0:00 How do you get a band 9 in IELTS Speaking?
0:04 Let me show you.
0:09 Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy here to show you,
0:13 here to show you, here to help you become, well,
0:17 here to help you get a band nine in IELTS Speaking.
0:21 So today, I'm gonna show you, actually,
0:24 a complete and proven system
0:27 that will help you get a band nine in IELTS Speaking based on sound
0:31 linguistic research.
0:32 Secondly, I'm gonna show you how this system works through a complete lesson on
0:37 the part two topic of travelling
0:40 and road trips.
0:41 Now actually, this lesson comes from my online course, my IELTS Speaking Gold Course,
0:48 which actually has three different courses.
0:50 It has the exam strategy course, shows you how the exam works,
0:54 the self-study course, recorded videos and PDFs so you study on your own,
0:59 at your own pace, when you want, where you want, and third,
1:02 the interactive course, which is a chance for you to interact with live lessons
1:07 with me and the students together.
1:08 You can interact in the written chat,
1:10 and we have daily speaking practice rooms where, a chance for you to speak,
1:16 practice speaking with students from all over the world on the course.
1:20 Right now though, let's find out how to get a band nine.
1:28 Now, there are two things you need to succeed in getting a band nine
1:32 in IELTS Speaking.
1:33 One, good exam technique.
1:36 Two, good spoken English.
1:38 That includes good fluency, vocabulary, not that you know but that you can use,
1:45 and grammar, not the rules, but grammar you can speak fluently and clear pronunciation.
1:52 My simple system for getting a band nine is the following, three steps.
1:57 One, discover.
1:59 Two, practice.
2:00 Three, review.
2:02 One, you discover the language in different contexts.
2:05 Two, you practice using it, speaking.
2:08 And three, you review it in different ways, through stories, songs, conversations,
2:13 whatever it may be.
2:15 And you do this again and again for different topics.
2:18 So let me show you each of these steps in turn, one by one,
2:22 and I'll illustrate it with some video lessons from my gold course, okay?
2:27 Actually, this is two birds with one stone, right?
2:30 You can see how the system works
2:32 and get a look inside the gold course at the same time.
2:35 Now, of course, with this system,
2:37 you can follow this system on your own
2:39 and elevate your English on your own.
2:42 Absolutely fine.
2:43 You can also do it with a course.
2:45 It's probably easier and quicker because everything is there and organized for you.
2:50 But it's entirely up to you.
2:52 So let's look at step one, discover.
2:58 Okay, step one is discover.
3:00 Now, you discover language by listening, watching, or reading.
3:06 In the gold course, and if you're preparing for IELTS,
3:09 a useful way to discover language is through model answers, right?
3:13 Not to memorize the answer, but to discover language.
3:16 The problem is, on the internet,
3:18 a lot of the model answers are just written in formal written English.
3:23 What you really need is an audio or watch somebody so you can,
3:28 you can hear the pronunciation,
3:31 you get the fluency as well as the vocabulary and the grammar.
3:34 So that's what we're going to do.
3:35 This is what I do in the gold course.
3:37 So I'm gonna show you now a model answer from the topic of road
3:43 trips,
3:44 a part two topic.
3:46 And as you watch, just note in your head three or four interesting words.
3:52 Okay?
3:52 Here we go.
3:53 Describe a road trip you have taken.
3:57 You should say where you went, who you went with,
4:00 and what happened on the trip.
4:04 So actually, I went on a road trip with my father
4:09 when I had just turned 30.
4:12 The two of us decided to take the car
4:14 and drive from England through France from top to bottom.
4:19 We had both been through some difficult times
4:22 and really decided we needed to get away from it all,
4:26 so it seemed to us
4:27 that hitting the open road was the best way to do it,
4:31 particularly since we both loved driving.
4:35 We had a rough plan, but we were open to adventure.
4:40 In actual fact, we took advantage of the trip to go
4:43 and visit some friends in the North
4:45 and the South of France,
4:47 kind of killing two birds with one stone, if you like.
