WEBVTT 00:00.320 --> 00:08.800 Hello, welcome to IELTS podcast. This episode is going to be all about pronunciation 00:09.500 --> 00:19.300 We're going to look at some of the components of pronunciation, goals, how to be understood 00:20.060 --> 00:32.119 problems regarding being understood, and some factors that influence pronunciation. So it's quite a lot of information here in this podcast 00:32.460 --> 00:41.260 So I think to get the maximum benefit from this, you could take notes, improve your note-taking ability 00:41.740 --> 00:54.160 You're also going to improve your vocabulary. And also, you're probably, if you implement some of the instructions or tips, you're probably going to improve your pronunciation 00:54.160 --> 01:03.880 or at least find out where the problems are, becoming more aware of what factors influence pronunciation 01:04.599 --> 01:08.720 So let's get started. Let's have a look at some of the factors to start off with 01:09.360 --> 01:18.140 Age. Now, unfortunately, at the moment, we cannot really influence this factor 01:18.140 --> 01:25.980 so what I mean by age is maybe the amount of time you've been learning the language 01:25.980 --> 01:33.720 or maybe the amount of time you've been living in the country and this does have an effect logically 01:33.720 --> 01:40.700 the longer you are there the more likely you are to speak with that accent 01:40.700 --> 01:48.700 However, this is quite... Well, there's one thing I want to make clear here 01:48.700 --> 01:56.700 Obviously, you need to be integrated into that country. So, what a lot of people can do is maybe go to a foreign country 01:56.700 --> 02:01.700 and only hang out with people from their own country, which is kind of ridiculous, really 02:01.700 --> 02:05.700 But this brings me on to the next point, which is exposure 02:05.700 --> 02:14.200 Exposure to the language is also going to affect how you, well, affect your pronunciation 02:14.200 --> 02:19.860 And this is a factor that we can have totally under our control 02:19.860 --> 02:31.880 So we might as well use it to our own advantage. And for example, somebody who's living in Poland and listening to podcasts 24-7 is going 02:31.880 --> 02:36.840 to have more exposure to the English language than somebody, than a Polish person living 02:36.840 --> 02:41.760 in London and hanging out with Polish friends and working with Polish friends 02:41.760 --> 02:51.560 So this is what I was going to say about the exposure level. So because it's under your control, I strongly recommend you take advantage of this and just 02:51.560 --> 02:55.540 put your life in English and I've said that a million times before 02:55.540 --> 03:05.360 Now the other factor that's going to affect your pronunciation is your own language 03:05.360 --> 03:16.620 So if your language is rather similar to English and these languages might include Dutch, German 03:16.620 --> 03:24.480 some of the Scandinavian languages, I don't think Finnish but definitely Norwegian and Swedish 03:24.480 --> 03:30.160 languages are similar to English in fact English is a Germanic language and it's 03:30.160 --> 03:35.280 got a lot of Norwegian words Swedish words German words and Dutch Dutch words 03:35.280 --> 03:40.860 and especially Dutch and German grammar so this why this is why it's probably 03:40.860 --> 03:46.320 easier for people from that those countries to learn English and it's 03:46.320 --> 03:51.920 probably why they've got better English writing skills and better scores however 03:51.920 --> 03:57.080 you don't want to beat yourself up about this okay and you don't want to be 03:57.080 --> 04:06.860 comparing yourself to these people because they've just got slightly natural advantage so for example if you're and I don't know if you're Chinese 04:06.860 --> 04:15.940 and you want to learn Japanese you've got an advantage there and the Scandinavians would be able would would find it much more difficult so and 04:15.940 --> 04:27.200 There's no point comparing yourself with the other people. I've just made a note here that the race is long and it's with yourself at the end of the day 04:27.900 --> 04:33.080 And by the way, if you do start comparing yourself with other people, this is a guaranteed way to fail 04:33.320 --> 04:37.820 Because the only comparison is with yourself and improving your own self 04:38.200 --> 04:42.680 So anyway, let's carry on. Now, the other factor is your phonetic ability 04:42.680 --> 04:51.320 okay this basically means your ability to distinguish between sounds so it's 04:51.320 --> 04:57.980 like your ear for the language if you can hear the differences between boss and 04:57.980 --> 05:04.460 bus if you can hear the differences and between certain words and stresses and 05:04.460 --> 05:10.520 this is an ability that everybody's got otherwise they wouldn't be able to speak 05:10.520 --> 05:17.080 their own language or understand their own language so you've definitely got this ability 05:17.080 --> 05:36.741 now the key is is can you improve this ability can you adapt it can you make it can you become accustomed to other