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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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. As human beings, we want to participate in group discussions and have an impact on the society around us. In the modern world, we communicate across borders. English is the closest thing we have to an international language.
Get Organised! Collaborative Speaking Tasks
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.
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? Even if your vocabulary and English grammar are perfect, it can still be difficult for people to understand you because of your pronunciation. 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.
Can you pronounce all the words in this poem? Most people probably can't
Dutch poet Gerard Nolste Trenité wrote a colossal poem containing about 800 bizarre irregularities in the English language. Written in 1922, the poem reads part tongue twister, part instruction manual. It begins:
Teaching Diphthongs
It’s never easy to teach phonetics and even though I love teaching this skill, I don’t think my students share my feelings on this subject. Anyway,in case you find it interesting or useful this is how I’m planning to teach diphthongs . A diphthong is a sound made up of two vowels, or in other words ,a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another.In RP (the approved pronunciation of British English) , there are eight diphthongs. An easy way for them to remember the diphthongs is by drawing a face such as this one and then eliciting the diphthongs in the head. You’ll get seven out of the eight diphthongs as you can see from the picture . To get the last sound you can always ask students :” Which Diphthong is missing ?”
If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud, and we’ll be honest with you, we struggled with parts of it. Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
You've Been Saying These Country And City Names Wrong Your Whole Life
No one wants to be labeled as a gawking, uninformed foreigner. Aside from wearing a fanny pack, one of the fastest ways to get yourself labeled as a tourist is to mispronounce the name of the city you are visiting. However, in defense of all those who confuse the proper pronunciation of Ibiza for a seriously strong lisp, learning the proper names of all the places in the world can be a tricky task. Let’s face it, spelling can be deceiving, especially if it’s in a language you don’t know how to speak. But luckily, Thrillophilia set out to find the most tricky cities and put an end to their mispronunciations once and for all.
Does Speaking A Foreign Language Change Your Personality?
My high school English teacher used to tell us stuff like, “Learning a foreign language changes you forever.” Despite being an obvious attempt to make us passionate about her subject, her words made sense to me — the kid who quoted obscure Buffy the Vampire Slayer lines and treated Alanis Morissette’s lyrics like the word of God. After all, without a basic understanding of the English language I couldn’t have done any of that, and all those beautiful imaginary friendships would have never blossomed. Then I made it to adulthood (I think) and experienced first-hand the perks of speaking a foreign language: hitting on exotic men (whilst still using Buffy references as pick up lines #ForeverAlone) and weaseling my way into more office gossip than ever before. Split of the online self Learning English strongly affected my habits, but was I really profoundly changed by it?
