Why pronunciation is important ?

Chantal   Sunday, June 01, 2003, 19:49 GMT
to mike

Okay Mike, maybe being gifted has a little part in learning languages. there are still more important factors that influence learning a language.
The Age mentioned above by some people. The earlier you learn a language, the better you learn it. The best example is our mother tongue; we hear this language from birth if not from the our mother's womb. Experience has shown that children can learn 2 or 3 languages from an early age. I think the scandinavian are more fortunate to learn Engish earlier than other European countries.
you wrote : " but others are simply incorrigable learners unable to comprehend that a word should be pronounced this or that way. "
I ask you if nobody correct the mistakes of these people, how do you want them to comprehend how a word should be pronounced ?
shilly shally   Monday, June 02, 2003, 12:30 GMT
Pronunciation is important because it makes your first impression.
Many Enlglish learners ignore pronunciation. They can communicate in class, so they think they are good enough. They say "I don't need to study pronunciation. I just want to communicate in English."
They think that they communicate in English because they can communicate with their teacher and other students. You have to remember :

* Your teacher has been listenting to bad pronunciation for years. He or she can understand it much easier than the average person.

* Other students are usually from the same country as you. therefore, they speak English like you and they make the same mistakes. So it's easy for them to understand you.

The good news is that you can work on your pronunciation until you speak "understandable and pleasant English" (good pronunciation). You can learn the sounds of Engish, listen to recordings, watch English language television, etc. But first you have to realize there is a problem ! Most English learners don't.
mike   Monday, June 02, 2003, 16:10 GMT
I personally believe in a gift given by God. From my experience with English and people speaking the language I can tell you that some of them are unable to remeber that e.g. stress is put on the second syllable in say 'advertisement'. You can speak the word hunderds of time, they listen closely but when its heirrn*to say something they just make the same mistake over and over again. That's my experience and I don't really think it's the matter of practice. Well, perhaps after a thousand repeats they'd be able to pronounce a word correctly.

* their turn
deaptor   Monday, June 02, 2003, 16:59 GMT
there is such things as internal motivation and trust in your own abilities. In my opinion, these two things mean much more than being gifted. And then you should know that people are different, so if one approach does not work well for somebody, then it should be another way.
Kabam   Monday, June 02, 2003, 18:18 GMT
I agree with you deaptor.

Mike, I wouldn't hire you as a teatcher if I was in position to.
Yogesh Bari   Monday, June 02, 2003, 19:38 GMT

I am a British and American Accent trainer with MA (Linguistics). Based in Bangalore (India), I have experience of English and accent training in MNCs and call centers like Deltaworld and Dell. I would like to give some advice to accent learners who speak English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL).


Here are a few guidelines for learning an accent:







Yogesh Bari
E-mail: yogeshbari@rediffmail.com
Kabam   Monday, June 02, 2003, 19:45 GMT
Thanks for this good advice.
mee   Monday, June 02, 2003, 20:06 GMT
comment to kabam and to any other person interested on improving their pronunciation of a second language, complementing yogesh good advices:

learning the phonology of the language you are learning is really helpful to improve your pronunciation, but understanding the phonology of your first language as well, helps to improve it even more.

sometimes when you take a look at the pronunciation guide of a (good) dictionary, you might think you understood it well, but, because you don't understand your own natural pronunciation rules, you might not realise that in fact, you are still pronouncing things the same way you would do in your native language.

when you understand your first language better, you are able to compare its pronunciation rules with the rules of the second language, so you can understand your own mistakes, and correcting them, becomes a much easier task.

i'm not trying to preach, or badger anyone, i'm really just trying to help.
Kabam   Monday, June 02, 2003, 21:04 GMT
You don't sound at all like you were preaching. I'm always glad when someone give me some advice. The more I'm informed, the better. Thank you mee.
Guofei Ma   Tuesday, June 03, 2003, 02:39 GMT
I find that many dictionaries' pronunciation guides are increasingly aimed at a small fraction of English speakers. For instance, I have encountered several American dictionaries that use the same symbol "a:" or "ah" for the vowel in "fAther" and "clOck". The dictionary's editors did not realise that most non-American speakers differentiate between "ah" and "o"- e.g. British speakers pronounce the short "o" sound in "clOck" with rounded lips instead of the open mouthed "ah".

Both the Random House Webster's College Dictionary and the Oxford Concise Dictionary (the standard edition, not the American one) have pronunciation keys that include and indicate both American and British pronunciations.
Chantal   Tuesday, June 03, 2003, 14:18 GMT
I sent you this link for Kabam and others who are interested :



These American English sounds are difficult for French speakers:

CH as in child, much
H as in hello
J as in jump, badge
N as in no, on
NG as in thing
R as in right, or
TH as in think, with
THH as in this, breathe


EE as in eat, see
I as in it, with
AY as in ate, say
EH as in edge, set
AE as in at, ran
A as in often, not
O as in over, note
OO as in book
U as in boot
UH as in up, but
UR as in early, her
AI as in I, nice
OW as in out, how
OY as in oil, boy

shilly shally   Thursday, June 05, 2003, 20:09 GMT
Improving your pronunciation is more important than learning more vocabulary.
Suzanne   Saturday, June 07, 2003, 13:38 GMT
Yogesh Bari

I have difficulties to distinguish between the two "th".
I know the "th" in thin, thicket, thirty, mouth have the same pronunciation (like the Greek teta letter)
and this, mother, father, weather the same (like a D bar). But when I come across a new word (with th) or a word that I have not phonetically checked, I am unable to say which "th" it is.

Could you please help ?
Yogesh Bari   Friday, June 13, 2003, 17:00 GMT


Your Q. How to distinguish between the two "th" sound....

Answer: Most of the commonly used words in English have "voiced th" sound.

Examples: in "the, they, them, their, there, this, that, these, those, then, than."

In rest of the words, the sound is more likely to be "th" as in the pronunciation of the Greek letter "theta." So it is advisable to look up pronuncaitions in a dictionary.
Suzanne   Friday, June 13, 2003, 21:12 GMT
Thank you Yogesh Bari
thank you for your explanation. That may help me to some extent, but as the French say "on n'est pas sorti d'auberge" with English language. I don't know how to translate into English. Something like : "there're still difficulties ".