4:52 So I was behind the wheel for most of the first leg through the
4:57 big cities and the little towns of Northern France,
5:01 and I just remember those kind of busy urban landscapes and the,
5:08 the reckless driving of the French.
5:13 It was hard driving at first because the French, they drive on the right,
5:19 right?
5:19 And, and I wasn't used to it.
5:22 I had to be really careful, actually, when overtaking, and especially at the roundabouts.
5:28 I got the hang of it, though, within a few days.
5:31 Yeah, it was fine.
5:33 And then in the South of France, my dad took the wheel, and there,
5:38 I do remember the long,
5:40 flat roads stretching for miles ahead
5:44 and the fields that were dotted with these yellows
5:48 and oranges from the flowers
5:50 and,
5:50 and the cereals.
5:52 And I just soaked up the beautiful views whilst my dad was driving.
5:56 It was a really memorable trip, and one, honestly,
6:00 that I will savor for years to come.Nice.
6:04 So what were the three or four words that you noticed?
6:08 Well, next, to study this language, right, you, the, the the language you've discovered,
6:14 you need to make a note of it, and you need to write down,
6:17 I would say, the word form, is it a verb, a noun,
6:20 an adjective the phonetics, the meaning, a definition collocations,
6:26 maybe similar words or synonyms and maybe useful grammar you've come across.
6:32 Now, you can do all of this on your own.
6:34 In the goal course,
6:35 I do it for you with a video
6:37 and PDF to show you the language.
6:41 Let me show you, for this model answer on road trips,
6:44 how I've done that.
6:46 Watch carefully.
6:47 So let's have a look at an analysis of that model answer,
6:51 looking at the language and the kind of vocabulary and grammar that came up,
6:56 as well as some fluency tips.
6:59 Okay, so it begins, "Actually,
7:02 I went on a road trip with my father
7:04 when I had just turned 30."
7:08 So, "I went on a road trip," we can say,
7:11 "to go on a road trip," or, "to take a road trip," that's fine.
7:16 "To turn 30" is idiomatic.
7:20 It means to become 30.
7:22 So I have just turned 20, just turned 30 just become 30 years old.
7:30 "The two of us decided to take the car
7:32 and drive from England through France from top to bottom."
7:38 Great, that's very clear.
7:39 From north to south, from top to bottom.
7:43 Now, some interesting tense and grammar.
7:47 "We had both been through some difficult times."
7:51 Why is this, "we had been"?
7:54 Because it's before we took the trip.
7:57 So this is now, this is taking the trip, in the past,
8:01 "took the trip," and before the past, "we had been through difficult times."
8:07 It's the past perfect, right?
8:09 And this is lovely, to talk about things that happened before the story.
8:14 "We had been through some difficult times and decided..." so we're dropping the had,
8:21 but it's still there, "... we needed to get away from it all."
8:26 To get away from it all means just to escape from the stress,
8:31 or the difficulties, or the, the routine of life, right?
8:35 When you need a holiday, you say,
8:37 "I just want to get away from it all."
8:40 Nice idiomatic expression.
8:43 Next, "So it seemed to us
8:45 that hitting the open road was the best way to do it."
8:48 To hit the road is to begin your trip, or the open road,
8:54 so it's making it clear it's not about city driving all the time.
8:59 It's more about countryside driving, to hit the open road.
9:03 Although I did go through some, through some cities this is,
9:07 we can still use the expression, right?
9:09 "Hitting the open road."
9:11 "Particularly since we both loved driving."
9:14 Now, particularly is very nice,
9:16 it's very simple but it just emphasizes the idea that we loved driving.
9:23 "We had a rough plan," that's kind of an approximate plan,
9:27 or a draft plan, "but we were open to adventure."
9:31 So to be open to something means that you are willing to do something,
9:36 or to listen to something, right?
9:39 In a meeting, if I say,
9:41 "I'm open to ideas," then I'm willing to listen to your ideas, right?
