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English speaking skills for PTE test

I shared my excitement about the PTE test result in the previous post. In this post, I will detail the English-speaking skills I learned during the three-month learning journey, which specifically meet the PTE test criteria.

PTE’s criteria

Let’s take a look at the two key criteria in the PTE’s speaking component: Pronunciation and Fluency.

Pronunciation and Oral fluency criteria of PTE test

Based on these criteria, I would like to highlight these key points:

Pronunciation:

  1. Vowels and consonants;
  2. Word stress;
  3. Sentence-level stress;
  4. Assimilation and deletions.

Fluency:

  1. Rhythm and phrasing;
  2. No hesitations.

As we can see, the PTE’s test criteria clearly show concepts we must fully understand and perfectly present if we want to achieve a higher score. In the following text, I will present my comprehension of these concepts, supported by related online resources.

Pronunciation

Vowels and consonants

In everyday conversations, sightly mispronounced words often do not significantly disrupt the flow of our discussion. But thanks to modern technology, PTE’s scoring is based on algorithms and is implemented by computers, which can easily detect each mispronunciation. Therefore, the ability to pronounce words clearly and accurately is crucial.

I have tried numerous methods to improve my pronunciation and reduce Chinese accent including speaking loudly, having more emotion, and directly imitating local accents. However, it didn’t work as expected, it did not meet my expectation, resulting in a low score in PTE practice.

Changes occurred the time I met Sun’s tutorials and BBC Learning English collection on YouTube. These pronunciation videos elaborate on vowel and consonant details, with vivid body language and emotion.

As non-native speakers who want to pronounce concisely, we must focus on these particular points:

Mouth Shape
We can try to imitate the mouth shape that vowels and consonants request. For example:

  1. When pronouncing /æ/ sounds like Agriculture and Activity, we should open our mouths as large as possible;
  2. When pronouncing /i:/ sounds like These and Feed, the corners of our mouths should be as far apart as possible.
Mouth Shapes of /æ/ and /i:/

Tongue Position
We should also pay attention to the tongue position. For example:

  1. The /θ/ sound requires us to extend the tongue forward;
  2. The /r/ sound requires us to pull the front part of the tongues back and up and keep the back stable, making our tongues fatter and thicker.
Tongue Position of /θ/ and /r/

Breath
We should also carefully control our breath, ensuring vowels and consonants are presented appropriately. For example:

  1. When pronouncing /θ/ like Through and Thesis, we should ensure that the airflow passes through the gap between our teeth and lips;
  2. When pronouncing /b/ and /p/ like Big and Picture, we should ensure that the airflow is completely blocked and then released suddenly.

Focusing on these points helps us ensure our study paths are on the right track, and consistently improve our pronunciation. In addition, there are two tips:

  1. Don’t try to imitate accents. The PTE test does not expect you to have a perfect British or American accent. For beginners, attempting to achieve such an accent is time-consuming and pointless.
  2. Never compare pronunciations between English and Chinese. For instance, the Cantonese pronunciation 士多啤梨 is often equated with Strawberry in English, which overlooks many nuances. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that the pronunciation of English and Chinese words are completely different.

Online Resources:

Word stress

Each Chinese character has only one syllable, whereas English words typically consist of two or more syllables.

For example, the word water consists of two syllables: wa-ter, and phenomenon consists of five syllables: phe-nom-e-non. It depends on how many vowel sounds the word includes.

Syllable numbers of the word “the”, “water” and “phenomenon”

Furthermore, an English word consisting of two or more syllables includes both stressed syllables and unstressed syllables. These are indicated by the phonetic symbols found in dictionaries.

For example, the phonetic symbol of agri-cul-ture is /ˈæɡrɪ-kʌl-tʃər/, we can see the stress mark /'/ is placed in the first syllable /ˈæɡrɪ/, which known as a stressed syllable, while others are unstressed syllables.

