Intelligibility is the art of being understood by others. Many students think they need to speak a language flawlessly and with a native-like accent to make themselves clear, but this is not quite true.
While there is a correlation between proficiency and intelligibility, even students of lower general proficiency are capable of expressing what they mean, in a way that the listener understands, if they are using good intelligibility practices.
Being understandable in a second language is often extremely important in work environments, especially as the world becomes more connected and job markets more competitive.
Intelligibility is a vital aspect of communication but it is not exactly a skill in itself. Instead, it is a combination of fluency, pronunciation, and managing your speed of speech. To reflect how important this is for language learners when studying, traveling or at work, we use an Intelligibility Index as part of our Versant English Test scoring.
This index is based on factors affecting how understandable speech is to fluent English speakers. These include things like speed, clarity, pronunciation and fluency. Ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high), the Intelligibility Index shows how intelligible someone’s speech in English is likely to be in a real-world situation.
Let’s go into some activities and exercises you can try in class to help your students improve their intelligibility with their English and speaking skills.
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There are a number of factors that influence a student’s spoken English. Here are some ways to start building it into your classes.
Making a recording can be a good way of getting a clear picture of someone’s current manner of speaking and understanding in what ways their clarity might be improved. You can do this using a smartphone or laptop computer in class or outside of it.
There are plenty of ways to encourage students to speak. Have them answer an open question; for example, ask them to talk for a minute about a topic they are passionate about or tell each other what they did at the weekend.
Listen to the recordings and help them analyze their speech. Identify parts with low levels of intelligibility. This may be related to their pronunciation, how fast they speak, the amount of hesitation, repetition, etc.
You could even take this further by asking another fluent English speaker to listen to the recording and give honest feedback about which parts they found difficult to understand.
Afterward, it’s important to explain why it was difficult to understand and what can be done to improve their intelligibility. The activity below may help.
Listening is a vital part of intelligibility. After all, students have to be able to hear a word before they can say it. Listening also takes focus away from how words are written on the page.
This is key because speakers fluent in English tend to blend words together, so pronouncing each word perfectly in isolation is not a good goal. This kind of practice reinforces poor English pronunciation.
That’s where shadowing comes in.
Shadowing is a useful listen-and-repeat activity that students can use for speaking practice almost anywhere.
Shadowing involves trying to say the same words as the speaker at about the same time (or as fast as possible), for about 30 seconds at a time. Students can pause, try again, and even record and listen back to their own versions. Just like when you sing the words of a song you already know well, you are trying to match the speaker’s pronunciation and pace as best you can.
This will help your students focus on how fluent English speakers modulate speed, use intonation, and blend words together. By repeating what they hear, students can improve their intonation, connected speech and overall fluency.
This simple but fun activity will help your students focus on their individual problem sounds. It will also get them to listen to each other carefully.
Throughout the lesson, as you listen to your students speak, identify a number of words that reflect the pronunciation challenges your students face. Write the words on the board and group the words by phoneme, for example:
/i:/ Heat, Sheep
/ɪ/ Hit, Trip
Above, we can see an issue with the /i:/ and /ɪ/ sounds (the long and short “i”). Once you have enough words to work on, write a list of numbers on the board. Explain that each number has a corresponding word.
1 – Hit 4 – Hat 7 – Head
2 – Heat 5 – Heart 8 – Hood
3 – Hot 6 – Hurt 9 – Hid
As you can see in the above example, the words only differ by one phoneme (heat/hit, hot/hat, heart/hurt, etc.). This will make the exercise more challenging and useful for the students.
Next, identify the vowel sound in each word and write their phonemic symbols on the board.
Drill the sounds and the words until you are confident your students can repeat them successfully. There are a number of phonemic charts online, that can help you identify the phonemes and model the sounds for your students.
Then test the class by calling out a number and having them shout out the corresponding word. Then call out a word and get them to tell you the number. Deal with any problems that arise.
