Speaking Evidence Card: From Accent Anxiety to Verifiable Interaction

Copy this card into a private note for one real situation at a time. Keep raw recordings private by default. Before recording another person or using customer, family, medical, or unreleased project information, obtain necessary permission or practise with fictional details.

1. Define the Task, Listener, and Boundary

# Speaking Evidence - YYYY-MM-DD

Real situation:
Task: explain / answer / repair / collaborate / transfer
Listener and relationship:
What the listener must know or do afterwards:
Time limit:
Allowed notes / retakes / captions / dictionary / AI:
Recording and upload permission:
Content that must remain private:

Write completion as a listener result, such as "can retell the risk and next step", not only "sounds fluent".

2. Record Reference Variety and Technical Conditions

Current reference variety or audio source:
Why it fits:
Differences I only need to recognise, not force myself to imitate:
Other English varieties added this cycle:

Device / microphone:
Network / room noise:
Recording or call platform:
Listener familiarity with the topic and my accent:

When device, network, or listener familiarity changes, do not assign the entire score difference to ability.

3. Preserve Three Unscripted Baselines

Sample	Condition	Recording	First break	Task completed?
90-120 second monologue	Explain a real experience/problem without a script
Five-turn exchange	Include at least one unfamiliar follow-up
One interaction repair	Repetition, scope confirmation, rephrasing, or summary

One-sentence main point:
Two details the listener must hear:
Critical number / time / responsibility / condition:
What I most expect to be misunderstood:

Do not remove pauses, clean noise, or ask AI for a script first. The baseline shows what remains when scaffolding leaves.

4. Preserve What the Listener Actually Heard

Ask the listener to hear the recording before seeing a transcript:

Listener/condition	Retold gist	Retold details	Guess/replay point	Next response
Listener A
Listener B or new device

Noticeable accent that remained intelligible:
Place where meaning was actually lost:
Place that required effort without misunderstanding:
Familiarity or bias that may shape the feedback:

One subjective impression is not a conclusion. Preserve what the person heard and could do, not only whether you resembled a prestige accent.

5. Build a High-Impact Problem Map

Segment/time	Listener may hear	Intended meaning	Type	Task impact	This cycle's action
			sound / ending / stress / pause / chunk / grammar / organisation	meaning-changing / task-blocking / recurring / effortful / low-impact difference

Choose only one to three problems. When a difference marks reference variety, region, or personal voice and does not raise comprehension cost, record it without forcing it away.

6. Move from Chunks into Unfamiliar Follow-ups

Five replaceable chunks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Topic variation:
Position variation:
Listener variation:
Unfamiliar follow-up:
Unscripted answer:

When fluency exists only inside a memorised script, reduce complete-sentence memorisation and increase keyword reconstruction plus follow-ups.

7. Record Interaction Repair

Break	How I noticed	Repair action	Listener response	How shared understanding was confirmed
Not heard / scope unclear / thinking needed / expression failed / agreement unstable

My repetition or confirmation request:
My rephrasing:
My final summary of agreement:
If repair failed, the one change for next time:

Repair is not a penalty. Failing to notice a misunderstanding, or failing to restore the task after noticing it, is the training signal.

8. Record Teacher, Listener, and AI Feedback

Reviewer / tool / model version and date:
Did it use raw audio or a transcript?
Speech-recognition transcript errors:
Problems it marked as high impact:
Did it separate accent difference, misunderstanding, effort, grammar, register, and style?
Dictionary audio, teacher, or real-listener check:
What I accepted / rejected, and why:

Recognition scores change with microphone, noise, network, model, and accent. Treat them as clues only.

9. Test Delayed Retention and Transfer

Time	What is removed	Changed condition	Output	Listener result
Day 1	No AI-written script	Original situation	First take and retake
Days 3-7	Old script and model audio removed	New topic or listener	90-120 seconds plus follow-up
Day 14	Recent feedback removed	New device, accent, or time pressure	Collaboration/decision explanation
Day 30	All practice prompts closed	Real meeting, interview, or conversation	Complete task

What remained retrievable after seven days:
What failed again after conditions changed:
Did the listener guess or replay less often?
Next variable:

10. Score and Decide

Score 0-2: 0=not completed, 1=prompt-dependent or unstable, 2=completed under the current condition.

Item	Day 1	Day 7	Day 14	Evidence reason
Complete task and main line
Listener recovers critical information
Understanding does not require repeated guessing/replay
Handle an unfamiliar follow-up
Notice and repair an interaction break
Complete after listener, device, or topic changes

Current evidence supports: continue same problem / add variation / move to another problem / pause
Most important evidence:
Conclusion I still cannot draw:
Smallest next task:
Next review date:

Related chapters: Speaking: Make Meaning Arrive | Listening | Job-search English | Evidence Chain Template