Stressed syllable and unstressed syllables of the word “agriculture”;

An interesting rule to note is that the stressed syllable can be vary within the same word depending on its function in a sentence. For example:

  • When Project is acting as a noun, it is pronounced: /ˈprɑːdʒekt/
  • When Project is acting as a verb, it is pronounced: /prəˈdʒekt/

What should we do?
Pronounce each syllable with different efforts:

  1. Stressed syllables should be pronounced longer and louder;
  2. Unstressed syllables should be pronounced shorter and thinner, or take place from the Schwa (we will discuss it later.)

When training pronunciation, I strongly recommend exaggerating these nuances to ensure we are on the right track and fully comprehend this concept. Eventually, it should sound natural and require less effort.

Properly presenting word stress is key to making our speech more like English, and it can significantly help in shedding “Chinglish” tendencies.

Online Resources:

Sentence-level stress

To meet this criteria, there are two concepts we should understand: Content/Grammar Words and Stressed Words.

In the English world, there are two types of words within a sentence: Content words and Grammar words.

  1. Content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs play an important role in sentence structure and convey main information.
  2. Grammar words like prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and articles are used to link content words to make a complete sentence, we can’t understand a sentence that only includes grammar words.
In the sentence “I would like to read books,” the content words are “I”, “like” “read” and “books”; while the grammar words are “would” and “to.”

In the sentence “I would like to read books,” the content words are I, like, read and books, they should be pronounced clearly and accurately, while would and to are grammar words, and they should be pronounced more softly than those content words.

The second point is to decide which words should be stressed. This is an easy-to-understand concept but hard to implement when we are facing a complex sentence. I will demonstrate it through Chinese examples:

Two examples of stressed word.

We stress some special words in our mother tongue subconsciously, furthermore, and this often influence the meaning.

For instance, we can express “There are beautiful flowers in the park.” in these different ways:

  1. There are beautiful flowers in the park.” We are pointing out the location;
  2. “There are beautiful flowers in the park.” We are emphasizing the flowers, not buildings or trees;
  3. “There are beautiful flowers in the park.” We are emphasizing the place where the beautiful flowers are located.

I suggest following general rules to avoid the potential risk of making mistakes and mispronunciation because the given text is unpredictable when we are sitting at the PTE test. Here are two steps for consideration:

1. Understanding the text.
Rather than speaking without consideration and comprehension, we should first grasp what ideas the writer attempting to convey before we open our mouths. Furthermore, analyzing the elements and structure of the sentence is crucial, including subjects, verbs, objects, content words, grammar words, and clauses.

2. Marking stressed words and unstressed words.
Generally, we stress one word in a phrase, choosing from a range of words, including objects, gerunds, passive verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Below are several examples from an actual test:

Globalisation refers to a set of changes rather than a single change.
In the sentence “Globalisation refers to a set of changes rather than a single change,” the stressed words are “set” and “single.”

Stress what authors attempt to emphasize. In this case, the author is declaring it is a set, not a single change.

You will be introduced briefly to the discipline of child psychology.
In the sentence “You will be introduced briefly to the discipline of child psychology,” the stressed words are “introduced,” “discipline,” and “child.”

We always stress adjectives and adverbs that modify a noun. If they are connected, stress the first one. Similarly, when facing a compound noun, we stress the first noun generally.

Although choosing the stressed words is subjective, they should be chosen from an appropriate scope that I mentioned before.

Online Resources:

Assimilation and deletions

These two concepts were the most interesting part of my learning journey. They make our English speaking vivid and dynamic.

Some voices can be transformed in specific circumstances. Below are several examples:

  1. Using the Schwa. Grammar words and articles can be reduced to a “Schwa sound”, such as “to” /tu/ becoming /tə/, and "than" /ðæn/ becoming /ðən/;
  2. Linking vowels. When a word ends with explosive sounds like /t/, /k/, and /p/ and the following word begins with a vowel sound, we link them together, such as that element becoming tha-telement;
  3. Inserting new sounds. When a word ends with a vowel sound and the following word begins with a vowel sound, we often insert a connecting sound. For instance: many of can be many jof.

