Pronunciation Tips

 In Accents and Pronunciation, Grammar

The most daunting part of speaking a new language is having the correct pronunciation but you can go a long way with these pronunciation tips.  The thought of having to speak a new language publicly – even in a classroom setting – can be very intimidating. For the ESL speaker, English spelling and pronunciation are very difficult parts of learning the language, and so no ESL student wants to be asked to pronounce new words, many of which do not sound the way they are spelled.  First and foremost of our pronunciation tips is that at  the beginning of your English language course, do not speak as much as you listen – to the teacher and to the native English speakers around you.  This will start  absorbing and  distinguishing different sounds.  After this you can start trying to sound out words yourself.  Another pronunciation tip is to create a game or fun team exercise  that has you practicing  pronunciation rules and usage.

pronunciation tips

The following pronunciation tips are some basic ideas for fun ways to practice pronunciation:
1. These sounds vary with verb endings
present simple verb tense which ends in s.
There are three ways the s can be sounded out:
s – as in ‘walks’  is a soft ‘s’ sound.
s – as in ‘rides’ is a ‘z’ sound
s – as in ‘refuses’ is an ‘iz’ sound
past simple verb tense of regular verbs end in ed.
There are three ways these verb- endings can be sounded out
ed – as in ‘dried’ is a hard ‘d’ sound
ed – as in ‘walked’ is a ‘t’ sound
ed- as in ‘sheltered’ is an ‘id‘ sound
A cool exercise is to have your friends ask you to select a verb, then both say and write the  verb ending with the the present simple and the past simple tense.
2. Letters and  Sounds
Know your what a homonym, heteronym and homophone is and common words that fall into these categories.  words that are spelled the same but are sounded out differently, or words that are spelled differently but sound the same are all too common in English pronunciation. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but 44 sounds in spoken englisList some words and have students answer how many sounds per word.
3. Know about silent letters and buried syllables.  Create a list of words and then ask each other to say how many sounds are in each words  This pronunciation tips helps you memorize words and word sounds.
4. Mimicking
This is a great pronunciation tip which you can practice all day long, int he classroom and copying the way your teacher speaks and sounds out words, and outside of the classroom with native English speakers in your midst.

The most daunting part of speaking a new language is having the correct pronunciation but you can get a long way with these pronunciation tips.  The thought of having to speak a new language publicly – even in a classroom setting – can be very intimidating. For the ESL speaker, English spelling and pronunciation are very difficult parts of learning the language, and  pronunciation tips can be useful when the new ESL student is to be asked to pronounce new words, many of which do not sound the way they are spelled.

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