IELTS Energy 1462: How to Avoid Band 4 on Grammar and Pronunciation
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1462, How to Avoid Band 4 on Grammar and Pronunciation.

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

forward slash my score. When it comes to pronunciation and grammar, what is the examiner looking for in your IELTS speaking answers? Find out today and hear a fun contrast of low and high scoring answers about money. Are you ready to feel more confident this year when you speak English? Stop bouncing around from resource to resource and focus on a clear study plan to get results.

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Hello again, Aubrey. Welcome back. Yes, welcome back to you and welcome back to all of you listening. Part two of this very fun series. If you missed the part one, scroll back, listen to it. We had some fun sharing some band four answers, which are more difficult for us to come up with than we expected.

I know. This is so great, guys. Yeah, definitely. If you missed the last episode, scroll up IELTS Energy 1461. Is this a four for fluency and vocabulary? So just to recap what we're doing in this two-parter, Aubrey, what are we doing?

Yeah, so we answered a really good question. Sanjay had scored four on the IELTS exam on speaking and was like, how did this happen? How can I get a six? So we are going over the scoring system specifically like what would cause you to score a four so that you can avoid it. Make sure that doesn't happen on test day. And for each part of the scoring system, part one,

We covered vocabulary and fluency and coherence. Today we're covering grammar and pronunciation. You'll hear two answers, one that would score a four and one that would score seven or higher, maybe band nine. So you can really see the difference. This is going to be hard to get four answers. Listen up today, guys. It's going to be fun. All right. So let's dive in here. What is a four for grammar on speaking?

Yeah, so first of all, can produce basic sentence forms and some short utterances are error-free. So simple sentences here, right? Some of them, perfect, perfect verbs. You know, we don't have a lot of errors, but they're all pretty basic and simple sentences.

Subordinate clauses are rare and overall turns are short, structures are repetitive, and errors are frequent. So for a four, you can make a lot of grammar errors and you're using very simple sentences with very few interesting clauses.

Yeah, a four student doesn't even try to have like complex sentences, right? Like it says, subordinate clauses are rare. So that's really the difference between a four and a five. It's like a five student will still make a lot of mistakes, but they will try to have subordinate clauses or dependent clauses. They'll probably mess it up, but they're going to try. A four student doesn't even go there. Just all simple sentences.

Right. Okay. So Jessica, are you up for providing a four here? It's going to mostly be like very simple sentences. I believe in you. It's tricky to do. No, I'm glad because I don't want to do the four for pronunciation. Okay. I can do that. So I'm glad it ended up this way. Okay. All right. Here's your question. This is a part three question. Why are poor people in many cases more generous than rich people? Poor people...

My friend is poor. My friend gives food. Me. - Perfect.

It's difficult because if you add more detail, then suddenly, ooh, we have an interesting clause that's going to score at least five or higher. But yeah, for this four, it really has to be very simple, basic sentences, some grammar errors, right? Because, I mean, you guys can make a lot of grammar errors and still score a six. Totally. So it's really, really actually kind of difficult to score a four. It is.

It really is, especially for our listeners, guys. We know you won't score a four for grammar. But nonetheless, this is still really useful because for every scoring category, this is what the examiner is listening for. The number of errors, right?

and the amount of different sentence structures. Okay, so let's get into what a higher scoring answer would be for grammar. Aubrey, why are poor people in many cases more generous than rich people?

I immediately think of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. Just watched a bunch of versions of this at Christmastime. And he was a miser, a stingy old guy who didn't care about anyone. He had all the money in the world, but never...

gave it away. Whereas Bob Cratchit in the story is poor, but super generous with his children, with his neighbors, with his love. And it makes sense. The more we have, the more we might have a tendency to become less generous.

Okay, awesome. I'm just scribbling furiously. Okay, so first thing, the definition clause of

of the noun, right? Providing an adjective clause there. Like you said, is a miser, a stingy old guy. So the way that would look written would be a miser comma, a stingy old guy. So that's adding more description to that noun, right? That is a higher level grammar structure.

And then you heard Aubrey say, whereas. So that, of course, is a dependent clause. Whereas Bob Cratchit, that can't stand on its own. No, that's part of a contrasting complex structure. And then you had that wonderfully complex structure towards the end. We might have a tendency to with

With all of these verbs in there, I could see a student really messing that up if they try to express something like that. So, because of this variety of structures, of course that would be a nine, and because there were zero grammar mistakes. Nice. This is interesting, the grammar score. Often you hear us say, "Don't focus so much on the grammar score."

If you are taking in English and learning it holistically, your grammar is improving as you learn verb tenses, as you learn to make longer, more complex sentences. So rather than spending hours memorizing verb tenses and allow it as you improve these other scores, allow that to sort of boost your grammar and rather than really focus on just this score. All right.

