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.
Reproducir
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.
At app Languages, 2024 has been a landmark year full of innovation, connection, and impactful resources for businesses worldwide. We’ve worked on so many things with the aim to empower global workforces and help organizations unlock the potential of language skills to drive business success. Here's how we made a difference this year.
As the new year approaches, it's the perfect time to reflect on our teaching practices and plan engaging, effective lessons for our English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Thoughtfully crafted lesson plans can make a significant difference in the learning outcomes and engagement levels of your students. Whether you're teaching young children, teenagers, or adults, the principles of effective lesson planning remain consistent. Here are some ideas, hints and tips to help you create dynamic and successful ESL lessons for students of all ages.
Begin each lesson with clear, achievable objectives. What do you want your students to learn by the end of the lesson? Objectives provide a roadmap for both you and your students, ensuring that everyone is focused and aware of the goals. For example, an objective might be "Students will be able to use past tense verbs to describe their weekend activities." Clear objectives provide direction and help you measure student progress.
To cater to different learning styles and keep students engaged, incorporate a mix of teaching methods and activities. Here are a few ideas:
Authentic materials—such as newspapers, menus, brochures and videos—expose students to real-world language and contexts. These materials can make lessons more interesting and relevant, helping students see the practical application of their language skills. Even better, they’re everywhere, so easy to find. Here are some more suggestions for how to select and use authentic materials in your English language teaching.
Teachers are already used to leveraging technology to enhance lessons utilizing online resources, language learning apps and interactive platforms to create a dynamic learning environment. Why not take this a step further by using AI to create your own resources. Take a look at our blog on How to make the most of AI in the classroom for some more ideas.
How can teachers use the Global Scale of English (GSE) and AI to help students set and achieve language learning goals for the new year?
As the new year rolls around, it’s the perfect time for students to set fresh language learning goals. But for teachers, it’s not just about inspiring students—it’s about giving them clear, measurable goals that they can actually achieve. That’s where the GSE, a very powerful tool, comes in. It can help teachers create personalized learning paths based on where students are right now and guide them toward their language goals throughout the year. Let’s dive into how the GSE can work to boost student progress.
The GSE is a precise framework that measures English proficiency with remarkable detail. Each score on the GSE aligns with specific speaking, listening, reading and writing competencies. For instance, a student with a GSE score of 50 might handle everyday conversations comfortably (B1 level), while a score of 75 indicates functioning at a more advanced level (C1).
What sets the GSE apart is its granularity—it goes beyond general levels of "intermediate" or "advanced," allowing teachers to identify exactly what their students can do at any stage. This level of detail enables teachers to set targeted, skill-specific goals for every learner, ensuring personalized and purposeful progression.
Before setting goals, it’s important to determine each student’s current standing. The GSE is an excellent tool for this because it provides a detailed breakdown of a student's skills. Teachers can use GSE-aligned assessments to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, which gives a clearer picture than just knowing if a student is at an “intermediate” or “advanced” level.
Once you know where students are, you can set a baseline. For instance, if a student’s reading score is 52, you’ll know that they are likely in the B1 range, and you can target specific skills (like improving vocabulary or understanding main ideas) to move them forward.
Now that you know where each student stands, it's time to set some goals. These should be realistic, measurable and achievable based on their current level and the time span involved. The key is to pick goals that will push them to improve without overwhelming them. The GSE has detailed descriptions of what students can do at each level. You can pinpoint specific skills that need attention by looking at these descriptors. We know that large goals can feel intimidating, so break them into smaller, manageable chunks. Here, the GSE is an amazing resource, thanks to its granularity.
Using the GSE Learning Objectives (LOs) in conjunction with an LLM (Large Language Model)* opens up a world of possibilities for creating focused activities at the right level for each student. Here are some key points on how this combination enhances personalized learning:
By combining the GSE LOs and harnessing the power of an LLM like ChatGPT, teachers can create personalized activities that cater to individual students' language needs, promote active learning, and foster continuous improvement.
*Disclaimer:Teachers should check and verify the level based on their understanding of their students, as LLMs like ChatGPT may notassess levels accurately. While GSE Learning Objectives can assist, it's essential to check and adjust its outputs accordingly. This could involve consulting GSE Grammar and Vocabulary to confirm appropriate levels or utilizing the Text Analyzer to ensure the text aligns with the desired level.
Setting goals is just the start—tracking progress and adjusting those goals as needed is just as important. Throughout the year, teachers should regularly check in with students to make sure they’re on track. How can we monitor and adjust? Here are some tips.
Teachers should schedule regular one-on-one sessions with students to review their progress. The GSE can clearly show students their progress.
If students are achieving their goals faster than expected, adjusting their targets is important to keep them challenged. If they’re struggling, the goals might need to be more achievable, with smaller, more gradual steps.
Using the GSE can help students set clear, measurable goals and steadily progress throughout the year. By assessing where students are starting, setting specific GSE-based goals, creating personalized learning paths with AI, and continuously tracking progress, teachers can create a more dynamic and effective learning experience for their students. The new year is the perfect opportunity to help students improve their English and achieve their goals—and with these tools, teachers have everything they need to guide students toward success.
