Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) Enabling Skills and Cross-Skill Competencies Syllabus

Define 'word family' as used in the Academic Word List.

A headword plus its inflected and derived forms, e.g. 'analyse' includes analyses, analysed, analysing, analysis, analyst, analytical, analytically.

Give two AWL words from Sublist 1 and use one in an academic sentence.

Examples: 'analyse', 'concept', 'data', 'method', 'research'. Sentence: 'The researchers analyse the data using a robust method.'

Why is using AWL vocabulary important for PTE writing and speaking scores?

It demonstrates appropriate academic register and lexical range, which raises the vocabulary and written/oral discourse scores.

What is a collocation? Give two types.

A collocation is a pair/group of words that naturally occur together. Types include verb+noun ('make a decision'), adjective+noun ('strong argument'), adverb+adjective ('highly significant'), and verb+preposition ('depend on').

Why are collocations important, and what is a common error type?

They make language sound natural and accurate. A common error is choosing the wrong verb, e.g. 'do a decision' instead of 'make a decision' or 'do research' (correct) vs 'make research' (wrong).

Give the correct collocation: 'play / make / take' + 'a role'.

'Play a role' (e.g. 'Education plays a key role in development'). 'Make' and 'take' are incorrect here.

What is the difference between a collocation and an idiom?

A collocation's meaning is largely transparent from its parts ('heavy rain'), whereas an idiom's meaning is figurative and not deducible from its words ('it's raining cats and dogs').

What is paraphrasing, and why is it essential in PTE tasks like Summarize Spoken Text?

Paraphrasing restates a source's meaning in different words and structures while preserving the idea. It shows comprehension and lexical/grammatical range and avoids copying source wording.

List three techniques for effective paraphrasing.

(1) Use synonyms; (2) change word forms (noun↔verb) and grammar (active↔passive); (3) reorder ideas/clauses while keeping the original meaning.

What is a synonym, and what caution applies when substituting synonyms academically?

A synonym is a word with a similar meaning. Caution: synonyms differ in connotation, register, and collocation, so a 'thesaurus swap' may be inaccurate (e.g. 'slim chance' vs 'thin chance').

Give academic synonyms for 'important', 'show', and 'big'.

important → significant/crucial/vital; show → demonstrate/indicate/illustrate; big → substantial/considerable/significant.

In phonetics, what are segmental features?

The individual sound units of speech—the vowels and consonants (phonemes)—that combine to form words.

What is a phoneme, and what is a minimal pair?

A phoneme is the smallest sound unit that distinguishes meaning. A minimal pair is two words differing by only one phoneme, e.g. 'ship'/'sheep' or 'bat'/'pat'.

What are suprasegmental (prosodic) features of pronunciation?

Features extending over more than one sound: stress, rhythm, intonation, pitch, and connected-speech phenomena like linking and weak forms.

What is word stress, and why does it matter for intelligibility?

Word stress is the emphasis on a particular syllable (e.g. PHO-to-graph vs pho-TOG-ra-phy). Misplaced stress can change meaning or make a word unintelligible, lowering pronunciation scores.

Distinguish word stress from sentence (prosodic) stress.

Word stress marks the prominent syllable within a single word; sentence stress highlights the most important (usually content) words within an utterance to convey meaning and rhythm.

What is intonation, and name two common patterns.

Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch across an utterance. Rising intonation often marks yes/no questions or uncertainty; falling intonation marks statements, commands, and wh-questions.

In English connected speech, what are 'weak forms'? Give an example.

Weak forms are reduced (often schwa) pronunciations of function words in unstressed positions, e.g. 'and' /ænd/ → /ən/, 'to' /tuː/ → /tə/. They support natural rhythm.

What does it mean that English is a 'stress-timed' language?

Stressed syllables tend to occur at roughly regular intervals, and unstressed syllables are compressed between them, producing English's characteristic rhythm.

In PTE speaking, how are the three pronunciation/fluency traits scored conceptually?

Content (accuracy of what is said), Oral Fluency (smooth, natural rhythm and pace), and Pronunciation (intelligible vowels, consonants, stress, and intonation) are scored separately.

Define oral fluency and list factors that reduce it.

Oral fluency is smooth, effortless speech at a natural pace. It is reduced by hesitations, fillers ('um', 'uh'), repetitions, false starts, long pauses, and self-corrections.

Give three strategies to build speaking fluency for PTE.

(1) Practise chunking—group words into meaningful phrases; (2) avoid restarting after errors—keep going; (3) maintain a steady pace and use shadowing/timed reading aloud.

What is 'chunking' in fluent speech, and why does it help?

Chunking is grouping words into meaningful phrases with pauses at natural boundaries. It improves rhythm, comprehension, and fluency scores by avoiding word-by-word delivery.

Why should you avoid filler words and self-correction in PTE 'Read Aloud'?

Pauses, fillers, and going back to fix words break rhythm and are penalised under oral fluency; it is better to read on smoothly even after a minor slip.

What is the difference between British and American spelling, with examples relevant to PTE?

PTE accepts both, but be consistent. Examples: '-our'/'-or' (colour/color), '-ise'/'-ize' (organise/organize), '-re'/'-er' (centre/center), 'travelling'/'traveling'.

State the spelling rule 'i before e except after c' and a common exception.

Use 'ie' generally (believe, field) but 'ei' after 'c' (receive, ceiling). Exceptions include 'weird', 'seize', 'their', and words sounded 'ay' like 'neighbour' and 'weigh'.

What is the doubling (1-1-1) rule for adding suffixes?

In a one-syllable word ending in one consonant after one vowel, double the final consonant before a vowel-suffix: stop→stopped, big→bigger. For multi-syllable words, double only if the final syllable is stressed (prefer→preferred, but offer→offered).

What qualities define high written discourse quality in PTE essays?

Clear thesis and logical structure, coherence and cohesion (linking devices, referencing), unity of paragraphs, appropriate academic register, and accurate grammar/vocabulary.

Distinguish coherence from cohesion in written discourse.

Coherence is the overall logical flow and clarity of ideas. Cohesion is the surface-level linking using devices such as conjunctions, reference words (this, it), and lexical chains.

Name three categories of cohesive devices with an example of each.

Addition ('moreover', 'furthermore'), Contrast ('however', 'in contrast'), Cause/result ('therefore', 'as a result'). Reference words like 'this', 'these', 'such' also create cohesion.

What is editing/proofreading, and what is the difference between the two?

Editing improves content, structure, clarity, and word choice; proofreading is the final check for surface errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and typos before submission.