Lots of people think that to get a high score in IELTS speaking, they need to be a native speaker and have a perfect accent.
But that's not true.
Exactly.
Your accent is not important, but your pronunciation is.
Is it clear what you're saying?
Can the examiner understand you?
Or do you stumble with words like bed and bad?
Or live and leave?
We've partnered with an app called Elsa Speak, which focuses on helping people improve their pronunciation.
Using artificial intelligence, Elsa Speak pinpoints your unique pronunciation errors and provides personalized real-time feedback.
You hear a nice little if you did a good job and a helpful when you need to work a little bit harder.
At the moment, there are over 7100 lessons that are organized into the 22 key skills needed to master English pronunciation, but new lessons are added regularly.
And even better, there are study sets for different IELTS speaking topics.
Yes, the app is completely free to download and is available on iPhone and Android.
In the description of this episode, you will find two Elsa Speak links.
One of them lets you download the app and get a 7-day pro membership for free, and the other link gives you an exclusive 85 discount for the lifetime membership.
Download Elsa Speak using the links in the description.
We're sure you'll find it really useful.
Now let's dive into this week's episode.
Hello, Sunshine.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory.
And we're the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar, fabulous vocabulary for your high IELTS score.
Our band's ninth score.
Rory!
Come on, Rory.
Sorry, I wasn't paying attention.
We're gonna talk about concentration, Rory.
Oh.
What a coincidence.
Concentration, dear listener.
Again, it's a comeback.
We used to have concentration as a topic in IELTS Speaking Part 1.
And now it's a comeback.
IELTS people do recycle these topics.
Maybe they don't have crazy topics and they're sitting there IELTS people thinking hmm, what topic should we put in IELTS Speaking?
Plants?
Jeans?
Tigers?
Owls?
Hmm.
Chairs?
No, no, no.
Let's, let's, concentration.
Let's just... Have we talked about concentration before?
You can tell I wasn't concentrating on the topic.
Are you joking?
We haven't talked about it before, have we?
I jealous now this Rory.
He's the host of the podcast.
He doesn't remember any topics.
Oh yeah, these educated native speakers.
Out of control.
It's because I'm busy doing Delta and I can't remember things that are not related to language.
Speaking of language.
You probably heard the ad in the beginning of this episode for an app called Elsa Speak, which helps you improve your pronunciation.
Check out the link in the description to download it.
This is the easiest way for you to support us.
It will take you only five minutes, but it will help us immensely.
Thank you very much.
Now on with the episode.
Let's talk about concentration.
Are you a focused person?
Oh, probably not as much as I would like to be.
I mean, while I can get things done, my attention often wanders a lot in the process.
So, for example, when I have to do assignments for the course I'm on right now, I start off strong and then my attention drifts and I wind up looking at my phone, or something like that.
What do you do to improve your concentration?
Not much, to be honest.
I should probably be more proactive in terms of taking action.
But some things I do when I really have to concentrate, that is, are turning off my notifications or even just my whole phone if there's a lot of work I need to get done.
How do you stay focused?
Other than what I just said.
I suppose I remind myself of how much better things will be once I have my task out of the road.
In the case of the assignments, for example, I think about oh, when it's done, then I can do something fun like read or play computer games.
When is it hard for you to concentrate?
Oh, when people are blithering away to me and I'm clearly trying to do something like reading a book.
I can't stand it when someone comes up to me and asks what are you reading?
And I have to say, well, nothing now that you're talking to me.
It's really annoying.
When people distract me is the big thing.
What else may distract you?
Other than other people.
I think phones are a pretty big attention and time sink, regardless of what you're doing on them.
Or just intrusive or random thoughts.
And, of course, the obvious things like sudden noises or unexpected events.
And all of them can draw your attention away from things.
Thank you, Rory, for your focused answers.
I hope everybody was concentrating on them.
Dear listener, we do have our premium episodes for you.
Speaking part two and three.
