How do some people get band 8 or 9 in IELTS Speaking Part 2?
One big reason is they know how to use the narrative tenses to tell a story.
Many questions in IELTS Speaking Part 2 ask you to talk about an experience. This means telling a story. This could be a trip, a restaurant meal, a childhood memory, a problem, an outdoor activity or many other things. What’s more, if the IELTS question asks you to describe a place, an event or a person, you can include a short story about your experience at this place or event, or with this person.
To tell a story well you need to use the narrative tenses.
These are the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect and the past perfect continuous.
If you are at the band 6 level, you can already use the past simple well. To go higher to bands 7, 8 or 9, you need to start using the other narrative tenses well too.
Let’s start with the Past simple - this is the number 1 narrative tense, and you will use this to describe the main events in your story.
Past Simple
The past simple will move the story forward in time. You describe the first event followed by the second event and then the third event, and so on. Each event takes your story a step forward. This is the easy way to describe a past experience.
For example:
Last Friday, she woke up late, so she quickly got dressed and ate breakfast and then she left her house and ran to the bus stop.
Past Continuous
The past continuous describes what’s happening around these main events. The main event is described in the past simple, while the background, or what is happening around this event, is described with the past continuous. This means that the past continuous is very important to add detail and colour to the story. It tells the listener what was happening around the main events.
Let’s go back to my past simple story and add some background with the past continuous.
Last Friday, she woke up late. It was raining outside and the heating wasn’t working so it was very cold.
Past Perfect
Next, we have the past perfect. This is used when your story is already in the past, and you need to go further into the past.
So for example, in my story I could use the past perfect to say why the woman woke up late.
she woke up late because she had forgotten to set an alarm
The past perfect shows that she had forgotten to set an alarm further in the past, before she woke up late.
Maybe she woke up late for another reason, such as, she had stayed up late watching a series, or she had slept very badly.
Past Perfect Continuous
Finally, we have the past perfect continuous. The past perfect continuous tells us that something happened further in the past and continued happening until the moment in the past where we were in our story previously.
For example in my story, you could say:
just before she woke up, she had been sleeping deeply
This tells us that the woman had been sleeping deeply continuously until the moment when she woke up.
Or, you could also say:
she had been dreaming about buying a Porsche
Using all the narrative tenses
Now let's use all of these narrative tenses to complete the story about this woman.
Choose the right narrative tense for each verb.
Last Friday, she ___________(wake up) really late because she ___________(forget) to set an alarm, and she ___________(sleep). She ___________(rush) to the bathroom, but she ___________(can) get in because her sister ___________(take) a shower. She ___________(try) to find some clean clothes, but she ___________(can) because she ___________(do) any washing. She ___________(leave) the house and ___________(run) to the bus stop and when she ___________(arrive), there was a crowd of people there. It seemed like they ___________(wait) a long time.
(To check if you answered correctly see the answers below)
That’s how you use these 4 narrative tenses to tell a story in a more complex and natural way. If you use these tenses well, and your vocabulary is good, you should be able to reach bands 8 and 9 in IELTS speaking part 2.
Answers:
Last Friday, she woke up really late because she had forgotten to set an alarm, and she had been sleeping deeply. She rushed to the bathroom, but she couldn’t get in because her sister was taking a shower. She tried to find some clean clothes, but she couldn’t because she hadn’t done any washing. She left the house and ran to the bus stop and when she arrived, there was a crowd of people there. It seemed like they had been waiting a long time.
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