Opening Doors with Clear and Confident Pronunciation- by Teacher Nia
Teacher Nia has prepared this awesome blog post for us and she is going to teach you how to REALLY improve your English pronunciation through a techinique she used herself to improve her French pronunciation!
First of all, just watch this video!
Have you ever felt stuck? Have you ever felt that you weren’t making progress? Sometimes, just like Josh, a drastic change in business as usual is needed! With a change of school, he felt empowered to change his attitude and his modus operandi.
Many adult learners of English are able to imitate spoken English but when they are asked to read English aloud they are, in fact, quite unsure of how to pronounce the words. And they don’t really know how to get over their uncertainty, their puzzlement. They just keep repeating the same mistakes again and again. I have the same challenge with French. Maybe it’s time to approach things in a different way and take charge.
I have developed a system to improve my French pronunciation. It has a positive impact on my spoken French and on my reading aloud in French. And because I find the material I have selected interesting, I am increasing my passive vocabulary by learning/reinforcing words and expression in context. Note, I do not understand every word and phrase but that fact does not take away from my overall enjoyment of this activity or my improvement in French.
This same system can work for you, too, if you are making mistakes in your pronunciation of written English or if you feel unsure of yourself when you speak. You will need one audio recording with its transcript and one hour. Choose a recording of 5 minutes or less about a topic that you find interesting. If you choose a recording that is longer than 5 minutes, you will need more than an hour for this activity.
If you think you do not have an hour, get up one hour earlier or go to bed one hour later than usual. By doing this you will have created an extra hour in your waking day! Good! Now, here is a recipe that will improve your spoken English, and in fact, have a positive effect on your overall English.
Twice
|
Eyes closed! Listen to your recording.
|
Twice
|
Eyes closed! Listen to your recording and repeat some of the words and phrases that you can catch
|
Twice
|
Eyes open! Follow along with your eyes reading the text silently as you listen to the recording.
|
Twice
|
Eyes open! Follow along with your eyes reading aloud immediately after you hear the words.
|
Twice
|
Eyes open! Read the text aloud without the audio ; and record yourself. Mark what you are not sure about how to say
|
Twice
|
Eyes open! Listen while following along with the marked up text and repeat words and phrases just after hearing them. Pay particular attention to areas that you marked
|
Important: Use the SAME recording and transcript everyday until your recording sounds like the original--maybe a little bit slower but no long pauses and no mispronunciations!
Spend your first couple of days, if necessary, searching for the material you want to work with! It is important to choose the quality of English that you like and a topic you find interesting. You will need to locate the transcript and possibly copy paste it somewhere or download it. It is super important that when you are awake, and ready to spend your one hour, that you have super easy access to both the audio and the transcript.
Here is a short list of sources of audio recordings with transcripts.Some are authentic, i.e. created for an English speaking audience. Some are not authentic, i.e. created for an adult learner of English.
This evergreen post was written by me, Teacher Nia, on September 18, 2014 and shared with the E Learning for All blog for publication there any time between September 2014 and August 2015. A modified version of this post has also been published on my blog.
Teacher Nia
Comentários
Postar um comentário