[MUSIC] ENGLISH for TEACHING PURPOSES. PRONUNCIATION. >> If you're taking this course, chances are English is not your first language. [MUSIC] It isn't mine either, and yet here I am. Now, when you talk to English native speakers, they tend to agree that it's very easy to find out what you're saying, if you make a grammar mistake. Or, if you use the wrong vocabulary. But, what they can not really deal with is problems, with pronunciation. [MUSIC] The main reason why English pronunciation, is a little nightmarish for non-native speakers is that, it is pretty unpredictable. Let's start with vowels. Vowel pronunciation is difficult to predict in English for many reasons, one of them, is that one of them can have different pronunciations. What to do with them? Follow the rules that we'll present next. >> If a word has only one syllable, with a consonant, a vowel, and a consonant, the vowel should be short. Fat, pet, bit, rod. Put. But if the monosyllabic word is spelled with an e at the end, then, the vowel should be long. Fate, here, bite, rode, cute. As I mentioned earlier, when vowels are sandwiched between a consonant and a double consonant, they tend to be short. Pattern. Cellular. Shipping. Clogged. Pulled. The problem with this rule is that there are many, many, many exceptions. In English, the most important vowel, the stressed vowel, has to sound crystal clear. If the rest of the vowels don't sound so well, they rarely lead to misunderstanding. As for consonants, they are much easier to handle, and the rules that concern them, tend to be a lot more consistent. You probably know that you pronounce c, as [SOUND] before e or i. Cinema. Cell. In all the other cases it sounds like k. Carpenter. Copper. Current. And also in classic or. Crockery. A similar rule is the one affecting g, before a, o, u, or a consonant. You will pronounce it as guh. Gate, gong, gut, glass. But as ge before e, i or y. General. Gibberish. Gist. Right now, you must be thinking there's something very, very wrong with this rule because, you know, the words. Get, give, gill, girl, or geyser. Remember, all rules have their exceptions. Th is pronounced. Thh or tha. They are pronounced in the same place. On is voiceless, and the other one is voiced. To produce the sound, you're going to bite your tongue a little bit like thh, yes. And your tongue will show. But don't worry, this is the only way to produce the sound, okay? So if you do it properly, you will see that it works great. Now, you bite your tongue a little, and then you hear a little hiss, like, th, yes? In think. Thanks. Thoughtful. Thug. You have that sound. That's one possibility for t h. The other possibility is the exact same articulation, the exact same position, but the sound is voiced so it sounds [NOISE]. It's the sound you find in that, this, then, there. It's easy. Just give it a try. Finally, ch is also pronounced as only one sound that will be different depending on the etymology of the word. Words of German or Anglo-Saxon origin will require a ch sound. French words need a sh. And Greek words need a k. Chap. Stomach. Chic. There is a set of three rules, that should help. First thing to remember is that, you need to focus on the sound of the verb and not the spelling. Whenever a regular verb finishes in t or d. You will pronounced the added ed, ending in the past as id. Started. Depended. Parted. Encoded. Now, when the last sound of the verb is voiceless, like ss. Puh, or ths. You will tend to pronounce the e-d ending as a t. Hiss. Hissed. Sip. Sipped. Laugh. Laughed. You pronounce a. Duh, when the last sound of the verb is voiced as in tag, tagged. Stay, stayed. Pull, pulled. But, how to know if a sound is voiced, or not? All vowels, no matter which are voiced by definition. There's a little trick to find out whether a consonant is voiced or not. The only thing you have to do is put your hand here, and you will hear and feel your vocal chords vibrate. Yes? Let's try. If you produce [SOUND] everything will vibrate. But your vocal cords especially, will feel as they are moving. Now try. [SOUND] You see? There is no vibration. The first one, [SOUND] is voiced. [SOUND] Is not. You will see that at the beginning, when you pronounce past tenses, you will have to stop and think, and focus your mind on what you're doing. But after you practice a long time, and many, many times, you will see that it's pretty easy and it comes out naturally. You see? Now we know many rules, and we need to apply them. It helps, you know? It helps to know what to do and what to avoid, when you're pronouncing words in English, but we're still missing some more. For example, in English there are many words, that end with consonant sounds. It is important that you don't attempt to add a final sound, even if you would naturally do it when speaking your first language. Hence. Method. Past. Imagine. Remember that the last e is not pronounced. Road. Live. Heal. Pear. There are extremely accurate descriptions of each English sound, on the internet. For some people, finding a small mirror, and looking at themselves when they are producing isolated sounds. As described by the International Phonetic Association, it really helps. But, for that, you need to understand the descriptions of each sound, and how they are produced, and where. For me, it's great, but I would say that perhaps, what you need is to find places where the pronunciation is modeled. Listen to them and then try and repeat. Prosody is the music of a language. People seem to naturally adapt to the rhythms of their first language. But, we all have trouble with prosody in other languages. To complicate matters even more, prosody may change a little in the different regional varieties. In 2008, Judy B.Gilbert wrote a booklet widely available online by the title Teaching Pronunciation. Although it is meant for English teachers, it is so reader-friendly that you might find it useful to teach the tricks to yourself. The general principle of the book is that, English prosody revolves around the stressed syllable, in the most important word of an utterance. The rest of the words will be pronounced without making major pauses between them. This video is accompanied by some links, that you can follow to find the pronunciation of words modeled for you. It's the case of how to say, or formal you will find some others. If it helps, one exercise that can work wonders with your pronunciation is, you listen to the model, you repeat, you record your repetition, and then you compare. If you can hear differences, and you're able to correct them, great. But, sometimes you might need help, somewhere else. Maybe a teacher, maybe a language service. By all means, if you need to resort to a teacher, and ask them to help you out, do it. I hope you have found the few pointers we have included on this video useful. Remember to check the websites. See you next time. [MUSIC]
