How does speaking work on englishcentral.com?

• Pronunciation: how you speak vs. how it should be spoken
• Fluency: analysing unnecessary silences and your speaking speed (compared to a fluent and/or native speaker)
• Completion: if you fully speak/pronounce all words, i.e., do not "swallow"

3 types of pronunciation feedback

There are 3 kinds of feedback you receive in the "Speak" mode:

• Real-time feedback
• Line points
• Overall grades

Real-time feedback

When speaking a line (in the player), the score you get is called "percentile." It shows how much your pronunciation matches the pronunciation of a native/fluent English speaker (pronouncing the same line).

After you have spoken a line, you will see immediate feedback.

Meaning:

• Yellow/orange word: your pronunciation was very different from how a native speaker would pronounce this word
• Red word: this word was not spoken
• +: inappropriate silence or unusual speed, i.e., too slow or too fast.

Line points

When you have spoken all lines, you will see a summary. In this summary, you can see how many points you got per each line.

Overall grade

In the summary, you can also see your overall speaking grade (for this video).

This grade shows how well you have pronounced all lines on the whole. See the following table to know which CEFR level your overall speaking grade corresponds to.

Tips on getting a higher overall grade

1. Do not pause when there is a comma: you will get a lower grade when pausing!
2. If you think the system cannot hear you properly, try changing microphones, e.g., loudspeaker, earplugs, headset, and/or using the EnglishCentral app.
3. If your score does not improve after 7 attempts, come back later and try it again.
4. Be mindful: it is harder to get a good grade on short sentences.
5. Keep in mind: how the sentence is spoken in the video is not the only correct way. Millions of native English speakers have spoken the line you are trying to pronounce; it is only an example of how you can speak the line!
6. Most importantly: keep on trying; practice makes perfect!  

Your "Speaking" tab

All lines you speak are automatically recorded in the "Speaking" tab on englishcentral.com. Once you master a line, it will be removed from the "weak" list.