Pronunciation skills: What accent should I teach? By Adrian Underhill ELT Pronunciation expert Adrian Underhill addresses your practical concerns on accents, RP and student identity. Practical concerns What accent should I teach? What about Received Pronunciation (RP)? So, what is the best pronunciation target for my students? This means two separate pronunciation targets: a speaking/productive one and a listening/receptive one. Should students keep their own accent? Won’t changing my students’ accents change their identity? Practical ideas for the classroom 1. 2. Invite them to notice and play with the differences between accents. Twenty one accents One woman, 17 British accents Fun tour of American accents 3. 4. 5. For more practical ideas see my blog www.adrianpronchart.wordpress.com Accents and the L1 grip The interactive phonemic chart
Twelve phrases only british people understand Americans have always had a bizarre fixation with the Queen (a remnant of the empire George Washington couldn’t scrub away?) and her birthday seems to be no different. The Queen is turning 90 this week, and it seems people abroad are more excited than many Britons themselves. But how well do people abroad actually understand Britain? Here are twelve phrases that'll be utter gobbledygook to everyone else but the British: 1. It basically means “there you are!” However “fanny” is also British slang for vagina, and although this ruder context isn’t used, it's still baffling to others. 2. This means someone has lost their temper, but it can also refer to a loss of sanity. For example, "Donald Trump has completely lost the plot." 3. For some reason British people think donkey’s years are really really long, and use this expression when talking about a long period of time. The phrase is believed to have originated from cockney rhyming slang “donkey’s ears” 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. No, it’s not a disease. 9. 10.
Over 1,000 of the most common fixed expressions and idioms in the English language This list has been compiled of the most fixed expressions and idioms in the English language--with 1,157 items. The reason that we have posted this list is to get our current and potential students to start thinking like a linguist, so that they can have an easier time translating things, and more productive study time when they sit down to complete their assignments. . Though this list in no way should be thought of as a complete list of idioms and fixed expressions, it however be thought of as a reference tool for a student trying to classify his/her native language, and as an aid to help said student break down said language into the most basic parts of usage. What we mean by language will generally find him/herself in when speaking whatever language on a daily basis. Though this list has been written in English, it needs to be clarified that it has been compiled as a template for languages. during the day at night in the meantime in the next few…+NOUN for the time being a remote chance
English sentence stress For this reason it's also an area which is often neglected, but this aspect of the language can cause problems for learners in both their speaking and perhaps more importantly listening. English is a stress-timed language Listening Listening activities Speaking Speaking activities Conclusion English is a stress-timed languageThe English language is often referred to as stress-timed. This means that stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the length it takes to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself. Try saying or listening to the sentences below: Download stress.mp3 audio (273k) The four sentences take the same length of time to say and you will notice the numbers are stressed and the unstressed words in between are said much more quickly in order to keep the rhythm of the language. Listening In a recent class I discussed with my students the reasons they found listening difficult in English.
English words most commonly mispronounced by foreigners The list below contains some of the most commonly mispronounced words (mostly by foreigners) in English. Pronunciation is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and in a notation that uses just three IPA symbols (ə as in ”again” or ”a book”, æ as in “cat”, and ʌ as in “but”) and should be quite intuitive to read. The stressed syllable is indicated by a bold typeface. height /haɪt/ (haayt); the pronunciation is as if it were written “hight”. The “e” is there just to confuse foreigners. fruit /fruːt/ (froot); the same situation as in the previous word; simply ignore the “i”. subtle /ˈsʌtl/ (sʌ-tl); “btle” simply doesn’t sound good. queue /kjuː/ (kyoo); if you want to pronounce this word correctly, just think about the Q at the beginning; “ueue” is not pronounced at all. draught /drɑːft/ (draaft); this is just the British spelling of “draft”, and is also pronounced the same. womb /wuːm/ (woom), tomb /tuːm/ (toom); people tend to pronounce “o” as in “lot”.
18 English words that mean very different things in Britain and America As the old adage famously goes: you say tom-MAY-toes, and I say tom-MAH-toes. We should probably call the whole thing off, right? Ever since the might of the British Empire was expelled from the United States, ordinary folk from both sides of the pond have chuckled at each other's use of the English language and pronunciation. Here are several important examples you need to remember - simply to make sure no one gives you a weird look when you're off on your holidays. 1. UK: A woollen pullover worn in the winter US: Someone who commits suicide by leaping from a building or bridge 2. UK: An eraser for a pencil US: A condom 3. UK: Something a baby wears (noun) US: Frizzy or hairy (adjective) 4. UK: The floor above the ground floor US: The ground floor of a building UK: Flaps attached to a race horse's face to restrict its vision US: Indicators on a car 6. UK: Another word for jewellery box US: Another word for coffin 7. UK: Informal party wear, dressing up as a well-known character 8. 9. US: An old man
Barbie challenges the 'white saviour complex' Image copyright Barbie Savior Barbie has ditched her riding gear, her ball gown and her ballerina costume and travelled to Africa to help the people there, while still managing to stay fashionable. That is at least according to a much talked about Instagram account, Barbie Savior, which is charting her imaginary volunteer journey. It starts with her saying farewell to her home in the US and wondering if the "sweet sweet orphans in the country of Africa" are going to love her the way she already loves them. The satirical account encapsulates what some see as the white saviour complex, a modern version of Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden. The 19th Century Kipling poem instructed colonialists to "Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease". Because of the history of slavery and colonialism, many people in Africa find such attitudes deeply patronising and offensive. "We have seen short-term medical teams do amazing things, as well as act in inexcusable ways."
