Does my accent lower my IELTS Speaking score?
Many people try to sound British or American before their Speaking test. It rarely helps, and sometimes it makes things worse.
Your accent is not marked. The Pronunciation score is about how easy you are to understand and how well you use the features of spoken English, such as word stress, sentence stress and linking. A clear Nigerian, Chinese, Indian or Arabic accent can score a high band. A forced accent that you are not comfortable with often lowers your fluency, because you are thinking about sounds instead of ideas.
What actually costs marks
Word stress
Speed and endings
Keep your own voice
Examiners want to hear you communicate naturally. Improve the English you already have: clear stress on the important word in each sentence, full word endings, and a steady pace with small pauses where a comma would go.
A 10 minute daily routine
- Record a 1 minute answer to a Part 1 question.
- Listen once for word stress. Check any word you are unsure of in a dictionary that shows stress.
- Listen once for endings: ed, s, and t at the end of words.
- Record the same answer again, a little slower. Compare the two.
- Do not copy a British or American accent. Aim to be clear, not different.
Exam rules change. Always check with the exam provider and the organisation you are applying to.
Want help with this?
Book a class and we work on it together, build your free roadmap to see where you stand, or ask us a question first.
