This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, how pausing for thought groups raises IELTS pronunciation scores.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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Go to allearsenglish.com slash pronunciation.
That's allearsenglish.com slash p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-i-o-n.
Hey there, Aubrey.
I have a question for you today.
All right, let's hear it.
Have you ever been excited, or maybe panicked, when you say something, but you say it so fast that no one can understand.
Oh, yes.
This happens to me all the time.
If I'm really excited or panicking, I start speaking so quickly and the other person's like whoa whoa whoa, start over, slow down.
I can't understand anything.
And what ends up happening then?
I mean, yeah, you have to repeat yourself and then the initial moment is kind of lost, right?
Right.
Often.
Or we're wasting time if it's like an emergency situation.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
You got to get to the hospital or something.
Right.
That's yeah.
Emergency.
Exactly.
Right.
And this happens to native speakers as well as English learners where, if we're either speaking too quickly or you know we're not pausing, naturally the message is not understood.
Right. right?
So this is vital for IELTS that the examiner can understand what you're saying, your amazing details, your vocabulary.
If your pronunciation or your stress, your word stress, your rhythm is off, it can impede all of that.
Yeah, you could spend so much time working on vocabulary strategy.
But then if you get the intonation wrong, your pronunciation score will bring your whole score down right.
Exactly.
So today's episode is from our pronunciation course, module eight, lesson two, which is about intonation and pausing in thought groups, which is so vital for IELTS speaking.
Yeah.
And this is a brand new course available now for the first time this week, guys.
This is your path to clear English pronunciation.
Of course, first of all for the IELTS exam.
When you're sitting in that speaking test, you want to know how to pronounce clearly.
And we show you how English is a stress time language. not a syllable-timed language.
And that is such a key piece to understand the rhythm.
It's a secret that a lot of courses don't teach you, okay?
Exactly, right?
Every detail you need to know to get a band nine for pronunciation and IELTS speaking is in this course.
So if you feel like you need to focus more on your pronunciation clear pronunciation, individual phonemes, linking words then you need this course.
So go to allearsenglish.com slash pronunciation to sign up.
Yes.
So we'll see you over there.
We'll look forward to greeting you inside the course.
But Aubrey, today we're going to give our listeners just a sneak preview of what's in that course.
So everyone can come away with something great.
What should we go into today?
Yeah.
So we're learning about pausing for thought groups.
What is a thought group, Lindsay?
What does that mean?
Yeah.
So a thought group is a cluster of words that express a single complete idea.
Okay.
Exactly.
So today you're going to learn how to improve your pronunciation score by making sure you're always pausing for thought groups and stay to the end.
We are going to give you two band nine sample answers showing this that you can use for shadowing.
I love it.
I love it.
So let's imagine a scenario where the examiner asked you a part One question.
If you keep in touch with friends from childhood, is this a common question, Aubrey, we might get?
Yes, absolutely.
This is a common part one question.
And imagine you answer this question, first of all, without pausing for thought groups.
Here's how it might sound.
Actually, yesterday afternoon my friend Sylvia called me with exciting news about her new job at Amazon.
I'm having a hard time, even like giving appropriate intonation and varying, because I'm not pausing for those thought groups.
But if you aren't pausing and you're just saying things straight through, it's very difficult for the examiner to understand what you're saying.
It's difficult for the examiner to understand and to catch everything you're saying and to like be interested.
I mean, of course, the examiner has to listen.
They'll listen.
But in everyday life people won't be interested in what you're saying if they can't decipher the groups of thoughts.
Yes.
It's not just about IELTS.
It's about speaking after the IELTS exam, right?
So this will improve both your IELTS pronunciation score and also make what you're saying more clear after you pass IELTS.
Exactly.
So should we show our listeners what it might sound like if pausing is used, but used incorrectly, Aubrey?
Yes, right?
So if pausing is between thought groups rather than with, right?
So you're pausing at the incorrect time.
It's also very difficult to understand your message.
So Lindsay, can you share the same sentence, how that would sound?
Yeah, this is when we don't understand thought groups.
This is what happens.
Actually, yesterday afternoon my childhood friend Sylvia called me with exciting news about her new job at Amazon.
Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
This actually happened.
I think I mentioned this on the show, but in Norway we went on a tour and the tour guide was doing this.
And I was thinking, what's happening?
It's almost like we're all waiting on edge to hear the next word.
It felt very awkward and uncomfortable, actually.
Yes.
And if you are studying for IELTS and you realize you're doing this, you're not alone, right?
This is very common.
If you haven't really thought through the thought groups or done a lot of shadowing to pay attention to where you should pause, this could be happening.
So I'm excited for you guys to have the skills to do this correctly.
But yeah, what Lindsay was saying there, the pauses are in the incorrect places, right?
They're not between thought groups.