Put students into pairs. Have them read out their phone number only using the words in the list (note they can use a real number or invent one).
Their partner should listen and write down the number which corresponds with each word they hear. They should then swap roles and do the same again.
Finally, get students to check and see whether the number their partner wrote down is correct. Monitor and go back and drill any of the sounds with which students had the most problems.
While problems with individual sounds may occasionally impede understanding, we should also focus on other aspects of pronunciation such as word stress, sentence stress and intonation.
Keep a note of any new vocabulary that comes up during your class. At the end of the lesson, take five minutes to review it with the students. Write each new word on the board and record the word stress using the oO method:
Use ‘o’ to highlight unstressed syllables and ‘O’ to highlight stressed syllables. For example, the stress is on the second syllable of the word “behavior”:
Be-hav-ior = oOo.
The stress is on the first syllable of the word “Saturday”:
Sat-ur-day = Ooo
This has the advantage of recording unstressed as well as stressed syllables. Next, drill this new vocabulary until your students get the hang of it.
To make drilling more interesting, you can also add an element of drama! Have students say the words while expressing different emotions. Ask them to secretly choose an emotion (angry/happy/sad/excited), then say the word and have the other students guess it.
You can also drill whole phrases or even sentences. Backchain drilling is an excellent way to do this and build confidence in lower-level English learners. It involves breaking phrases into sections and having students repeat them after you, from the end of the phrase to the beginning, in this way:
“the test”
“pass the test”
“I’m going to pass the test"
As well as individual sounds and word stress, back chaining also allows you to help students with their intonation and you can also use it to introduce strong and weak forms. Working on multiword expressions and longer phrases with your students will also be helpful.
Employers, schools and organizations use theVersant English Testto assess an individual’s level of English. It covers the two skills of listening and speaking and also includes an Intelligibility Index rating alongside the GSE, Versant and CEFR scores.
This allows students, teachers and employers to see how easily others can understand the candidate.
The following list shows how the index is scored:
This scoring rubric offers a way to assess your students’ intelligibility based on the method used in the Versant English Test.
By giving them lots of support and pronunciation practice and nurturing their confidence to speak without worrying too much about making mistakes, you can help them to improve their clarity over time, allowing them to communicate in clear, understandable spoken English.
Ever wondered why Monday is called Monday or how Wednesday got its name? The names of the days of the week in English have fascinating origins, rooted in ancient history and steeped in mythology. Understanding these origins not only enriches our language ability but also provides intriguing insights into cultural heritage.
Have you ever wondered which world languages are spoken by the largest number of people globally? Whether you’re a language enthusiast or someone looking to learn a new language, understanding the most spoken languages around the world can be incredibly insightful. In this blog post, we’ll explore the top languages by number of speakers, shedding light on languages with the most native speakers and widely spoken languages globally.
Spoken languages are a vital part of human communication, culture and identity. With over 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, each language has its unique characteristics, nuances and significance. Understanding the most spoken languages globally provides valuable insights into geopolitics, economics and social dynamics. In this article, we will explore the top languages spoken in the world, their distribution and use.
Knowing which languages are most popular worldwide can influence your language learning decisions. Enhancing your language skills in these widely spoken languages can significantly boost your communication abilities and cultural understanding. It can open up opportunities for travel, business and cultural exchange. Additionally, understanding global language popularity can give you a broader perspective of the world’s linguistic diversity.
Measuring language popularity is a complex task that involves various factors, including the number of native speakers, global influence, and use as a second or foreign language. The criteria for measuring language popularity include:
Number of native speakers: This refers to the number of people who speak a language as their first or native language. Languages with the highest number of native speakers often have a significant cultural and historical impact.
Global influence: This measures the extent to which a language is used in international communication, business, science and diplomacy. Languages with a broad global influence are often used as lingua francas in various regions.
Use as a second or foreign language: This considers the number of people who speak a language as a second language or foreign language. Languages that are widely taught and learned around the world tend to have a larger speaking population.
