pronuncation workshop 1st seesion

Pronunciation Workshop—The American dream does not come to those who fall outquick.Session One1. Consonant R2. Consonant WHi, I’m your instructor Paul Gruber and welcome to the Pronunciation Workshops---First Training Session.I am very excited that you have taken this first step to improve your English pronunciation and I do hope that you would enjoy this program and receive great benefits from it. Before we begin I wanna make sure that you have downloaded and printed out the training manual which accompanies this course. If you have not yet done so, please do it soon because you’ll definitely need it.Now you may be wondering how is it that I am going to help you change the way you speak. Well, basically, when you learned English as a second language, you kept many of the sounds andspeech rules from your first language and you were continuing to use them when you speak English. This is what gives you an accent. You were using the sounds and speech rules from your native language instead of the sounds and speech rules of English. And you know why? Well, because when you learned English, nobody ever showed you what the sounds and speech rules of English were until now.That’s why I’m coming . Because I am going to show you and train you on how to use these sounds and speech rules correctly. Knowing in using these rules will help you reduce or possibly even eliminate your accent. Now throughout the program you’re often going to see me point to my mouth to show you how to produce a particular sound. I want you to pay close attention and try to copy exactly what it is I am doing. I would be showing you how to correctly form new sounds by changing the position of your tongue or changing the shape of your lips. These small changes are going to make very big changes in your speech. We’re going to practising and I recommend that you use the training manual and try to practise often. When you practise, I recommend that you start out speaking slowly out loud in a strong voice while exaggerating all the mouth movements. What would you be doing is retraining the muscles of your mouth in your tongue to move innew ways, which will produce a new pronunciation patterns. These new speech patterns will slowly and eventually involve into your own spontaneous fast speech, but it is important that you start out going very slow. If you can pronunce words and sentences correctly speaking slowly, well, then you’ll have no problem in saying them fast.I believe practising is important, but I do not believe it’s the only key towards success. Being aware of your errors. That’ s the key. Being aware and also recognizing mistakes when you hear them will probably be the most important factors towards your improvement.(责任编辑：admin)Another thing Id like you to keep in mind and Im sure you may have noticed this already is that when most Americans speak you will notice that we seem to open our mouth a lot and there is a great amouAnother thing I’d like you to keep in mind and I’m sure you may have noticed this already is that when most Americans speak you will notice that we seem to open our mouth a lot and there is a great amount of mouth movements. Watch my mouth when I say something like “Wow, was there really raining on Wednesday!”Did you see how my mouth seemed to move? It wasn’t with my lips flat. It wasn’t “Wow, was there really raining on Wednesday.”There was a lot of movements. My mouth opened wide, but also mywhole mouth moved forward. Now I find many foreign speakers, maybe because of their language characteristics, they don’t move their mouths much. There is very little facial movement. Because of this, to an American listener, the words often sound mumble, making it very very difficult for an American listener to understand what it is you said. One way to be better understood immediately is to become more aware of your speech and to really start opening and moving your mouth.I’d like to try to observe what I’m talking about. When you speak to native-borned Americans or watch TV or movies, notice how when Americans speak, generally our mouths really open big and our lips come forward. These movements have a lot to do with the sound of American English.I also want to add that I’ll often be asking you to repeat words and sentences on these videos. Try to think as if we were both sitting in the same room and I am directly right in front of you. Listen carefully to the words and sounds that I give you. Listen carefully to my pronunciation and watch my mouth, then repeat the words back to me in your own voice with the techniques that I’m showing you as clearly as you can. Now at first you may feel a bit of foolish talking to your computer screen, but really youshouldn’t. Make believe you’re speaking directly to me. You’ll find this will to be extremely helpful and effective. During the course of this program, I will begin by addressing consonant sounds and then later on we’ll work with vowel sounds. Now vowel sounds, as you know, are A E I O and U, like ahh, ohh, eee, ehh, ihh and ooo. And consonant sounds are basically all the other letters’ sounds, like b, ch, s, t, f, g, sh, w and of course, there are many many more sounds.The consonants that we are going to cover in this first session are the consonant R and the consonant W. Ok, are you ready? Here we