So now listen to how it will sound when we pause for thought groups.
I'll do this one.
Okay.
Actually, yesterday afternoon my childhood friend Sylvia called me with exciting news about her new job at Amazon.
So I'm taking a quick breath between thought groups and we're able to track the message of what we say.
The examiner is able to understand your impressive vocabulary and it makes varying your intonation easier.
Yeah, this is one of the secrets, right?
One of the many secrets we get in this course.
But let's break down...
The thought groups, Aubrey, what are these thought groups in this particular sentence?
So first is yesterday afternoon.
This is the time reference.
So it would be strange and disjointed to have a pause between yesterday and afternoon.
When we have an adjective describing a noun, that's all within a thought group.
And the next thought group is person identification.
So my childhood friend Sylvia, we don't split those up with a pause in between, because the whole group is identifying your friend, okay?
Yes.
And the next thought group is the action and its description.
Called me with exciting news.
That is one thought group that should not have a pause in the middle.
And the last one is additional details about her new job at Amazon flows together.
We do not pause in between those words.
Okay.
Love it.
Exactly.
So the best way to work on this is shadowing.
Use our sample answers.
And we're going to give you two band nine sample answers for part one.
Questions here that you can use for shadowing.
And when you shadow, pay attention to the pausing, the pausing for thought groups, and mimic that, as well as the intonation, the vocabulary.
This you should also be paying attention to.
Love it.
So how about I answer the first one, Aubrey?
You want to ask me the question, the speaking part one?
Okay.
What was your favorite subject in high school?
My favorite subject in high school was definitely English.
I've always enjoyed reading stories and analyzing literature, and English classes gave me the chance to dive into these amazing stories and express my ideas about them.
Honestly, my favorite part of the class was the discussions we had that were always really thought-provoking.
Nice.
Nice.
Awesome.
So if you go back and listen, pay attention to the thought groups.
You can break it down just like we did, right?
What is an action with a description?
What is additional details?
You can see why the pauses happen where they do so that we can track and follow the message.
All right.
You want to ask me one, Lindsay?
Okay.
Here's your part one question, Aubrey.
Have you received a gift you didn't like?
Yes, I have.
A few years ago, A friend gave me a t-shirt that was way too big and had a flashy design that I wouldn't usually wear.
I appreciated the gesture, of course, but it just wasn't my style.
I didn't want to hurt their feelings, so I thanked them politely and kept it anyway.
I think it's still in the back of my closet.
Very nice.
Very nice.
So it makes it approachable.
It makes it easier for me to hear you, to listen to you, to hear the content of the story rather than just hearing noise.
Right.
Even an examiner listening closely can lose track of what your answer actually is if you're not pausing for thought groups.
For sure.
Aubrey, what's our final takeaway for today?
I mean, thought groups are a secret.
They're one of eight secrets that we teach you in the English pronunciation course.
Exactly.
And you need all eight of these secrets for high pronunciation scores on IELTS speaking.
So you can practice by shadowing native English speakers.
But if you want to know every tip that you need in order to have clear pronunciation for IELTS and life after IELTS, check out our course at allearsenglishcom.
Slash pronunciation.
Yeah.
And the other thing I want to address is accents.
So I think a lot of students might have a incorrect idea that they need to speak with a British accent or something.
There might be an assumption on IELTS, or that they can't have an accent at all, that you have to get rid of your accent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So is that true or what?
No.
Yeah.
You can definitely have an accent.
What's vital is that the examiner can understand you.
So you don't necessarily have to use an American accent, a UK accent, as long as the phonemes that you are saying are clear and pronounced correctly and you're enunciating clearly.
That is what matters for your pronunciation score.
Yeah, which is why this course is perfect for IELTS candidates, because we did something a little bit different when we built this course.
We decided not to focus on teaching you an American accent or a British accent.
Many courses out there will teach you a British accent.
That's great.
But we believe that many of us are engaged in global business.
And therefore, we want to take the accent that we're currently using and speak clearly.
That is the goal of this course.
That's the difference.
It's not accent reduction.
It's not acquiring an accent.
It's speaking clearly. clearly.
Yes.
And understanding what is happening in English.
Why are native English speakers connecting certain sounds, making certain phonemes in certain ways?
What is your mouth doing in order to create these sounds?
That is what is really important.
Yeah.
It's kind of like you get a chance to go backstage of English.
You know what I mean?
Go backstage in a play.
You get to see what's happening behind the scenes, the heartbeat of English.
You get all of that in this course within these simple eight techniques or secrets.
All right.
So guys, go over to allersenglish.com slash pronunciation and join.
It will absolutely help your pronunciation score on IELTS.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Excited to give you guys all of the tips you need in order to boost those pronunciation scores.
Sounds good, Aubrey.
Talk to you soon.
Have a good day.
You too.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
Slash myscore.
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