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How to Improve Your English Pronunciation Presented by Prof. Tu Pei 名师外语讲座系列（二）

Five Questions 1What is good English pronunciation? 2Why is good pronunciation so important? 3 What impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation? 4What are the priorities for Chinese learners? 5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation?

1 What is good English pronunciation? to develop a clear, understandable pronunciation with appropriate intonation and stress A lofty goal A modest, realistic goal sound like native speakers

2 Why is good pronunciation so important? is being understood by a listener in a given situation Intelligibility is the most sensible goal. Poor, unintelligible speech will make your attempts at conversing frustrating and unpleasant both for yourself and for your listeners. Intelligibility

3 What impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation? The learner’s native language The learner’s age The learner’s exposure The learner’s innate phonetic ability The learner’s attitude and motivation The learner’s speech habit

4 What are the priorities for Chinese learners? weak forms word stress sentence stress intonation rhythm Priority aspects for Chinese learners

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Be aware of the major differences between Chinese and English pronunciations Be aware of the special features of English that are most difficult for the Chinese learners 5.2—

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Chinese is a tone language while English is a highly stressed language. Apart from the vowel qualities and consonant qualities, stresses play a very important role in conveying the meaning of a sentence in English. Example: The girl gave the money to her father. 5.1

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Example: coming letter beautiful report myself forget remember explosion modernization 5.2 Word Stress

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Example: 1. Janet has gone to the Baker’s. 2. I saw your brother yesterday. 3. Would you like a glass of beer? 4. I must be going. My wife’s waiting for me at the corner of the street. 5.3 Sentence stress In a normal English sentence, certain words are stressed and certain words are unstressed. Normally stressed are content words. Normally unstressed are form words.

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Example: 5.4 Stress patterns 1.Sing a song. 2. I’d love to. 3. I’ve heard of it. 4. I want to know. 5. She asked me to go. 6. I think it will be fine.

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Example: Go home Going home Going back home Going straight back home 5.5 Stress timed language

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Example: A cup of tea John’s at home. A glass of water I can speak English. A block of flats I’d like some potatoes. The book that I want I’ve been to France. Bread and butter We were leaving the house. 5.6 Weak forms

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Function 1: It indicates grammatical meaning, in much the same way as punctuation does in the written language. 5.7 Intonation Example: He lives in London. 3.He lives in London. Where? 4. He lives in London. Where?

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? 5.7 Intonation Function 2: It can also indicate the speaker’s attitude. Example: Really? What’s your name?

5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Fall Rise Fall-rise Rise-fall 5.8 Four basic tune movements Example: 1. His name is Peter. (a straightforward statement) 2. His name is Peter. (a polite question) 3. His name is Peter. (I don’t believe you.) 4. His name is Peter. (to convey certainty)

1 Rain The rain is raining all around, It falls in field and tree. It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea. --Robert Louis Stevenson My last but best tip Practice, practice and practice

2 Bed in Summer --Robert Louis Stevenson （ 1 ） In winter I get up at night, And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. My last but best tip Practice, practice and practice

Bed in Summer （ 2 ） I have to go to bed and see, The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people’s feet, Still going past me in the street. My last but best tip Practice, practice and practice

Bed in Summer （ 3 ） And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day? My last but best tip Practice, practice and practice

Review 1What is good English pronunciation? 2Why is good pronunciation so important? 3 What impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation? 4What are the priorities for Chinese learners? 5 What are the tips on good English pronunciation?

Questions are welcome!

Thank you!