The sounds of English. Pronunciation of English sounds

Hello, 

I am aware of the fact that some of you have some difficulties with the pronunciation of English. Maybe the reason is that in the past you were not introduced to these sounds, you were not explained how to put the mouth organs to articulate them in order to try to imitate them.

I was never taught to do that in English as I was when learning French at the language school at A1. I must admit that this task is a  bit boring, yet it is extremely helpful when you start learning English at a basic level. 

Sometimes when I share with my colleagues that I spend time in class revising the difference between short and long vowel sounds, the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants, or intonation in questions, as I did last year with my C1.1 students, they simply get shocked. This level is to focus on more complex pronunciation aspects. Unfortunately, that cannot happen when the majority of students do not imitate the sounds of English, when they show that they are not familiar with the sounds of English, when they do not make use of rising or falling intonation when asking questions, etc.

To be honest, this year in class before the suspension of lessons at school, I have not done that much in relation to pronunciation due to a personal dissatisfaction with the outcomes I get when introducing the students to those basic aspects. I  see the student doesn´t  improve and other times some students get bored. We need to have a passionate interest in English to devote time to pronunciation at home and without any doubt we need to have time, one of the issues the language school student faces.  Apart from that, we have had to do so many things (ie. teaching new grammar, tasks to try to use new grammar and new vocabulary, presentations, monologue and interaction practice, etc.). This fact , together  with an irregular attendance in general terms,  has led me to forget teaching pronunciation. I know that during my absence the substitute teacher did something related to pronunciation and that at least some of the ones who attended let me know it was of help. 

These days I have come across a website where you can click on individual sounds to listen to them and where you can find information about how to articulate them. Here is the website. 

The best tip I can give you to improve pronunciation is to be familiar with the sounds of English, be aware of the difference between letters and sounds, read information about how to articulate the sounds of English, practise making sounds, record that practice, compare your way of making a sound with the real way of making it, repeat this task over and over again. Then try the same technique with easy words , later with more difficult words making use of the pronunciation of words offered by some online monolingual dictionaries (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Mcmillan, Longman, Collins, etc.) If you do not pronounce appropriately or your English is not comprehensible, you need to take the bull by the horns.

On the blog there is an entry (Good pronunciation) explaining what good pronunciation is. Please read it. 

By the way, a B2 student shared with their partners and me a tool called TEXT TO SPEECH, a web application that converts any written text into spoken words. You can start using this tool with short sentences and later with longer ones. You can listen to the sentence by the native speaker, imitate the native speaker, record your way of saying that sentence to compare and see if you make use of intonation, if you join words, etc. 

Let´s make a try!