There are lots of variations in pronunciation that we need to learn and practice. While this might feel overwhelming for some beginners, it is a vital part of speaking like a native and sounding natural. Keep learning from online resources and practice consistently until you feel comfortable.

Some voices can be dropped in specific circumstances. Below are several examples:

  1. Combining sounds. Link the same consonant sounds that are adjacent, such as in big garden, two /g/ sounds becoming one /g:/ sound but a bit longer;
  2. Dropping sounds. In a rapid speech, we sometimes drop explosive sounds between two consonants, such as an important role becomes an importan role;
  3. Holding sounds. Similarly, we hold back explosive sounds without fully releasing them when these sounds between a vowel and a consonant, such as that person becomes tha-person;
  4. Reducing /h/ sounds. When a word ends with explosive sounds and the following word begins with the /h/ sound, we always reduce the /h/ sound, such as "might have" becomes "migh-t(h)ave" and "an hour" becomes "a-nour."

Online Resources:

Fluency

Rhythm and phrasing

These two concepts are related to the term “Thought groups.” When speaking English, we always separate the sentences into several groups by their meanings, emotions, structures or lengths. Here is an example from the real test:

Two examples of separating sentences.
  1. Many papers you write in college / will require you to include quotes / from one or more sources.
  2. The speaker reminisces about his views / of the English Revolution / when he was a student.

In particular, we break sentences down before prepositions such as “of”, “in” and “that.” Importantly, we should NEVER separate compound words like “the English Revolution.”

Furthermore, I suggest breaking the sentence into smaller fragments for practice, like this:

An example of using high pitch and low pitch.
Many papers / you write in college / will require you / to include quotes / from one or more sources.

However, the PTE test would perfer a longer phrase, so I suggest that each group should have 4 to 7 words.

Now we know what is the term “Thought groups” and how to divide a sentence, the next step is to learn how to present it well. This related to the term ‘intonation and it means words pronounced in a high or low pitch accordingly and intermittently.

Intonation can bring rhythm to speaking, however, it is hard to handle and can cause trouble easily for beginners.

An example of using high pitch and low pitch.

What should we do?

  1. Always present a low pitch to the last word of a thought group and the sentence;
  2. Carefully present a slightly high pitch to the adjectives or adverbs that modify a noun or a noun phrase.

No hesitations

PTE test can detect any hesitation or mispronunciation which can negatively influence our final score, especially in the Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence module.

Despite numerous challenges on test day, such as being disrupted by other test-takers or encountering unfamiliar words, I strongly recommend speaking slowly and confidently to avoid potential risks and maintain fluency.

This strategy is crucial: when we face a word or phrase that is difficult to express and may cause hesitations unavoidably, this may affect our scores in both Pronunciation and Fluency. However, if we express these challenging words slowly and confidently, maintaining a natural flow, it might primarily affect our Pronunciation score.

This is why I strongly advocate for speaking confidently, even when making mistakes.

Summary

This article discusses the knowledge I gained on my English learning journey, including methods to improve pronunciation and an understanding of the PTE speaking module criteria.

Additionally, I’ve decided to update posts in English from now on. It may contain numerous grammatical errors, awkward phrasing and word-choice issues, it’s still a necessary step forward. ‘Practice makes perfect’ is the key lesson from this journey.

我在 2023 年结束之前完成了一件大事

PTE 八炸达成,我的 2023 年大圆满了

一位戴着大眼镜的卡通小男孩坐在书房中的书桌前,正在专注地使用笔记本电脑。桌上摆放着几本书和一支笔,而背景中是装满书籍的书架和温暖的室内照明。

风暴中心

在 2023 年初的时候,我拿到一个深圳互联网公司的 Offer,当时给出了一个让我无法拒绝的待遇,我毅然加入了深圳千万打工人中的一员。

入职之后是让人感到惊喜的。公司地理位置优越,能看到深圳湾、春笋大厦和人才公园;公司楼下有一大片鸟语花香的草坪和水池等景观,人与自然能够和谐相处;公司不用打卡,同事之间结构扁平简单,很好沟通。这是我目前为止职业生涯中最好的一家公司了,待遇、环境、人际、交通全部没有可以投诉的地方。还有一只粘人小猫可以天天摸。

