Accents

**Senthilpushpa** · 12-11-2003, 09:42 PM

Originally posted by Erin Billy

Wow, you truly are a citizen of the new world, aren't you? What is "Mancunian," by the way?

I hate to say it, but yes, if your accent is strong and hard to understand, then your TSE score will be lower. The whole point of the TSE is to see whether others can understand you. If you have a rather thick accent but it is perfectly intelligible, then it should be okay.

I had a Korean student once who could write some of the most beautiful essays I'd ever read, native or non-. But his accent was so heavy that I couldn't understand him when he spoke. We had to communicate by letters. He told me (in his letters) that he was an English teacher in Korea. He was a very interesting guy, and even today, I still think about him and hope that he's doing well.

So, do others have a hard time understanding you? Or can you carry on a conversation normally?

Hi Erin,
I thought only the pronunciation matters our speaking, make others difficult to understand.

Do we have to change our accent also?

thnx.

**vicki ti-in** · 12-11-2003, 11:12 PM

Hello again:

I just wanted to wade in on the "accents" issue. An accent is expected since you will be a "foreigner" taking a spoken English competency exam. An accent is like a little salt added to a good dish. Heavy accents (Japanese, Korean, Russian, Lithuanian, etc.) can be an impediment. However, some of you have already put forth the cure: Speak slowly. If you keep your rate of speech at about 80-90 words per minute you will be forced to pronounce words (English words) correctly.

Thanks!

Vicki

**Senthilpushpa** · 12-12-2003, 02:37 AM

Hi vicki ti-in,
What about Srilankan accent?
thnx.

**Erin** · 12-12-2003, 02:45 AM

No particular accent is penalized--that would be a kind of discrimination. What matters is how easy it is to understand the test taker.

It often seems that certain languages have stronger accents, but the degree of accent is related more to the amount of training the person has had than that person's native language.

That said, there are some languages that are a bit closer to English in terms of pronunciation, and speakers of those languages may have some advantage, but overall, the amount and effectiveness of the English language training of the test taker is a greater indicator of success on the TSE than anything else.

**Senthilpushpa** · 12-12-2003, 03:00 AM

Originally posted by Erin Billy

Originally posted by zara ali

I 'D LIKETO KNOW WHAT FACTORS CAN INFLUENE MY TSE SCORE
WHAT ABOUT NEW FORMAT OF TSE

This type of question should go in the TSE forum.

This question is already on TSE forum! Why didn't you answer the question?

**Erin** · 12-12-2003, 03:19 AM

Originally posted by Senthilpushpa

This question is already on TSE forum! Why didn't you answer the question?

? ?

I don't understand. Do you think I myself can answer every single question on this forum? Right now there are over 42,000 posts.

**Senthilpushpa** · 12-12-2003, 03:25 AM

Sorry.
I didn't expect you to answer. I thought why you asked to post in TSE forum? I wonder, there is any other page?
thnx.

**Erin** · 12-12-2003, 03:36 AM

Each thread should have one topic. Not fair to "hijack" the questions of others with your own topics.

Additionally, that post is quite old: 2002 Dec 19.

In the last year, many things may have changed--I may have changed the organization of forums, topics, etc.