ESL Blogs

The Sounds of English

Hi, there!

If you are clueless what’s  going on,  here’s a brief  account of the activity!  I’ll  be  conducting a series of study sessions on pronunciation. This is Study Session No 1. Please refer to the group ‘EC Virtual Classroom’ for further details. Leave your name and a message there if you want to participate in my ‘virtual class’ Thank you! 

n

Introduction

Now,  good  pronunciation  is  very  important  for  good spoken communication. But what do we mean by “good  pronunciation”?  Well, you don’t  have to speak English like a native speaker; it’s fine to have a different  accent.  But, what is important is that  you  are  able to speak clearly and that you  don’t prevent other people from  understanding  what you are trying to say. There are many  different  English  accents in Britain  and  all  around the world. These  are  all  good  models.  Now, my accent is Standard Southern British English.  And that is what I’ll be showing you on this site. Have fun!

The Sounds of English

Hello!  Now, one question I am often asked is  “What’s the best way to improve my pronunciation?” Well!  My first piece of advice is to try to learn each different sound of English. And, in order to learn each different sound of English, it’s very helpful to learn each different symbol that represents these sounds of English.  “Why do we need different symbols?”  I hear you ask. Well!  In writing English we use the 26 letters of the Alphabet. But there are more than 26 sounds in English. In fact, there are over *40 sounds in English.  And  it is  not  very  easy to  show these using  only the  letters  of  the  English  Alphabet.  So there’s a system which uses a group of symbols.  Now, some of the symbols  are  same as the letters and some of them are different.  

So, this is why it’s very useful to learn the symbols. You can’t always match the letters of a word to the sounds of that word.  So,  if  you  want  to  improve  your  English  pronunciation,  you should learn the different sounds. And  if  you want to learn the  different  sounds,  you  should learn  the  symbols. And here’s  some  good  news!  If  you  know the  symbols and the sounds,  you will be  able  to  use  many dictionaries to find the pronunciation of any word  in English and you won’t even need a teacher. So, to help you learn the sounds and symbols, why not watch my videos here. Good luck and happy speaking.

*The total number of speech sounds is 44

.....................................................................................................

SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEO

.....................................................................................................

Step 2: Listen to the speech sounds

The  table  below  shows the  symbols that  repesent the 44 speech sounds  heard in  British English speech.  Follow the link to the  webpage of BBC and  listen to the speech sounds. Get to know them as much as you could. The subsequent lessons are primarily entailed these symbols and sounds.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/sounds/chart 

(I guarantee that you'll find it very interesting as it comes with a sample word for each sound.)

It’s very useful to know how to write the ‘phonetic symbols’ (speech symbols). You’ll understand why it’s important as you go along with the study.

Now, go to EC Phonemic Character Keyboard.  Type all the 44 symbols and copy them. Come here and paste the symbols in the comment box. (Refer to the sample that I’ve posted below.)

            where you can insert the symbols just by pressing the keys on your computer keyboard.

            http://akula.50webs.com/ipa.htm 

            How to use the online phonetic keyboard

This will surely make the session more lively and fruitful.

July 14th, 2012

  Contents Page                                                                                Study Session  2   t

         Don't forget to click the 'Like' button if you find the posting useful!