G'day mate, how are you going? Today, I am going to touch on one of the most controversial topics for English learners, which is English Pronunciation. I, as one of English learners, also used to be pretty struggling to improve my pronunciation. For me, I had mispronounced four particular sounds out of 44 before I polished them up. How did I refine these sounds? Let's delve into it!
- There are totally 44 phonetic sounds (22 vowels + 22 consonants), but it could technically be less, depending on how you perceive each vowel sound from a different perspective.
- Once you've understood all the patterns, using an English-English dictionary such as 'Longman dictionary.com' is a starting point of understanding correct pronunciation. Many online dictionaries offer both British and American pronunciation audio samples, so it's extremely useful for checking each sound.
- Picking up any word that includes each particular phonetic sound, ideally some of the easiest words that do not confusticate you. The easier the better, as you will definitely apply your correct understanding to other difficult words.
- You start using a voice recognition app or website for your voice training. Personally, I'm using 'Google Chrome Browser' as your voice is checked by a pretty accurate algorithm based on rigorous standards. It's a free of charge website, so please go for it!
- As you do voice training, you will surely realise which phonetic sounds are weaker than others. It is important to recognise the epicentre of your mispronunciation to streamline the process of improving your pronunciation.
- I am sure you won't have all, but a few of the sounds are going to perplex your listener's understanding. So, making sure you've picked up all your weak sounds and should devote yourself entirely to improving the sounds using the app or website. The best way is not just say a word but a piece of sentence that you composed your own using the words including your weak sounds. Saying just a word sometimes doesn't work because there are a couple homonyms or homophones in English, in which case it's going to be difficult for the computer to perceive your word accurately.
If you earnestly follow these 6 steps, then you should be able to master all the sounds in a few months. But, if you need any further information or specific instruction, please don't hesitate to ask me. I have a specific program for improving your pronunciation.
Thanks for reading today!
Have a good one, ta!