Hi guys. Welcome back to English with Max. In this video we're going to look at
several ways that you can improve your pronunciation for free. Yes, that's right.
If you have access to the Internet, you do not need to pay money to improve your
pronunciation. Now remember. Having good pronunciation
doesn't mean having a perfect accent. There is nothing wrong with having a
foreign accent and it is very rare for an adult learner to lose their native
accent entirely. What you should aim for is simply clear pronunciation so that
people can understand you easily. Before we get started, make sure you click that
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Okay, and now pronunciation. My first tip is to
make the most of YouTube. Before you make the decision to spend hundreds of
dollars on a course or a program, I really recommend that you take advantage of all
of the content that exists on YouTube. Many English teachers make free
pronunciation videos. In case you're not sure which types of videos to watch, I'm
going to give you a list of the main pronunciation topics you should look for
if you really want to cover your bases, so to speak.
I don't want this video to be too long, so I'm not going to explain each one. I'm
basically just going to give you a checklist. If you don't know what some of
these terms mean, they are very easy to find if you Google them. Firstly, if you
haven't done so already, you need to learn the individual sounds.
The technical name for sounds in this context is phonemes, but don't worry
about that. Basically, you need to learn the consonant sounds and the vowel
sounds. In both standard British English and standard American English, people
generally say that there are 24 consonant sounds. Most people agree that
there are 20 vowel sounds in standard British English, and in American English...
well, people say different things, but there are about 15 vowel sounds. You
don't need to learn both British and American vowel sounds, but it's a good
idea to learn one set of vowel sounds. Next you should learn about reductions.
That includes learning about contractions and strong and weak forms
of words. I have several videos on those topics. I'll link them in the description.
Another thing you can look for is connected speech. There are a few topics
which come under connected speech. The main ones are linking, elision, intrusion
and assimilation. Don't worry, if you Google those or if you look for them on
YouTube, you'll find explanations. These technical words make them sound a lot
more complicated than they actually are. Finally, I recommend watching some videos
on intonation. I'm going to put the links to some YouTube channels in the
description which all have good pronunciation videos. Now I'm going to
say something which might be a little controversial and some English teachers
might not like me for saying this, but it's my opinion. If you do want
to spend money on improving your pronunciation, I don't recommend buying
an expensive online course. If you want to spend,
I don't know, 10 to 20 dollars on a website like Udemy because it's more
convenient than looking for videos on YouTube, I think that's fine. But some
online pronunciation courses cost a few hundred dollars. If you're willing to
invest that type of money in your pronunciation, I actually think it's
better to pay for a few classes with a private teacher who's specialised in
pronunciation, because they will be able to tell you exactly what you need to
focus on. So to recap: use the free resources on YouTube and on
other websites and if you want to spend some money, pay for a few private lessons.
My second tip is to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet for
English... if you want. The reason I say "if you want" is because some teachers say
that students absolutely need to learn it and some teachers say that it's a
waste of time. I'm in the middle because I know that some students find it very
helpful, but I also know that it's possible to learn English very well
without learning it. In case you don't know what I'm talking about,
the IPA is a system for writing down sounds. You know those strange symbols
that you sometimes see in dictionaries? Those are part of the IPA. If you do
decide to learn it, you don't need to learn the entire thing. Just the symbols
for British English or American English. Learning these symbols can make it
easier to use dictionaries. If you're somebody who's very methodical about
things or if you like things like maths and formulas, there's a good chance that
you will like learning the IPA, or that it will suit your learning
style. But like I said, you don't need to learn it and most online dictionaries
these days have audio files for individual words so it's not so
important if you don't understand all those phonetic symbols. My third tip is:
don't underestimate the importance of stress. I'm not talking about getting
worried or anxious about something like: "Oh my God, I have a driving test!".
No. I'm talking about the weight that you put on an individual syllable in a
word. If a syllable is stressed, we say it a bit louder and for a bit longer.
And here's a little secret: in English correct stress is often more important
than pronouncing all the sounds correctly. To give you an example of how
important stress is in English, let's look at this word. This is fifty. If you
say fifTY, people will probably think you're saying fifteen. Okay?
This word is fifty and this word is fifteen. Here's another example. This word
is important. The stress is on the second syllable. ImPORtant. If you put the stress
on the first syllable and say impotent... well, that means something else. So yes,
when you learn a new word in English, make sure you learn where the stress is.
