Are You Looking For An English Pronunciation Assessment? 

If you’re wanting to improve your English pronunciation skills, it’s a great idea to start with an assessment or evaluation.

Today, I’ll give you all the information you need when looking for an English pronunciation assessment, why assessments are so useful tool and how to get the most from them for improving your English pronunciation. 

What Is An English Pronunciation Assessment? An English pronunciation assessment is when you have your speech and accent evaluated by an expert and they provide you with written, audio or video feedback. Feedback will detail your strengths and weaknesses in English pronunciation areas such as pronunciation of vowels, consonants, word stress, sentence stress, weak vowels, rate and volume. 

How Does An English Pronunciation Assessment Help?

When you want to improve skills that you have, it helps to know exactly what skills you need to develop to improve.  Improvement is about developing weaker areas, so first we need to identify what the weak areas are.

A person wanting to improve their tennis skills might identify that they need to improve their serve or their backhand. For a swimmer it might be a specific breathing technique or swimming stroke.

When starting to work on English pronunciation, many people get stuck. They don’t know what areas to start working on!

There are 44 sounds in English and word stress is often very different to people’s first language. These factors can make it difficult for learners to know where to start.

People get English pronunciation assessments to give them clear information on what sounds and stress patterns they need to focus on to improve.

A quality English pronunciation assessment from an expert should give you a clear path forward.
It should tell you:

– feedback on your rate of speaking and volume of speaking
– exactly what vowel sounds you are mispronouncing
– which consonant sounds you are mispronouncing
– difficulties with word stress and sentence stress and weak vowels
– which areas are a high priority and which areas are a low priority for speaking English clearly
– provide you with information on how to improve each area

The most helpful thing: 
In my experience, understanding what the highest priority areas are to change the the part that people find the most helpful. To speak clear English that others understand easily, most learners only have to improve a few areas of their pronunciation. Know what these areas are, gives the learner a clear pathway forward.

Why Do People Buy English Pronunciation Assessments? 

There are a lot of reasons why people purchase English Pronunciation assessments. Most people that I work with fall into these 3 groups:

1. People in this group are aware that their English pronunciation is unclear but they aren’t sure why. They aren’t sure what sounds and what it is about their speech that they need to improve. An English Pronunciation assessment helps them understand exactly what sounds and stress patterns they need to improve. They find out what they’re doing incorrectly and why and how to improve it. Typically these people haven’t thought much about their pronunciation before – it’s all quite new and they want direction of where to start.

2. People in this group know a little bit about which English sounds and stress patterns are difficult for them. They have noticed that they are mispronouncing a few sounds but aren’t 100% confident about it all. They benefit from an assessment so they know with certainty which areas of their pronunciation to improve, to identify problem areas that they weren’t aware of and find out why these areas are important for speaking clearly in English and how to get started. 

3. People in this group have a high level of awareness. They have often had English pronunciation training in the past and worked to correct sounds and stress patterns. They generally have clear English but their personal goal is to sound more like a native English speaker. They want an English pronunciation assessment to identify the areas of their speech that they should work on for further improvement. These people benefit from an English pronunciation evaluation by an expert to help know exactly what areas to focus on and make sure they are on the right path. 

Do You Need An English Pronunciation Assessment?

Are you wondering “Do I need an English pronunciation evaluation”? If you want to improve your English pronunciation skills but you are unsure of how to start, or unsure of what areas of English pronunciation you need to improve, your would benefit from an English pronunciation assessment. 

Some people feel that they don’t need an English pronunciation assessment because they already know what areas of their pronunciation are a problem for them.

Usually these people have taken English pronunciation or accent training before and they know what areas affect speech clarity and what areas don’t.  

Who Provides Quality English Pronunciation Assessments?

There are a number of providers of English pronunciation training (also called accent reduction training) who also provide English pronunciation and English accent evaluations. 

A quality English Pronunciation Assessment will be provided by: 

– an expert. This expert will usually be a Speech & Language Therapist or Pathologist who specialises in English Pronunciation Training. Make sure they have experience. They don’t learn these skills as part of their University course so you need someone who specialises in working with non-native English speakers. Be wary as there are many people providing services online without qualifications.  
– an expert with good knowledge of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). Every teacher of English pronunciation should have a good of the IPA. You cannot teach English pronunciation in a successful manner without using the IPA.  
– someone who has worked with speakers of your first language. It helps a lot if your teacher has worked with other speakers of your first language as they will be familiar with the types of problems expected and the best ways to correct them. 

What Does A Quality English Pronunciation Assessment Include? 

