Simple Words and Tenses

Part 5

Part 5 of this free online ESL course teaches the student how to pronounce his/her new language better by using simple words and tenses. In many cases the student doesn’t have any pronunciation problems, but it sounds as if he/she does because of complicated words and tenses.

Golden Rule #1 for a Good Pronunciation

Keep Your Sentences Simple.

Two Tips to Keep a Sentence Simple

To keep a sentence simple ESL students:

1. use words they feel comfortable with
2. limit their tenses.

Tenses

English is similar to any other language. A quick look at any grammar book and the student will see there are a lot of tenses in English. With time he/she will know the various tenses and jump from one to the other easily. At the moment, however, our problem is pronunciation.

Learning a second language is not like buying a pair of jeans. It’s not something a person is able to put on. It is something which must become part of the student.

The Little Clerk in Our Brain

I like to think of the brain as a room full of filing cabinets. There’s a little clerk in my head who files everything I learn. As soon as he has time to file my new word or tense it becomes part of me. Sometimes he is behind in his work, and it takes longer for me to learn the new information.

Pronunciation is a special part of a language. Our little clerk cannot file it. Pronunciation is more physical than mental. It is connected to our facial muscles, our behavior, and instinct. We can’t rely on our little clerk for pronunciation. The work is up to us. Making pronunciation part of us is not easy.

Re-teaching Our Facial Muscles

Our facial muscles set when we become adults. If the sounds in our new language are very different from those in our native language, we have to re-teach our facial muscles. This is why little children have no problems. Their facial muscles are still flexible.

Because re-setting our facial muscles is difficult, we have to make life as easy as possible for us.

Past – Present – Future

While we are making pronunciation a part of us, we should limit our:

1. tenses to the: present, past, future
2. vocabulary to those we are most comfortable with.

I’m not saying we have to forget the other tenses and words. We will get to them in time.

First things first. If we want to make progress, we have to tackle one problem at a time.

Assignment:

Do this exercise every day:

1. Imagine you are speaking to a friend about something you saw, read, or heard. It doesn’t have to be long. Keep the tenses and the vocabulary simple.
2. Write it down and read it out loud.
3. Learn it by heart and say it out loud.
4. Do the same mentally.
5. Ask a Study Buddy to listen.
6. Ask a Study Buddy to tape it.
7. Listen to the tape and repeat afterward.

Here’s an example to help you:

I take the subway every morning. I work in an office. It’s on the 3^rd floor. My office is in a building on Avenue Louise. I work from Monday to Friday. I don’t work on Saturday and Sunday. Tomorrow I’m not going to take the subway. Tomorrow I’m going to walk to work.