Pronunciation in Speaking: Why Band 7 Has No Wording of Its Own

This is the whole of what the descriptors say about pronunciation at band 7:

Band 5 says the same about bands 4 and 6. Band 3 shows "some features of band 2", and some, but not all, of the positive features of band 4 source: ielts.org.

So to reach band 7, you keep everything band 6 asks for, and you start to show some of what band 8 asks for.

This guide is part of our series on the four Speaking criteria. The hub is How IELTS Speaking Is Marked, and the previous part covered grammatical range and accuracy.

What pronunciation measures

The criterion is "the accurate and sustained use of a range of phonological features to convey meaningful messages" source: ielts.org.

It has five indicators. The first is dividing your speech into meaningful chunks. The second is rhythm and stress timing, and linking sounds together into connected speech. The third is using stress and intonation to add meaning, for example to show emphasis or contrast source: ielts.org.

The fourth is how you produce words and single sounds, and how much effort the listener needs to understand them. The fifth is "the overall effect of accent on intelligibility" source: ielts.org.

Intonation is the rise and fall of your voice. Only one of the five indicators is about individual words and sounds. The others are about how you group, stress and link your words, and how your accent affects understanding. So practising single sounds covers only part of this criterion.

Accent and being understood

At band 9, "accent has no effect on intelligibility". At band 8, "accent has minimal effect on intelligibility" source: ielts.org. Accent is not mentioned at any other band.

No band asks you to sound like a native speaker, or to lose your accent. What is judged is how easily the listener understands you.

At band 8, you "can be easily understood throughout". At band 6, you "can generally be understood throughout without much effort". At band 4, "understanding requires some effort and there may be patches of speech that cannot be understood" source: ielts.org.

The ladder from band 4 to band 9

source: ielts.org

What changes from band 6 to band 7

At band 6, "rhythm may be affected by a lack of stress-timing and/or a rapid speech rate". There is "some effective use of intonation and stress, but this is not sustained". At band 8, a speaker "can sustain appropriate rhythm", with "flexible use of stress and intonation across long utterances, despite occasional lapses" source: ielts.org.

The word that links them is "sustain". At band 6, good stress and intonation come and go. At band 8, they last through a long answer.

The descriptors do not say which band 8 features count towards band 7. Keeping good rhythm and stress through a longer answer is one place to start.

To be given a band, you must fully fit its positive features source: ielts.org. That is why bands 7, 5 and 3 are worded as a mix of the bands either side.

Writing cannot show sound, but it can show where a speaker pauses and which words they stress. Below, a slash between words marks a pause. In the second version, capital letters mark a stressed word. Both versions were written for this page.

When I was / a child we / lived by the / sea^{note 1}, and I still miss it.

When I was a child, / we lived by the sea^{note 2}, / and I still miss it. / I miss the SEA, / not the TOWN^{note 3}.

1. The first indicator is the ability "to divide speech into meaningful utterances or chunks" source: ielts.org. Here the pauses fall in the wrong places. They split "a child" from "was" and "sea" from "by the", so the listener has to work harder.
2. At band 6, "chunking is generally appropriate" source: ielts.org. Here each chunk holds one idea, so the pauses help the listener follow.
3. The third indicator is the use of emphatic or contrastive stress, and intonation, "to enhance meaning" source: ielts.org. Stress on "sea" and "town" makes the contrast between them clear.

How to improve your IELTS Speaking pronunciation

Keep a steady pace

For fluency, the ideal speech rate is "not too slow" source: ielts.org. At band 6, "rhythm may be affected by a lack of stress-timing and/or a rapid speech rate" source: ielts.org.

So speak at a pace that lets you stress the right words. No indicator asks for fast speech.

Practise chunking

Take a paragraph and mark where the pauses should go, one idea in each chunk. Then read it aloud and record it. Listen for pauses that split a phrase in two.

Keep stress and intonation going to the end of a long answer

Record yourself talking for 2 minutes. Then listen to the last 30 seconds. If your stress and intonation fade near the end, practise longer answers until they last.

Fix the words people ask you to repeat

At band 6, words or sounds "may be mispronounced but this causes only occasional lack of clarity" source: ielts.org.

Notice the words people ask you to say again. Those are the ones that cost you clarity, so work on them first.

How much it counts

The four Speaking criteria carry equal weight, and their average gives your Speaking score source: ielts.org.

You are rated on your average performance across all parts of the test source: ielts.org.

So pronunciation is a quarter of your Speaking score, the same as each of the other three, and one mispronounced word does not decide it. Band 6 vs 6.5 vs 7 compares those bands across all four sections. The band score calculator shows the effect on your overall band.

With fluency and coherence, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy, this completes the four criteria your Speaking band is built from. To plan your practice across all four, use our Speaking improvement plan.

The criterion's definition and indicators come from the Speaking key assessment criteria, and the band-level wording and the rating rules from the public Speaking band descriptors, both on ielts.org. Neither document carries a revision date. The equal weighting comes from IELTS scoring in detail. Last checked on 28 September 2026. The example sentences were written for this page and are not from any test.