Ces mots arabes que vous utilisez tous les jours Un texte de Thomas Gerbet La langue ne doit rien au hasard. Elle est le reflet des mélanges de populations, des migrations, des conquêtes. Et les mots arabes ont laissé une trace importante. Au total, près de 250 mots français sont issus de l'arabe, soit deux fois plus que ceux d'origine gauloise. Sirop vient du latin siroppus, mais lui-même est dérivé de l'arabe sharab. Les Arabes ont occupé le sud de la France à plusieurs reprises entre le VIIIe et le Xe siècle. Entre 10 % et 15 % des mots français du dictionnaire viennent de l'étranger, selon les spécialistes de la linguistique. L'arabe est une des principales sources d'emprunt dans la langue française. L'arabe se classe en 5e position dans l'influence des mots d'emprunt du français derrière l'anglais (25 %), l'italien (17 %), le germanique (13 %) et les dialectes gallo-romains (11 %). Exemples de mots français aux racines arabes Quelques mots français d'origine étrangère Ketchup vient du chinois, robot du tchèque, pyjama de l'hindi...
"Ghoti" = "Fish" Josef Essberger Some languages are "phonetic". That means that you can look at a word and know how to say it. English is not phonetic. You cannot always look at an English word and know how to say it. Consider the following question as an example: How do we pronounce the word "ghoti"? The answer is "fish". How can "ghoti" and "fish" sound the same? gh = f as in rouGHo = i as in wOmenti = sh as in naTIon Of course, this is a joke*. It is very important to understand that English spelling and English pronunciation are not always the same. Same spelling - different sound Do not place too much importance on the spelling of a word. Here are five words that end in "ough". bough rhymes with cowcough rhymes with offrough rhymes with puffthough rhymes with Jothrough rhymes with too Many words have exactly the same spelling but are pronounced differently when the meaning is different. Different spelling - same sound Many words have different spellings but are pronounced exactly the same. /Id/ wanT wantED
33 ways to speak better English If you’re reading this, I imagine you want to speak better English and communicate in a more confident and competent way. When we communicate effectively we are able to express our ideas and opinions, share experiences, and build relationships with others. When we struggle to express ourselves, we feel unvalued and insecure. In the modern world, we communicate across borders. By speaking better English, people all over the world can hear our voice. Well, English teachers and English classes definitely help. What you need is to become a self-directed learner, somebody who takes responsibility for their own learning and creates their own learning programme to develop their English. Now, it’s certainly true that speaking is a social activity and is best done with other people. You can do the same with your English. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. I want to go for a drink tonight. How do native speakers pronounce to / for / a in the sentence? I wanna go ferra drink tenigh. 8. 9. 10. to be honest 11. 12.
Get Organised! Collaborative Speaking Tasks | Tim's Free English Lesson Plans Image credit: www.organisemyhouse.com Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio This is a speaking lesson plan designed for teenagers that focuses on various exponents of suggesting, offering, agreeing and disagreeing. The main aim of the lesson is for students to improve their collaborative speaking skills, it will work well as preparation for FCE/CAE speaking exams. You will need the powerpoint and teacher’s notes below: get-organised – Powerpoint Get organised Teachers notes Teacher’s notes The class is loosely based on Willis’s Task Based Learning in that students are given the opportunity to repeatedly practice a similar task and hopefully internalise some useful exponents for collaborative speaking. Put students into groups of 3, it would also work with pairs but 3s are ideal. Show the 2nd slide of the power point. Note: This is a good opportunity to teach the difference between “will” for decisions in the moment of speaking and “be going to” for a future intention. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
English Tenses Cheatsheet Letter O: Special pronunciation | Singular English This post on pronunciation comes with audios and with a free word list with pronunciation, which you can download as a PDF. Here is one of my favourite topics in standard British English pronunciation. Audio Player (You can listen to the first part of the post here. For a list of /Λ/ words and their pronunciation, download my free Study Sheet as a PDF after this first audio.) There are some very frequent, everyday words that share a common feature: They all contain the letter O, usually in the stressed syllable. Many learners of English are not aware of this. There are roughly 65 English words that come with this feature. The same word can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.Verbs have gerunds and participles.The verb come alone can form 50-60 phrasal verbs, and a large number of idioms and expressions.Nouns can form adjectives with suffixes.Prefixes can make words into their opposites.There are adverbs and collocations, etc. It is therefore worth becoming aware of them. Three basic words
How to Improve Your English Pronunciation to Talk Like a Native “What?” “Can you say that again?” How many times do you hear this when you’re speaking? Learning to pronounce English words correctly can be one of the hardest parts of learning English. The English language has some sounds that your native language might not, so you will have to learn how to make completely new sounds. Plus, English vowels make it really tricky to know how to say a word. Ah! So that’s why we have eight tips for you, to help you pronounce English words better. 1. Before you learn how to speak, you’ll need to learn how to listen. There are many guides to get you started in learning to listen. The pronunciation practice at Many Things is really slick, especially its huge selection of lessons on minimal pairs. When you want to listen to authentic English instead of pronunciation exercises, you can watch videos on FluentU. Every word comes with an in-context definition, image, audio and example sentences, so you have enough support to make native English accessible to you. 2.