Many people doubt if accent really matters in IELTS Speaking. If you have the same query, check out this story.
The four main factors based on which IELTS Speaking is evaluated are fluency, grammar and accuracy, lexical resources and pronunciation.
As you can see, the accent is not on the list of factors. But isn't pronunciation similar to accent?
Well, let us get a clear idea of the difference between accent and pronunciation.
While an accent is how a distinct group of people, mostly the natives or residents of a region, speaks, pronunciation is how each syllable of a word is spoken.
Just imagine an American/British trying to talk in Hindi and you trying to speak words like 'pneumonia', 'debt', etc., appropriately. Got the idea, right?
So, instead of copying a particular accent and sounding weird, try to pronounce words accurately so that it is clear to the examiner.
Now that you have an idea of the differences click on this link to know some interesting tips on how to improve your pronunciation.