English Pronunciation (1)
Introduction, and list of lessons
Introducing pronunciation
Everybody loves a foreign accent; it's charming and exotic, so please don't lose it. Just make sure people can understand you. Can you say these phrases?
"The Earth is the third planet from the Sun." | "new clothes" |
"The weather here is very variable." | "big problem" |
"Good food is really important." | "chocolate banana" |
"Old hotels often have big rooms." | "fried rice" |
"We need to introduce a new production system." | "grey squirrel" |
If you can say all of these, then your English pronunciation is almost perfect! However, there's usually something to work on. Can you say "James Bond"? If somebody asks you on the telephone, "How do you spell that?", can you? And do you know how to say 2019, 15:50, +0044 (0)78430982, 1/10, 4¼ and 28.3%?
Research on business English found that only 25% of misunderstandings are from incorrect vocabulary, and only 10% are from incorrect grammar. The other 65% are from incorrect pronunciation.
I like to teach pronunciation, and I do it more than most teachers.
There are five parts to English pronunciation:
1) Ship, sheep, schwa and more
If you're from France, Microsoft and weather may be a problem. If you're from Hungary, it's not easy to hear the difference between boot and boat; if you're from Spain, it's v and b (see mini-lesson); if you're from Japan, it's l and r; if Arabic is your first language, it's p and b (see mini-lesson).
Click here to read more.
2) Stress in words
3) Stress in sentences
4) Intonation
5) Unfamiliar words
List of pronunciation lessons
Subject: | Student level: | Lesson: |
---|---|---|
Pronunciation (1) | A1-C2 | Introduction, and list of lessons. |
Pronunciation (2) | A1-B1 | Saying the English alphabet. |
Pronunciation (3) | A1-B2 | Ship, sheep, schwa and more. |
Pronunciation (4) | A2-B2 | Stress in words. |
Pronunciation (5) | B1-B2 | Stress in sentences. |
Pronunciation (6) | A1-C2 | Intonation. |
Pronunciation (7) | A1-C2 | International Phonetic Alphabet. |
Pronunciation (8) | A1-C2 | Nicholas's IPA Machine. |