English Pronunciation Course

Contents:-

Session One

1-  General Conversation

2-  Introduction of the 20 Vowel Sounds in English plus corresponding exercise

3-  Long vowels and short vowels with exercises

4-  Round up conversation

Session Two

1-  Conversation and Recap

2-  The Bird Vowel and the Cat/Cut Difficulty with exercises

3-  Reading Practice I

4-  Round up Conversation

Session Three

1-  Conversation and Recap

2-  When to Eat Your Words

3-  Reading Practise II

4-  Round up Conversation

Session Four

1-  Conversation and Recap

2-  The Power of Intonation

3-  Reading Practise III

4-  A Chat

Total duration 4 hours.

Course written by Robert McNair Wilson.

The 20 Vowels Exercises

1 Place the following words into their corresponding column in the vowel chart.

BOOK
PURSE
SHAPE
TOOL
PART
NEED
FOUR
BUY / SHOULD
WORD
GIRL
WORLD
SHOW
KNOW
NOW
NO / MAKE
SPOT
SPORT
CAUGHT
MET
MEET
FOOT
FEET

Use your vowel chart to record words which have caused you difficulty.

2 Short and Long Vowels. Circle the word with the different vowel sound.

1 short fort fought not
2 but bark son nun
3 beat kick mix thin
4 caught song from cough
5 book tool should wood / 6
7
8
9
10 / chip neat cheap feet
but arch month fun
part farm laugh love
took through new flu
meat each bread seem


Difficult Vowels Exercises

1 The Bird Vowel .

a) Circle the word in each group that contains the bird vowel.

1
2
3
4
5 / girl soil fear fill
wall feel word fill
missed must guest worst
stall worth barn born
boil burn bark bunch / 6
7
8
9
10 / stern staff stiff stuff
break burst bung beer
thing thought thnk thirst
hurt heart heat hut
ship short shut shirt

Listen to your teacher and check your answers.

b) Circle the word pronounced by your teacher.

1
2
3 / a. were b. war
a. far b. fur
a. first b. fist / 4
5
6 / a. walled b. world
a. girl b. gill
a. coil b. curl

2  The most difficult A.

a) There are three A sounds in English. Practise saying the following sets of words with your teacher and then circle the word you hear.

1
2
3 / a. cut b. cat c. cart
a. hut b. hat c. heart
a. fun b. fan c. farm / 4
5
6 / a. come b. cam c. calm
a. mush b. mash c. marsh
a. much b. match c. march

b) Circle the word containing the sound. Then listen to your teacher and check your answers.

1
2
3 / a. bat b. but c. bought
a. sing b. sang c. sung
a. man b. must c. most / 4
5
6 / a. some b. same c. Sam
a. can b. can’t c. Kent
a. cheat b. chart c. chat


When to Eat Your Words

For native speakers of many languages, such as Spanish, Italian and Thai, English spoken by natives sounds very murmured. The native English speaker slurs much of what he or she says, as if the speaker were inebriated or ill. This is no illusion. Many words are slurred in spoken English. Below is a list of important points.

1-  Picture or meaning words are never slurred e.g. nouns and verbs

2-  Small grammatical words such as modal and auxiliary verbs and two letter prepositions are frequently mumbled and are hardly distinguishable. These include CAN, DO, AT, TO and others.

3-  Grammar is important for speaking and writing. However, when you listen to someone, forget about grammar and concentrate on MESSAGE.

4-  The little monosyllabic words which are frequently slurred have their respective vowel sounds reduced to a semi-mute sound symbolized by



Read the following sentence and then listen to your teacher read it.

I went to London last week to do some shopping. I took the train and had lunch in Oxford Street.

Only the following is clearly pronounced.

LONDON - LAST - TUESDAY - SHOPPING - TRAIN - LUNCH - OXFORD - STREET

The meaning is clear. If you think it sounds like Tarzan speaking, then you are absolutely right.

Practise the following sentences with your teacher:-

1. Do you like white wine?

2. He can play the guitar very well.

3. Can you play the piano?

4. What does hectic mean?

5. I come from Cuenca.

6. Of course!

7. What's for lunch?

8. Look at the picture.

Now practise the original statement.

I went to London last week to do some shopping. I took the train and had lunch in Oxford Street.

The Power of Intonation

The Spanish, the French and the Italians often say they find the British to be very cold people. They don't move their hands or bodies when they speak and they maintain a full metre distance between themselves and other people during conversation.

The British express their emotions through intonation of speech. The way you say the word HELLO carries many meanings, all the way from, "Oh god. It's you." to an expression of genuine pleasure.

Listen and practise:-

HELLO / GOOD BYE / RUDE
RUITINE
POLITE
TO A FRIEND
TO FAMILY
TO YOUR PARTNER

The misuse of these intonations can cause all sorts of misunderstandings.

REALLY? / RUDE
RUITINE
POLITE
TO A FRIEND
TO FAMILY
TO YOUR PARTNER
GOOD / RUDE
RUITINE
POLITE
TO A FRIEND
TO FAMILY
TO YOUR PARTNER

These intonations sound exagerrated and ridiculous to the Spanish ear. However, they are very important to get right. Listen to native English speakers and you will start to hear them and appreciate their importance.