Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking
20
There is a section later in this book which gives advice and activities on tenses and sentence
structures.
4.
Pronunciation (1~9)
With effect from August 1st 2008, the marking scale of pronunciation will change in
all IELTS speaking tests worldwide. Examiners will now be able to award band score 1~9
instead of the older system 2-4-6-8.
Candidates' pronunciation will be marked in the same way, but for the higher scores
(7-8-9) there are one or two areas that have become more emphasized in the marking
criteria; these are discussed below.
The most common myth about the ―Pronunciation‖ section is that many people place
too much importance on accent. The pronunciation score is influenced by accent but there
are other important factors which influence the score.
―Pronunciation‖ covers the following language aspects:
How easily the examiner understands what is being said
Word stress
Sentence stress
Intonation
Evidence of first language accent
