Search results for 'tag:Pronunciation tag:Intonations' matching tags 'Pronunciation' and 'Intonations'

Re: Easy as Pie, Almost!

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:30:12 GMT

Frequently listen to English spoken by native speakers and repeat them.
Watch English movies, listen to music, audio clips, BBC news and presentations.
Control your rate of speech to get the correct intonation and rhythm of English.
Use your dictionary.Familiarize yourself with the phonetic symbols used for different words in the dictionary and look up the correct pronunciation.This method helps in neutralizing an accent tremendously.
Make a list of commonly used words that are difficult to pronounce.
Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
Read English newspaper regularly.
Work on how to pronounce the vowel and consonant sounds.Mostly vowel sounds play vital role for accent variation.
Hence pronounce the vowels clearly.
Practice English sincerely. Don't feel shy to speak English as a beginner.

Re: How can I pass TOEFL test???

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:22:28 GMT

The TOEFL has four sections: reading, speaking, listening, writing.

The best advice: study grammar! It's true that there is no grammar section, but the TOEFL tests your grammar in other ways. For example, if you don't understand the grammar in the listening or reading, you won't be able to answer the questions correctly. This really is a tricky test!

For the speaking, I recommend focusing on pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, and stress. The key is how well you are understood, not necessarily how well you speak.

For the writing, focus on essay structure and find a native speaker to correct your essays. Also, time yourself when you write an essay Here's a good website for practicing: http://www.cz-training.com/toefl/practice.html

For reading, don't just read a lot of books and newspapers in English. Always have a dictionary by your side so you can look up every word you don't completely understand. Take notes, and pay attention to the grammar. Just sitting and reading the newspaper for fun is next to useless.

For listening, find a transcript for a TV show you like. (You can get some here: http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/) Then watch the TV show with the transcript. Make notes and pay attention to how words are linked together in English. Again, if you sit down, turn off you brain, and watch TV or listen to the radio, it's almost useless.

Hope this helps!

Re: I Want To Be Fluent English Speaker How Please?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:58:38 GMT

Hello to all,

I believe that to learn English depends of the interest of individual and depending of the English knowledge you wanted to learn. like for instance, if you want to speak English all you have to do is to listen very carefully to some tools such as CD, DVD, tapes etc. either audio or video, any kinds of topics as long as educational and knowledgeable and while you are listening just follow and speak what they are talking this is a training of the tongue or tongue twisting trying to develop proper accent, pronunciation, intonation etc, if any words you donât understand have your dictionary besides you and open it. next step just prepare any topics as guidelines [ prepare the main topics, sub topics and conclusion] prolong, elongate and expound the topics you wanted to discuss make it in English version at first you might have the difficulty to speak but try and try until your English would connect and connect at this point your trying to bridge the gap. What is needed in English is that at least you have many words to know {synonym and antonyms} is what i mean.

The basic training of English is that you have to speak English by any topics. I understand that for a person who lived {not speaking country have the difficulty to speak English} on my behalf, English education must start first on basic like for instance if you need English conversation find a person who could talk with you English, or else speak and talk English with yourself even if someone listening at you and say something you are a fool forget it. What is needed is you learn something and speak English. if you have the difficulty to write English just read books literatures etc at this point you can get many ideas and your vocabulary broadens, watch the period, punctuation, commas, etc, if you are not a good English listener try to listen English teachings, news whatever that could improve your English, the four pillars of English are: reading. Speaking, writing and listening, if you have this all then you can speak English although not fluent as what others did but at least you can communicate via reading, writing, listening and speak. Fluent English would follow donât give up keep trying until success.

I am a Filipino not an English speaker, writer, etc but in terms of communication i could communicate. For to me to learn English depends on individual. If we have the basic then we have to improve, have the desire, act on it, and apply no need a tutor individual interest is vital here. Donât be shy to speak English if the English is crooked and someone laughs at you accept it consider yourself that you are not an English person, perhaps the person who laughs at you donât know how to speak English and even to communicate with. Thereâs a saying goes: a noisy person have little knowledge than a silent one. in this world what is important is communication regardless of races, nationality and religion. a crooked English is better than nothing, a crooked or a carabao English has the opportunity to become fluent rather than nothing. but if you have nothing at all nobody blames except yourself, your making your own fate and destiny donât blame your parents and the government its your own decision for what you are now, your right decision now will be your future someday but if you donât plan or decision today do you think you have something to expect in the future. To speak English needs perseverance, long patience and determination to reach the goal this is fundamental requirements. people who cannot speak English has less opportunity to go abroad particularly in the open country, and thatâs the reason why I wanted to learn English even basic for this is my only tool to go to other countries if opportunities permit.

