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DIAGNOSTIC TEST 1: Sentence Stress errors.                           

This is a little test to let you know if you make a lot of sentence stress errors when you speak. The test has many word combinations (usually two words together, many of which are compound words), and you have to choose which of the words should be spoken with more stress than the other word(s).

Sometimes the two words are joined together, as in 'bedroom'; sometimes they are connected with a hyphen (e.g., 'well-dressed'); and sometimes they are two separate words, combined to express a specific idea, such as a 'big dog'.

In the IELTS Speaking Test, examiners do not usually decrease your (pronunciation) score if you make a few of these errors and the examiner still understands you. However, these errors can sometimes make your speech harder to understand for a native English-speaker. And when your speech becomes harder to understand, your score might be decreased. 

There is another reason why this is important. In the IELTS Speaking test, you can only get a 2, 4, 6 or 8 for pronunciation and the majority of candidates in China get a 6, even with a few of the kind of errors that you will see in this test. However, if you would like to get an 8, you would need to make very few of these errors. (Maybe one is allowable.) You should also understand that to get an 8 for pronunciation, several other aspects of your pronunciation have to be very good, not just sentence stress.

This test was made because sentence stress errors involving two-word combinations are the most common kind of sentence stress error, especially for Chinese students.  

INSTRUCTIONS 

  1. You will hear someone pronouncing the word combinations that are listed in the table below, both correctly and incorrectly. The heavy black printing in the table is the word that the speaker stresses. In A, the first word is stressed; in B, the second (and in C, the third). You must choose which is the correct way to say this word combination, A or B (sometimes there is also C.) 
  2. As mentioned above, the heavy black printing represents strong stress. This means that the heavy black printing is pronounced louder (and a little longer) than the other parts of the test item. 
  3. The speaker will say each choice twice.
  4. This test has one hundred test items.
  5. Notice that you will actually be doing a listening test, not a pronunciation test but it’s a good idea to try to pronounce the words yourself to help you decide the correct answer. Despite the fact that this is a listening test and not a speaking test, there is a strong relationship between listening and speaking - what you think is the correct choice when you hear the two different pronunciations (the correct one and the incorrect one) is probably similar to the way you would try to pronounce the words.
  6. Write the numbers 1 to 100 on a piece of paper and then write your choice of correct answer next to the corresponding number. (Or you could print out the table shown below and circle which one you think is correct.)
  7. Each test item is shown in an example sentence below the table. The meaning of each test item is the meaning of the item in the example sentence. (This is especially important for the last two items in the test.) These sentences will also help you understand the meaning of the word combination, if it is new to you. 
  8. You should read the whole test and read these examples, aloud, before you do the actual test. As mentioned above, you will probably find that it is easier to decide which word should be stressed when you speak the word combination in the sentence.
  9. Make sure you know how to use the, ‘Pause’ button so that you can stop the recording if you need to. This is not a speed test; take your time!
  10. Below the table, you will find a link to the Answers. You should do the complete test before you check the answers. The reason for this is that the aim of the test is not only to see how many test items you get correct but also to find out what particular type you get wrong most of the time. If you check the answers as you do the test, you will start to get an idea of the 'rules' for saying these and that will cause you to get an unclear picture of what mistakes you make now. The answers also include some explanations to help you better understand your mistakes. (If you find the explanations too difficult to understand, just try to remember the 'rules'.)
  11. After you have checked to see whether your answers are correct or not, and after you have read the explanations, it might be a good idea to do the test again, just to see how much you really learned. 
  12. It takes 49 minutes to do the test, (the recording is that long) but it is worthwhile if you can correct some basic misunderstandings that many Chinese people have about this aspect of pronunciation.
  13. Once again: First read aloud the example sentences from below the table. Then return to the table and click "PLAY RECORDING" to listen to the recording and choose which is correct, A, B (or C). After you have finished all 100 of the test items, click "ANSWERS" to check how correct you were. Then read the explanations.

   

PLAY RECORDING

(Right click to download to your computer.)

 

                               A                               B                              C     

1

a blackboard

a blackboard

 

2

a brother-in-law

a brother-in-law

a brother-in-law

3

a build-up

a build-up

 

4

a checkup

a checkup

 

5

a chocolate lover

a chocolate lover

 

6

a civil war

a civil war

 

7

a computer game

a computer game

 

8

Central America

Central America

 

9

a driver’s license

a driver’s license

 

10

a fishing village

a fishing village

 

11

a foreign tourist

a foreign tourist

 

12

a grandmother

a grandmother

 

13

a greenhouse

a greenhouse

 

14

a haircut

a haircut

 

15

a local official

a local official

 

16

a luxury apartment

a luxury apartment

 

17

a million dollars

a million dollars

 

18

a musical instrument

a musical instrument

 

19

a national park

a national park

 

20

a non-smoking zone

a non-smoking zone

a non-smoking zone

21

a paper towel

a paper towel

 

22

a password

a password

 

23

a printout

a printout

 

24

a scenic spot

a scenic spot

 

25

a school teacher

a school teacher

 

26

a snowman

a snowman

 

27

a speed limit

a speed limit

 

28

a stone lion

a stone lion

 

29

a student dormitory

a student dormitory

 

30

a summer vacation

a summer vacation

 

31

a sunset

a sunset

 

32

a toy rabbit

a toy rabbit

 

33

a traditional story

a traditional story

 

34

a travel agency

a travel agency

 

35

a waterfall

a waterfall

 

36

a watermelon

a watermelon

 

37

a white mouse

a white mouse

 

38

a wooden box

a wooden box

 

39

air pollution

air pollution

 

40

an apartment building

an apartment building

 

41

an income

an income

 

42

an office worker

an office worker

 

43

an output

an output

 

44

an upgrade

an upgrade

 

45

an urgent letter

an urgent letter

 

46

a boyfriend

a boyfriend

 

47

a car park

a car park

 

48

Chinese art

Chinese art

 

49

coal mining

coal mining

 

50

a college student

a college student

 

51

current affairs

current affairs

 

52

decision making

decision making

 

53

drug trafficking

drug trafficking

 

54

an old dog

an old dog

 

55

global warming

global warming

 

56

half a day

half a day

 

57

handwriting

handwriting

 

58

healthcare

healthcare

 

59

a hotspot

a hotspot

 

60

human nature

human nature

 

61

international trade

international trade

 

62

modern art

modern art

 

63

natural gas

natural gas

 

64

a newspaper

a newspaper

 

65

next year

next year

 

66

one point three billion people

one point three billion people

one point three billion people

67

orange juice

orange juice

 

68

outer space

outer space

 

69

a good man

a good man

 

70

overtime

overtime