9:46 I'm open to suggestions.
9:48 I'm open to adventure.
9:50 I'm willing to go on an adventure.
9:53 Come what may.
9:55 Carpe diem.
9:55 Seize the day.
9:58 That kind of thing.
10:00 Which is great, right?
10:01 Because me and my dad, I'm 30, my dad must have been,
10:05 at the time, 60-something
10:08 and we were like two teenagers out on the road.
10:12 It was a, great fun.
10:15 Okay.
10:16 "In actual fact," so that's a nice bit of a kind of,
10:21 it's a connecting, it's, it helps coherence, it's a connecting device.
10:25 Again, emphasizing, right, this is the truth, right?
10:28 "In actual fact, we took advantage of the trip to go
10:32 and visit friends in the north
10:34 and south of France."
10:35 To take advantage of is when you're, to make the most of,
10:40 but when also when you're doing something
10:42 and you use that to do something else,
10:46 right?
10:47 So, if I've, if I'm cooking a dinner, and I've got lots of flour,
10:53 I'll take advantage of the flour to make a cake for today
10:57 and a cake for tomorrow,
10:58 right?
10:59 I'll use this to do something else.
11:02 So we used the trip to enjoy the trip,
11:04 but also to take advantage of the trip to do something else,
11:08 to go and visit the friends.
11:11 "Killing two birds with one stone," classic kind of idiom, but notice how I,
11:17 I, say it in a very natural way.
11:20 Kind of, like it's a kind of killing two birds with one stone,
11:24 if you like, right?
11:26 If you like means I'm proposing an idea,
11:30 if you're willing to listen to it, but it's really,
11:33 it's just a gentle way of, of giving an idea or a suggestion, right?
11:40 "I was behind the wheel for most of the first leg."
11:43 So, "I was behind the wheel,"
11:45 so to be behind the wheel
11:46 or at the wheel is to drive the first leg is the first part
11:54 of a trip.
11:55 So in a trip or even like in the cycling competition,
11:58 the Tour de France, you have different stages, right?
12:02 Each stage is a leg.
12:04 First leg, second leg, the final leg.
12:08 So I took the first leg through the big cities
12:11 and little towns of northern France.
12:13 I just remember those busy urban landscapes.
12:16 Nice, right?
12:17 Instead of saying towns or cities again, urban landscapes.
12:22 Lovely.
12:23 And apologies to the French.
12:25 Reckless driving of the French.
12:27 I'm sorry, guys.
12:28 I don't mean that badly.
12:30 But for me, at that age, I was 30 suddenly driving in France,
12:37 it seemed to be quite more risk-taking,
12:40 the French drivers than the British are.
12:44 Reckless, I, for me reckless is a bit dangerous, right?
12:47 But taking more risks.
12:50 Moving on.
12:52 It was hard driving in France at first
12:54 because they drive on the right
12:55 and I wasn't used to it.
12:57 So we've said before to drive on the right
12:59 or to drive on the left,
13:00 depending where you are.
13:02 I had to be really careful when overtaking, passing other cars,
13:07 especially at the roundabouts.
13:10 I got the hang of it though.
13:11 So to get the hang of something is to, to manage to do it,
13:18 particularly a skill that you're practicing, and then when you can finally do it,
13:22 I got the hang of it.
13:24 When you learn to ride a bicycle, at first it's difficult, right,
13:28 as a kid, and you fall off.
13:30 But after a few days, you get the hang of it.
13:32 Yeah?
13:34 Great.
13:35 And then in the south of France, my dad took the wheel.
13:38 Didn't mean he stole the wheel
13:40 and left me without a wheel in the car.
13:43 No steering wheel.
13:44 "Oi, come back."
13:46 No he took the wheel, which means he sat here and he drove,
13:51 and I sat there, 'cause it's a British car.
13:54 Driver's on the left, right?
13:55 Oh, no.
13:56 It's the other way around.
