Pronunciation /prəˌnənsēˈāSH(ə)n/

Pronunciation and techniques to improve it.

As part of my subject English: Language and Culture, on one of the classes with Professor Frank Newman we had exercise devoted to pronunciation.

The assignment composed of a text and a dialog that we were supposed to read, and a picture that needed to described in duration of one minute. All of this was recorded, so our professor could notice and later point out the flaws and mistakes that were done during this task.

When we, in this particular case referring to the students, are learning a new language, most of us have tendency to pronounce the words with the accent from our native tongue. The process of learning a new word, aside from the meaning, the collocations, and in which situations the native speakers use it, also includes the way we say it. No vocabulary, regardless of how rich it is, is complete without the pronunciation. Certainly, we as non-native speakers might have some difficulties at the beginning, but as for everything else, there is solution for this as well.

That said here are few of the tips and tricks on how to I pronunciation.

1.    Use Dictionaries.
Online or old-fashioned hardcover dictionary, it doesn't matter. Always right next to the word there is the phonetic transcription of it. Most of the letters are same as the alphabet, but there are a few that differ. After learning them, I have noticed the ease that I have when pronouncing a new word.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

2.    Watching TV, listening to music, radio..etc.
Any opportunity that I have to listen to a song, watch a TV show or movie in the language that I am learning is more than beneficial. There is great number of YouTube channels devoted to pronunciation techniques. Books, newspapers also are very helpful.

3.    Recode yourself.

I am pretty sure that listening to our own voice recorded, makes us wonder „Do I really sound like that?!“ . Strange as it might be, by recording myself , I could notice my  grammar, sentence structure and pronunciation mistakes better than ever.  With continuous recording , describing a painting or reading an article (few suggestions), I am  able to keep track with your improvement and progress.

4.    Pronunciation Tests
The Perception of Spoken English (POSE) Test is one of many. This test is a tool designed to help non-native English speakers diagnose problems in speech perception. There are few categories, including  vowels,  consonants , word stress,  intonation (sentence-final) and  sentence stress, depending on which segment of the pronunciation do we want to focus.
http://eslactivities.com/pt/

5.    Speaking, speaking, speaking

All of these advices would be completely pointless, if we do not practice speaking. The bus driver, the waitress, or the man working in the post. I use every of this opportunities to practice my pronunciation. And I warmly recommend it, as there is a tremendous difference between how we think we sound  while speaking ,in our heads, and the actual speaking.

These are some of my techniques that I use.  Hope you are going to find it helpful as well.
 Till the next post.

Alex /ælɪks/