PTE Speaking Scoring Criteria – Importance of Pronunciation and Fluency
In this article, we are going to deal with Speaking part of PTE. This section contains maximum marks.
PTE Speaking Scoring Criteria – Importance of Pronunciation and Fluency
First of all, we are going to discuss scoring criteria. Speaking items marks are awarded on the basis of Content, Pronunciation, and Fluency. There are five marks for each of the following.
Content – 5 Marks
Pronunciation – 5 Marks
Fluency – 5 Marks
For instance, One Describe Image part contains 15 Marks. There are approximately 8-10 items, so technically each and every item contains 15 marks. Pronunciation and Fluency are accessed as an ongoing process.
Pronunciation in PTE Speaking Section
Five marks: Native-like – You will get five marks if your pronunciation is native-like (it doesn’t mean the accent). Don’t try to copy accents like British, US accent or Australian accent. Pronunciation is different than accent, so make sure you talk in your own accent. It like if you have Indian accent then also you can get 90 marks in Indian accent only.
Four marks: Advanced
Three marks: Good – Three marks for good pronunciation
Two marks: Intermediate – Two for intermediate
One mark: Intrusive
Zero mark – If you are speaking in lane pronunciation
Fluency in PTE Speaking Section
Fluency isn’t speeding, so make sure you don’t talk way too fast. If you talk fast you may improve in fluency, your fluency marks will be more but your pronunciation marks will drop. Because when we try to speak fast we “eat” some of the words or don’t speak some of the words correctly. So make sure your fluency should be average in terms of speed.
Five marks – Five marks are given if you fluency is native-like. Again remember it’s not accent, its “native-like” means your fluency is smooth, you are talking at a smooth pace.
Four marks – Four marks are given if you have advanced fluency
Three marks – Three marks for good
Two marks – Two marks are given if you have intermediate fluency
One mark – One mark for limited
Zero mark – Zero marks is given if you are disfluent
One thing more, you might have notice fluency and pronunciation – If your fluency is four or three in 10 questions, then you can’t improve in next questions.
Note – Suppose in Read Aloud you got three marks in fluency. You can’t change your fluency frequently during the test. So technically you will lose two marks in every speaking item of an exam. This is why fluency and pronunciation are important. If your content is incorrect in one question, you may correct in next question. But fluency and pronunciation are difficult to correct time to time in the exam. When you start talking, you try to start at normal speed in the whole test. Don’t try to change speed, as you can’t-do that if you try to change speed or way of talking you will lose marks in fluency because you can’t-do that.
For instance, suppose your pronunciation and fluency was very good in all other sections except wanted to describe an image or retell lecture. Your overall speaking marks will be less because pronunciation and fluency are accessed as an ongoing process which begins with the first item and remains constant till the last speaking item. So make sure that pronunciation and fluency are almost equal in all items and your pace should be stable during the whole speaking section. Just do not try to change the style of speaking in each and every item of PTE Speaking. So make sure just maintain continues speed and continues the flow of speaking.