From Philippines,

Rene

Re: how to learn English

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:30:48 GMT

i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.

Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.

iii. Listen to the 'music' of English.

Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of 'singing'.

iv. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.

vi. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.

vii. Pronounce the ending of each word.

Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.

viii. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day.

Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.

ix. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

x. Be patient.

You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Quick tips

Various versions of the English language exist. Begin by identifying the category you fall into and start by improving the clarity of your speech.

~ Focus on removing the mother tongue influence and the 'Indianisms' that creep into your English conversations.

~ Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies and HBO.

~ Listen to and sing English songs. We'd recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis and Connie Francis among others.

Books to help you improve your English

Essential English Grammar by Murphy (Cambridge)
Spoken English by R K Bansal and J B Harrison
Pronounce It Perfectly In English (book and three audio cassettes) by Jean Yates, Barrons Educational Series
English Pronunciation For International Students by Paulette Wainless Dale, Lillian Poms

Re: When I have trouble...

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:45:36 GMT

Hi,

So what would you advise Kooyeen with regard to the pronunciation of the words he asked about?

As far as specific lexical items are concerned, I would advise him to look them up in an American dictionary. More generally, I would suggest he spend time training his ear in order to recognise all the distinct sounds of the American accent he is aiming at (if he really wants to sound American, then he needs a very specific model). He would need to learn how to produce all the linguistically relevant sounds of this accent and some of their most important allophonic variants (e.g. t-voicing). He should then move on to practise American stress, intonation, and rhythm. Once all these aspects of American pronunciation are mastered, I would start thinking about subtler differences such as differences between male and female speakers of the language.

Re: which of the following TTS(Text To Speech) engines are more natural?

Kooyeen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 22:22:30 GMT

Hi,
I'm not a native speaker, but if you want my opinion... I would never trust a TTS engine. I heard there are some excellent ones, if you look at them from a technical point of view. If you look at them from an ESL learner's point of view, then I'm afraid they are all barely decent.
Consider all the features of speech, personal and regional preferences, consider how stress and intonation vary in speech.
Can a TTS system take all those variables into account and be a good model for a learner? I'm 100% sure the answer is no.

My advice: if you want to learn vocabulary and pronunciation at the same time, always listen to "real people" talking.

proper pronunciation

Drito — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:25:57 GMT

Hi,

I have already posted a topic earlier where i asked for help with reducing accent. Another user wanted to get in contact with me but things didn't pan out.

anyways with that behind us, I am wondering if there are any tips on how to learn proper RP pronunciation, and some training method that will help improve my accent, make my intonation more appropriate, and my consenants less heavy

seems like a lot to ask for, but you guys seem to know alot and are the best source of advice i can think of

Re: Korean students and older male English teachers

Daffy Duck — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:27:19 GMT

Hi Pax!

I must agree, that there are some korean parents and students who want 'good looking' English teachers with very good pronunciation & intonation, like a native speaker. With the parents and koreans I've encountered, this is what they call back in Korea, "popular teachers". We have a male teacher whose age is 40+, he still teaches in our school and most of our korean gradeschool students (boys) adore him. I wish they would just be after the skills and not the looks. But this is some reality we have to face that even in this 'knowledge age', discrimination still exists. Yah, you can teach in universities, colleges, or on-line. All the best, Pax!

Re: accents

Cvilla — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:04:44 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, I see you didn't get it. I will repeat it again. Accents and intonation aren't the same things. You can emphasize something without speaking a perfect accent, let's say American one. Just rise a pitch of your voice at the right place. This doesn't depend on a concrete accent, it is more matter of communication. Perhaps, you learnt these "tricks" at a pronunciation class, therefore you associate them only with an accent. Most learners are unaware about these topics, so most likely they will not understand you.

You're right, intonation and accent aren't the same thing. But that's because intonation is part of the accent. Like I said, other accents don't use a "trick" like the one given in the example I posted before. Additional, if you do not know how to raise your pitch, and where to raise it, you may be communicating something totally different from what you originally intented. For instance, people who often emphasize the pronoun "I" are seen as arrogant snotty people... Believe it or not. And maybe the foreigner does not know about it, and makes this "little" mistake, thus been seen by others in a bad way.

