Learning English with Julio: Phonetic symbols in English

Tips to speak English fluently:

1. Record yourself speaking English.
Listen to a recording of a fluent English speaker (a short audio file) and then record yourself repeating what they said. Compare the difference and try again.

2. Read aloud, especially dialogues.
Practise for 5 or 10 minutes a day and you will begin to notice which sounds are difficult for you to produce.

3. Sing along to English songs while you’re driving or in the shower.
The lyrics to pop songs are often conversational so you can learn lots of common expressions by listening to them.

4. Watch short video clips and pause and repeat what you hear.
YouTube is an amazing resource for language learners and you probably already have your favourite clips. My advice is to watch short clips and really study them.

5. Learn vowel and consonant sounds in English.
Learning how to make these sounds and then using them to pronounce words correctly will really help you speak English clearly.

6. Learn and identify schwa.
It’s the most common sound in English: Click here. We use it all the time in words like ‘teacher’ and ‘around’.

7. Learn about word stress.
When words have more than one syllable, we stress one or more of them. Remember that the small vertical mark above the word identifies the stressed syllable: /ɪnˈtel.ɪ.dʒənt/ (intelligent)

8. Learn about collocations.
Words don’t like being alone. They prefer to hang out with their friends and, just like people, some words form close friendships and other never speak to each other.

9. Replace regular verbs with phrasal verbs.
Native English speakers use lots and lots of phrasal verbs. If you want to understand us, then try to include them in your conversation.

10. Learn short automatic responses.
Many of our responses are automatic (Right, OK, no problem, alright, fine thanks, just a minute, you’re welcome, fine by me, let’s do it!, yup, no way! you’re joking, right?, Do I have to? etc.)

11. Learn about typical pronunciation problems in your first language.
Spaniards don’t distinguish between ‘b‘ and ‘v‘, for example...

12. Choose an accent you like and imitate it.
We often have an emotional connection with certain nationalities. Deciding what variety of English you want to learn is your first step.

13. Find an actor/actress you like and identify what makes them powerful speakers.
Do you want to sound like Barack Obama, Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Homes) Beyonce or Steve Jobs?

14. Practise tongue twisters.
Tongue twisters are phrases designed to improve your pronunciation of particular sounds.

15. Practise spelling names, numbers and dates aloud.
This may seem very basic to some of you but if you don’t practise, you forget how to say them.

16. Learn about common intonation patterns.
Intonation (when the pitch of the voice goes up and down) is complex in English but it is very important as it expresses the feeling or emotion of the speaker. Here is an amusing introduction to intonation.

17. Learn about places of articulation.
The articulators are the parts of the mouth we use to turn sound into speech. They can be fixed parts (the teeth, behind the teeth and the roof of the mouth) and mobile parts (the tongue, the lips, the soft palate, and the jaw).

18. Learn why English is a stress-timed language.
The rhythm of the language is based on stressed syllables so we shorten the unstressed syllables to fit the rhythm. Syllable-timed languages (such as Spanish) take the same time to pronounce each syllable...

19. Listen and read along to poetry (or rap songs) to practise the rhythm of English.
Limericks (short, funny, rhyming poems) are really useful and demonstrate how English is stress-timed and how we use weak forms.

20. Learn how to paraphrase.
Paraphrasing is when we repeat what we have just said to make it clear to the listener or when we repeat what the other person has said by using different words.

21. Use contractions more.
Contractions make your speech more efficient because they save time and energy. Say ‘should not’ and then say ‘shouldn’t’: which is easier to say?

22. Work with a friend.
You will encourage each other and both of you will improve your English!

Learning English with Julio

domingo, 7 de diciembre de 2014

Phonetic symbols in English

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