languages and other accents so this is also under our control and I think one of the best ways is through exposure 05:36.741 --> 05:47.101 let's increase the exposure start listening to IELTS practice tests start listening to stuff that we enjoy material that we enjoy now this brings 05:47.101 --> 05:52.861 you on to the next one I mean on to the next point what's your goal regarding 05:52.861 --> 05:57.841 English pronunciation do you want to speak like a native speaker and that's 05:57.841 --> 06:10.081 quite ambiguous I mean because native speakers come from Liverpool from Scotland from London from Yorkshire and from all over the place and maybe your 06:10.081 --> 06:17.581 goal wouldn't exactly be to speak like a Liverpoolian okay one friend said that 06:17.581 --> 06:27.181 if you want to speak like a Liverpoolian you might as well sound like a criminal but that's a bit unfair hopefully well thankfully well I doubt it that I've got 06:27.181 --> 06:32.401 any Liverpoolian listeners anyway so let's carry on so what's a more realistic 06:32.401 --> 06:39.001 or what's more intelligent goal that's probably to be understood okay and this 06:39.001 --> 06:44.161 goes back to similar compo similar concepts in the essay writing okay and 06:44.161 --> 06:52.741 with your essay writing you want to be understood you want to make sure that that the examiner has understood that you've got the task response under control 06:53.341 --> 06:56.841 And likewise, when you're in that speaking test, you want to be understood 06:57.581 --> 07:02.301 Because even though you might be using the best vocabulary or the best grammar structures 07:03.961 --> 07:10.901 if you're not being understood, then the examiner can't give you any points regarding if you've 07:10.901 --> 07:21.641 actually answered the correct question. So, just bear this in mind and here's some quick exam tips 07:21.641 --> 07:25.221 When we're actually in the exam we sit up straight, I've just done that now, I've 07:25.221 --> 07:32.421 reminded myself, we sit up straight, this helps the airflow, we breathe slower, we talk 07:32.421 --> 07:39.001 a little bit louder, this also increases comprehension for the listener, we speak a little bit slower 07:39.001 --> 07:46.201 also increases comprehension and we also try and vocalize that means we don't swallow any of the 07:46.201 --> 07:53.401 end parts of the word like I was talking to a student from Venezuela but she's living in Toronto 07:54.201 --> 08:00.681 and everybody there in Toronto in Canada but in Toronto they say Toronto and that's just their 08:00.681 --> 08:05.401 accent but they swallow the tea they don't bother saying it so if you're not familiar about that 08:05.401 --> 08:10.681 might be a bit difficult to understand it if the first time you hear it like what's Toronto what's 08:10.681 --> 08:15.721 Toronto obviously the context is going to help you as well but what I'm saying is that if you're 08:15.721 --> 08:22.361 vocalizing then you're not going to swallow a single sound you're going to pronounce every 08:22.361 --> 08:29.961 part of the sentence that just makes it crystal clear for the listener this is what I do a lot 08:29.961 --> 08:36.001 actually just from my teaching experience because the class goes a lot more, goes a 08:36.001 --> 08:50.401 lot faster if I'm vocalizing and everybody can follow along there. However, I've been teaching so long now that this vocalizing skill or vocalizing effects 08:50.401 --> 08:59.761 that I'm doing is now crossed over into my everyday speech. So some people say that I don't sound English anymore because I'm vocalizing all the time 08:59.761 --> 09:08.221 Whereas native English speakers will speak faster, closed and probably use more colloquial language 09:08.221 --> 09:12.761 So yeah, I remember actually just a few months ago somebody in the train station said, ah 09:12.761 --> 09:19.901 you've got excellent English skills. Like, cheers. Thanks a bunch. Anyway, let's carry on 09:19.901 --> 09:32.061 So some quick tips there for improving your intelligibility. Now then, let's go into some of the aspects of pronunciation 09:32.061 --> 09:42.501 So the rhythm. English has a certain rhythm and it's got a tendency for some of the stresses or the 09:42.501 --> 09:51.641 strong beats in the sentence to actually fall on nouns, adverbs, adjectives and verbs, which 09:51.641 --> 10:03.501 which are basically the words that are important to the sentence. So if you just go back you'd have probably heard me when I said rhythm and I was saying 10:03.501 --> 10:10.801 one of the aspects is rhythm. I stressed the rhythm and I did it unconsciously but this is just part of the language that 10:10.801 --> 10:17.581 it's got a tendency to put importance on these words, the nouns, the verbs, the adjectives 10:17.581 --> 10:28.281 and the adverbs. So if you introduce that into your pronunciation, you're going to improve your intelligibility 10:29.221 --> 10:38.821 Now, the stress. Stress is important. I've got a friend, he's from Paraguay, and he always laughs at my pronunciation from Manchester 10:39.461 --> 