How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

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How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

• Tu Pei
• Beijing Foreign Studies University

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Three Questions
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What is good English pronunciation?
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What are the priorities for Chinese learners?
What are the tips on good English
pronunciation?
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What is good English pronunciation?
A lofty goal
sound like native speakers
A modest, realistic goal
to develop a clear, understandable pronunciation
with appropriate intonation and stress
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2
What are the priorities for Chinese learners?
Priority aspects for Chinese learners
weak forms
stress
rhythm
intonation
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3
What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Be aware of the major differences between Chinese
and English pronunciations.
Be aware of the special features of English
pronunciation that are most difficult for the
Chinese learners.
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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Chinese is a tone language while English is a
highly stressed language.
Apart from the vowel qualities and consonant
qualities, stresses play a very important role in
conveying the meaning of a sentence in English.
Example The girl gave the money to her
father. The Greens will never agree to that.
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. The GREENS will never agree
to that. The Greens will NEVER agree to
that. The Greens will never AGREE to that.
The Greens will never agree to THAT.
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• ??????gt????
• (????????, ????)
• ??
• ????gt????,????,????
• (?????????)

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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Word Stress
Example coming letter
beautiful report myself
forget remember explosion modernization
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3
What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Sentence stress
In a normal English sentence certain words are
stressed and certain words are unstressed. Normall
y stressed are content words. Normally unstressed
are form words.
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Sentence stress

• Examples
• 1. Janet has gone to the Bakers.
• 2. I saw your brother yesterday.
• 3. Would you like a glass of beer?
• 4. I must be going. My wifes waiting
• for me at the corner of the street.

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Stress gives a natural rhythm to spoken English.
Rhythm
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Rhythm

• The rhythm of spoken English is determined by
  the occurrence of stressed syllables. Stressed
  syllables occur at more or less equal intervals
  in English. The other syllables in a sentence are
  reduced or blended to accommodate the regular
  beat of the stressed syllables.

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1.As a general rule English tries to avoid having
stresses too close together.2. English stresses
tend to recur at regular intervals.
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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Stress patterns
Example

1. Sing a song.

2. Id love to.
3. Ive heard of it.
4. I want to know.
5. She asked me to go.
6. I think it will be fine.
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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Stress timed language
Example Go
home Going home Going
back home Going straight back
home
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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Weak forms
Example A cup of tea Johns at
home. A glass of water I can speak
English. A block of flats Id like
some potatoes. The book that I want Ive
been to France. Bread and butter We
were leaving the house.
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Weak Forms

• The weak form or forms of a word are used only in
  unstressed positions.
• The weak forms of the words are of much more
  frequent occurrence than their strong forms.

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/2/

• and
• /nd/ /2nd/ /nd/ /n/
• bread and butter
• ladies and gentlemen

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The average learner uses far too many strong
forms it is impossible to speak English fluently
unless the phenomenon of weak forms is properly
understood and their use acquired, preferably
from the earliest stage.
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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Intonation
Function 1 It indicates grammatical
meaning, in much the same way as punctuation does
in the written language.
1. He lives in London. 3. He lives in London.
Where?2. He lives in London. 4. He lives in
London. Where?
Function 2 It can also indicate the speakers
attitude.
1. Really?2. Whats your name?
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What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
Four basic tune movements
Fall \ Rise
/Fall-rise \/ Rise-fall /\
Example 1.His name is Peter. (a
straightforward statement)2.His name is Peter.
(a polite question)3.His name is Peter. (I dont
believe you.)4.His name is Peter. (to convey
certainty)
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Speech-flowStress,rhythm and
intonation should really be considered as a
whole, for they are very closely connected
elements of a single aspect of the language that
we might call Speech-flow.
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Features that help you read
smoothly speech flow--stress,rhythm,into
nation weak forms ?? sound linking ??
loss or incomplete plosion ????????
consonant clusters ???? elision ??
pauses ??
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Other difficulties for Chinese learners Sounds
/i/ /i / ship
sheep // /ai/ back bike
/2/ /0/ work walk /u// /
boot book /2//u/ show
shoe /b/ /d/ bed dead
/ r / / l / write light /n/ /
l / nine line /tr/ / t1/
tried child /t1// t3/
chain Jane /s/ /z/ said
z /1//3/ pressure pleasure
Sounds
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• Consonant clusters
• Initial sequences
• play/pry/climb/blow/bread/glass/fly/sky/smoke
• smile/snow/throw/three/stupid/splendid
• Final sequences
• slept/fact/drugged/kept/cups/jobs/eggs/drives
• fields/jumped/shelves/films/closed/six/booked

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• Seasons
• Spring is green,
• Summer is bright,
• Autumn is golden,
• Winter is white.
• Year in year out,
• We work and fight,
• For a new world, of red sunlight.

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• ??
• ????
• ??
• ????????
• ???,???

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Seasons
Spring is green,
Summer is bright,
Autumn is golden,
Winter is white.
Year in year out,
We work and fight,
For a new world, of red sunlight.

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Its a Small WorldIts a world of
laughter,a world of tears.Its a world of hopes
its a world of fears.Theres so much that we
shareThat its time were awareIts a small
world after all.
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Edelweiss /eidlvais/Edelweiss,edelwei
ss, every morning you greet me.Small and white,
clean and bright,You look happy to meet
me.Blossom of snow, May you bloom and grow,
bloom and grow forever.Edelweiss, edelweiss,
bless my homeland forever.
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Do Re Mi Song Lets start at the very
beginningA very good place to startWhen you
read you begin with ABCWhen you sing you begin
with Do Re Mi
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Whatever Will Be,Will BeWhen I was just a
little girl, I asked my motherWhat will I
be?Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?Heres
what she said to me,(Que, Sera, Sera)
Whatever will be, will be.The futures not ours
to see, (Que, Sera, Sera) What will be, will
be.
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My last but best tip
Practice, practice and practice
Practice 1 Rain The rain is raining all
around, It falls in field and tree. It rains on
the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea.
--Robert Louis
Stevenson
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My last but best tip
Practice, practice and practice
Practice 2 Bed in Summer In winter I
get up at night,And dress by yellow
candle-light.In summer quite the other way,I
have to go to bed by day. I have to go to
bed and see,The birds still hopping on the
tree,Or hear the grown-up peoples feet,Still
going past me in the street. And does it
not seem hard to you,When all the sky is clear
and blue,And I should like so much to play,To
have to go to bed by day?
--Robert Louis Stevenson
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Review
1
What is good English pronunciation?
What are the priorities for Chinese learners?
2
What are the tips on good English pronunciation?
3
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Thank you!