公司的猫咪

直到年中,事情发生了变化。

在 6 月底 7 月初的时候,我发现好像每周都会零星消失一些人,时不时会发现桌子突然清空了。事情开始不对劲。

裁员风暴终于席卷了全公司。从 8 月份开始,公司前台每天都堆满了归还的显示器和笔记本,IT 老哥拿小推车推走一批又一批。坐在我前面两排的产品/运营同事逐渐消失,公司人数从我刚入职时 500+ 骤减到 300+。

公司前台的照片。展示了一排被裁员工交还的的十多台苹果银色笔记本和黑色的 21 寸显示器。
员工交还的笔记本电脑和显示器

到了 8 月份,在一个微妙的时间点 — — 还有 2 周就呆满半年的时候,终于轮到我了。

本来应该是周一通知我的,因为要面谈的人太多了,拖到了周三 🤦。现场情况就是在小会议室里聆听 HR 的裁决,然后平静地签字。

第一次直观感受到这么大的裁员风暴,多少感觉到是有点震撼的。

一个决定

我曾经想过在那里做到退休,但无奈只能接受现实。我无法改变 “大环境”,也改变不了那天在会议室里的裁决,我反而在想:

在互联网公司中做设计刚好 5 年了,我好像一直在上班 / 下班、入职 / 离职、准备作品 / 面试,就没做过其他事情了,不如趁这个机会,认真做下自己想做的事情吧。

正好当时我有在因应公司的需要而在自学英文,只是进度有点缓慢,毕竟只能在非工作时间的时间进行。眼下反正当下也没工作了,干脆就放手一搏,全职学几个月,看看能到什么水平,所以最开始的目的是:

  1. 战胜童年阴影。我在学生时代英文应该是没有及格过的,单词不认识、语法看不懂、音标全不会;
  2. 为职业生涯铺路。如果真能学出点什么名堂出来,说不定还能对之后的工作有些帮助(可能也没帮助,但做了可能有,不做一定没);

之后进行更多的了解之后,发现如果拥有一份受西方世界认可的英语成绩,除了能达到上面两个目的,甚至可能会影响我的人生轨迹:有一个之前从未想像过的 “可能性”。

于是,更加坚定了我的信心。虽然我的基础是很菜,过去的事情已经没法改变了,但抱着《没有人生下来就会》的心态,以及这几年在职场里面学习到了设计内/外的很多东西,我是对自己的学习能力是有信心的,认为这个结果会是乐观的。

最终我下了决定要考 PTE Academic。因为如果我想达到我在前文提到的一些目的,将这件事情利益最大化,我的成绩需要是听说读写这四个科目同时在雅思 8 分(对标 PTE 是 79 分)以上。

而在雅思的口语和写作想要拿到 7+ 难如登天。我干脆来一手曲线救国,PTE Academic 虽然不像雅思那样全球通用,但至少在一些西方国家如澳洲、新西兰、英国和加拿大是一样受到政府机构 / 高校认可的。

Pearson 品牌宣传横幅,标语为 ‘Be yourself in any language.’,上方有 @pearsonlanguage 的社交媒体账户名。右侧有三位开心交谈的女士图像,背景为蓝色。

过程感受

于是乎就开始了漫长的备考路。单词不会?积累;语法不会?问 GPT;哑巴英语?跟读,学音标…

这段三个月全职学 PTE Academic 的历程和我之前还在职的时候学设计、学编程很相似:投入了时间和精力研究某项东西之后,我会喜欢观察里面的一些细节和对比不同之处。随着更多的了解,越来越觉得英文世界很有意思:

