הקש וחזו — קצב, הדגשה והשלמת המשפט

Can you keep the word that changes the message?

• Compare The laboratory is open with The laboratory is not open. One short word changes the action a listener takes. In Listen and Repeat, reproduce the sentence you hear rather than improving or paraphrasing it.
• Use this lesson to plan a recorded rehearsal. Written checks teach what to notice; they cannot hear your pronunciation or measure spoken performance.

A missing “not” can send a whole class to a locked door.

Hold meaning in short groups

• In the original sentence The workshop has moved / to the library / this afternoon, the groups carry an event, a destination and a time. Hear how they belong together, then repeat the whole sentence without adding pauses after every word.
• Keep small words inside their groups: to the library includes both to and the. Meaning helps memory, but the task still asks for the words you heard.

Stress a word without losing its neighbours

• Say PHOtograph, phoTOgrapher and photoGRAPHic. These are useful contrasts because the stressed syllable moves. Use a dictionary recording to check the vowel sounds as well as the stress.
• In a sentence, content words may be more prominent, but quiet grammar words still matter. Clear speech combines sensible grouping with audible words; loudness alone is not clarity.

Check your own sound pattern

• Record cost / costs and ask / asked in short sentences. Compare the endings: they can carry number or tense. Practise an ending slowly, then bring it back into a whole sentence.
• Try think / this for /θ/ and /ð/. Choose contrasts your own recording shows you confuse; Mandarin and other first-language backgrounds do not make every learner's needs identical.

Separate rehearsal from review

• First attempt: hear a sentence once with the text hidden, repeat it and save the recording. Review: reveal the words, replay both recordings and mark the exact omission or sound that needs work.
• Repair one feature, then try a fresh sentence. A memorised successful repeat shows learning of that sentence; transfer to a new sentence checks whether the repair helps more widely.

A repeat routine you can check

• Do it with a microphone now: TOEFL speaking practice plays each sentence, records your repeat in the page (nothing uploads), and shows the text only after you record. The checklist there names what to listen for: omissions, substitutions, grammar endings, intelligibility, phrasing.

Task description checked on 2 October 2026: ETS Speaking. All rehearsal sentences are original site examples.

Quiet words can carry the loudest difference