10:46.721 He says, Manchester, and he really exaggerates the chest. And that's where the stress is in that word, in that noun 10:46.721 --> 11:06.202 And likewise to pronounce the capital city of England correctly it London Okay London There a bigger stress at the end there Sorry at the beginning London but the two stresses in the words So this basically will come about through practice 11:06.202 --> 11:11.782 and through having a good ear, improving your listening abilities. And like I said a million 11:11.782 --> 11:17.002 times before, a really good way to improve your listening abilities is to transcribe 11:17.002 --> 11:24.082 and you can even mark the letters and the words where the stress is falling 11:24.642 --> 11:33.362 There's plenty of online exercises to do this. Perhaps transcribing a song isn't the best idea 11:33.362 --> 11:39.342 because the words are going to be bent and stretched and squashed 11:39.342 --> 11:47.222 to fit the music, fit the lyrics, fit the melody. however podcasts are really good 11:47.222 --> 11:52.222 and I'm pretty certain you can find some online exercises for this now then 11:52.222 --> 12:01.022 sentence stress this corresponds with the rhythm what I was saying before with the rhythm 12:01.022 --> 12:07.582 that the important part of the sentence will be the part that gets the most stress 12:07.582 --> 12:17.822 so if I say there's a lot of people in town Okay, the stress there was probably in people and in town 12:17.822 --> 12:31.022 Okay, there's a lot of people in town. Now, if I said another sentence, for example, there isn't anyone here today 12:31.022 --> 12:38.142 Okay, there isn't anyone here today. The stress is on today. Okay 12:38.142 --> 12:46.002 Because I want to emphasize that actually today there isn't that many people here, there's nobody 12:46.462 --> 13:00.922 Okay, so depending on what's the important component of the sentence will determine or help to determine where the stress actually goes 13:02.002 --> 13:08.122 So perhaps, I mean this might be a difficult thing to practice and it might be a difficult thing to master as well 13:08.122 --> 13:19.902 But just being aware of it and starting being conscious of it will help you to incorporate it into your own speaking abilities 13:21.222 --> 13:35.162 Now then, how could we use this in the IELTS exam? Well, if the examiner asks us, for example, part three, and they're saying, what qualities do you find important in a friend 13:35.162 --> 13:41.062 Well, if we were going to answer this, we'd say, well, some of the aspects or some of the 13:41.062 --> 13:46.322 characteristics I like to see in a friend are blah, blah, blah 13:46.542 --> 13:52.302 But we've put a stress on friend there. We've reflected the sentence and we've put a bit of a stress on friend 13:53.322 --> 13:59.242 We'd probably do this naturally if we were an English speaker, a native English speaker 13:59.702 --> 14:04.442 So there's no reason why you can't put a bit of a stress there, just a slight stress 14:04.442 --> 14:11.922 and this will make the examiner understand that you're answering the right question 14:12.522 --> 14:18.682 Now, if we were doing this for task one, the examiner might say 14:19.122 --> 14:26.002 so, where are you from? So you say, well, I'm from Venezuela 14:28.102 --> 14:36.922 The capital city is my hometown. I've lived there for about 10 years but I recently moved to Mexico, whatever, wherever 14:36.922 --> 14:42.622 you are nowadays. So it's just a case of recognizing the important part of the sentence 14:42.622 --> 14:50.242 And this will also help you understand other people as well. If you're having difficulty understanding native speakers, especially English speakers 14:50.242 --> 14:56.182 who tend to speak a little bit faster, then you just listen to the key nouns, the key 14:56.182 --> 15:03.622 verbs and you can get the gist of the sentence. So those are some of the aspects 15:03.622 --> 15:13.142 Now then, let's move on to the next component which is being understood 15:13.142 --> 15:21.162 So some of the issues or some of the problems that we might have when we're being understood 15:21.162 --> 15:30.002 could relate to about three or four issues. First one might be the stress, where we're putting the stress 15:30.002 --> 15:45.722 If we're putting the stress on the connectors or some of the less important fragments of the sentence, then we're going to make it difficult for the actual listener because it just doesn't sound right 15:45.722 --> 15:52.442 so some of the other problems might be related to your own language where you 15:52.442 --> 15:58.682 put the stress or maybe you carry over some of the components or aspects of your 15:58.682 --> 16:04.022 own language into English and this can make it really not really difficult but 16:04.022 --> 16:08.342 it can make it more challenging for the listener to understand what you're saying 16:08.342 --> 16:13.322 I'll give you an example I have an Italian friend and she always calls me 16:13.322 --> 16:20.482 say Ben, and I have to tell her, obviously jokingly, I have to tell her, say