  1. 我会很乐意看到一些熟词生义。 比如:interest [n. 利益、股份]、current [n. 电流] 和 lead [n. 铅] 等;
  2. 我会经常向 ChatGPT 提问。 比如问它时态的选择、句子结构的分析和近义词之间的选择等,甚至一些不常见的词根我会问它的来源;
  3. 我会很喜欢去了解并尝试做到一些英语发音中的微妙细节。 比如 Flap T / True T, Light L / Dark L 等。当然也包括考试中很看重的发音现象 Linking 和 Reduction。

在整个过程中我几乎没有感到太多难受的地方,没有很沮丧的情绪,比如 “唉,还有这么多题要刷”。反而,我想的是 “明天需要早起半小时多练下 xx”。

海量的学习资源(B站、小红书、YouTube、ChatGPT 以及各大 PTE 备考平台),这让我很难没有进步,在那段时间我似乎每天都有新东西进脑子,甚至还需要排期进脑子:“今天先研究下单词重音,明天再学下怎么用 Schwa”。

屏幕截图展示了两个自学英语资源的网页,右半部分为 YouTube 频道 ‘Accent’s Way English with Hadar’,突出了频道主 Hadar Shemesh 和她的口号 ‘Speak English Like Yourself And Freaking Rock it!’;左半部分显示了 Bilibili 平台上 ‘Belinda的英语学习日记’ 的内容预览,包括多个英语学习视频的缩略图。

三次考试

首考

我在 9 月底开始了解并练习 PTE 这门考试,当时定了目标是练 2 个月看看能到什么水平,根据成绩调整练习方案,所以报名了 11 月 27 号在广州首考试试水。

2023 年 11 月 27 日首考成绩。听力 70,阅读 69,口语 73, 写作 78,总分 72。

在拿到首考成绩单的时候我是惊喜的,原来我的口语也没那么烂(即便有浓重的粤语口音)。分析成绩之后大概能感受到我离目标还差什么:

  1. 阅读差的比较多。 RW、R 需要投更多时间去练,需要有更准的语法判断和分析句子成份能力。而 RO 则需要多做题掌握技巧和对关键词保持敏感;
  2. 而口语和听力则是需要对 RS 投入更多时间,对校园场景和一些常见短语需要有较高的熟练度。RA 继续维持原本练习节奏;
  3. 写作方面已经很接近目标了,所以不需要花太多时间,把时间留给其他题型。

二战

第二次考试我定在了 12 月中旬,18 号。我是希望在 2023 年把这件事结束的,如果这次还没过的话,还有多一两个礼拜能继续复习和再考。

第二次备考只有 20 天的时间,所以我加大了练习强度:

  1. 整个下午都分配给了口语练习,每天基本上练到嗓子冒烟才停止,还特意买了两瓶枇杷膏缓和一下;
  2. 压缩睡眠时间 1~1.5 小时,换取更多的阅读练习时间。因为我觉得阅读需要有足够多的输入,才能从容面对考试中的各种情况。
有趣的是,即便这样,我这段并没有感觉特别困或没精神,反而特别有干劲儿,可能是多巴胺或内啡肽之类的在起作用了。

在进入考场前我是对自己有信心的,甚至有预感这次应该能过。因为我能通过平常的练习和模考中感受我比第一次考试的状态强了很多。

2023 年 12 月 27 日第二次考试的成绩。听力 77,阅读 76,口语 79, 写作 89,总分 80。

好吧,第二次的结果是很明显有提升,口语和写作达标了,但阅读和听力距离 79 的目标还差了一丁点,已经离我的终极目标非常接近了。

从这两次考试成绩给了一个很明显的信号是:我的备考策略是可行的,继续练阅读RW,R,RO,口语继续练 RS,减少写作的投入时间。剩下的就是运气和临场发挥的事情了。

所以我立刻就报了下周的考试,这应该是最后一个机会了,如果拖到 2024 年,那么做这件事情的代价实在太大了。

三战

最终在 12 月 26 号的考试中我稳定发挥,没什么做得特别好的地方,也没太拉跨的表现,我拿到了理想的结果。

2023 年 12 月 27 日第三次考试的成绩。听力 89,阅读 80,口语 79, 写作 90,总分 86。

在考了三次之后达到了目标分数。由于本身就有将一件无聊的事写成长篇大论的能力,这一次写作拿到了喜人的满分 90 分。小小遗憾是听力差 1 分满分,如果有双满分这张成绩单会好看很多 😭。

