you guys we have so much fun recording these episodes we really do we just had to like make
ourselves stop laughing because i know you guys don't want to just hear us laughing and laughing
and laughing we try to write get to the content we want this to be valuable for you but we have
stuff together we all just have so much fun um so guys we are on the mics today to talk about a very
interesting question now we really need you to listen up today guys because what we have to say
these steps we are going to give you um this is a real activity that you can immediately put in
your study plans guys and it is not only going to improve your listening comprehension but also your
speaking because it's focused on pronunciation um before aubrey reads this question because
it's such a great question i just want to put something in your mind first as you listen to
this question all right guys i need you to realize how connected speaking and listening are okay
chances are if you cannot say a sound correctly you also cannot hear the sound correctly this is
how integrated these two skills are so put that in the back of your mind file that away um as context
and aubry what is the question we're answering yes so real quick i want to share an example of
that if you listen to the aliens english episode you heard this recently i interviewed sandra royo
she's from puerto rico and she gave a perfect example where for her when she was learning
english she could not hear the difference between ch and sh h and sh so she would say
it incorrectly because she couldn't hear it and she was talking about the show charles in charge
was this old show and she would say charles in charge and people would point out to her it was so
hard because she couldn't hear that right and once she was more aware of it then she started hearing
it started being able to produce it yeah that's an excellent example right okay so now i'm going
to read the question it's such a good question in conversation with an english native speaker i
find it hard to immediately hear the past tense especially when it is in the form of ed after
a verb and i usually forget to say ed when i'm telling a story it simply doesn't come as easily
and naturally as i would like when i have to think about the content and use correct grammar at the
same time in mandarin we don't add ed or change the form of a verb to indicate the tense change
i wonder if there is a way i can make improvements on this aspect thank you such a good for sure
yeah i mean so this this definitely is more of a pronunciation issue than a grammar issue
because like the basic grammar rule is in this person's head you know what i mean like you know
that regular past tense verbs get ed like this is a thing you know so why can't we hear it and use
it um and yeah like i understand that a lot of this goes back to one's first language because
so many language languages don't conjugate verbs like we do they just add an extra sound or word
to indicate time um instead of changing the verb itself so i get that that jump
in in time telling grammar would take some time to get used to exactly right and if you aren't saying
it correctly yourself then you can't hear it when you're listening and if you can't hear when you're
listening you're not going to be producing it correctly so it's just like you said they're so
connected and when it comes to ielts you could make mistakes on both right when you're when
you're speaking on the speaking exam you might be making mistakes when you're listening for
the listening exam you might write something and exclude the ed totally exactly or lots of other
sounds right it's not just about ed depending on your first language there will be different sounds
where you have this issue yeah so um let's just take this ed problem right um it could impact the
grammar score uh when you're speaking and it could hurt your listening score because you're writing
the verb wrong right um so it's the wrong answer and if we think about other pronunciation issues
that are not grammar related the th right there are so many minimal pairs with th and s or th
and d right so for example thing and sing think and sync and if you cannot say the th correctly
you won't hear it correctly pronunciation score goes down on speaking listening score goes down
because you are writing the word incorrectly right um so yeah i just wanted to reiterate
for you guys how important this idea is did you say reiterate it sounded like reiterate
sometimes will like say a sound incorrectly so again don't be embarrassed like it happens
that's right awesome i'm so happy i did that um that's what's known as a grammar slip uh
characteristic of what a native speaker might do and you are allowed grammar slips at a band nine
it's actually in the scoring rubric because like aubry said natives do it all the time all right
guys so we have um an activity for you today some steps to follow so take notes in order to improve
pronunciation maybe grammar and listening scores so aubrey what can we do first first of all you
need to learn the rules right and for some letters for some sounds there will be several rules like
t is a good example there are several different ways the t can sound there's like a true t t can
make a glottal stop t sometimes becomes t h or sh like caution becomes the sh when it's really tion
right so there'll be all these different rules for the letter t depending on the word and once
you know those rules your brain can make these connections you start recognizing them when you're
reading them and when you're hearing them when you're saying them our brains adult brains need
those explanations those rules to hook on to yeah totally um i compl we respect our adult students
as adults it doesn't matter what english level you are at you are still an adult with an adult brain
right um i really don't like it when non-natives get judged like their intelligence gets
judged because of their english level right like that's those two things are not connected
um so this is my point guys like whenever we teach you something it could be an ielts strategy skill
could be vocabulary we tell you why it's important and how you can use it right we
give you context because as adult brains you learn better when you know why you're learning something
and you have an explanation as to why this is the right answer so i just want to point
out that that first rule is important um you do need to do a little bit of research so you know
what what happens in the mouth and the tongue to make this sound right any any of this sort of
structure is important yeah exactly all right so second what can we do jessica to dive in
it sounded like you were gonna say it and then you threw it back to me um all right guys so the next
step after your brain is like i get this i know what's happening okay now it's time for me to
do it um then step two get a page a page of text could be from a novel it could be a news article
or it could be a transcript from a podcast like all ears english so get a page of text
and you need to circle all of these sounds you're focused on but just do one sound at a time so
again let's take the th right look at the whole document circle all the th's and then you read it
out loud okay that's step three read it out loud focusing on those specific sounds now if you have
a page of transcripts that's even better because you could hear the natives saying it and then you
can mimic them while reading out loud um so both of those things would be would work perfectly yes
nice okay and then your next step step four is to write out your answer for example to speaking part
two this you're going to need two minutes worth of text here but you want to focus on this grammar
or a pronunciation rule so for example for the th every time you're writing a word circle that think
about how you're going to pronounce it say it out loud and then your step five will be to read it
out loud record yourself are you always saying those sounds correctly are you making mistakes
if so you're gonna do to practice it work on it some more exactly um and in that step one guys
if it is a pronunciation focus right because the the question was about grammar ed but we're taking
it more in the pronunciation direction um there are so many great youtube videos of pronunciation
teachers showing you exactly what is happening with the teeth the tongue the throat the lips
like what is happening to make this sound um and so those are available easy to find for free on
youtube so that's a great place to start in step one that's a good point right you're not on your
own to hear it on a podcast and be like how do i do this yes there's so many resources online
search right how do i make the th sound and you're going to get some really good videos
watching a native show you then you can repeat you can mimic their pronunciation they'll tell you
what you should be doing with your mouth that's so helpful yeah totally awesome all right guys so
remember if you want to take our free ielts quiz you totally can we personally extend an invitation
to you right now go to aldersenglish.com my score it's a free quiz guys it just takes a few minutes
and you get your estimated ielts band score and prep material so go to alliersenglish.com
my score all right awesome thanks already yeah i'll see you next time jessica bye-bye
you