Summer practice: BBC Learning English - Pronunciation

Hi all,

Here's some useful links for you to improve your pronunciation. They've been taken from the BBC Learning English Pronunciation section. I strongly recommend that you go through each of the different sections, including the following:

The sounds of English
There is a system of symbols for writing the sounds of English. We have a guide to these symbols and also videos to show how to pronounce each of the sounds.

There are also activities to practise identifying the difference between certain sounds which may sound similar.

Features of English
Information about different elements of English pronunciation.

There are also interactive and downloadable exercises to help you build your understanding of these areas.

Quizzes
Interactive quizzes to test your knowledge of and help you learn about English pronunciation.

Programmes
Three radio programmes from 2005 on the topic of pronunciation. You can download the full programmes along with the script and audio examples.

Pronunciation: Text-to-speech

Click on the picture, wait till the page is loaded, then enter the text to be pronounced (e.g. hello) and click on 'SAY IT'. You can also choose different speakers from the VOICE menu.

Try it! You can't miss it!

Module 06. Listening: And the Oscar goes to...

... Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona!

She got it. The 2009 Oscar award for best supporting actress belongs to our Pe.
She well deserves the award because she is an extraordinary actress and she has offered us memorable performances like her unforgettable Raimunda in Almodovar's Volver.

In the ceremony, she looked classy, gorgeous, extremely elegant and so nervous that her voice quivered as she delivered her heartfelt beautiful speech. Don't miss her speech, watch the video and listen to it: it's moving, intelligent and really good:



Pay attention to Pe's pronunciation. Is there anything you think she should improve?

Now, read the transcript and try to explain the meaning of the words in bold:

'This is not going to be 45 seconds, I can say that right now. Has anybody ever fainted here? Because I might be the first one. Thank you so much to the Academy. I want to share this with my fellow nominees and with the amazing ensemble of actors that I had the privilege to work with in this movie. Thank you, Woody, for trusting me with this beautiful character. Thank for you having written over all these years some of the greatest characters for women. And I cannot talk about great female characters without thanking my friend Pedro Almodovar for having made me part of so many of his adventures. Thank you, Bigas Luna, Fernando Trueba, for giving me my first movies. Thank you, Harvey Weinstein. I wanted to dedicate this to my parents and to my brother and sister, to my friend Robert Carlo, who is not with us anymore, and to everyone who has helped me from the beginning and you know who you are and I thank you from my heart.

I grew up in a place called Alcobendas, where this was not a very realistic dream. And I, always on the night of the Academy Awards, I stay up to watch the show and I always felt that this was, this ceremony was a moment of unity for the world because art, in any form, is and has been and will always be our universal language and we should do everything we can, everything we can, to protect its survival. So I thank you so much and I have to say something in Spanish, because everyone... [SPANISH PART]

Taken and adapted from ESL Bloggers

Extra Pronunciation: Spot the accent!

Hi

Check out this link and play the game. Try to spot as many accents as you can. I know it's a bit hard, but give it a try!

I'm sure you won't miss the Spanish one...

PD. For your information, I just managed to spot four of the accents :(

Link courtesy of Carmen Saura

Pronunciation: Difficult English words (I)

Hiya!

I thought it might be interesting to include in the blog some pronunciation exercises. Just read aloud the listed words and check their pronunciation using one of the many different online audio dictionaries available.

Here's the first exercise:

Disappearance of vowels
family - garden - Edinburgh - awful - evil - interest - history

French words
moustache - bizarre - repertoire - memoire - reservoir
decade, parade, tornado, crusade

Alternations of some vowels
clerk (both BrEng and AmEng) - clerical - Berkshire
campus
compass - borough, conduit, love, conjure
quarrel - quantity
wagon - woman - wolf - bosom - womb - tomb - who - whose
fault - coughing - Australia - author
lost - cross - golf
sugar, rule, lucid, crew, blew

Pronunciation: Do you have an accent?

Watch the following video to see how different English can sound, depending on the area you come from, or the variety of the language you speak in case you are a native.



Remember, we all have an accent, but the idea is to get as close as you can to the Standard English variety.

Intermediate Level Revision: Pronunciation of -ed

1. Classify the following verbs according to their pronunciation in the past simple tense, that is, /d/, /t/ or /id/. There are ten answers for each column.

allowed - asked - cracked - cried - damaged - decided - encouraged - ended - flooded - guessed - included - jailed - killed - landed - loved - missed - mixed - pasted - relaxed - repeated - shaved - slipped - stopped - tasted - visited - wasted - washed - watched - welcomed - yawned

2. Complete the rules for the pronunciation of regular verbs in the past.

a. When the regular verb ends in a vowel sound or voiced consonant sound, the -ed ending is pronounced /_____ /.

b. When the regular verb ends in an unvoiced consonant sound, the -ed ending is pronounced /_____ /.

c. The -ed ending is pronounced /id/ when the verb ends in the consonant sounds _____ and _____ .


In case you need more practice with regular verbs, have a look at this website if you want to test yourself. Remember, try to read out the verbs to practice your own pronunciation as you progress with the exercise:

http://club.telepolis.com/phonetics/afoneticedd.html