Things about English pronunciation

When it comes to English pronunciation, many people think of British and American pronunciation and speaking fluent English. In fact, pronunciation includes pronunciation and intonation, that is, pronunciation and intonation, while British and American pronunciation refers to the accent, and fluent expression is the spoken part. Today we will talk about things related to pronunciation.

I have always had a stubborn insistence on pronunciation. When I hear non-standard pronunciation, I always feel very harsh, whether in Chinese or English. Our high school physics teacher often mentioned to us the "Youth Digest" that he especially loved to read. Every time he said it as qīng nián wéi zhāi, I would silently correct him in my heart. I traveled to Shennongjia during the National Day holiday last year. When visiting the Savage Cave, the tour guide excitedly introduced to everyone, "Please take a look at our very famous dà lí in Shennongjia, also called the giant salamander." The scientific name of the giant salamander should be dà ní, which is Typical l/n confusion.

First of all, any language has sound, and sound is an important tool for people to communicate their thoughts. If the pronunciation is not standard, it will cause misunderstandings and obstacles in communication, and make jokes. For most of us who do not work with language, pronunciation can reflect a person's voice appearance. People with good pronunciation tend to be more confident in communication. Among our colleagues and classmates, we will find that many people with good English pronunciation generally have good English. A good pronunciation foundation will enhance our interest in learning English and form a virtuous circle.

There are two important contents in training pronunciation, the practice of single phonetic symbols and the phonetic phenomena between words and sentences, including continuous reading, omission, stress, weak reading, intonation, etc.

Although many adults have studied English for more than ten years, in fact, most of them have not systematically learned phonetic symbols. When they encounter a word, they always read it for granted. However, you may not know that you may pronounce some words incorrectly. for many years. It is very necessary to learn the 48 International Phonetic Symbols from scratch. The mouth shape, tongue position, and vocal cord vibration of each sound directly affect the accuracy of pronunciation.

Recommended textbook, "Cambridge International English Phonetic Introduction". Each phonetic symbol in this set of textbooks is equipped with clear mouth shape diagrams, as well as common pronunciation combinations and easily confused pronunciation comparison exercises, which are particularly suitable for us to master pronunciation rules in our studies. Each lesson has corresponding intensive exercises, which can help us master pure English pronunciation efficiently.

At this stage, we need to pay more attention to our weak pronunciation, especially some easily confused sounds. The tour guide I mentioned earlier is the n/l confusion that many southern friends are prone to make, as well as w/v confusion, nasal sounds are not distinguished, diphthongs are not full enough, etc. Practice solving your own problems one by one.

It will take about four weeks for friends with a certain foundation to fully master all the phonetic symbols, and then they will enter the stage of pronunciation practice. Recommended textbook, "Cambridge International English Phonetics in Use". This set of books scientifically explains each pronunciation point through mouth shape diagrams, pronunciation comparisons, pronunciation examples and other means. After the phonetic symbols, it goes from syllables to words, phrases, and sentences. It very comprehensively displays all the rules and regulations of English pronunciation. Skill. This set of books also emphasizes the importance of pronunciation for both speaking and listening. In addition to a large number of pronunciation exercises, the book also provides listening training to help learners improve their listening skills while learning to speak standard BBC English.

Phonetic training will help us realize that the biggest difference between Chinese and English pronunciation is the relationship between syllables. In Chinese, we pay attention to the correct pronunciation of words, and each word occupies one sound, but English is like running water. If you use the Chinese pronunciation to speak English, every word will be very ugly and unauthentic.

My personal experience is to discover the difference between my own pronunciation and standard pronunciation → imitate → insist on practicing → long-term training.

All the materials we practice must have standard demonstration audios. Before practicing, find out the phonetic symbols of each word (Longman and Oxford Dictionaries are recommended). Don’t take it for granted and read it casually. Follow the demonstration sounds and imitate them over and over again. , record your own pronunciation, and compare it repeatedly to find the difference. If someone helps correct the sound during this process, it will get twice the result with half the effort.

Select a short paragraph of text and read it aloud repeatedly every day. We recommend Teacher Xia Peng's "Xia Shuo English Morning Reading" and Teacher Gwen's "Daily Morning Reading". Each sentence must be analyzed carefully and all phonetic phenomena must be imitated at a slow speed. It must be practiced over and over again and speeded up until it can be blurted out.