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Okay, let's dive into the pronunciation score, Jessica. We both got really excited about pronunciation at the same time. Right.

Alright, so Aubrey, what is a four for pronunciation? Alright, so it says uses some acceptable phonological features, but the range is limited. So, you're using some accurate word stress, phonemes, but your range is limited. You're kind of trying to stay in this safe zone where you're not challenging yourself.

Exactly, exactly. It's just about being very monotone, right? Like it says, produces some acceptable chunking. So what is chunking, Aubrey? Yeah, this is anything that is together, right? So there are a lot of parts of speech in English where we have linking, we have a lot of things that are happening where

Native speakers will change sounds, eliminate sounds, and the examiner is listening for how natively you're able to do that. Are you chunking your sounds together? Are words being linked or is everything very choppy and separated? Yeah, exactly. So chunking is all about stress timing, right? Is the rhythm of what you're saying correct?

And the intonation and stress, of course, is a big deal. So you've heard us talk about not being monotone. It says attempts to use intonation and stress, but control is limited. So just will be very monotone. And then what about the individual sounds, Aubrey? Yeah, there are frequently mispronounced individual sounds or phonemes, which causes a lack of clarity. So

You can have phonemes from your first language that are more difficult for you to pronounce in English, as long as this isn't keeping the examiner from understanding the words. But when it becomes extreme enough that it is making your answers or your words unclear, this is when you really need to work on drilling sounds so that you're able to enunciate each word clearly and the examiner understands what you're saying.

Exactly. Because again, part of a four is that the examiner will not be able to understand everything you say. Okay. All right. So,

For the sake of being culturally sensitive, guys, we're not going to focus on the phoneme mispronunciation because we don't want to come off as making fun of anybody's first language accent. So what we're going to focus on is the other phonological features, the chunking being unacceptable and the intonation and stress being absent.

So, okay, Aubrey, you're doing the four. Are you ready? Yes, I am ready. All right. Do you think that riches can have a bad effect on a person? This depends very much on the person. I think that some people have a tendency to be generous regardless of how much wealth they have, but others are extremely selfish.

selfish with their money, whether they are poor or rich. It's

That wasn't a four. That was like, that was at least a six. Like it wasn't that bad. That's good for us to talk about. I'm trying to use a monotone and then I'm trying to like have my word stress be strange where I'm like saying several words together, kind of chunked and then of strange pause. But it does kind of end up being a six still because I think my tone, I'm just so used to having my tone be varied. It's hard to be that flat. Well, and the

And the pauses that were there were pauses between normal chunks. Like your chunking was good. It was just, there were pauses between the chunks. - Let's give another one, Jessica. Let's see if you can do. - I don't know if I can. I was just gonna say,

It's difficult because we cannot not have the natural rhythm because we're native speakers. Okay, let's just let's jump forward and just say, guys, none of you are going to get a four for pronunciation. Let's go for the band nine. Aubrey, I'm going to let you give this model answer as well, because I need you to shine, baby. Shine like a star. I couldn't do a four. Let's see if I can do a nine.

Well, of course you can't do it for us. It's too hard. Okay. Aubrey, do you think that riches can have a bad effect on a person? I think it really depends. I think of like Taylor Swift, who's a multi-billionaire now, and she seems to be really generous with her money. On the Arrows tour, she was giving millions of dollars in bonuses to her crew. But then on the other hand, we definitely hear about

people who become extremely wealthy and start treating everyone terribly. They cut out family and friends. I can't think of a specific person, but that's sort of the general knowledge of someone who becomes uber rich that they start mistreating people. So I sort of wonder how much truth there is to that stereotype.

Okay, band nine for using Taylor Swift as your main support there. That was awesome. But guys, if you've been listening to us for a while, you know that we absolutely love encouraging you to have expressive pronunciation because that is the easiest score to improve on your speaking test, right?

Yeah, and the hardest to do a band four. I couldn't even do it when I tried. There you go. But one thing that's interesting to Sanjay, who asked the question that inspired this series, if you're scoring a four on your speaking, you might still be getting at least a six for pronunciation. And then these other scores are really being tanked because it is easier to score low in these other scores. So it's so vital that you really understand what each band is.

and what the examiner's listening for because it is an average of all of these scores. So if you can improve your vocabulary and your fluency scores, that's going to pull up all of these scores. 100%, 100%. So guys, let's leave you with that takeaway today.

from this two-part series really that pronunciation is the easiest score to improve. So go ahead in your search bar or go to our YouTube channel and just search IELTS Energy Pronunciation. We have so many amazing lessons that are free to listen and/or watch. So search for that, guys, and improve that score. Awesome. So glad you guys joined us for this two-part series, and we will see you next week. Awesome. Bye, Aubrey. Bye.

Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.