Have you ever tried using a book and CD/MP3 recording program to learn about the English pronunciation sound system? Did you find that this self study program was good in that it offered thorough explanations and plenty of examples to work with; it also offered a sort of workbook-style practice routine intended to help you every step of the way?
For your schedule and needs at the time, however, did you feel that this program offered too many details? Did you find it difficult to keep any sort of practice momentum going?
Start with a solid English pronunciation skills foundation
Every language has its own sound system. There are, let’s say, core speech features which make up its foundation. What features play a sort of interconnected role in your language?
In English, I recommend focusing on the following for starters:
- Mouth movement and idea chunk stretching. Moving your mouth to enunciate the stressed vowel sounds in the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs is gold for being better understood from the start. So is stretching the vowel sounds at the end of each idea chunk. Mumbling–not moving your mouth– simply makes the key words of information difficult to understand. Stretching helps with the production of the clear vowel sounds which are core to English rhythm
- Consonant articulation. Articulating the consonant sounds is absolutely critical for helping the listener to perceive the the syllable sounds (clear and reduced). Otherwise, words and sentences become something like alphabet soup for the listener.
- Alternating the stressed & unstressed sounds. Alternating the stressed and unstressed sounds at the word, phrasal and sentence levels is key to a global English pronunciation rhythm. In addition, if you incorporate a small pitch change into the stressed sounds, this physically helps you to produce the consonant sounds which follow. That is, the sounds which make up the spine of spoken English.
A few global English pronunciation practice techniques
Practicing a little every day is critical. 15-20 minutes is ideal but 5-10 minutes is better than nothing. If you want a few ideas, click HERE to read about a few practice techniques that I shared on March 9th.
Want to talk?
Feel free to email me, Sarah, at sgallant@ccg-training.com. Or simply fill out the form below:
