What did you say? I didn't quite get that?

Well, it had just happened to me.

Lost in the pronunciation

Lately, I’ve been speaking with a number of English language trainers and coaches.

These conversations typically begin with an introduction to Speakho—an AI-powered tool I’m building to assess and help users practice spoken English. My goal in reaching out is to gather feedback from experts in the field: to understand what truly matters more in spoken communication—pronunciation, or grammar and vocabulary?

Recently, I had a particularly insightful conversation with a language coach. He shared that in his opinion, pronunciation does not play a key role. He believed that pronunciation wasn't crucial for his advanced (C1/C2) students, as they rarely make pronunciation mistakes and their accents don't hinder understanding. He felt pronunciation was more relevant for junior-level students, while he focused on teaching phrasal verbs, idioms, and colloquialisms to his advanced learners.

Our conversation later shifted to Indian food. As a fellow street-food enthusiast, I mentioned how I sometimes add "red chilly" to make my food spicier. To my surprise, he looked confused. I repeated "red chilly," assuming he didn't recognize the spice, and began to explain it. His face then lit up as he exclaimed, "Oh, you said 'red chilly'!"

Initially, I felt a sense of accomplishment, thinking my detailed explanation had clarified his confusion. However, he, being a good teacher, gently explained that I had spoken "Red Chilly" too fast and hadn't emphasized the 'd' phoneme enough, making it sound like "Rechilly" to him and he got confused by this new spice name.

This was an eye-opening moment for both of us. For him, it challenged his earlier belief that accent and pronunciation didn't matter much for advanced students, a category I also fall into. For me, it was a revelation, especially since the first sentence of the Speakho pitch deck is: 

During a conversation, have you ever heard the other person questioning you like, 'What did you say? I didn't quite get that'? The reason might be that your spoken English is not easily understandable.

The exact scenario had just happened to me!

I realized something important: while I’ve been building Speakho for learners who lack confidence in speaking English, it’s just as valuable for people like me—fluent but overconfident—who may overlook small but crucial pronunciation cues.

I'm not sure if this experience changed the coach's mind about the importance of pronunciation for his students, but it certainly changed mine. I now understand that pronunciation is vital for everyone, regardless of their English proficiency level. 

As an advanced speaker, you're likely to have more opportunities to speak professionally or in public. And in those moments, it’s not just about having the right words or grammar—it’s about being clearly understood.

Let's not be overconfident and instead be more mindful in our communication, especially in professional settings, by being extra cautious and considerate about how we speak and how others comprehend our message.

Speakho provides Spoken English Assessment reports with actionable insights, e.g., suggestions for improvement areas and lessons. You need to record a passage that is about two minutes long. You will get a detailed assessment report containing the number of errors and error patterns.

Generally, there are some patterns in which we make mistakes. For example, sometimes, while speaking, we drop the ending sound of the word. Sometimes, we do not speak the phoneme sound “r” properly because we do not roll our tongue correctly. The report contains the top five error patterns. Along with the error patterns, it will also provide reference lessons (online training material) to help rectify those error patterns.

Happy Speaking!