Anonymous wrote:

Believe me that international English exists, but of course not in the USA. Italians, Spaniards, Russians all have their own version of English. I'M NOT OBSESSED with fighting of accents. I just want to show that their sdudying by foreign learners are totally useless. It is because: it is extremely HARD (if you succeeded it doesn't mean that everyone will be able to do that) to tune your pronunciation to the correct one, there are not so many native speakers in the international environment; you are surrounded by various foreign accents, which you need to understand somehow, these people have various levels of English skills, they simply will not understand you if you say something like "I wanna", but you desperately need to communicate with them. Of course if you live in the terrarium like the USA then it is a different story. So, I just want to remove all obstacles in communication with everyone.

Please guide to any reliable good documentation on this "international" English you're talking about... I have never heard of it.

Now I think I get your point; however, a "common" accent is better for everybody in cases like the one you mention. If people get used to a "common" accent ~~be it American, British, or any other~~ they will have better chances of undestanding each other; instead of having portuguese, german, greek, japanese, thai, indian, arabian, and other bunch of people from many nationalities trying to undestand so many different accents (which, by the way, make their English way harder to undestand than trying to understand a native accent).

Re: accents

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:01:44 GMT

Cvilla wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I believe that I haven't missed anything. I think that you don't understand the concept clearly.I agree that (nothing new here) an intonation is one of the most important part of any accent. But in your example it is related to an empasis of some particular words to add a bit different meaning to your phrase (it is NOT an accent!). Usually it is done by changing a pitch of your voice at the right place. So, it has nothing to do with a concrete accent as we don't allways need to emphasize something, do we? But an intonation is used in every phrase. Every native speaker will do this if it is needed. On the other hand accents imply certain intonation patterns which add some kind of "melody" to the speech.
For example the Irish accents are characterised by frequent fluctuation of the pitch. To emphasisize some word an Irishman (like all other people) will just inrease the pitch of his voice to draw your attention to this word (He will change his usual intonation pattern). So, to conclude all accent have their own intonation patterns if you need to emphasize something (that is your example) you need to inrease a pitch at this place despite the accent you speak with.

Like I said, examples like that very specific one, which happens a lot in English, can't be found in other languages... because of the accent. You are trying to be even more "specific" by targeting specifc accents within the accent pool of the English language, but that scenario I describe exists in English because the accent allows for it. Again, you don't find it in some other language because those "lack" that specific pattern in their accents.

Anonymous wrote:

Let's forget what I've just said. I've got a question: who needs this if nobody uses this? Accents are totally useless, since everybody uses his own pattern of speech and it is nearly impossible to learn how to speak with "right" intonation if you are quite old. Moreover nobody will be able to understand you anyway if you succeed, because not all people can hear and understand intonation. International English is just different from British and American English.
I hope you will get it.
Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Nobody uses what? Things like the example I gave you or accents in general? If nobody uses accents, how come do they exist??? Accents aren't useless, my friend; you're simply trying to fight something you can't.

And maybe you're right, maybe it's almost "impossible" to speak with the "right" intonation (let's say "accent", better) if you are quite old. But if you succeed, people will understand you... There's no point in saying that nobody will understand if you succeed; I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. I succeeded at learning a "standard" american accent, and americans understand everything I say. And I have seen a few people succeeding at it too, with the best results.

Now, there is no "international" English which is differenciated from American and British English. And if it existed, that International English would have a accent of its own... You can't escape that, because the accent is defined by intonation patterns, pronunciation, inflection, and other factors that are always present when people speak. We don't speak like robot.... and even there we can talk about a "robotic accent," like "he speaks like a robot."

I just can't see why you are so obsessed in fighting accents. They have existed, they exist, and they will exist.

Ok, I see you didn't get it. I will repeat it again. Accents and intonation aren't the same things. You can emphasize something without speaking a perfect accent, let's say American one. Just rise a pitch of your voice at the right place. This doesn't depend on a concrete accent, it is more matter of communication. Perhaps, you learnt these "tricks" at a pronunciation class, therefore you associate them only with an accent. Most learners are unaware about these topics, so most likely they will not understand you.
Believe me that international English exists, but of course not in the USA. Italians, Spaniards, Russians all have their own version of English. I'M NOT OBSESSED with fighting of accents. I just want to show that their sdudying by foreign learners are totally useless. It is because: it is extremely HARD (if you succeeded it doesn't mean that everyone will be able to do that) to tune your pronunciation to the correct one, there are not so many native speakers in the international environment; you are surrounded by various foreign accents, which you need to understand somehow, these people have various levels of English skills, they simply will not understand you if you say something like "I wanna", but you desperately need to communicate with them. Of course if you live in the terrarium like the USA then it is a different story. So, I just want to remove all obstacles in communication with everyone.