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Subject:
English Pronunciation and Accent Correction
Category: Reference, Education and News > Education Asked by: duck96-ga List Price: $2.00 |
Posted:
03 Sep 2006 23:04 PDT
Expires: 03 Oct 2006 23:04 PDT Question ID: 762009 |
What is the best way, including software, for non-native speaker of English to correct pronunciation and accent? |
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There is no answer at this time. |
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Subject:
Re: English Pronunciation and Accent Correction
From: probonopublico-ga on 03 Sep 2006 23:21 PDT |
By speaking with native speakers who are prepared to correct you. I learned French at school in the UK and I thought I was pretty good. Then when I went to France, I was told that I had an atrocious accent. When I lived in Holland, I learned Dutch from a native teacher and he was always correcting me. I'm sure that helped although I only rarely needed to use my Dutch because most Dutch people speak such good English. Nevertheless, they always wanted to practise their stuff on me. |
Subject:
Re: English Pronunciation and Accent Correction
From: politicalguru-ga on 04 Sep 2006 00:58 PDT |
I concur with Probonopublico. No software could correct you better than talking with a native speaker, and you'd fare better if this person is an ESL (English-as-a-SEcond-Language) teacher who's been trained in accent improvement techniques, or a diction teacher (like the ones actors use when they have to adopt a different accent than their own). In addition, one very wise ESL teacher told me of a "free" method that works to some extent. Listen to a movie in that language with the accent you'd like to adopt and try to imagine you're the actor, immitating their diction/speech. No Trainspotting or Gone with the Wind there, or you'd end up with theatrical accent. |
Subject:
Re: English Pronunciation and Accent Correction
From: myoarin-ga on 04 Sep 2006 02:15 PDT |
As an American who has spent most of 40 years living in Germany, I agree heartily with Probono and Politicalguru. It is very important to correct/improve you pronunciation as early as possible. The longer you continue to speak with an accent, the more difficult it will be to change your habits, and if you are among native speakers, with time, they will become less aware of your accent, accepting that that is just the way you speak, as they do with friends who have a regional accent or perhaps a lisp, and no longer correcting you. But you can help yourself to some extent by becoming aware of your mistakes by making a recording of your reading aloud a text and then comparing it with a native speaker's reading. There may be material for just this purpose, otherwise a "talking book" CD or other recording could help. And then as Politicalguru suggests, try to imitate the native speaker's pronunciation, recording yourself. If you are in a profession with its own special vocabulary, you should master its pronunciation. There are, however, website that address the subject, found with the search: improve OR correct pronunciation For example: http://www.pronunciationpatterns.com/ http://esl.about.com/library/howto/htpronounce.htm http://www.antimoon.com/perfectp/perfectp.htm This one leads to other websites that I did not open: http://ec.hku.hk/VEC/pronunciation/default.htm And this one is also interesting: http://www.fanetik.org/cpintro.html If you are now in an English-speaking country, teachers of speech or elocution could certainly help, as Politicalguru has suggested, and may be necessary if there are some English sounds that you just cannot get your tongue around, like R for many Chinese and Japanese. Good luck! |
Subject:
Re: English Pronunciation and Accent Correction
From: elids-ga on 05 Sep 2006 09:34 PDT |
To all of the above add this little tidbit, correct for the language you are speaking in. For instance, if your native tongue is French, Castillian, Italian or any other Romance language to you phonology is smooth and flowing, the words are all pronounced from the upper part of the larynx and out. However, English, German, Arabian and other guttural languages have many words that are pronounced from the lower part of the pharinx. United Statesian English is CONSIDERABLY more guttural than it's British counterpart, United Statesians (whether conciously or not) make a concerted effort in making this difference as pronounced as possible. If you want to speak like a native United Statesian (or lessen the difference) you must change the way in which you speak in English. Make the words come from the bottom of your throat. The word 'American' lends itself very well for you to get a good idea of how this works. If you touch your throat and say 'American' (assuming your native tongue is a Romance one) you'll notice that the vibrations come from the upper part of your throat, if you ask a native United Statesian to do the same and touch his/her throat while he/she is doing this, you'll notice that the vibrations that make the word come from the bottom part of the throat. In order to sound more like a United Statesian you must make all your words guttural, the more guttural the sound the closer your speech will resemble that of United Statesians. Also, the guttural speech will hide most imperfections in your knowledge of the language. |
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