Pronunciation

 

 

Special offer, the American English pronunciation

 

 

Pronunciation is how we pronounce or produce the sounds of words. When learning English, one of the most difficult subjects, besides grammar and vocabularies, is pronunciation. To master the English pronunciation, an English learner needs to practice speaking words every day. Before he or she can say the right sounds and intonations of words, first, the English learner must listen to how the words are spoken by native speakers.
Learning English Pronunciation from Native Speakers
This is an ideal way to improve your pronunciation sounds. Try to find native speakers of English in your town. Ask them whether they can help you with pronunciation exercises. The easiest way will be going to an English language courses or schools and check whether they provide native English teachers. Most often, we find that these schools cannot afford to pay native English teachers because they are too expensive to be hired.
Pronunciation Software
With the improvement of technology, at present time, various computer software and cassette recordings about English pronunciation have been available on the market. They are offered by English schools or certain companies. Go to a bookstore to find out whether such software is available or not. If you cannot find the pronunciation software at the bookstores or language schools, you can still get them from the internet. This kind of software can be expensive but it's worth buying.
Phonetic Symbols in English Dictionary

When buying a dictionary, English learners must check whether the pronunciation of the entries are described using International Phonetic Symbols. Read the Pronunciation Dictionary
Learning the pronunciation from video
This is what I strongly recommend. There are a lot of English learning videos available for free on the internet. Just log on to Youtube and type "pronunciation". A few seconds later, you will get a lot of videos that are related to English pronunciation. Their durations can be as short as 1 minute to as long as 10 minutes. Due to bad internet connection, sometimes the words pronounced by the English speakers are not clear enough. Wait until all the streaming video has been downloaded into your computer and play it again. By then you will have better video with clear pronunciation or explanation. It is also important for you to make sure that the loud speaker of your computer is in well condition so that you can practice the pronunciation the exercises easily. One good point of learning from the internet or the software is that you can repeat it as many times as you need. But learning from Youtube video or computer software has some disadvantages. They are not as flexible as learning pronunciation directly from an English teacher. If you are in a classroom, you can ask your teacher about how to spell or pronounce a word or phrases and immediately she will answer it. The interaction between English learners and and teacher in the classroom is more dynamic.

British Pronunciation and American Pronunciation
Although the phonetic symbols of English words are universal, the way the words are spoken may be different from British to American pronunciation or accent. Actually, the difference in pronunciation does not reflect that these two continents speak different language. In American speech the sound of /r/ is usually stronger than in the British speech.
According to my own experience, when practicing British pronunciation, the sound of /r/ in the middle of a word is usually weaker with vowels before the syllable is usually pronounced longer or with stressed.

Also read:

How to Improve your English Pronunciation

The English Pronunciation of R

English Pronunciation of "s" and "z"

English Pronunciation of "A" and "O"

Pronunciation Dictionary  
     

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