IELTS Speaking: pronunciation

In the IELTS speaking test, 25% of your score is for pronunciation. Many students confuse 'pronunciation' with 'accent'. These are not the same thing!

Nobody expects you to speak with a perfect British English accent. In fact, the examiner will not judge your accent at all.

Your pronunciation score is based on these things:

• clarity (speaking clearly)
• speed (not too fast, not too slow)
• word stress
• sentence stress
• intonation (the rise and fall of your voice)

It's not easy to improve these things quickly or through deliberate practice. Good pronunciation is usually the result of lots of listening and copying. My tip is: stop worrying about your accent, and focus on speaking clearly.

Comments

[CAB]

wow, this is the first time I've known about this. Thank you so much.It's definitely useful for me.

[Oley]

Do you mind,at some point,explain more about the deliberate practice? what or how can be included in that way?.What does it mean? Thank you.

[gabi]

@Oley

I think by "deliberate practice" Simon means taking one aspect, such as pronouncing "th", and practicing it in isolation. Although this may make an improvement at the time, it difficult to incorporate it into your everyday speaking while you are busy coming up with ideas and finding the right vocabulary and putting it all together. Under the stress of the speaking exam, it is all too easy to revert to your habitual pronunciation (and grammar).

As Simon says, listening seems to be the key: listening way beyond the point where you understand the meaning, listening to the point where you can parrot the grammar, the intonation, the stress, and the pronunciation.

At the same time, clarity is partly about knowing what is actually confusing: for Korean speakers this might be "f" vs "p", for Japanese "l" vs "r", for Cantonese speaking too fast and missing off the final consonant, for some Europeans falling intonation on each word, and so on. However, as Simon says, there are no quick fixes for adult learners.

[Oley]

Thank you so much Gabi,I think I got it.It actually happened to me.

Above from what you have said, when I speak I feel like I just read out loud.It's hard to feel the meanings of words naturally.

Anyway,I agree that it's hard and there are many things for adults to learn,moreover,it might take quite sometimes as well,I won't give up though.

[Khasan]

From my students' experience, we should keep listening a lot, and try to copy the pronounciation. This is the best one. Because it is authentic which is real as we don't have access to real english.