How to improve your English pronunciation skills

 

Do you want to speak English clearly and confidently?

Everybody wants to be able to speak English like a native speaker, but English pronunciation is always a big problem to ESL learners.

Bad English pronunciation may confuse people even if you used advanced English grammar. We can use simple words and simple grammar structures that make people understand you but we cannot use "simple pronunciation".

On the other hand, good English pronunciation will make people understand you easily and be willing to listen to you!

You will say that we learn English just for communication, although we speak English with a strong accent, native speakers can understand us, that's enough. But you know it is not pleased to listen to the bad pronunciation!

Also,one will change the channel when a journalist covers a person who speaks English without good pronunciation, because that make him/her feel uncomfortable although he/her can't pronounce English fluently as well.

So, how to speak English clearly and confidently? There are three ways: practice, practice and practice! First practice speaking each word clearly then practice speaking each sentence clearly.

But how can you practise your pronunciation again and again by yourself ? The secret is a software WordHacker.

It's a good news for the people who cannot speak English well with American pronunciation but want to study or live in the USA.

WordHacker is a computer program for learning English pronunciation. It contains more than 18100 words.It will teach you to pronounce the English words properly with the standard American English pronunciation one by one.

WordHacker will help you speak English like a native speaker. You can listen to and try to imitate the pronunciation again and again with WordHacker.

The result IS your clear and standard pronunciation will give you more confidence to ensure more friendly communication.:)

Definition

• pronunciation (noun) - the way in which we pronounce a word• pronounce (verb) - to make the sound of a word

About pronunciation

One of the most difficult problems facing non-native speakers of English is pronunciation. It

is usually the largest obstacle to overcome when trying to achieve fluency. Many non-native speakers have studied grammar for many years but are unable to speak like native speakers due to their inability to pronounce the sounds of words properly. This page is designed to provide techniques to help you pronounce the sounds of the English language.

Your pronunciation is the first and most important thing native speakers notice during a conversation. Knowing grammar and vocabulary are important but useless if you are unable to pronoun those structures or words correctly. Also, native speakers are more likely to understand you, even if you make grammatical mistakes rather than if you make mistakes in pronunciation. Even the simplest words misspoken will keep you from effectively communicating with native English speakers. Achieving good pronunciation should be your main goal. You already know the grammar…probably better than native speakers…and the vocabulary will come in time.

Many people, especially those who have not studied a foreign or second language, are easily irritated if they cannot quickly understand what non-native speakers are saying. This is sad but often true. The importance of good pronunciation can be easily realized by visiting a predominantly English speaking country and talking to the native speakers. If they constantly reply to your statements with “what?”, ”huh?” or ”could you repeat that”, then you know your pronunciation needs work. Going to a foreign country is the best way to assess your speaking skills. Keep in mind that your friends may be from the same country as you and make the same pronunciation mistakes. For this reason they cannot accurately judge your speaking abilities. If you should visit another country, go out and talk to people. You may want the comfort of speaking in your native language but to become a better English speaker, you have to talk to native speakers.

Pronunciation and accent

Pronunciation teachers usually agree that there are three basic levels of English pronunciation.

• People usually don’t understand what you are saying.• People usually understand what you are saying but you may have to repeat your statements for clarification.• People understand what you are saying the first time. This level is the goal of most English language learners.

Many non-native speakers worry about having an obvious accent when they speak English. This is unavoidable and depends on where you study English. Realize that the English spoken in England, Australia or Canada is different than the English spoken in the United States. Even within these countries there is a wide range of accents. People from New York speak different English than people from California. Realize though, that if your pronunciation is good, you will be understood anywhere you go. To achieve a “standard accent” in any country, listen to news broadcasts to get an idea of what typical native speakers in that area sound like.

Pronunciation tips

• The most important thing to remember is practice. Learning English takes time but if you practice often you will soon improve and be able to pronounce words like a native speaker.

• Practice pronunciation in front of a mirror. You have to train your mouth to move in new ways in order to make new sounds. Watch your mouth as you speak.Think about each word before you say it. Try to imagine the position your mouth needs to be in to produce the sound.• What you see is not always what you get. Remember that the spelling of words and their pronunciation are often different.• Recognize that the English language has many different dialects depending on the country and the different regions within a particular country.

Top of Form

The higher the spelling inconsistency is, the more negative the influence on pronunciation will be. 

In the absence of a good model and without guidance, the learner will perceive, produce and internalize sounds of the target language based on the native language sounds.

For this reason, if not given emphasis at the very beginning, pronunciation will never be acquired well. 

Pronunciation can lead to wrong english spelling If pronunciation is a problem for EFL students, spelling is a nightmare for children in English-speaking countries. 

Just think of the spelling bee contests …

This loss of identity of vowels in English is in sharp contrast with Brazilian Portuguese where all the vowels, stressed or unstressed, have a clear identity. It also aggravates the spelling-pronunciation irregularity of English.

Word stress is an important part of pronunciation. Some languages are heavily characterized by the way words are normally stressed. This the case of French, for example, where a very large majority of words are stressed on the last syllable (lalá, lalalá, lalalalá, lalalá, ...).

PHONETIC SYMBOLS 

Why are they useful? 

Given the very poor spelling-to-sound correlation in English; Given the significantly higher number of phonemes;

 

It follows that …

Learners of EFL need some sort of graphic representation of pronunciation.

For each phoneme an identity needs to be established. But the ears of the learner are not reliable enough as they are strongly influenced by the phonological matrix of his native language. 

PHONETIC SYMBOLS

PHONETIC SYMBOLS 

This is where phonetic symbols come into play. They provide a reliable visual connection to the spoken language. Each phoneme is visually identified by its symbol.

Phonetic symbols look intentionally different from regular characters to avoid interference in writing.

PHONETIC SYMBOLS 

Phonetic symbols should be used frequently, especially with beginners. They should be a constant presence in the EFL environment - on wall posters, textbooks and handouts.

In the following pages we have tables with a complete collection of vowel and consonant sounds for AmE and how they relate to Portuguese sounds.

Pronunciation is an integrated and integral part of second/foreign language learning since it directly affects learners’ communicative competence as well as performance to a substantial extent. the grammar-translation method to being the cardinal focus in the situational syllabus and the audio-lingual method in which emphasis is put on the traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and mini-conversations. Teaching of pronunciation have an inseparable link to communication through listening and speaking. suggests that speech production is affected by speech perception, and stresses the need of pronunciation in both listening and speaking. when the non-native speakers’ vocabulary and grammar are excellent, if their pronunciation falls below a certain threshold level, they are unable to communicate efficiently and effectively. demonstrates that a lack of knowledge of pronunciation could even affect learners’ reading and spelling. pronunciation to the more realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility, communicability, increased self-confidence, the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom. The overall aim of these goals is for the learner to develop awareness and monitoring skills that will allow learning opportunities outside the classroom environmentintelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative competence’. A phoneme is a set of similar sounds showing meaning differences or differentiating between words