go. Let’s get started. Let’s start with the American R. R’s are everywhere. They’re probably the most commonly occurring consonant sound in English. One reason for this is that R’s affect vowel sounds, especially when an R falls at the end of word or after a vowel sound as in the word CAR, or the word AIR, or the word TURN.After working with so many non-native English speakers from around the world, I believe the R sound is one of the main causes for being misunderstood in American English. Therefore, this is why I’ve chosen to start out with this sound. Now when some languages,like our speaking Spanish, the R is produced by bringing the tongue forward in the front of the mouth behind the upper teeth and rolling or trilling the tongue~, like that. Now when some other languages, like German and French, the R is produced in the back of the throat, but this is not how we produce an R sound in the United States. In American English, in order to say a clear R sound, two distinct things hafta(have to) happen. The first thing is that our mouth and lips come tightly forward as if you would be saying the OO sound. Do this with me, say OO and make sure you bringing your lips all the way forward. Say OO. That’s it. You see how your lips are forward? That’s what you wanna do. This is the position your mouth should be in when you producing an American R, like that, and I’ll bet you know whenever I told you that. Now, the second thing is that your tongue moves back in your mouth. It doesn’t come forward. It’s pulled back. This is probably the opposite of what you’re doing right now. So, for example, in the word (责任编辑：admin)R ock, notice how my lips are coming forward and my tongue moves back in my mouth and I push out the R sound. Watch this: RRR ock. Do with me and exaggerate the R: RRR ock. Watch with my head turn: RRRock, notice how my lips are coming forward and my tongue moves back in my mouth and I push out the R sound. Watch this: RRRock. Do with me and exaggerate the R: RRRock. Watch with my head turn:RRRock. You see that? See how the whole bottom of my face came forward. Don’t be afraid to do this. This forward mouth movement is what is going to give you an American R sound. It’s not~ and it’s not Rock with your lips flat. Your wholemouth really hasta( has to ) come forward. Now latter I recommend that you practise doing this in front of a mirror while watching your mouth. Really push out the R and remember to pull your tongue back. Now one way of checking if you’re doing this correctly with your tongue is by actually putting your finger around an inch into your mouth while saying an R sound. Watch this, RRRock, like that. You should be able to take the tip of your finger and feel the tip of your tongue. If you do these two simple things---bringing your mouth forward and pulling your t ongue back. I’m telling you your speech’s going to be clear and you’re going to sound so much better.Ok, we’ re going to start out with R’s at the beginning of words. Here we go. Repeat after me.RockRipReachRoadRainRichRomeRaiseRobeRiceVery good. Now repeat this sentence.The round rooste r rushed into the wrong road.Very good. Now pronuncing R’s like this may feel a little weird to you, but if you notice this is how most Americans talk. Ok. Now let’s do R’s at the end of words or after a vowel. When a foreign speaker produces R which at the end of word of follows a vowel, it’s usually very weak---gets not really heard and leaves the word opener unfinished, like in the word CAR. Now you may say CAR ending with the A vowel. But it’ s not CAR. It’s CAR/r/. Your tongue hasta pull back. CAR. And also your lips close a little bit in the front. The R needs to be very strong and you need to close the word. CAR. Let’s practise these words. Repeat after me.CarFarStarDoorBearFourYear( now has a high vowel sound EE.Year.) Turn Poor Very good. Ok. Now lets discuss Rs in the middle of words. In the word Ve r y, for example, which is a frequently used word in English. The R occurYear( now has a high vowel sound EE.Year.)TurnPoorVery good. Ok. Now let’s discuss R’s in the middle of words. In the word Very, for example, which is a frequently used word in English. The R occurs in the middle of the word. It’s not a D sound. The word is not Vedi, or Vehi, it’s Very. Make sure that the R sound is strong and your lips are coming forward. Your tongue is back and you push out the R: Very, like that. Practise these sentences with me nice and slow. He is Very Very nice, like that. See how my lips are coming all the way forward? Next one. She is Very Very tall. Here are some more practice words with R in the middle. Repeat after me.DirectionArrangeEraseCorrectMarryGarageOriginalHurryZeroMarineBerryOperationCaringArriveEveryoneOk. Very good. Now, R’s are often combined with other consonants and form what we call R Blends. It is important to understand that the R sound is the stronggest sound of the blend and your lips often come forward before you even say the word. And example of this is the word Grape. Now notice how my mouth comes forwardbefore I even say the word. Grape. Did you see that? And notice in the word Grape the R sound is strongger and you even hear it more than the G sound. Grape. Here are some practice words with R Blends. First at the beginning of words. Here we go.TrainingTrustTripGreatTropicalBring(责任编辑：admin)Print President Product Cracker Crawl Break Ok. Now in the middle of words. Subtract Waitress Nutrition Australia Introduce Compress Oppression Betray Very good. Ok now lets practise R sounds in sentePrintPresidentProductCrackerCrawlBreakOk. Now in the middle of words.SubtractWaitressNutritionAustraliaIntroduceCompressOppressionBetrayVery good. Ok now let’s practise R sounds in sentences. These sentences are filled with R’s. Keep the R sound strong. Don’t forget to bring your mouth forward and pull your tongue back. Say these sentences with me. Here we go.The story he read on the radio was incorrect.Her career in the law firm is permanent.Richard and Brooke took a ride in their brand new Range Rover truck.Everyone will respect the Royal Family when they arrive at the airport.