This week in our premium episodes, Rory is describing his daily routine that he enjoys.
And speaking part three, we are talking about daily routine in general.
Do check them out.
The link is in the description.
Okay?
And also we have our phrasal verb course.
The link is also in the description.
Yeah, listen.
So we say to be concentrated on something, to concentrate or focus on something, to be a focused person, right?
What other synonyms can we have?
I'm focused, I'm very focused.
That's it.
Paying attention to something.
Yeah, pay attention to something.
While I can get things done.
So, get things done.
So, do things.
You can say while I do something or you can say while I get things done.
My attention often wanders.
Meaning your attention is somewhere else.
You're not focusing on what you should be.
Yeah.
So what's the pronunciation, Zakhar?
Wanda, Wanda, Wanda.
Wander.
Well, I say Wander.
Wonder, yeah, wonders.
Kind of like walks away, yeah?
So your attention is somewhere else.
And also a synonym is my attention drifts.
Could you give us another example with drifts?
Like drifts, like walks away from the thing I should be focusing on.
If someone is talking to me without saying anything interesting, my attention tends to drift.
Or my mind drifts or my attention wanders.
My attention wanders, my mind tends to drift or wanders away from my work, right?
And when I want to get things done, I could wind up looking at my phone, wind up doing something or end up doing something.
And you know how it's done, dear listener.
Yeah, you start doing something and then kind of...
You look at your phone and you end up writing texts, or you end up browsing through your Instagram account.
So wind up doing or end up doing something are really nice phrasal verbs for you here.
I should be more proactive in terms of taking action.
So to be proactive, not to be passive, but to be active.
To think in advance and be ready to deal with things.
Yeah, like take a proactive role.
So take action and change something.
But Rory is not so proactive in terms of improving his concentration.
I'm not.
I could be more, but I'm not.
I turn off my notifications.
So on your phone you have notifications which pop up all the time here.
So turn off my notifications when I need to get some work done.
You see, I need to get it done, or there's a lot of work i need to get done.
Really nice phrases.
So to get things done, i've got a lot of work to do, or there's a lot of work i need to get done.
Rory reminds himself of something, so you can remind yourself of something, or like to do something, or like I should remind myself to turn off notifications.
Well, I could do that, or I could remember it in the moment.
But grammar-wise, is it correct?
Like, remind myself to turn them off?
Yeah, remind yourself to do something.
I have my task out of the road.
But that just means it's done.
Or it's no longer a problem.
Is it an idiom?
Getting something out of the road.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, because we are talking not about the road when you drive, but kind of to get it done.
Could you give us another example of this?
What, for talking about concentration?
Oh yeah, for example, or just work, studies.
Yeah, when I'm working, I like to get all of my jobs out of the road in one go.
So it could be hard to concentrate when people are doing what?
Blithering away.
Blither.
But that just means they're talking away about nothing in particular.
Or nothing interest.
Yeah.
So, blither, dear listener, is informal and it's mainly used in the UK.
So, it's British English.
So, blither away to talk about something not really interesting.
So, oh, he's always blithering about his dog.
He's like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You can also say blether, blether away, blether or blether.
Or witter.
You're wittering away about nothing.
Yeah, high-level verbs for you.
So, when people are blithering away to me, I am distracted or I get distracted.
So when people are blithering away to me and I'm clearly trying to do something, I get distracted.
I hate it or I can't stand it when.
So this is like a chunk of language, a chunk like a fixed language, a structure or a phrase.
I can't stand it when, when someone comes up to me and asks oh, what are you reading?
Is it a good book?
What's your name?
Yeah, so can you imagine Rory's reading and you come up to him and says Oh Rory, what are you reading?
Well, I heard this guy from the podcast.
Well, that doesn't usually happen when I'm trying to read.
That usually happens when I'm on the train.
So that's not a big deal.
Yeah, Rory's famous.
Goes on trains and he gets recognized everywhere.
