TeachingEnglish
pronunciation issue
Submitted by elhampanahi on 30 June, 2009 - 19:09
Hi friends,
I'm an English teacher but I'm suffering my own pronunciation because I'm not native speaker and I haven't been abroad. I watch movies and news but I have difficulty in connected speech. I wonder if you could help me?
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Hello,
To work on pronunciation I would recommend English Pronunciation in Use by Mark Hancock, which deals also with stress and intonation in speech.
Hope this will help.
It all happens to most of the Users who use the English language as their second one. Confidence is a must.
First of all lack of practice is the only thing which is causing hesitation and preventing fluency while speaking english with pronunciation.
Find a friend near to you and make a lots of conversation is the first step you can do.
The second one I display here as I heard from someone is to chat on line with some interesting content which you know how to discuss.
And either to recieve more BBC through Radio to float the knowledge on English. As I do with my ICF SW 7600GR+Advanced Receiver Research amplifier. Bye.
Hi,
Some online dictionaries have audio replay of single words. When I am unsure about the pronunciation of a word, I go to Dictionary.com, a free online dictionary. When you enter the word you wish to investigate in the search box, Dictionary.com returns it with the image of a speaker beside it. Click the image and the word is spoken clearly. Of course, as with all good dictionaries, you get also the meaning and function of the word, its origin and synonyms. However, it only works with individual words, so I'm not sure if it'll be very useful as an aid in connected speech.
Perhaps you can try Expressivo, an online text-to-speech tool, also free. It can replay sentences up to 200 words long as speech, albeit heavily accented American speech. It also sounds somewhat mechanical, as to be expected with an automatic text-to-speech tool.
Yoke Sau Cheng Metz
As a teacher of EFL, I always try to keep update with what's new in improving pronunciation, and lately I'm concentrating on different techniques such as:
1- Listen and answer : this technique I can use it in order to increase my fluency as well as correct pronunciation. I listen to any audio recording and imagine that there's a question for each sentence for example " David bought a new red car ." so I assume that the question is " what colour is David's car" "What did he buy?" etc. and I answer full quick answer imitating the native speaker who's narrating the story . you can use some TV shows instead of the recording or use the English lab sites which provide conversation or narrating story .
2- Listen and repeat : though this old technique and it's not that effective as listen to answer but it can help you to repeat longer phrases or sentences or clauses to be able to have fluency and correct pronunciation as well .
Keep up the good work and concentrate on on task at a time and make it constant .
There are softwares on the market which allow you to record your own pronunciation. Usually it works as follows: you hear a word, phrase or a sentence which you have to repeat and record (you need to use headphones with a microphone) and then the voice recognition program installed into the sofware gives you a pass or requests that you repeat the word/phrase/sentence if it was pronounced incorrectly. Some of my students were using this kind of sofware and it worked miracles for them.
I have a big problem with intonation, would you mind recommending some of the good software you have seen?
I had the same problem inspite of having a good vocabulary. I have been training people over the last 8 years on Accent Neutralization.
Let me tell you that you need to be very focussed and determined to get rid of your mother tongue influence. It is a long process and requires you to fully commit yourself to achieve the goal of coming to a neutral accent. I used a combination of various methods which I am listing down below
Listen to BBC news everyday
Identify a person who speaks the English Language without any mother tongue influence. Interact with this person everyday and get a feedback on areas where you have a strong mother tongue influence and work on those words to come to a neutral accent. When we talk about neutral accent, we are talking about globally understandable and comprehensible English. We are not telling you imitate an US or UK accent. When you have a strong mother tongue influence while speaking, the listeners get irritated or distracted when you pronounce certain words which distorts the listening process. You cannot command the respect of people, because psychologically they will not accept you as a classy person.
Record your voice by reading out paragraphs from newspapers or magazines. Listen to the recording and get a feedback. Work on the words till you come to a neutral accent.
All these techniques need to be done everyday without exception. Ensure that you drink water periodically so that your lips and tongue are wet.
Lastly get acquianted with the pronunciation pattern laid down by the IPA.
All the best
Thanks for the ideas and software mentioned; I'm keen to give it a try.
I share your concern. I also use online dictionaries for single words, but what I find most helpful is conversing with and listening to native speakers - colleagues, students, friends, TV, radio etc. Since I started doing that consciously, I have learnt so much and I'm enjoying the experience. This works for me though only because I live and work in the UK.
I have found that one's mother-tongue has a lot to do with how well they progress in improving pronunciation too, as well as personal differences.
I have however settled on the fact that there is a lot to learn and I can only do so much - a little at a time, as needed. The first step is what you're already doing - realising your need and the desire to learn, so all the best with the rest!
Dear sir,
You are doing right thing to develop but nervousness and anxiety make your development unpleasant. My suggestion to develop pronunciation is listening audios. Please download audio novels from net and listen it by watching the text material of that novel for at least two hours a day with deepest observation and concentration. I too face similar problem like you sir but with experiment I find some development.
Thank you sir.
siva kumar
The main focus should be on clarity of pronunciation rather than on purity.
I want to say that there is no point talking about a country. Individuals need to improve for bettering their chances in a global market place,". The vast majority of adult learners of English as a Second Language never achieve a " pure British" or a "pure American" accent. Pronunciation usually remains influenced by the native language to one degree or another. In my opinion, this is absolutely OK. ".
Ref: http://www.neutralaccent.com