13:58 This is Spanish cars here.
14:00 The driver's on that side in England.
14:03 It's all ever so confusing.
14:06 Next, I remember the long, flat road stretching out.
14:11 Nice.
14:11 So not, ugh, not that stretching.
14:14 But we can say the road stretches out,
14:16 or the view stretches out for miles ahead, and the fields dotted.
14:21 So a dot is a point.
14:25 And to dot, excuse me, to dot is to, to put these little points.
14:32 So when you describe a, if you look at a field,
14:35 and there's lots of little flowers, they look like dots, right?
14:40 You can say, "The field is dotted with flowers.
14:43 The landscape is dotted with little houses."
14:47 Because from far away, they look like little dots.
14:50 And so here, they were dotted with yellows and oranges.
14:54 Nice, right?
14:56 From the flowers and the cereals, that was the color of them.
15:00 So I just soaked up the beautiful views.
15:03 So to soak up is to absorb, like a sponge absorbs the water.
15:09 But you can soak up a view, means you just, "Wow, wow,
15:14 look at that.
15:15 Beautiful."
15:16 You just soak up the view, soak up the atmosphere, just really enjoy it.
15:24 So I just soaked up the views whilst my dad was driving.
15:28 It was a really memorable trip and one I will savor,
15:32 one I will cherish,
15:34 I will have a fond memory of for years to come.
15:38 In the future, right?
15:40 For years to come.
15:42 That is the analysis.
15:47 Right.
15:48 Now step two is to practice.
15:50 And you can, you can practice on your own, or with other people.
15:55 If you're practicing alone, typically you're talking to yourself, or to a mirror,
16:00 or repeating from a recording or with other people.
16:03 On the GOAL course,
16:05 we have these daily speaking practice rooms where you can practice speaking to other
16:10 students.
16:11 Each day, there's a different topic, you have a list of questions,
16:14 and you can practice the new language you've discovered as you're answering the questions.
16:20 Today, though, obviously I can't do that on YouTube,
16:23 but I can show you the practice on your own.
16:26 And you're not entirely alone on the GOAL course.
16:30 I have videos where I practice with you, but it's a recorded video.
16:36 So I get you to give me some phrases, to repeat them,
16:39 to change a word, to put in the negative, change the tense,
16:43 to get you really thinking about it and using the language.
16:46 It's a bit like I'm in the room with you with this video.
16:51 Let me show you a short extract, just to give you a,
16:54 a flavor of what it feels like.
16:57 Okay, welcome to the Practice in Chunks video, all on the topic of trips.
17:03 Right, let's begin.
17:05 First chunk is to hit the road.
17:08 Bam.
17:09 To hit the road.
17:10 It, of course it means to start a journey or a trip.
17:14 Okay.
17:15 Let's begin.
17:16 Hit the road.
17:18 Repeat.
17:20 Okay.
17:21 Notice, we don't say hit the, we say hit the,
17:25 because the T and the the, the tongue is in the same position.
17:30 Hit the.
17:31 Hit the road.
17:32 Repeat.
17:34 It's time to hit the road.
17:37 Repeat.
17:41 It's 1 o'clock, and time to hit the road.
17:49 Repeat.
17:49 It's 1 o'clock, and time to hit the road.
17:52 Changed to a past tense.Right.
17:59 You should say, "It was one o'clock and time to hit the road," right?
18:05 "It was, it was, it was one o'clock and time to hit the road."
18:10 Next chunk, to get away from it all.
18:14 Ha, to escape the stress and the pressure of life, work, and family.
18:19 To get away from it all.
18:21 Let's begin.
18:23 Get away from.
18:27 Get away from it all.
18:29 Repeat.
18:33 I love to get away from it all.
18:35 Repeat.
18:39 I love to get away from it all by driving to the mountains.
18:44 Repeat.
18:49 Yes, you have to do, "By driving to the..."
18:52 You have to do the, do the gesture.
18:55 I love to get away from it all by driving to the mountains.
19:00 Repeat.
19:08 Good.
19:08 She loves to get away from it all by driving to the mountains.
19:12 Say the opposite.
19:21 So you might say,
19:22 "She doesn't love to get away from it all by driving to the mountains."
19:28 Or, "She hates to get away from it all by driving to the mountains.
19:32 She prefers to go walking on the beach."
19:37 Or maybe, "She loves to get away from it all by walking on the
19:42 beach."
19:43 Yeah.
19:44 You could argue that's an opposite, walking on the beach, driving in the mountains.
19:48 Not quite an opposite, but you could argue that if you wanted.
19:54 So there you go.
19:55 That's some of the practice you can do.
19:57 Step three is next, which is, yes, review.
20:06 So step three is review.
20:09 Reviewing the language that you've discovered and practiced.
20:12 To review, there's different things you can do.
20:14 You can listen to podcasts on the same topic.
20:18 You can watch videos on YouTube on the same topic.
20:21 Create stories with Gemini, Google Gemini, ChatGPT.
20:26 Create songs, suno.com, for example.
20:30 Do quizzes.
20:32 Try Wordwall, for example.
20:34 Have conversations with family, friends, classmates, your dog, whoever, right?
20:41 Now, in the gold course, we actually have, I think, all of those,
20:45 except the dog.
20:46 And there are different ways to do it.
20:49 Let me show you inside
20:50 and you can see all the different activities we do.
20:54 Okay, so inside the gold course, there are three courses, as I mentioned.
20:59 We have the self-study course, which is you studying with videos and recorded,
21:04 so recorded videos and PDFs.
21:06 We've got the exam strategy
21:07 and tips to help you learn how the exam works,
21:10 and the interactive live lessons, Zoom meetings, and practice rooms.
21:16 In the self-study, just looking inside here.
21:20 So as I mentioned, you can get all the course materials at the start.
21:23 There's a course book, there's a there's slides.
21:26 You can download the novel for part one, part two, and part three topics.
21:31 The whole course is on a podcast,
21:32 so you can review it quite easily anytime that you like.
21:36 You can download that to your phone.
21:38 And it's based on the Speaking Success System, as we've discovered today.
21:42 Discover, practice, and review.
21:44 Part one topics, you'll see, go through this.
21:48 For example, history, we've got discover, practice, quiz, and review, as you've seen today.
21:54 And likewise for part two and part three topics.
21:58 Just coming back in, we've got the interactive course.
22:02 Just very briefly, in here, you have the speaking practice rooms, where every day,
22:07 a different topic.
22:08 You can speak to the students.
22:10 We have a Facebook group you can join.
22:12 Live lessons twice a month, and Zoom meetings as well,
22:16 where we review the live lessons together.
22:19 All of the live lessons are recorded,
22:21 so you can watch them through this playlist.
22:26 Or you can just go down alphabetically and search any live lesson.
22:31 Over 80 different recordings.
22:34 Every topic you can imagine for IELTS Speaking.
22:40 So there it is,
22:41 a complete proven system to help you improve your spoken English
22:45 and get a band 9 on IELTS Speaking.
22:47 Now, I don't guarantee you will get a band 9.
22:50 It depends on you and your level, of course.
22:53 But I do guarantee, if you follow the course,
22:56 and over four or five months,
22:59 you will improve by one band in your spoken English.
23:04 So if you're a band 6, you'll get up to band 7.
23:06 If you're a 7, you'll move up to band 8.
23:09 It's all in the practice.
23:11 Well, all three steps, discover, practice, and review.
23:14 I call it the Speaking Success System.
23:17 If you want to find out more,
23:18 click on the link down in the description and go and check it out.
23:22 I'll be waiting for you in the course.
23:25 Thank you so much for watching.
23:26 It's been a pleasure being here with you again,
23:28 and can't wait to see you soon.
23:30 Maybe in the next video.
23:32 All the best now.
23:34 Bye-bye.
