good morning Aubry we are talking about listening today what what are you listening to right now
ooh honestly I'm a little bit of a Swifty and I've been listening to Taylor Swift's new album
midnights are you embarrassed for me I see the second hand embarrassment on your face I didn't
used to love Taylor Swift but then I had T you know pre-teen girls who were obsessed we got
tickets to her tour they're so into it they keep making me listen to the album and I find myself
going like no actually I like it this is really good actually that's awesome I love it when I
could get into like music that maybe James might like also you know because I listen to so much old
stuff um I think the most I'm gonna have to listen to it in the car anyway so I may as well like it
that's so awesome um James has turned me on to some cool music you know how he finds music today
um and I think a lot of kids are like this he hears something he likes on Tick Tock and
then he'll find the song on Spotify and listen to the whole thing to see if he likes it like
that's how he discovers new music I love that and it's often like super amateur musicians
that haven't made a name for themselves yet so he's like really breaking new ground there he
yep that's my son he's a trendsetter I want to point out really quick an amazing phrasal verb
that you use that you guys should definitely use on IELTS you said that your son turned you on to
some music oh that's great it's so good and you guys could use this for sure on speaking anytime
if you're talking about someone introducing you to something new use this phrasal verb say they
turned you on to it they turned me on to a new restaurant yeah they turned me on to this movie
that was amazing so it's so native it's really good for like any like new area of something right
like you said like new types of food new genres of things yes um more so than something well it
can be specific right turned me on to lizzo I could say that absolutely awesome sentence just
anything that's new to you right so good what a great bonus okay so we are going to talk about
how you guys can aim for a band nine on IELTS listening so I want to say thank you to oh my Lord
I hope I think you nailed it correctly hopefully um you sent us in this question email us your
questions uh support all earsenglish.com and we might feature your question in a future episode so
um this person wrote in hello recently I have got my IELTS results and it was a 6.5 overall with a
7.5 and listening nice my question is how can I improve my listening to a band nine thanks in
advance okay so we have three tips for you guys um about how you can do this and this is for everyone
out there no matter what level listening you are this person got a 7.5 which is really high level
right um don't let that worry you because our tips today it doesn't matter if you're at a five or
less sitting a six for listening all these three tips guys will help you increase your listening
scores so let's get into tip one Aubry yeah first is to immerse yourself in audio in English right
listening to things where you can read along with the transcripts listen again without following the
transcripts right things shows with subtitles and then watch it again without the subtitles
see how much you pick up this can really give you those skills you need to be ready for that
audio and test day I mean it's logical right this is The Logical first tip guys and this might not
be what you want to hear because some people maybe they're like I don't understand when I'm
listening and I just don't like it I can't understand enough this isn't enjoyable for
me well you know what guys your listening isn't going to get better unless you listen more right
um we we see this a lot where students will score really highly on the skills
that they prefer because they come easy and they're more enjoyable to practice right
um but then maybe they don't like reading and so they never read and then they get a five on
reading guys you you gotta do the hard stuff so if listening is really your Achilles heel
you need to find stuff that you enjoy to listen to right topics you like movies you like because
you have to find your way in to this skill because you must listen as much as possible and hopefully
more audio than video we need to prioritize What It's Like on the test absolutely so I'm going
to recommend quickly a new podcast well it's not new but it's new to me that I love so much
check it out see if you like it it's called Las culturistas they're so funny these two Comedians
and I laugh so hard every time I listen so and it will be challenging they talk about a lot of
Pop Culture they use a lot of new slang but I feel like they do a good job of explaining it each time
so I think it might be a great podcast for you guys to check out see if you like it nice nice
um I I'll do a couple recommendations for level if you guys are around like a five or six you
need to be reading transcripts while you listen so go to npr.org because most of NPR's podcasts
have transcripts okay it's all free just go to that website npr.org I really like
um snap judgment is is a really great show on NPR Radio Lab of course is a classic now
if you are a bit higher level like the student who asked this question today
I would love to recommend the dollop that's d-o-l-l-o-p the dollop it's two comedians telling
you a story from history and I this is one of the podcasts that I wait for every week you know what
I mean I'm like it's Tuesday it's a new dollop or that's the best kind of podcast right when it
engages you so much that you can't wait for the next one to be released yes I'm like that with
30 2010 as well every Friday and sometimes they upload it late and I'm like oh where is my 30 2010
that's a pop culture podcast that I also recommend I thought you were going to say I'm like that
with 30 different podcasts I was gonna be like oh goodness that's cool that time oh god um all right
so coming up guys we are going to give you the two more tips to increase your listening to a nine
okay let's get into this next tip so the first tip I feel like is logical might be a little tough
love for you guys but you know you have to immerse yourself in listening now what is tip number two
yeah you guys need to address your pronunciation mistakes figure out what they are and address them
directly so that you hear the right sounds or words for example if you mix up and then you're
going to mix up words during the listening exam too so you have to tackle that head-on exactly
think about the sounds that you mix up because of your first language right that's where the root of
the problem will be maybe it's an r and l maybe it's a V and f um those are all common to your
language group but you need to recognize that and watch videos where people teach you how to
say these different sounds because they might not exist differently in your first language that's
why it's hard so tackle it head on directly watch videos where people show you what does the tongue
do what do the teeth do what do the lips do right technically how do I make this sound and then
read out loud focusing on those difficult sounds because we hinted at this yesterday your ability
to say sounds is directly linked with your ability to hear sounds like yesterday we talked about that
final s being difficult right okay exactly and just like you said there are so many resources
on YouTube find a video where someone is showing you and being very specific about these sounds
because it's not just for speaking it's also for listening you need to be aware of those sounds
so that you hear them correctly and say them correctly exactly exactly all right tip number
three what is the Third Way Aubry that students can increase their listening scores yeah there are
strategies that are so specific to IELTS that you have to have for the listening exam right a lot
of our we've we've broken some of them down all of them probably at one point or another in episodes
here on the IELTS energy podcast make sure to follow if you're not and you need to know how to
find keywords how to recognize them right you need to know the tricks that IELTS is going to throw at
you so you're ready for them you don't fall into those traps that they're laying for you exactly
we've had a lot of three key students get nines on listening guys so yes we're talking about how to
get a nine on listening today in this episode we know how students can get a nine on listening so
if you want all the strategies and all the steps in practice guys for General academic computer
version paper-based go to allersenglish.com k-e-y-s for our online IELTS course
um all right so one little last tidbit here for something you guys have to watch out for
this is an example of a classic IELTS trick they love putting negatives in there to trick you so
um if for example the question says um I need a reservation or reservation for five people
right and there's a blank before people I need a reservation for blank people is the question and
you're listening and you hear um I think we're gonna have five people come to the part no no
it's gonna be six so Isles loves to trick you they give you an answer and then you listen you write
it down you go to the next question right and then they they tell you it's wrong so that's one
trick IELTS uses on every listening exam that you need to be aware of yes if you start writing that
answer and stop listening to the audio you can get lost and miss other end you're not going to catch
that negation so oh that's such an important strategy to listen to the full don't miss
any of it because there are these tricks these pitfalls they put in to intentionally trip you up
yep and I do that when I write tests too I mean we all do it when we're making material guys so
don't get tricked get our complete system of strategies go to all earsenglish.com k-e-y-s
all right awesome very fun yes awesome see you next time Jessica bye bye [Music]