The fourth way that you can improve your pronunciation is to slow down. Speak more
slowly. Non-native speakers sometimes try to speak very quickly because they think
that it makes them sound more fluent, but fluency isn't same as speed and there
are even some native speakers who actually speak quite slowly.
Another reason why people sometimes speak too quickly is because they might
be used to speaking quite quickly in their native language so it just feels
natural to speak quickly in a foreign language. Believe me, I have experienced
that myself, so I know that it can be frustrating. However, if we speak too
quickly, we often make more mistakes than usual - both grammatical and pronunciation
mistakes - and it can be more difficult for people to understand us.
So if you're somebody who often speaks quickly, what I recommend is slowing down
and aiming for clarity instead of speed. Now I'm going to talk about three
exercises, which I already discussed in another video
(that's this video here), so I'm going to go through them quite quickly. The first
one is reading out loud. This simply means taking a text and saying the words
that you're reading. This is a good way to exercise the muscles in your mouth,
because when we speak a foreign language, we're often using different parts of our
mouth. I have two pieces of advice if you choose to do this. The first one is don't
whisper. Whispering means speaking in a very soft voice. Do it at a normal
speaking volume, because believe me, whispering is not the same as speaking.
Often when we whisper, we imagine sounding a certain way and then when we
actually speak, what comes out of our mouth sounds different. So yes, be loud
and strong. My second piece of advice is read easy texts. Basically, make sure that
you already know how to pronounce all the words because if you don't, you risk
mispronouncing things and learning the incorrect pronunciation for words. So choose
simple texts. The next exercise is imitation. This is a
very simple exercise. All you need to do is get a piece of clear audio, play it
for a few seconds, then pause it, and then repeat what the person said. Again, out
loud. No whispering. It's probably better if the person is a native speaker.
You can use a YouTube video, a podcast, a TV series, a movie. It doesn't matter.
It's probably better if you use a podcast or a YouTube video because normally there's
less background noise and there aren't so many periods where there's nobody
talking. The next exercise is shadowing. This is very similar to imitation, but
instead of pausing the audio to repeat what was said, you don't pause it.
You just repeat exactly what is being said at the same time. Obviously there'll be a
very short delay, but probably no more than a second. This is usually easier if
you do it with headphones. Another thing you can do is record yourself. I know,
most of us hate the sound of our own voice, but often we don't know exactly
how we sound, unless we record ourselves. And nowadays it's very easy because we
can do it with a smartphone. When I studied interpreting, we were often
encouraged to record ourselves, even if we were speaking our native language.
Generally that wasn't for pronunciation. It was mainly to see if we had any bad
habits that we weren't aware of, such as saying "um" or "you know" too often. In any
case, the same principle applies to pronunciation. If you record yourself and
then listen to yourself, it should be easier to work out which
things you perhaps need to practise. And now we have tongue twisters. Tongue
twisters are groups of words that are difficult to pronounce quickly all
together. Often they have the same sound repeated several times. For example:
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. Or: She sells seashells by the seashore.
This is just a way to exercise the muscles in your mouth
that you're perhaps not used to using. When I was learning Spanish, I really
struggled with the rolled R. I still can't do it perfectly, but it's definitely
better than when I first moved to Spain. One tongue twister that I sometimes
practised was: El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo,
porque Ramon Ramirez se lo ha cortado. Yes, you can laugh at me if you want. Like I
said, it's still not perfect, but that's life. My final suggestion for improving
your pronunciation is singing. I don't actually have much to say about this,
because it's not something I ever did and I'm not a good singer, but I know
that this is a way that some people improve their pronunciation. If you
decide to learn some songs for this purpose, I recommend choosing slower
songs and preferably songs that don't have too much slang. That's it, guys.
I hope you found this helpful. Let me know in the comments if there are specific
things which have helped you with your pronunciation and also let me know what
you think about learning the IPA. Do you think it's a waste of time or do you
think it's rather useful? Don't forget to hit the thumbs up if you liked the video,
and I'll see you next time.
Loud and strong.
When we... Ooh my stomach's rumbling.
This is a good i...
In case you're not sure...
The neighbours... Why do people need to mow their lawns?
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