introduction
Pronunciation
Pronunciation is probably one of the hardest
skills in English to learn. It takes a lot of time
and effort to improve your pronunciation.
Some non-native speakers live for a long time
in an English-speaking country but still have
poor pronunciation. Other speakers seem to
pick up English pronunciation with little
effort, and some may do so without visiting an
English-speaking country at all!
Nobody knows quite why this happens.
Perhaps it is because some speakers have a
better ‘ear’ for languages than others? But
age and previous language learning are also
thought to be factors, as well as having a
sense of ‘musicality’. And of course, you are
likely to improve your pronunciation more
quickly if you are doing plenty of listening and
speaking. This is why it is so crucial that you
speak as much English as you can outside the
classroom.
Having said this, it is certainly not necessary
to have native-speaker-like pronunciation.
Your accent is part of you and your culture
and there is no need to lose it entirely. In fact,
you probably wouldn’t want to. The real key
to having good pronunciation is what we call
‘comfortable intelligibility’. In other words,
the person or people listening to you should
be able to understand what you are saying
with minimal strain. This is something
completely different from losing your accent
entirely.
Key pronunication skills information
1. What makes English pronunciation difficult?
2. What are the five main areas of English
pronunciation, and why are they important?
3. Recommended pronunciation books
4. General advice for improving pronunciation
5. Pronunciation resources on the Internet
6. Pronunciation activities
What makes English pronunciation difficult?
Some of the most important reasons why
English pronunciation is believed to be so
difficult are :
There are some sounds in English that
probably don’t exist in your own language –
for instance, English has 20 vowels and
diphthongs (many languages only have 5);
There is no simple relationship between
spellings and sounds in English;
English is a ‘stress-timed’ language – words
and sentences have strong and weak parts.
This is different to many other languages
throughout the world where parts of words
and words themselves may be given the same
stress in a sentence;
When English is spoken quickly, words are
linked smoothly together and sometimes
sounds even disappear altogether (this is
called assimilation). This means it can be hard
to understand, as well as speak English.
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What are the five main areas of English
pronunciation, and why are they important?
There are five main areas of difficulty in
English pronunciation. These are:
Pronunciation of individual sounds
Word stress
Sentence stress
Rhythm
Intonation
In the table below, you can see what the main
problems are in pronouncing English and how
you might be able to improve.
Area of difficulty: Pronunciation of individual
sounds
Implications of this particular area
There may be confusion between minimal
pairs (e.g. bed/bad, ship/sheep) and this may
compromise meaning.
How to improve
Use lists to practise repeating minimal pairs;
Use tongue twisters to practise special
sounds;
Practise the sounds of English by using the
phonemic chart
Link opens in a new window
.
Area of difficulty: Word stress
Implications of this particular area
Sometimes words ‘shift’ their stress so word
stress can actually change the meaning of the
word (e.g. record (v)/record (n)).
How to improve
Check your dictionary in advance of a seminar
or presentation to make sure you know where
the stress falls on long words. Repeat the
words.
A demonstration of how word stress appears
in the dictionary can be seen here.
Area of difficulty: Sentence stress
Implications of this particular area
Sometimes emphasising different words
suggests different contrasting information
(e.g. how does the meaning change when
different words of the following sentence are
stressed? ‘Mary saw a red car driven by a
young man with brown hair’).
How to improve
result
target:
The overall goal is to increase awareness
of speech’s importance, explore its
complexities, and enhance the reader’s
ability to understand and engage in
effective verbal communication.
resources
[Link]
rip/openhouse/academicenglishskills/pronun
ciation/