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What is the best practice for English "pronunciation"?

kadanesh - 2008-02-16 19:30:30 - Languages

I am an international graduate student in United States. Although I am relatively fluent in spoken English, I have some problems in pronouncing words and because of this, sometimes people don't get my words. Do you know what is the best practice for pronunciation and word stress? Also, do you have any recommendation for improving accent? I appreciate it

Best Answer:

You could practice by listening and repeating, using a text-to-speech-engine. I think the text-to-speech-engine below is very good. It provides the right pronunciation. I tested it in my own language, Dutch. But you can also key in words, names, or even whole sentences in languages like English (US + UK), French, Spanish, German, Italian... Don't forget to choose the right voice (= language). Sorry: Because of some glitch I can't put the link here at the moment. Just Google with "acapela demo" (in quotation marks) and you'll find it immediately. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Answers:

Reading aloud is an easy practice. Becoming familiar with pronouncing vowels in different words helps in speech. Listening to other people talk is another good tactic.

Have you studies phonetics? If you know about phonetics you can pretty much make any sound in the world. That would be my advice.

There are no standard rules regarding stress or pronunciation. An example is "research", where I hear people emphasising the first syllable, "RE-search", or the last, "re-SEARCH". Unless the person is trying to emphasise a search occurring again (ie "re-search"), then either is generally understood, even if one may seem more appropriate than the other. It is quite possible that you'll never eliminate your accent. Pronunciation may then become a matter of enunciation, ie. how much care you take in pronouncing a word so that it is understood.

just talk to other people. listen to how they pronounce words. ask them to tell you how you could improve.

You could practice by listening and repeating, using a text-to-speech-engine. I think the text-to-speech-engine below is very good. It provides the right pronunciation. I tested it in my own language, Dutch. But you can also key in words, names, or even whole sentences in languages like English (US + UK), French, Spanish, German, Italian... Don't forget to choose the right voice (= language). Sorry: Because of some glitch I can't put the link here at the moment. Just Google with "acapela demo" (in quotation marks) and you'll find it immediately. Hope this helps, and good luck!