(Be shorter close to the word Air. It’s not airport. It’s Air, Airport, like that with strong R sound.)The trip to the Rocky Mountains will be rescheduled on Friday. Very good. Ok now let’s talk about W sounds. W sounds are very similar to R sounds. The major thing to keep in mind is that in English when you see a W, it always has a W sound. Like in the word What. Again notice how my mouth moves forward. One way to make sure you were doing this correctly is to first say oooo with your whole mouth forward, oooo, like that, and then, open and close your lips to make the W sound, like this, ooooWaWaWa. That’s how you produce a W. Wa, like that. It’s never a V sound, /v/,or you’re like biting down on your lower lip, never. We’ll be going over V sounds in the fourth session. The reason I mention this is because many foreign speakers, especially the German speakers say, for example, Vhat with V for the word What. Instead of saying “What will we do?”, which is correct. They may say “Vhat villve do?” And that is not right and many people may not understand you. Bring your mouth forward on those W words. (责任编辑：admin)W hat w ill w e do. Say with me. W hat w ill w e do. Very good. Now as I said the W and the R are similar, both of them are made with your mouth in the forward position and your tongue pulled back. YoWhat will we do. Say with me. What will we do. Very good.Now as I said the W and the R are similar, both of them are made with your mouth in the forward position and your tongue pulled back. Your mouth should be a little bit tighter when you’re saying an R. Listen to the similarities and differences between these R and W words.Rick – WickRight – WhiteIt’s not Vhite with V. It’s White with W.Very good. Also be aware that the W sound occurs in some words beginning with the letter O, like in the words: One, Once. You might not be aware of this. Practise the W words with me. We’ll start out with W at the beginning of words. Don’t forget to bring your mouth forward at the beginning of each word.WhyWhichWhenWhatWipeWishWeightWingVery good. Ok now W in the middle of words. AlwaysAwayBewareAwakeSomeoneRewindHalloweenHollywoodNow practise these W sentences.The wind from the west was very wet. (Remember Very starts with the V sound followed by a strong R. --Was very wet. Very good.) We woke up and washed the white washcloth.We waited for the waitress to give us water.(责任编辑：admin)W e had a w onderful time in W ashington and W isconsin. Very good. Now while we are talking the W sounds, Id like to mention Q sounds. How are Q sounds related? Well, Q sounds are made with the K/k /We had a wonderful time in Washington and Wisconsin.Very good. Now while we are talking the W sounds, I’d like to mention Q sounds. How are Q sounds related? Well, Q sounds are made with the K/k /sound and the W sound/w/ put together. You may have known that. So, for example, the word Quick is pronunced with the K and the strong W sound. KWICK, like that. Repeat some of these words beginning with the Q sound.QuestionQuietQueenQualifyQuitQuebecQuiltAnd also in the CH word ChoirVery good. Ok, here now is a paragraph which contains many R and W sounds. You may wanna practise reading this paragraph a few times . Notice how my lips come forward and all my Rs and Ws. Try to do the same thing and don’t forget. Do not roll your R’~. Don’t do that. Here we go.Ray was born in Russia. He dreamed of building the perfect roller coaster at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. He had a friend named Fred who lived in Norway. Fred’s profession was designing railroad tracks and his career involved traveling all around the world. Ray thought it would be perfect if Fred designed his roller coaster ride. Fred was creative, brilliant and worked well with railroad tracks. He would be the perfect engineer for the project. The ridetook two years to construct and was painted red and white. Everyone really wanted to ride the brand-new roller coaster.Very good. Now if you strongly push out those Rs and Ws when you practise eventually your Rs and W sounds are going to be clear and your speech will be much easier to understand.If you have the time watch the session again and practise your pronunciation along with me, then take out your training manual and practise on your own. All the word lists and reading passages that are on these videos are in the munual as well. I hope you enjoy our first session together. Fell free to watch this session again. I’m Paul Gruber with the Pronunciation Workshop and I’ll see you next time.(责任编辑：admin)。