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Listen and Repeat — rhythm, stress and finishing the sentence
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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.
- Original rehearsal sentence: Please leave the signed forms at the reception desk. Listen to a partner say it while the text is hidden. Repeat it, then compare your recording with the original.
- Check signed, plural forms, and at the reception desk separately. Knowing the general request does not show that you reproduced those details.
You miss one word halfway through the sentence. What should you do?
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Continue clearly and preserve as much of the original wording as you can. This is rehearsal advice, not a fixed comparison of scoring penalties.
Must you speak as slowly as possible to make a repeat accurate?
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Use an intelligible pace and natural grouping. Excessive pauses can separate words that belong together; speed alone does not establish accuracy.
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.
What distinguishes PHOtograph from phoTOgrapher in these stress examples?
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The stressed syllable moves. Stress and vowel quality both help word recognition; this is not a ranking of all pronunciation features.
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.
- If you lose a word, continue as clearly as you can. Do not invent an extra phrase to make the meaning sound better.
- No fixed rule here promises that a restart, pause or missed consonant costs a particular score. Written practice cannot grade any of them.
What sound feature distinguishes cost from costs?
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Costs adds final /s/. A recording can show whether you preserve it; practice needs differ between learners.
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.
- Keep the original message and wording, including negatives, endings and quiet grammar words. Use thought groups to hold the sentence; keep an intelligible pace.
- Compare actual audio for sound and completeness. Use the checks below for language awareness, then rehearse aloud with a partner or a recording.
Task description checked on 2 October 2026: ETS Speaking. All rehearsal sentences are original site examples.
Quiet words can carry the loudest difference
- A learner repeats “The laboratory is open today” after hearing “The laboratory is not open today”. Most words survived, but the meaning reversed. The missing not matters even if it was quiet.
- A separate comparison of forms and form checks the plural ending. Listen to the source and recording together; neither a written spelling quiz nor an overall impression can locate every sound error.
- The diagram marks meaning groups, not mandatory pauses. Speak the whole sentence naturally rather than treating each box as a separate utterance.
- Keep negatives, grammar words and endings; use actual recorded evidence to check pronunciation.
- Try the transfer checks below before returning to the explanation. These are original self-checks, with no official score conversion.
Match the three distinctions from the worked case.
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A separate comparison of forms and form checks the plural ending. Listen to the source and recording together; neither a written spelling quiz nor an overall impression can locate every sound error.
Which omission reverses “The laboratory is not open today”?
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A learner repeats “The laboratory is open today” after hearing “The laboratory is not open today”. Most words survived, but the meaning reversed. The missing not matters even if it was quiet. A separate comparison of forms and form checks the plural ending. Listen to the source and recording together; neither a written spelling quiz nor an overall impression can locate every sound error.
Complete the worked-case label: not open → ____. Use the phrase in the diagram.
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Keep negatives, grammar words and endings; use actual recorded evidence to check pronunciation.