{"id":2124,"date":"2015-08-26T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:24","slug":"intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Intonation and Pacing Tips for Indian Speakers of English"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many years ago, I called the <a href=\"http:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Times of India<\/a> while doing undergraduate research on Indian popular culture. The operator at the Times transferred my call to an editor. I couldn\u2019t understand a word the editor was saying, and I assumed he was speaking Hindi. Very apologetically, I asked him if we could speak English instead. He began to shout very angrily, and finally, I could make out the words he was shouting: \u201cI AM SPEAKING ENGLISH!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I felt pretty bad, and I\u2019ve made an effort to become more familiar with Indian English since then. In many ways, I understand that editor\u2019s frustration, and the frustration that many Indians have when they are told their English is not good enough, or told that their speech is hard to understand. Many Indians feel they have a claim to English as their language, and not just a foreign language they learn. And in fact, India has <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the second-largest population of English speakers in the world<\/a>, right after the US.<\/p>\n<p>As this blog\u2019s Indian readers already know, India is a large, heavily populated country where people speak several hundred different native languages. Because of this, Indians turn to certain common languages to communicate with each other. And for more than one hundred million Indians, the <em>lingua franca<\/em> (common language) of choice is English.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, it\u2019s no surprise to me that so many Indian students I work with can read and write at a level similar to their American English speaking peers. Unfortunately for Indian learners who are trying to pass American exams like the TOEFL and study in American schools, <em>spoken<\/em> Indian English is not quite as similar to its American counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>So while Indians may be able to talk to each other easily in English, they need to adjust their pronunciation\u00a0to communicate with Americans and get good scores from the TOEFL\u2019s American scoring team. Below, I describe the most important areas where Indians may need to change their English if they want to speak clearly to Americans: speed and intonation.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s talk about the speed of Indian English first. We\u2019ve already looked at one Indian English speaker who talks a little too quickly in a <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-speaking-sample-response-with-critique-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent sample speaking<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sample-toefl-speaking-response-with-critique-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">response with critique<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Indian languages tend to be faster paced than English. This fast pace influences Indian English, making Indians seem like \u201cfast talkers\u201d to Americans. To reduce your Indian accent, speak more <em>slowly<\/em>. Really, this is a good idea for anyone who has an accent that may be hard for others to understand.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s talk intonation, the changing pitches in a language. You can think of this as the \u201cmusic\u201d of a language. In Indian languages, that \u201cmusic\u201d is usually a steady beat. Native Indian languages and Indian English lingua franca have much less variation in tone, compared to American native English. In the US, English is more like a set of chants with frequently changing tones that go high and low, high and low. I\u2019ve covered some of the basics on <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/english-intonation-knowing-when-to-rise-and-fall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the rise and fall of English<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/english-intonation-knowing-when-to-rise-and-fall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here on this blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Those Magoosh blog posts are a great place to start with intonation studies. But for Indian Magooshers, I suggest even more in-depth study of American English intonation\u2014 intonation is often the biggest challenge Indians face when it comes to speaking intelligibly on the TOEFL. I highly recommend this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kIapQVNq3D4&amp;list=PLfQSN9FlyB6T-lbREfi4sNi5MI2MmYGmc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">series of YouTube video lesson<\/a>, courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.englishwithjennifer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">English with Jennifer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Review my critiques of speaking speed linked above, and practice with the Magoosh and English with Jennifer tutorials I just showed you. You\u2019ll find your accent becoming more neutral and more TOEFL\/America ready in no time! In my next post on this subject, we\u2019ll look at some more specific aspects of American English that Indians sometimes struggle with: pronunciation of certain difficult consonants.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many years ago, I called the Times of India while doing undergraduate research on Indian popular culture. The operator at the Times transferred my call to an editor. I couldn\u2019t understand a word the editor was saying, and I assumed he was speaking Hindi. Very apologetically, I asked him if we could speak English instead. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13618],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Intonation and Pacing Tips for Indian Speakers of English - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Intonation and Pacing Tips for Indian Speakers of English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many years ago, I called the Times of India while doing undergraduate research on Indian popular culture. 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[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-26T16:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-10T21:45:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/09\/Facebook-SEO-Default.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Recine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Recine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/\",\"name\":\"Intonation and Pacing Tips for Indian Speakers of English - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-26T16:00:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/fa2be5405a605e37f4199c90e2236768\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/intonation-and-pacing-tips-for-indian-speakers-of-english\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Intonation and Pacing Tips for Indian Speakers of English\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\",\"name\":\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"description\":\"Online TOEFL Preparation\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/fa2be5405a605e37f4199c90e2236768\",\"name\":\"David Recine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/de262e64bb4e3e488753d8c58ff3cc70\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Recine\"},\"description\":\"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}