IELTS Speaking- Pronunciation
Pronunciation in the IELTS speaking comprises of another 25% of your speaking band score. It is quite usual that speakers of different languages have different pronunciations however; it is recommended that students are aware of the different features of pronunciation. Some of the important features of pronunciation include accuracy, word stress, sentence stress, weak/ strong sounds, linking words and intonation.
Accuracy is concerned with the individual sounds of English and the use of correct word stress. It includes all the vowel sounds and consonant sounds. There are a total of 44 sounds in English that includes 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds.
Word stress is another important feature of pronunciation and it is necessary to know how sounds work when you put them together in words. Sounds combine to make syllables and knowing which syllable to stress is called the word stress. Usually, words with more than two syllables have at least one stressed syllable which makes the other syllables unstressed or weak.
Sentence stress is about which word to stress in a sentence to show the meaning or emphasis. It is important to understand that when we stress different words, the meaning will be different. Not every word in a sentence is important and stressing on the keys words also affects your intonation as your voice gets louder or stronger when you stress on the key words.
Strong and weak forms are important for successful word and sentence stress. We usually stress the most important words in a sentence such as verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives and use the strong form. Other words such as auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns are usually unstressed and we use the weak form.
Intonation is the falling and rising pitch, the pitch of your voice that goes up and down which is usually required to express the meaning of what you are speaking. Generally, we use different tones to show a change in the meaning of a phrase and not just a word. Closed questions usually have a falling intonation while open questions usually have a rising intonation. We often use the rising intonation on the first items of a list and then use a falling intonation on the last item of the list. When using conditionals, the first phrase usually has a rising intonation and the second one has a falling one.
Connected speech is a common feature of pronunciation which is also known as ‘Linking’ where we link words together. As a rule, if a word ends in a consonant sound and the following word begins with a vowel sound, we can link them together. In rapid speed, we often lose a lot of sounds, especially at the end of the words.
Using contractions will make you sound natural, relaxed and even fluent as using full forms as in the written forms may sound unnatural when you are speaking.
Some sounds may not exist in your language which could make it difficult for you to learn and could also make it difficult for the listener to understand. It is important that you work on the sounds that you find difficult.
It really doesn’t matter if you do not have an American or British accent. Remember that pronunciation in the IELTS not about your accent but, about ‘Intelligibility’ which means how easy you are to understand and about your ability to use a range of pronunciation features.
It is important you note that you cannot change or improve your pronunciation overnight. Improving your pronunciation includes regular practice. Recording yourself speaking and listening to yourself is a very helpful way to make yourself aware of your mistakes.
Listening to news, TV shows, podcasts or even songs and repeating what you hear can also help you copy the intonation and pronunciation features.
Tongue twisters are also a great way to practice where you can focus on getting all the sounds right.
A lot of people also use mirrors to watch themselves if they are making the right shapes with their mouths to produce the right sounds.
Finally, remember! Practice is the key!
