Improve your pronunciation

This is a skill (which requires some knowledge) that is too often neglected except for the lower levels of ESL classes. As a consequence,  our speaking suffers in the numerous instances we must speak in academic classes.

• asking questions of the teacher
• answering questions asked by the teacher or other students
• participating in group discussions
• making presentations

Pronunciation also influences our listening in that how we believe a word sounds like influences our comprehension.   If we believe it sounds like our pronunciation which is incorrect,  then when we hear it spoken correctly or differently we will not know it.      

Pronunciation can even impact our writing.    I will often see words misspelled because the writer has written the word based on their incorrect pronunciation.    For example,  "friend"  might be written as "frand" because the writer confuses the short e sound in "friend"  with a short a sound (as in "hand").

It is not realistic to expect that you can sound like a native speaker unless you move to an English speaking country before age seven.    Your objective should be to speak well enough that others can understand you in your present context.     How do you go about achieving this?

As with all things language related,   you must first do a self-assessment.   Where are your pronunciation problems?    You may already know which English sounds and words you cannot pronounce very clearly. This is a start.   This questionnaire may be helpful:

from the Second Language Pronunciation Assessment Handout Packet 

                                         (Amy Gerhiser & Diana Wrenn ,  GA TESOL,  March 3, 2007 

                         http://teachingpronunciation.pbworks.com/f/Pronunciation+assessment+packet+.pdf)

Another easy way to develop a balanced picture of your pronunciation is by asking someone who does not know you very well (ie. a classmate) to listen to you speak (or read something) and give you some feedback. After 5 or 10 minutes they should be able to tell you which words or sounds you do not say clearly.    Then do the same with another person.   I suggest you try the first time with a native speaker such as a Canadian classmate.    The second time you should do this with a non-native speaker but of a different nationality/first language from you.

Another trick is to  record yourself using a smartphone and then identify pronunciation problems on your own.  Using Siri on an iPhone or iPad,  or Google voice search will tell you what words you speak clearly enough. Dictionary app voice searches also do this.   You could also do a voice dictation.   If the computer cannot understand you,  then it is likely there is a problem.   If they do understand you,  then these words/sounds are probably okay.

This text, also  from the Second Language Pronunciation Assessment Handout Packet, would be helpful to practice reading aloud.

A future blog post will look at Canadian English sounds,  some common pronunciation error, s and more techniques to improve your pronunciation.

Here are some webpages/websites you may find helpful to improve your pronunciation.

English Pronunciation Podcast    (an archive of numerous audio podcasts dealing with different sounds)

English Pronunciation    (this provides a great overview of the various English sounds, with words and sounds                                        you can practice)

American English Pronunciation

English Club Pronunciation  (a useful collection of links and resources)

Librivox    (22 recordings of a poem read aloud -- you can compare different pronunciations and even record yourself on your smartphone and then compare with these.  Read the poem here)