uh and um while speaking

[sweetu1995]

Does it affect the speaking score significantly ? I 'uh' around 3-4 times in a 60 sec speech

[Englishraven]

I 'um' and 'uh' while I'm responding to TOEFL speaking questions as well (I'm a TOEFL tutor, actually, but I regularly respond to test items under test conditions myself to keep myself sharp and know what it is like for test takers).

In fact, almost every native speaker 'um's and 'uh's while speaking naturally - and for a listener it can be an important indication that additional information is coming (like an example) or a change of topic is about to take place.

So basically, ums and uhs are fine in your TOEFL speaking response!

However, if they become pronounced - like "I um, uh, uh, prefer to, um --- uh, yes - I prefer to - um - take risks and - uh - uh - try new things... Uh... um, yes, I feel this way because... um... uh..." then it is starting to impact on the listener's ability to understand your thoughts clearly, and makes you sound uncertain and incapable of the task at hand. That's when it will hurt your score.

Hope that helps,

~ Jason

[sweetu1995]

Thanks so much Jason!

In my case, it is mostly between 2 sentences. So I think I need not worry about perfection right now

[TOEFL Corey]

No, I don't think you need to worry. I agree with Jason that this is very natural, even for native speakers like ourselves (I've been speaking American English for close to 40 years!!).

What I've noticed with the students I tutor is that the ahhhhhhs and ummmms become problematic when they occur in UNNATURAL places, like in between subjects and verbs, verbs and objects, etc.... (The man UMMMMM thinks that UMMMMMM it is a good policy to UMMMMM require......)

Over time, I've realized that the leading cause of this has been "running through the stop signs" and not taking breaks/pauses at the appropriate places. When students are very stressed out and worried about the clock (finishing their responses within the 45 or 60 seconds), they often speak too fast and also fail to slow down and stop naturally at the end of individual sentences. When this occurs, the body basically revolts and demands its breaks (as well as oxygen!!!). That's when we hear the ummms and ahhhhs in places we wouldn't naturally expect them -- so I guess it's really a negative consequence of incorrect/unnatural pacing and/or pausing. (In your case, though, it sounds like you are well within natural speaking expectations...)

[Englishraven]

Very good points, Corey, and I support them totally.

Yes, a lot of people 'damage' their speaking performance by trying to speak too quickly and trying to cover massive amounts of information in a limited time. This causes the stop-sign-violation UMMMMs Corey mentioned, but it also distorts pronunciation at the problematic sound and syllable level. Your brain only has so much space and speed, and the more you focus on one thing (speaking quickly about a lot of things), the less time your brain has to maintain good rhythm and pronunciation.

A couple of rules of thumb for me are:

1. If you have to speak really quickly in order to cover the content in an answer, you're obviously saying too much (covering more content than the answer actually requires);

2. Don't use all of your prep time in questions 4 and 6 to write down additional notes you can remember from the lecture. It's impossible to say in 60 seconds everything a lecturer said in 80-90 seconds! You need to be selective and able to summarize and paraphrase - and you can't do that effectively without using your prep time to actually look over your notes and make some strategic decisions about what to talk about from the content. Rapid, incomprehensible speech and poorly placed UMMMs happen when test takers try to read aloud all the details from their listening notes as fast as they possibly can.