我总共备考 PTE 的时间是刚好满 3 个月, 这应该是一个不短的时间,尤其对于成年人来说,少工作一天就少一天收入。只是很庆幸备考过程中不断的收到一些正向反馈,这些都能刺激我继续做这件事情。比如前两次成绩的对比,我花了更多精力做的事情,能在数据上有所体现;又比如一些发音技巧,掌握之后口语流利度能明显提升;或者语法知识点,多熟练掌握一个,考试中或许就能又少一处错误。

达到一个这样的成绩实际上离能够流利和老外对话,或者书写中不犯任何语法错误都是仍然有很大一段距离的。但至少我至少战胜了童年阴影,能说出别人听得懂的英文、用简单的书面语言表达自己的想法和看法,看互联网上的英语材料没那么费劲了,现在也不是所有东西都要翻译了。

此外,更重要的是,并且这份成绩给了我一个 “可能性”。

那么,代价是什么?

对我而言,学英语、考 PTE、拿高分,这几件事同时做到的话代价是比较高的。

金钱

这种英语考试可不便宜,我考了三次一共 ¥5,268;
而且做官方的模拟考试是需要收钱的,这里一共 ¥896;
口语的提升离不开口语老师的反馈,我找过不止一个老师,多角度评判我的口语水平,这里是 ¥1,289;
以上大额开销总盛惠 ¥7,453

如果算上其他交通费、考试后的 “奖励自己” 开销和护嗓枇杷膏等小额开销,加起来应该在 ¥7,700 左右。

不过钱倒是还好,总是能挣回来的,毕竟要继续打三十多年的工,这里区区几千块算不了什么。

时间

时间方面是比较要命的,毕竟时间可是买不回来的。

我从 8 月中被裁员,到 12 月底达到目标,这中间隔了 4 个月,后续重新找工作还需要整理简历、投简历、面试等。至少半年没在工作,这种现象是会遭到未来用人单位的盘问以及质疑 (甚至唾弃?) 的。

视力

我的视力受损了。这段时期每天对着电脑的时间比在职的时候长的多。

在职时好歹晚上差不多到点了就回家,为了第二天早起工作还会早点睡觉,周末还有休息。而我这段时间是没有周末,从早上 8 点多一直对着电脑到晚上 12 到 1 点的,一直在看着密密麻麻的英文字母,每周眼睛面对电脑屏幕的时间应该接近翻倍。

一个明显感受是之前在家里玩 Xbox 我是能看清电视上的字的,现在是完全看不清的,必须坐近一点。去医院眼光之后近视度数多了 75 度。

值得吗

尽管代价不菲,但最终能在 2023 年结束前做到了,我坚定地认为 — — 至少当下认为 — — 是绝对值得的。2024 年我能做出新的规划,不用再被这件事纠缠着了。

虽然这段时间我的职业生涯是按下了暂停键,但获得了那个 “可能性”。3 年后我可能会对自己说 “还好当初做了这个决定,不然就…”;或者 “早知道被裁之后立马找工作了,那段时间真是浪费”,我觉得前者的可能性大一些,具体回答是什么,到时候揭晓吧,反正我能让我的网站一直运行到那个时候。

预告

由于这段时间的备考对我的改变最大的是口语 — — 从一个音标都不会的哑巴到到能正常地说出英语,而且英语口语中确实有很多有意思的地方,下一篇博客我会记录下我这段时间对于英语口语这块的认识和分享一些对我有帮助的学习资源。

❌