look, Ben 16:20.482 --> 16:34.863 has one syllable Ben it not Ben yeah And Italians do this quite frequently They put an A a vowel sound in the middle of the sentence between words where it not 16:34.863 --> 16:41.603 necessary. I think another funny example of this is the Italian man in Malta or the Italian 16:41.603 --> 16:46.583 man in London. It's quite a funny YouTube video where it just takes it to the extreme 16:46.583 --> 16:51.303 I'm laughing now because I'm thinking about it but yeah if you've got a few minutes you 16:51.303 --> 16:57.043 might want to check that out if you just bought a pair of IELTS 16:57.043 --> 17:01.743 Anyway and yeah it's always good to laugh at other people's problems 17:01.743 --> 17:10.403 So anyway moving on. What I remember when I was in Taiwan there's another incident I had a friend I can't remember 17:10.403 --> 17:16.563 what his name was now but he always used to put la after it and I think this is a very 17:16.563 --> 17:22.923 This is from Chinese where they just put la in between words or the end of words 17:22.923 --> 17:28.003 So it would be like Ben la are you coming to the swimming pool today? I would be like what 17:28.003 --> 17:34.583 Ben la is this nickname? But then I heard him talk with other people and he would be doing it all the time 17:34.583 --> 17:44.063 I would go to the swimming pool la. Yeah. And what I'm saying is that you just need to be aware of that 17:44.063 --> 17:52.263 If you are bringing any of your own, any characteristics of your own language into your target language, which in this case is English 17:53.023 --> 18:05.823 Now, another interesting issue or challenge that we might have when we're trying to be understood is we might actually delete some of the sounds that are necessary 18:06.583 --> 18:16.423 And this is very frequent with the simple past. So a lot of students do miss the ED sound 18:17.683 --> 18:28.343 Okay, so I watched a game last night. That ED sound is incredibly important because it dictates the tense 18:30.303 --> 18:41.023 So, yeah, just being aware of it, hopefully, we'll be able to avoid deleting that sound and missing it completely 18:41.023 --> 18:51.183 Now, the next issue is called substitution. And this happens when we might not have the sound in our own language 18:51.883 --> 19:00.623 In which case, we'll use a sound from... Sorry. Yeah. I'm just getting mixed up now 19:00.843 --> 19:07.603 So, what I'm saying is that substitution. And this will happen when we don't have the sound that they use in English 19:07.603 --> 19:14.603 or we use in English in our own language. So we'll substitute it with a sound that we do have in our own language 19:15.563 --> 19:22.763 Now, I'll give you a clue. I'll give you an example from Spanish 19:23.623 --> 19:32.363 A lot of Spanish speakers of English will say da instead of the or de 19:33.803 --> 19:43.303 The birthday is tomorrow. and that's because they don't really have the TH but they have the V or the D so they 19:43.303 --> 19:53.683 say the the birthday's tomorrow okay and although it's legible and you do get used to it eventually 19:53.683 --> 20:00.883 however it's not it could be difficult for somebody who's not used to it or for a German 20:00.883 --> 20:14.443 speaker of English to understand the Spanish speaker whereas if everybody learned the correct sound then obviously it's going to be easier okay so you might 20:14.443 --> 20:20.563 want to record yourself and just try and record yourself reading a text and then 20:20.563 --> 20:25.763 compare it to a native English speaker reading the text and this way you're 20:25.763 --> 20:30.883 going to be able to just see if there are any differences 20:30.883 --> 20:37.283 And this goes back to what I was saying before about improving your phonetic ability, your 20:37.283 --> 20:48.203 ability to understand other sounds and components of the language. Right, so that's everything 20:48.203 --> 20:54.943 And if you want to take this a bit further, if you are serious about improving your language 20:54.943 --> 21:00.223 and you've got these goals to be understood or you want to speak like a native English speaker 21:00.223 --> 21:09.763 There's a few links for more resources actually on the blog. If you just find this blog post, just put IELTS Podcast Pronunciation and there's also a 21:09.763 --> 21:15.703 course there and of course if you get the speaking confidence course at sentenceguide.com 21:15.703 --> 21:22.283 there's quite a lot of videos there showing you not only how to attack the exam and how 21:22.283 --> 21:29.463 to get the confidence you need and improve your fluency, but also to working on technical 21:29.463 --> 21:37.743 aspects such as pronunciation and being understood by the examiner. Okay, so I hope you've enjoyed this podcast 21:37.743 --> 21:45.523 If you've got any suggestions, send me an email. I'm always looking to improve them, improve the site 21:45.523 --> 21:52.003 And yeah, if you did enjoy it as well, you could leave us a review at iTunes 21:52.123 --> 21:54.203 That would be fantastic. Or on Google Play, wherever