By considering these criteria, we can better understand why certain languages are more prominent and widely spoken globally.
Here’s a closer look at the ten most spoken languages by number of speakers:
When evaluating these languages, it's important to consider not just the number of native speakers but also the total number of language speakers, including those who speak it as a second language.
Speakers: Approximately 1.5 billion
Native speakers: Around 360 million
Regions: Widely spoken in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Highlights: English is the most widely spoken language worldwide when combining native and non-native speakers. It's the primary language in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. English is the dominant language in international business, science and technology.
Speakers: Over 1.1 billion
Native speakers: About 920 million
Regions: Mainly in China, Taiwan and Singapore
Highlights: Mandarin is the language with the largest number of native speakers. It's one of the six official languages of the United Nations and has a significant cultural and historical importance.
Speakers: Around 600 million
Native speakers: Approximately 341 million
Regions: Predominantly in India and Nepal
Highlights: Hindi is predominantly spoken in India and Nepal, with approximately 341 million native speakers. It is one of the official languages of India and is spoken by a large portion of the Indian population. It has numerous dialects and is written in the Devanagari script.
Speakers: Approximately 560 million
Native speakers: About 460 million
Regions: Spain, Latin America and parts of the United States
Highlights: Spanish is the official language in 21 countries and is widely spoken in the Americas. In many of these countries, Spanish serves as the national language, playing a crucial role in government, education and media. It’s known for its rich literature and cultural heritage.
Speakers: Around 280 million
Native speakers: About 77 million
Regions: France, parts of Africa, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland
Highlights: French is another of the six official languages of the United Nations. It's widely used in international diplomacy and has a significant number of speakers in Africa due to France's colonial history.
Speakers: Approximately 270 million
Native speakers: Around 310 million
Regions: Middle East and North Africa
Highlights: Arabic is a central Semitic language that is the liturgical language of Islam. It has many dialects, with Modern Standard Arabic being used in formal settings and media. Arabic has numerous spoken forms, with significant variations in dialects across different regions.
Speakers: Around 265 million
Native speakers: About 230 million
Regions: Bangladesh and parts of India
Highlights: Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and the second most spoken language in India. Alongside other languages like Hindi and Urdu, Bengali plays a crucial role in the cultural and linguistic landscape of the region. It’s known for its rich literary tradition.
Speakers: Approximately 220 million
Native speakers: Around 220 million
Regions: Brazil, Portugal and parts of Africa
Highlights: Portuguese is mainly spoken in Brazil, which is the largest Portuguese-speaking country. It has a growing number of speakers in Africa.
Speakers: Around 258 million
Native speakers: Approximately 154 million
Regions: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Highlights: Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and is widely spoken in the former Soviet Union countries.
Speakers: Approximately 128 million
Native speakers: Around 128 million
Regions: Japan
Highlights: Japanese is predominantly spoken in Japan and is known for its three writing systems—Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. It has a rich cultural history and is influential in technology and entertainment.
Understanding the most spoken languages in the world can provide valuable insights for language learners. Developing strong language skills in these world languages can open up numerous opportunities for travel, business and cultural exchange. Whether you’re looking to enhance your travel experiences, broaden your cultural horizons, or improve your career prospects, learning one of these widely spoken languages could be a significant advantage.
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Ehsan Gorji is an Iranian teacher and educator with 18 years of experience in English language education. He collaborates on various ELT projects with different language schools around the globe. Ehsan currently owns and manages THink™ Languages and also works as a TED-Ed Student Talks Leader.
Learning has always been an interesting topic to explore in the language education industry. Every week, a lot of webinars are delivered on how learning another language could be more successful, lots of articles are written on how to maximize learning, and many discussions take place between teaching colleagues about how they could surprise their language learners with more amazing tasks and games. In our lesson plans, too, we put learners into focus and try to write learning objectives that will benefit them in the real world.
