How to Improve Your English Pronunciation Tu Pei Beijing Foreign Studies University

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? 1. The learner’s native language 2. The learner’s age 3. The learner’s exposure 4. The learner’s innate phonetic ability 5. The learner’s attitude and motivation. 6. The learner’s speech habit.

4 What are the priorities for Chinese learners? weak forms 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. The Greens will never agree to that. 5.1

. The GREENS will never agree to that. The Greens will NEVER agree to that. The Greens will never AGREE to that. The Greens will never agree to THAT.

汉语： 声母 + 韵母 + 声调 —— > 单音节词 （ 决定了它只有声调， 没有重音） 英语： 辅音 + 元音 —— > 单音节词，双音节词， 多音节词 （ 决定了它必须有重音）

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? 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.

Examples: 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.

Stress gives a natural rhythm to spoken English. Rhythm

The rhythm of spoken English is determined by the occurrence of stressed syllables. Stressed syllables occur at more or less equal intervals in English. The other syllables in a sentence are reduced or blended to accommodate the regular beat of the stressed syllables.

1.As a general rule English tries to avoid having stresses too close together. 2. English stresses tend to recur at regular intervals.

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

Weak Forms The weak form or forms of a word are used only in unstressed positions. The weak forms of the words are of much more frequent occurrence than their strong forms.

/2/ and / * nd/ / 2 nd/ /nd/ /n/ bread and butter Ladies and gentlemen

The average learner uses far too many strong forms; it is impossible to speak English fluently unless the phenomenon of weak forms is properly understood and their use acquired, preferably from the earliest stage.

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 1. He lives in London. 3. He lives in London. Where? 2. He lives in London. 4. He lives in London. Where? Function 2: It can also indicate the speaker’s attitude. 1. Really? 2. 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)

Speech-flow Stress,rhythm and intonation should really be considered as a whole, for they are very closely connected elements of a single aspect of the language that we might call Speech- flow.

Speech-flow Broadly speaking, a reasonably correct speech-flow is more important for intelligibility than correct sounds.

Features that help you read smoothly speech flow--stress,rhythm,intonation weak forms 弱读 sound linking 连读 loss or incomplete plosion 失去或不完全爆破 consonant clusters 辅音连缀 elision 省音 pauses 停顿

Sounds: Other difficulties for Chinese learners Sounds: /i/ /i: / ship sheep / */ /ai/ back bike / 2:/ /0:/ work walk /u:// $/ boot book / 2$//u:/ show shoe /b/ /d/ bed dead / r / / l / write light /n/ / l / nine line /tr/ / t1/ tried child /t1// t3/ chain Jane /s/ /z/ said z /1//3/ pressure pleasure

Consonant clusters Initial sequences play/pry/climb/blow/bread/glass/fly/sky/smoke smile/snow/throw/three/stupid/splendid Final sequences slept/fact/drugged/kept/cups/jobs/eggs/drives fields/jumped/shelves/films/closed/six/booked

Seasons Spring is green, Summer is bright, Autumn is golden, Winter is white. Year in year out, We work and fight, For a new world, of red sunlight. 重音 / 节奏 / 语调 弱读 辅音连缀 连读 失去或不完全爆破 语流好，发音好

Seasons Spring is green, Summer is bright, Autumn is golden, Winter is white. Year in year out, We work and fight, For a new world, of red sunlight.

It ’ s a Small World It ’ s a world of laughter,a world of tears. It ’ s a world of hopes; it ’ s a world of fears. There ’ s so much that we share That it ’ s time we ’ re aware It ’ s a small world after all.

Edelweiss / #eidl vais/ Edelweiss,edelweiss, every morning you greet me. Small and white, clean and bright, You look happy to meet me. Blossom of snow, May you bloom and grow, bloom and grow forever. Edelweiss, edelweiss, bless my homeland forever.

Do Re Mi Song Let ’ s start at the very beginning A very good place to start When you read you begin with ABC When you sing you begin with Do Re Mi

Whatever Will Be,Will Be When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother “ What will I be? ” “ Will I be pretty? ” “ Will I be rich? ” Here ’ s what she said to me, (Que, ‘ Sera, ‘ Sera) “ Whatever will be, will be. The future ’ s not ours to see, (Que, ‘ Sera, ‘ Sera) What will be, will be. ”

Practice 2: Bed in Summer 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. 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. 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? --Robert Louis Stevenson My last but best tip Practice, practice and practice

Practice 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

Practice 2: Bed in Summer 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. 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. 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? --Robert Louis Stevenson My last but best tip Practice, practice and practice

Practice 3: Learning a foreign language was one of the most difficult yet most rewarding experiences of my life. Although at times, learning a language was frustrating, it was well worth the effect. My experience with a foreign language began in junior middle school, when I took my first English class. I had a kind and patient teacher who often praised all of the students. Because of this positive method, I eagerly answered all the questions I could, never worrying much about making mistakes. I was at the top of my class for two years.

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?

Thank you!