A quality English Pronunciation Assessment will include the following:`

– Audio Feedback. It’s very helpful to be able to actually hear your pronunciation feedback in audio. It’s a much better learning tool to hear examples of your errors and what you did incorrectly than just see it written on paper. A quality English pronunciation assessment will include audio MP3 feedback that has been recorded specifically for you, outlining your strengths and weaknesses with clear examples. This is all about speech sounds so it’s more meaningful for students to hear examples and feedback than just read them. 
– Written Report. A report detailing your pronunciation strengths and weaknesses with clear examples of your pronunciation problem areas.  
– Priority Areas List. It will include a clear description of high priority areas and low priority areas. 
– Solution Options. It should offer a solution for how to improve the areas outlined as problem areas

Where Can I Get An English Pronunciation Assessment? 

Speech Active offers full English pronunciation assessments as an add on to our English pronunciation online courses for only $158 AUD (~ $108 US). 

How do our assessments work?
As part of your Speech Active course, you will make a series of speech recordings. It’s very easy, you just need a computer or laptop and to follow the simple steps to guide your through. We then use these recordings to assess your speech and pronunciation and provide you with super helpful feedback.

Audio Feedback: We provide you with audio MP3 feedback on all areas of your English pronunciation. This voice recording is recorded specifically for you and you’ll hear clear examples of your problems and what you should be aiming for. Find out about your problem vowels, consonants, word endings, past tense endings, rate of speaking, volume, word stress and more. 

Written Feedback Report: We also provide you with a 7+ page written report describing your pronunciation skills and outlining each pronunciation area and your skills. We detail your strengths and weaknesses in a clear, easy to understand format that also explains clearly which areas are important for speaking clearly. We will let you know which areas are a high priority to improve and which areas are not. 

I’ve spent years developing and improving our English Pronunciation assessment online for advanced speakers of English. I’m confident that our English pronunciation assessment online is the best speech evaluation option available for busy international professionals.

You can purchase an English Pronunciation Assessment online with one of our tailored English pronunciation courses.  

 
Help! That’s Out Of My Budget! 

Don’t worry, we’ve got your covered!

Each Speech Active course includes a guided self-assessment that has been put together specifically for speakers of your first language.

At the start of a Speech Active course you will record your speech and we’ll guide you through evaluating it and completing an English Pronunciation checklist. 

So, if you don’t want to pay extra for an English Pronunciation Assessment, you’ll actually complete one with a tailored Speech Active English Pronunciation Course. 

See more on improving with our tailored English pronunciation courses. 
Start from just $125 a month for 6 months. 

Here are some other questions that people interested in English Pronunciation evaluations online also often ask us. 

What Pronunciation Areas Affect Clarity In English?

I mentioned that some areas of English pronunciation are “high priority” areas and some are “low priority” areas. When I say “high priority” I’m referring to the areas that affect English pronunciation skills a lot.

What Pronunciation Areas Affect Clarity In English? English pronunciation areas that have a high effect on clarity are word stress, vowel sounds, word endings, consonant sounds /l/ and /v/. English pronunciation areas that have a low effect on clarity are ‘th’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and weak vowels. 

For people who want to speak English more clearly, it’s important that they focus on the areas that affect speech clarity. 

So many times I work with students who have unclear English and they have worked with a teacher on correcting the sound ‘th’. This is a waste of the students time and money. 

Mispronouncing ‘th’ has very little effect on how easily other people understand you. If a learner wants to improve their clarity, you don’t start with ‘th’! 

Quality training should factor in your problem areas and match these smartly with your goals.  

Can I Listen To Pronunciation Feedback Audio? 

Listen to Georgie talking about some students’ pronunciation skills and giving them feedback here. Listen to pronunciation feedback audio. 

This feedback is different to the feedback given in our English pronunciation evaluation online, but it will give you an example of the types of things that are discussed.  

I’m Looking For Word Stress Exercises? 

Would you like to know more about English Word Stress? This is often one of the most challenging areas of English pronunciation and also one of the areas that is most important for speaking clear English. 

Start improving your word stress with these Word Stress Exercises with video, audio and voice recorder. 

So, if you’re looking for English Pronunciation Assessment Online or English Pronunciation Evaluation Online for improving your spoken English, I hope this article has helped point you in the right direction. 

Please contact us to talk through your English speaking goals and how we can assist you achieve them. 

You can chat with us using the chat tool on our website, email us at info@speechactive.com or call us on +61411295828. 

We look forward to helping you achieve clearer, more confident English.  

x

Georgie Harding