Oh, Rory, could you sign?
Only in Turkey so far.
Oh, cute.
I should get Turkey.
Will I get recognized, do you think?
Oh, probably.
But what if we're just walking there together?
Roy, do you think people will recognize us?
Just in the middle of Istanbul?
I think they might.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah, so I can't stand it when people are making loud noises.
I can't stand it when children are running all around me.
So I can't stand it when something happens.
And this distracts me or I get distracted by this.
And talking about distractions, we can say that phones are pretty big attention sink.
So phones are time sink and attention sink.
Time sink, Rory.
It just means that you invest a lot of time and attention in them and it doesn't go anywhere.
It's just you're looking at it and that's all.
Yeah.
Could you give us another example?
What else could be distracting?
Video games.
Video games are a huge time sink and attention sink and you don't really get anything out of it.
So it's a bit negative.
So something that's like a waste your time, usually an activity.
It requires a significant amount of your time.
So you just wait.
Like Instagram is a pretty big attention and time sink.
And then the phrase is regardless of something.
A very good phrase.
You can use it in IELTS essays.
Regardless of what you are doing.
So regardless of.
Regardless of your age, of your nationality.
Instagram does distract us.
What else distracts us?
Intrusive random thoughts.
So if something is intrusive, it's where it shouldn't be.
It kind of annoys, you kind of makes you uncomfortable, like intrusive thoughts.
You know all these thoughts.
You kind of feel like come on, stop it.
So intrusive questioning, for example, or too many questions, uncomfortable questions, intrusive lighting.
Like lights, maybe like too bright.
Intrusive thoughts, random thoughts, kind of some crazy thoughts in your head.
They're quite distracting or they distract you from something.
Also sudden noises or loud noises.
Unexpected events.
Yeah.
And these things can draw your attention away from things.
So you can say loud noises draw my attention away from things.
But that's just the same as losing focus.
Yeah, sometimes I lose focus because of sudden noises or loud noises.
Or it's really distracting.
Or their noises are really distracting.
So you don't listen to music when you study or work?
Well, I started to, and then I stopped for some reason.
I should probably go back to that.
There's a lo-fi pop or rap music that's pretty good for that kind of thing.
So, dear listener, hopefully you were really focused on the vocabulary and grammar and our topic.
You can also listen to our other episodes about concentration, just like browse through the history and find concentration topic.
And again, just IELTS people recycle these topics, so it's a comeback.
Rory, you wanted to say something?
Well, I was just going to say if you weren't paying attention, then you can get access to the transcripts of the episode, probably using one of the links in the description below.
So Rory, no jokes about concentration?
Nothing?
Like no fun, no haha, Maria stop all these jokes, no?
Just tell I'm boring now, right?
What is?
Our episodes.
No jokes.
Oh, sometimes we have to be serious.
And what better time to be serious than when we're talking about concentration?
Yeah, dear listener, so this time we were too focused on, you know, explaining things.
We'll try and be more ironic and hilarious when we're back next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Oh, probably not as much as I would like to be.
I mean, while I can get things done, my attention often wanders a lot in the process.
So, for example, when I have to do assignments for the course I'm on right now, I start off strong and then my attention drifts and I wind up looking at my phone, or something like that.
What do you do to improve your concentration?
Not much, to be honest.
I should probably be more proactive in terms of taking action.
But some things I do when I really have to concentrate, that is, are turning off my notifications or even just my whole phone if there's a lot of work I need to get done.
How do you stay focused?
Other than what I just said.
I suppose I remind myself of how much better things will be once I have my task out of the road, like in the case of the assignments, for example.
I think about oh, when it's done, then I can do something fun like read or play computer games.
When is it hard for you to concentrate?
Oh, when people are blithering away to me and I'm clearly trying to do something like reading a book.
I can't stand it when someone comes up to me and asks what are you reading?
And I have to say, well, nothing now that you're talking to me.
It's really annoying.
So, um...
