is micro listening?

So let me show you exactly what it is.

So the first thing we're going to do

is you're going to pick

something

you enjoy

listening to.

And the keyword there is that you enjoy it.

Why?

Because you're going to have to do this technique every day

or three four or five times a week,

over weeks and months.

If you came here looking for a quick tip

that is going to guarantee that you're going to get

a band nine,

you're watching the wrong video.

We don't teach you those things

because those things simply do not work.

Anyone teaching you quick tips to get a band nine

in listening was never a real IELTS teacher.

They're a YouTuber who is pretending to be an IELTS teacher.

So once we pick something that we enjoy,

so this could be,

a podcast,

or it could be

a YouTube video,

but

not,

English learning YouTube.

So not someone trying to teach you English on YouTube

because that is not real English.

And most of the English learning on YouTube

is going to make your English worse not better.

Pick something real.

Like two people talking to each other

who are native English speakers.

Or,

TV show,

or for example,

a news program,

whatever you're interested in.

Or it could be a movie,

whatever you're interested in.

Just make sure that it is real English native speakers

or very high level English learners,

talking naturally.

I would strongly recommend podcasts

because A they're free,

and B there isn't a single topic in the world right now

that there aren't hundreds if not thousands

of really great podcasts.

So pick the topic that you love.

You could love cooking,

cricket,

reading,

business,

leadership,

whatever you are into.

Pick something to listen to.

And here's where the micro listening comes in.

All right so you're gonna listen,

until,

you don't

understand.

So you don't understand.

So imagine we are listening and we hear this,

do you wanna go to the jazz festival?

You might not understand that

because of the connected speech.

Do you wanna go to.

So you would,

stop,

then

stop,

the podcast,

the YouTube channel,

the movie,

whatever it is just stop.

Then you're going to listen again,

until,

you can

write

the sentence.

Don't worry if you cannot understand the sentence fully,

just listen again a few times.

So listen again,

pause,

go back,

listen again.

You're just listening to one or two sentences.

That is why it's called micro listening.

Until you feel comfortable enough that you can attempt

to write out the sentence.

So for example let's say you're listening to me interviewing

another IELTS teacher.

And you hear,

is

it

okay

if I

talk

to ye

about

click

bait.

So you might find some of the connected speech difficulty

here so,

is it is it,

so it sounds like a zer,

tuh is it okay if I,

if I it's connecting together,

talk to ye,

so it's reduced sound here

about click-bait.

What is click-bait?

I don't understand this.

So you're listening until there's some connected speech

or maybe the person is speaking a little bit too quickly

for you,

or there's some vocabulary that you don't quite understand.

So we're focusing on our listening skills,

our vocabulary,

and we're improving our focus all at the same time,

whilst we're listening to something

that we're actually enjoying.

So listen

as many

times

as

you need

to fully

understand

the sentence.

Don't worry if it takes you five six seven eight nine

10 times.

But if you do that,

what will happen is all this connected speech

will start to make sense in your brain

and you'll start to become used to

how real native English speakers actually speak.

You don't have to worry about practicing your pronunciation

at this stage.

You can if you want to.

But most of the students who we work with

who have this problem,

don't really have a pronunciation problem,

they have more a understanding connected speech

rather than a problem with pronouncing this.

And then what we're going to do is if there is a new word

or a new phrase,

don't look up the meaning.

Guess meaning,

from

context.

So what does context mean?

It means that the words around this word,

it means the sentences around this word,

need to think about the title

of

the podcast

or what the general topic is they're talking about.

So maybe I'm interviewing another teacher

about why they keep putting click-bait titles,

that mislead students into their videos

in order to get views rather than teach students.

You would be able to guess the meaning of this word.

click-bait is when you,

focus on tricking the viewer

into clicking on your video,

that shows that you are more concerned

about growing your YouTube channel,

than you are about actually helping your viewers get better.

So from this context you can guess what this means.

Remember you will hear words that you probably

will not be familiar with,

when you're looking at part three and part four.

Or looking at,

listening to part three and part four.

There will always be some words you don't quite understand.

You need to develop this as a skill.

One of the skills that we teach

is guessing meaning from context.

Not only is this going to help you

guess meaning from context,

if a new word comes up,

you are improving the range of your vocabulary.

So you're reducing the number of words that you don't know.

So again you're enjoying yourself,

you're improving your listening skills,

you're improving your ability to guess meaning from context,

and you are improving your vocabulary.

Not only will that help you in the listening test,

it's also going to help you in the reading test,

in the writing test,

and the speaking test all at the same time.

So it requires a little bit more work

than just going onto YouTube and looking up you know,

top 10 tips to get a band nine,

but this is way more effective.

Finally,

add

new

vocabulary,

to a

vocabulary

notebook.

It can be a paper notebook,

it can be a digital notebook,

but don't lose this new vocabulary.

If you lose,

if you don't use it you will lose it.

And then finally,

review

new

vocab.

You can review it by using it in example sentences

for example.

There are many many many things that you can do

to review vocabulary.

I'll maybe make,

a video soon on how to review new vocabulary.

And then what you do,

once you have listened,

use micro listening on one or two sentences,

then just keep going.

Start again.

Keep listening to that podcast or that movie or that TV show

until you find something that you again don't understand.

Pause it,

start the whole process again.

What you can also do

is most podcasts and YouTube channels,

and

TV shows have subtitles,

but turn the subtitles off while you're doing this,

and only turn them on to check that you are correct.

Because often you'll hear a sentence

and there'll be a few words that you just really

don't understand at all.

Try to understand them first.

And then turn the subtitles on at the end and check them.

But just be careful on YouTube,

sometimes the subtitles are not accurate.

Most of the time they are.

But sometimes they are not.

If you want more help with listening,

you can go to our website,

ieltsadvantage.com

I've got lots of articles,

free resources for listening.

Or if you click below,

you will find a

fundamentals course that covers

writing speaking reading and listening.

And has a great video on listening

to help you understand the fundamentals

of how to improve your IELTS listening score.

Hopefully you enjoyed this lesson.

And,

the key really

is to

do it.

If you just watch this lesson and don't actually

do any of this,

you are not going to improve in any way.

Don't waste your time on things that don't work,

especially doing lots and lots and lots of listening tests,

do things that really do work.

(upbeat music)