Pronunciation
and Hearing
Part 7
Part 7 of this free
online ESL course teaches the student how to deal with the
new sounds in his/her second language. The ESL student
can, with a little effort and the right method, learn to
pronounce correctly every sound he/she hears.
Words and Sounds
Some languages are easier
for us to learn than others. It all depends on our native
language, the contacts we have, and motivation.
Easy or difficult they
all have something in common: students have problems with
the pronunciation.
The Good News
The key word is Seem.
It’s an impression we have. There is no sound we cannot
reproduce with a little effort.
The sounds are strange to
our ears and our jaw muscles aren’t used to helping us
make them.
The good news is: there
is an easy way to overcome it.
Ears Play Tricks
On the Student
When I learned French I
had a pronunciation problem with the letter R.
Instead of pronouncing the R, I used to
lengthen the vowel. Instead of saying Marcher
I ended up saying Macher. This can be
confusing in a conversation, because the first word means
Walk and the second means Chew.
My teacher made me repeat
the sound over and over again. Sometimes I got it.
Sometimes I didn't. Most of the time I didn’t. In my
opinion, the time the teacher spent making me repeat after
her was lost time. I couldn't hear the
difference between my good pronunciation and my bad one.
She showed me diagrams of
high, middle, and low vowels. She told me to pronounce
them rounded, toward the back, middle, and front of the
mouth. I tried to pronounce the sounds correctly, but I
couldn’t understand. The reason I couldn’t understand her
was because I couldn’t hear the sound.
A
solution
One day I met a teacher
at a reception. We got to talking about languages, and he
told me something very strange about pronunciation
problems.
Pronunciation problems
are caused by the ears. I remember I stared at him for a
few seconds, and then started to laugh.
It's true. Ears play
tricks on students. Once the student realizes this, the
problem is over.
The teacher gave me an
exercise to do. I started the exercises the following day.
Within a week my problems with the R disappeared. The
exercise works with the R, but it also
works with any other sound.
Easy Exercise to
Do On Your Own
Material:
-
A recorder
-
A sentence or a group
of words with a problem sound
Preparation:
-
Ask someone to record
the problem sentence or sounds for you.
-
Find a quiet place to
do the exercise.
Exercise:
-
Listen to the correct
sentence, word, or sound.
-
Repeat and record the
sentence, word, or sound.
-
Listen to the
sentence, word, or sound.
-
Compare your
sentence, word, or sound to the original one
-
Continue until you
are happy with the results.
Assignment:
Our ears hear the new
sound, but they don't listen to it. The only way to
register the new sound is by making the ears listen.
-
Ask your teacher and
study buddy what sounds you have problems with.
-
Do
the exercise above.
-
Work
on one pronunciation problem at a time.
