Episode 9
Pronunciation
Before we start the main episode, I want to tell you about my exciting new free training that you can access right now. This is for OET students (don’t worry, I’m putting together some free training for IELTS students soon).
This training is all about getting you organised and focussed on the correct fundamentals of your preparation so that you are on the right track to getting the score you need.
It covers:
· How to have the right study mind-set
· I show you how to find time to study, every day, no matter how busy you are
· I show you how to create a practical study timetable every week
· The exact skills you need to improve and how to improve them, so your reading, listening, speaking and writing skills
· Reliable, free resources to use to improve each sub skill and how to use those resources.
· Understanding the marking criteria and how this can help you to prepare and improve
· How to improve your grammar and vocabulary
If you are taking the test for the first time or taken it a few times, this training is a must if you want to make sure you are doing all the right things in your preparation.
You can find a link to the training in the show notes where you will also find links to my private study groups for both IELTS and OET in Facebook.
Ok, on with this episode.
This episode is all about understanding pronunciation and how you can improve it. This episode is relevant for both IELTS and OET.
The best way to understand pronunciation and what is required from you to get a band 7 or above for IELTS or a grade C+ or above for OET, is to….you should know the answer by now! Is to look at the marking criteria.
The marking criteria for pronunciation is very similar for both IELTS and OET, the wording is different but it basically means the same thing.
So, in the OET making criteria it talks about intelligibility (how well you are understood), it looks at how well you use pronunciation features such as stress, intonation and rhythm are used effectively and first language accent has no effect on intelligibility, meaning it doesn’t stop the examiner from understanding you.
The IELTS marking criteria says something similar, it says the student uses a wide range of pronunciation features (stress, intonation etc), sustains flexible use of features with only occasional lapses, is easy to understand throughout, first language accent has minimal effect on intelligibility.
So, let’s break this down to the key elements that the examiner is looking for.
The marking criteria talks about these 4 main areas:
1. Intelligibility
2. Flexibility
3. Wide range of pronunciation features
4. L1 accent having minimal effect on intelligibility
Before I go into detail about these four areas, I just want to make a very important point here. There is a common misconception that good pronunciation means having a British or American accent, to the extent that some students actually change their accents or try to adopt a British or American accent.
Nowhere in the marking criteria does it say you must have any type of accent. So please do not waste your time and effort into this. There is a big difference between accent and pronunciation and this will become clearer to you later on.
So, let’s talk about intelligibility and accent because the two are linked. What does this mean? It basically means clarity/ is it easy to understand what you are saying/ is the examiner able to understand what you are saying easily or do they struggle to understand, do they need to make an extra effort to understand what you are saying?
This is the first thing the examiner will be assessing you on. When it comes to pronunciation, this is the first thing you need to analyse and improve on..speaking clearly.
The key to improving intelligibility is to understand where your accent is effecting your pronunciation. Having an accent is ok, that’s not the problem, the problem comes when it stops you from sounding clear, it stops you from being understood.
Now there a number of things you can do to help minimise this problem. All languages have certain issues when it comes to speaking English and you need to find out what the common pronunciation issues are for your language.
· You can do this by simply Googling it and you will find lots of information to help you.
· You need to make sure you are pronouncing the individual sounds correctly. In some countries, phonetics can be taught in different ways and this can effect pronunciation. A really good resource is the interactive phonemic chart on www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemicchart The link will be in the show notes. You can click on any sound and you can hear how it’s pronounced
· The Oxford learner’s dictionary which also online https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
· is a great resource. It has the phonetic spelling of all the words and you can click on the word to hear the pronunciation. Just make a list of words that you pronounce incorrectly/you find hard to pronounce/ you don’t sound clearly enough and just practice them everyday …. This would be a great DNN!
· Another great website is www.Howjsay.com This site helps with the physical side of pronunciation so it focuses on the correct movement of your tongue, lips, jaw, teeth. This is such a great resource as it helps you realise that pronunciation is a physical skill not a mental skill like reading.
· Another really fun way to test how clear your pronunciation is, is to use voice recognition apps on your phone. So, for example on an iPhone you have Siri. You need to clearly ask Siri something in order to for it to do what you want. If it doesn’t then you know you have not pronounced the words clearly. There are lots of other apps you can download like voice note that actually type what you say as you are saying it.
I’ll leave all the links I have mentioned in the show notes.
So, let’s now move on to features of pronunciation. So, we I’ve talked to you about being clear and sounds. Now we need to look at how to pronounce to convey the correct meaning.
These features include:
· Word stress
· Sentence stress
· Connected speech
· Intonation
So, word stress is where certain syllable of a word is emphasised more. So, for example within, identifying, happy. Part of practicing pronunciation is learning where the stress in the word is.
Sentence stress is where parts of the sentence is stressed more than the other words to convey a certain meaning. Change the stress in the sentence then you change the meaning.
So for example, “ Do you listen to music?” No, I don’t listen to music
Connected speech is where in English, when native speakers speak we tend to blend some of the words together so the words merge together, making it difficult to understand sometimes.
For example, Do you want to go to the cinema?
Intonation is the natural rise and fall of the way we speak. We don’t talk all in one tone, our voice goes up and down. This is very much linked to how we are feeling so this can be tricky in the exam setting when you are nervous.
Example, “What’s wrong?” “Nothing”
This may seem a lot to consider when practicing pronunciation and it does take time and must be done regularly. You also need to remember that to get a C+ and above for OET or Band 7 or above for IELTS, the standard/requirement is not that high, it’s achievable.
To practice you must do the following 3 things:
1. You need to expose yourself to as much English language as you can. The more you surround yourself with it the more of the pronunciation you will pick up. It’s important to listen to different accents too.
2. You need to actively listen and notice pronunciation as you listen
3. You actually need to produce the words and practice pronunciation by recording yourself, mimicking what you hear, so actually copying as you listen.
Think of a child learning to speak. They are never taught how to pronounce; they simply are exposed to words and sounds and they notice how sounds are made by listening and then producing the sounds themselves. They get it wrong in the beginning but they just keep practicing.
Try taking short chunks of language and analyse it. Where are the word stresses/sentence stress/intonation/connected speech. Try copying the pronunciation with all the features, record yourself and listen back, and analyse if what you are saying is clearly understood. Maybe get someone else to listen to it and see if they can understand what you are saying. Remember you listening for pronunciation not your accent and only minimising where your accent is making your pronunciation unclear.
You won’t get it right first time, you’ll make lots of mistakes and probably sound very silly…..it’s better to make the mistakes now, and sound silly now than in the exam. Now you can fix all the mistakes, once these mistakes are made in the exam, you can’t do anything about it.
So there is a lot of practical advice here and resources you can put into practice and access to help you to improve your pronunciation.
My question to you now is, how are you going to use this in your preparation? What are you going to do with all this advice?
So, go give it a go and let me know how you get on and if you have any questions. I’ve left all the links I have mentioned in this episode in the show notes and how you van contact me, links to how you can access my free OET training all about preparing for OET the right way. I’s all there in the show notes.
Remember you have just utilised a great resource just by listening to these podcasts. Use the transcript and the episode to analyse my pronunciation.
So, go and get to work, put that hard in, even if you don’t feel like, it WILL be worth in the end, when you’ve got that job and the life you have been dreaming about with your family.
Homework
Use this podcast to practice your pronunciation.