Keith Chen: language that forecasts weather — and behavior By Keith Chen How are China, Estonia and Germany different from India, Greece and the UK? To an economist, one answer is obvious: savings rates. Germans save 10 percentage points more than the British do (as a fraction of GDP), while Estonians and Chinese save a whopping 20 percentage points more than Greeks and Indians. Economists think a lot about what drives people to save, but many of these international differences remain unexplained. Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money? In late 2011, an idea struck me while reading several papers in psychology that link a person’s language with differences in how they think about space, color, and movement. In a nutshell, this is precisely what I found. Back when my first paper on this topic circulated, many linguists were appropriately skeptical of the work. Rain is likely this weekend. It will likely rain this weekend. What does this mean?
Teaching English Pronunciation I've met teachers who believe "there's no point in teaching English pronunciation as it cannot be taught. Talented students pick it up - the rest don't." English coursebooks make the same point with their silence. Despite the above comments, I know from my own experience that clear pronunciation can be taught - and that when it is taught the students listening will improve too. What needs teaching? In teaching English pronunciation the students generally need work in several areas. Individual Sounds - Background Teaching English pronunciation involves a giving a lot of listening practice at the beginning. If the sound you are teaching doesn't exist in your students' language they will try to fit it into the sounds they already know. Remember that sounds and letters are different. Individual Sounds - ESL Pronunciation Activities Listen and say is the most basic pronunciation activity. Listen and slap Students - in teams - slap letters or words on the board . Word Stress How Many Words?
Schwa [ɚ] 5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we think Keith Chen (TED Talk: Could your language affect your ability to save money?) might be an economist, but he wants to talk about language. For instance, he points out, in Chinese, saying “this is my uncle” is not as straightforward as you might think. “All of this information is obligatory. This got Chen wondering: Is there a connection between language and how we think and behave? While “futured languages,” like English, distinguish between the past, present and future, “futureless languages” like Chinese use the same phrasing to describe the events of yesterday, today and tomorrow. But that’s only the beginning. Navigation and Pormpuraawans In Pormpuraaw, an Australian Aboriginal community, you wouldn’t refer to an object as on your “left” or “right,” but rather as “northeast” or “southwest,” writes Stanford psychology professor Lera Boroditsky (an expert in linguistic-cultural connections) in the Wall Street Journal. Featured illustration via iStock.
Improving your English pronunciation Here are some tips to help you improve your English pronunciation. First of all, don't worry about not having a native-English accent. It's important to be able to speak clearly, so that people can understand you. However, it's almost impossible to sound exactly like a native English speaker if you are learning English as an adult in a non-English speaking country. However, there are many things that you can do to improve your pronunciation and your speaking skills. 1. Listen to how speakers pronounce various words and phrases and "model" your pronunciation on what you hear. 2. Use the phonetic alphabet page (at the beginning of most good dictionaries) as a guide to pronouncing new words. 3. Every English word has its own stress, or intonation. Word stress is important. 4. Depending on what your first language is, you may have problems with certain sounds. 5. A useful exercise is a "minimal pair" exercise. For example, "pair" and "bear"; "pond" and "bond"; "pie" and "buy" etc. 6. Intonation
Schwa [3:] The Anglotic Web Page ICT TIC phonology lexicology corpora sociolinguistics culture translation ELT pragmatics competences content literature digital story telling Barry Pennock Speck Universitat de Val ncia Index Simple Minimal Vowel Pairs Exercise 1 /iː/ /ɪ/ Exercise 2 /ɪ/ /e/ Exercise 3 /iː/ /ɪ/ /e/ Exercise 4 /e/ /æ/ Exercise 5 /æ/ /ɑ:/ Exercise 6 /ɒ/ /ɔː/ Exercise 7 /ɒ/ /ɔː/ /ɑ:/ Exercise 8 /ʌ/ /æ/ Exercise 9 /ʌ/ /ɑ:/ Exercise10 /ɜː/ /e/ Exercise 11 /ɜː/ /ɑː/ Exercise 12 /ɜː/ /e/ /æ/ Exercise 13 /ɜː/ /æ/ / ɑ:/ Exercise 14 /ɜː/ /ɔː/ Exercise 15 /eɪ/ aɪ/ Exercise 16 /ɪə/ eə/ Exercise 17 /eɪ/ /e/ Exercise 18 /əʊ/ /ɒ/ Exercise 19 /əʊ/ /ɔː/ Exercise 20 /əʊ/ /ɒ/ /ɔː/ Materials Phonology © 2007 Website.com.
Schwa [Ә] The Anglotic Web Page ICT TIC phonology lexicology corpora sociolinguistics culture translation ELT pragmatics competences content literature digital story telling Barry Pennock Speck Universitat de València University of Valencia › Index Simple Minimal Consonant Pairs Advice vs Advise Cheer vs Jeer 1 Cheer vs Jeer 2 Sheep vs Jeep Young vs Jung 1 Young vs Jung 2 Project Members Links © 2007 Website.com.