{"id":2395,"date":"2015-10-20T09:34:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T16:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:01","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:01","slug":"toefl-tuesday-toefl-pronunciation-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-toefl-pronunciation-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: TOEFL Pronunciation Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Pronunciation Tips\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PnUY5eTz2lE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although having an accent doesn\u2019t mean you will get a low speaking score\u2014even perfect scorers usually have accents\u2014pronunciation problems really can affect your TOEFL speaking score. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Granted, the content of your answer is important, too. In fact, improving the structure and content of your answers is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to improve on TOEFL speaking. But in the speaking section especially, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">way<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you say things is extremely important. For example, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/lucas-takes-the-toefl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I gave a set of poor answers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on a TOEFL speaking test once, but I did it with perfect pronunciation, native grammar, and idiomatic vocabulary; I scored a 29. Sounding as similar to a native as possible will get you the highest TOEFL speaking scores.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if the listener doesn\u2019t understand you sometimes, then you cannot get points for the other aspects of your answer that are good. If your grammar is perfect, and your vocabulary is very advanced, that means nothing with poor pronunciation, because the grader won\u2019t even know what words you said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But pronunciation is one of the hardest places to make improvement. It is hard or impossible to change it within just a few weeks. So this is not a good focus for you if you will take your TOEFL sometime soon. But if you are studying for the more distant future, after a few months, then you will definitely want to work on your pronunciation a bit. Here are some tips on how to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clarity, not Speed<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus on speaking clearly, not quickly. During the TOEFL, you will have a clock that can be very stressful. Often, students react to the clock by speeding up. But the faster you speak, the harder you will be to understand. Speak at a natural, conversational pace. Focus on saying each word clearly (like me in the video!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don\u2019t want to be a robot, of course, but just don\u2019t speed up past your natural speaking speed.<\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imitate Native Speakers<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It may feel strange to do this, but that\u2019s okay. Your mouth is in the habit of making sounds from your native language, and the way English speakers create sounds can feel wrong or awkward. But in order to improve pronunciation, you have to make awkward sounds at first. They feel more natural after more and more practice.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To do this exercise, first, listen to a native English speaker talk. You can find some great options on <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ted.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TED.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or in an <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NPR podcast.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After you listen to them speak, find a specific phrase or sentence that you want to repeat. Then listen again, and try to imitate the exact way the speaker says it. You want to sound <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exactly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like them. Pretend you are an actor, and you will play the role of that person in a movie.<\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Record Yourself Speaking<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While you imitate that native speaker, you should record yourself. There are a couple reasons why you should record yourself often:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You will be recorded on the actual TOEFL. Speaking into a microphone should be comfortable for you before then, and the best way to become comfortable is by experience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can listen again and compare yourself to the native speaker.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try to identify what exactly is different between the sounds you make and those the native speaker makes. Ideally, you will have somebody else listen, too, and give some more advice, because it can be very hard to hear what\u2019s different when listening to your own voice. But if you do this often, and listen carefully to the two recordings (the original and your imitation), you will start to identify aspects of your pronunciation that can be improved, and that helps you to focus your practice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Although having an accent doesn\u2019t mean you will get a low speaking score\u2014even perfect scorers usually have accents\u2014pronunciation problems really can affect your TOEFL speaking score. Granted, the content of your answer is important, too. In fact, improving the structure and content of your answers is one of the fastest and most efficient ways [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13618],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speaking","tag-video"],"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>TOEFL Tuesday: TOEFL Pronunciation Tips - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PnUY5eTz2lE &nbsp; Although having an accent doesn\u2019t mean you will get a low speaking score\u2014even perfect scorers usually\" \/>\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\/toefl-tuesday-toefl-pronunciation-tips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: TOEFL Pronunciation Tips\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PnUY5eTz2lE &nbsp; 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