每日英语听力 Day15

stressed syllables and unstressed syllables don’t have a big difference in how long it takes to say them, so that is why if you are a Spanish speaker for example and you are trying to speak English like a native it can be very hard to replicate this stress timing because you are not customed->accustomed to reducing or shortening all of this stressed ayllables that is not something that you do in Spanish.

So that is a big->the difference between a stressed timed and a syllable timed language and so in a stress timed language when a syllable is not stressed it can often become reduced so for example the word for is usually not stressed in English so we don’t pronounce that as for we say for right i say for example i don’t say for example you hear that? that is a difference. so that is an example of how an unstressed syllable or word becomes reduced and that happens all the time in English that happens envatully->in virtually every sentence that we say.

These words or syllables that are not stressed can often become reduced their pronunciation changes because the volve is shorten->vowel is shortened okay? so that is stress in summary in not shell->a utshell, okay? that can make English a very very difficult language to pronounce like a native speaker.

And besides stress there is also the issue of sounds individual sounds that can be hard because they are different in English than they are in your language we have different sounds in English than the sounds in Spanish fo example so besides stress you also have to deal with these new sounds that are unfamiliar to you it is not natural for you to make these sounds.

so there are other things that are difficult but really the two main things that make English so hard to pronounce is the stress number one and number two some of the sounds may->might be hard so those are the biggest challenges you will face.

so how do you improve your pronunciation? i just talked about pronunciation and about the difficulties with English pronunciation but now the question is how to do you actually improve in this area of your English learning. well it is important to note that the->\ pronunciation doesn’t improve the same way as fluency or listening or vocabulary.

those things improve in a more natural way and if you have been listening to me for a long time you probably know by now that i’m advicate->an advocate of allowing youself to aquire->acquire a language in a natural way.

by the way when we say that you are inadvicate->an advocate of something we are saying that you support some idea or something so i am an advocate of allowing yourself to acquire a language naturally mainly through listening and also reading.

So when you listen and you read you acquire listening skills and reading skills of course you acquire vocabulary and even you acquire fluency because you have full frezzess->phrases and colications->collections in your brain that you can reproduce once you heard them enough okay?

so those things improve naturally however pronunciation doesn’t improve as naturally as these other elements okay so pronunciation requires a more concentrated effects->effort in order to improve it listening will improve your pronunciation that is for sure if you listen a lot and if you listen very intendly->intently that will help you imrove you English pronunciation no doubt.

however beyond that if you want actually have a big improvment in your pronunciation and improve it faster then the key to this is that you need to notice your mistakes, you need to notice the real sound of English you need to notice how native speakers say something verses->versus how you are expecting them to say it.

and once you become to notice these things you start to shift your understanding and your expectation of what things are supposed to sound like okay by the way the word shift just means change okay so when you start to notice these things then your whole perception of sounds and this whole element of English will change you’ll start to be able to identify the difference between how you say something and how a native speaker say something okay? so noticing is key.

and how do you notice? well, this is also something that doesn’t come naturally most of the time it does to understand->an extent but it’s something that comes more with practice and training actually.

so for example my English pronunciation siminars and my listening practie seminars are a great way to start to notice things because i focus the whole seminar on showing you different patterns that you need to notice and i help you change your percepetion of what things are supposed to sound like so for example my seminars could be a great way for you to start to notice these things and you get those if you join my membership of course and just being with a teacher and working with a teacher who is trained to help you with your pronunciation is another way to start to notice these things.