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Before we start: Please don’t take my speech during these lessons as a model of good pronunciation! I’m deliberately speaking more slowly than my normal speed.

English Pronunciation Workshop 1.English is not a phonetic language. English spelling doesn’t help you with pronunciation. 2.English is a stress-timed language. 3.There are 48 sounds in English.

Hi everyone! Welcome to the lesson. How are you today? It’s great to see you all here. Today I’ve had a really busy day. I had three lessons in the morning, with intermediate-level students, and I was teaching business English classes this afternoon in a small town about twenty-five kilometres from my home. So it’s really nice to be able to teach this lesson from the comfort of my own office! OK. Let’s start.

Hi everyone! Welcome to the lesson. How are you today? It’s great to see you all here. Today I’ve had a really busy day. I had three lessons in the morning, with intermediate-level students, and I was teaching business English classes this afternoon in a small town about twenty-five kilometres from my home. So it’s really nice to be able to teach this lesson from the comfort of my own office! OK. Let’s start.

Stress:Vowel Sounds:Result: 1.  X 2. X (incorrect)  3. X (no stress)  (but not stressed) 4.   (but lost consonant sounds) 5.   (correct speech – target)

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

The Schwa sound

The Schwa sound in English From Wikipedia: Schwa is a very short neutral vowel sound Schwa is an unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages Quite a few languages have a sound similar to schwa From BBC Learning English: Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural

The Schwa sound in English 201 words – 57 of them have a schwa sound (28%) If you didn’t use the schwa sound, you made at least 57 errors! Which words in the text don’t have schwa sounds? Why? Notice words that begin with a one-syllable “a”, e.g. “a-bout” Don’t confuse it with the full sounds: Weak stress before a vowel sound is not a schwa, but a full sound with an extra syllable: e.g. “to eight” = Notice common schwas and patterns, e.g. suffixes, common words Notice longer words, e.g. four-syllable words

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal.

interest expenditure mortgage overdraft investment currency thief accountant Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office. (8) A thief stole all my cash and credit cards, when I was mugged last Thursday. (8) Hannah and Matt should ask my accountant to help them with their tax return. (7) Alfie was waiting at a busy cashpoint yesterday for ten minutes to make a withdrawal. (9)

Interactive Phonemic Chart (download.swf file) Also: