Mastering English pronunciation may be the goal, but that doesn’t mean that there’s only one way to reach it. As with everything else in life, everybody has their own way to accomplish their goals. No matter your needs and wants, today Singapore children phonics classes will give you some tips and strategies to get you there.
Know What You Want to Sound Like
English uses many diverse sounds. The pronunciation of English can vary dramatically from one region to the next. For example, the United Kingdom may be relatively small in size, but it’s rich with different accents that carry their own personalities, as seen in this video.
Depending on where you go and how long you’re going to be there, the first step to take is to understand how the locals sound. Practice sounding like they do. This will help you fit in and fully understand what they’re saying.
Read Out Loud and Record Yourself
The best way to make progress in any challenge is to keep track of your improvements. For practicing English pronunciation, the best way to do this is to record yourself reading and speaking loudly and clearly, giving yourself a great reference for progress.
Once you get over the sound of your own voice (we all hate the way we sound when recorded), you’ll find yourself making greater strides than you would otherwise. When you record yourself speaking English months or years in the future, then you’ll really hear how much you’ve improved.
Communication is a Key
The best way to speak English like a native is to actually speak with one. Whenever you’re in class or taking a walk in the park, make sure that you’re only speaking English.
If you don’t know any native speakers living near you, don’t let that get in the way of your progress. As I mentioned earlier, there are lots of great forums and other websites that allow language learners to connect and teach each other.
Google+ is a great example of this: people from all over the world come together in a global classroom as both students and teachers. This makes it a comfortable and fun environment to improve your pronunciation, and also to make new friends from across the world.
Watch the News
While you may not love to watch the news all the time, you can use it as a great tool for mastering your pronunciation. Newscasters tend to speak slowly and clearly to deliver their messages. If subtitles are available, this makes things even better. Watching the news helps to put English words in their usual contexts and allows you to hear what they sound like in real life. Plus, news shows use lots of pictures and videos to help make their messages stronger, which will make things easy to understand for you.
A good website to use would be the BBC (British English) or CNN (American English).
Dictionaries Are Your Friends
When things get tough, dictionaries are always there to help. It’s always good to keep one handy, especially if you have a smartphone. The Merriam-Webster dictionary app is a great example that includes a simple but very effective pronunciation guide for every word.
While these are helpful and will tell you what you need to know, studying the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) will tell you exactly how to pronounce words. This is going to be challenging but once you master IPA no English word will be too difficult.
Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast
It’s easy to get excited and start speaking quickly once you learn how a word is pronounced, but the best thing to do is to be patient and keep practicing that word slowly until you can say it perfectly. Your friends and teachers understand this, so don’t worry about sounding funny or speaking too slowly. Learning a language is all about the journey and not just the end, so take your time and enjoy the ride!
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