Tip of the Week PTE

Mastering Vowel Sounds for PTE Success

While vowel sounds aren’t the only aspect of effective communication, they play a significant role in the PTE (Pearson Test of English) due to the test’s reliance on computer-based scoring. Unlike human interactions, the PTE test can’t account for spontaneity or body language, making precise pronunciation crucial.

This challenge is particularly pronounced for speakers of Latin-based languages or languages such as Japanese, where vowels are consistent and straightforward. English, however, has around 26 vowel combinations, depending on the accent, making it a complex task.

While apps won’t make you fluent overnight, their repetitive exercises can significantly improve your vowel pronunciation, giving you an edge in the PTE exam. Here are five apps to help you master those tricky vowel sounds.

Here are a few to try out:

LearnEnglish Sounds Right: A phonemic chart app by the British Council to practice vowel sounds.

ELSA Speak: Uses speech recognition to correct pronunciation and improve vowel sounds

Say It: English Pronunciation: Developed by Oxford University Press, it helps with vowel clarity

Pronuncian: Offers detailed vowel sound practice with diagrams and audio

FluentU: Uses real-world videos to teach vowel sounds in context

Whatever way you decide to approach improving your vowels sounds, you need feedback. Many apps provide that, but they be focusses on one specific standard accent, while the PTE accepts variations from a lot of accents (from India to Texan to Jamaican and Irish). If you have an American accent app. in Australia, for instance, it might do a great job at standard American accent, but you may waste a lot of time correcting sounds that don’t need correcting as PTE is absolutely fine with a broad Aussie accent. I native speaker is a good source of feedback, even better a trained ESL teacher.

Let me know any other apps that you recommend and let me know how you go with these ones.

Happy repeating!