On English Pronunciation and Natural Pronunciation

Pronunciation, if you don't want to do special research on pronunciation, there is not much real content. Only there are less than 30 phonetic symbols, and then dozens of pronunciation rules, as well as intonation, stress and so on. Compared with grammar, other aspects of vocabulary are actually much less, so everyone should be very confident and have the ability to learn well.

However, not many people will say, "I speak English myself, but my friends will ask,' What?' I repeated it, but he understood. No matter how many times I tell the foreigner, he doesn't understand. He finally understood comparison and paddling, but it seems that he listened more carefully than I did. "Beginners learning English, this situation is normal, all of a sudden can't say authentic, children babble is not accurate. But when you have studied English for several years, your pronunciation is still not enough, which is a bit unreasonable. There are really not many pronunciations What's the matter?

The benefits of accurate pronunciation

The most important advantage is that others can understand what you say. Everyone knows this, so I don't need to say it here.

At least Li Yang also emphasized the importance of pronunciation. He said that there was no problem with pronunciation, and naturally there was no problem with listening. I believe everyone is familiar with it. I'm not sure I agree with him myself. Correct pronunciation is really helpful to listening, but if you pass the exam only by pronunciation, it is easy to see the problem. This is a listening problem. Let's put it here first and I'll talk about it later.

The first advantage of correct pronunciation is that it can enhance your confidence. Didn't the whole class understand what I said before? Your own fables often have to wait for the teacher to repeat them before others can understand what foreigners are saying. Don't you have to stretch your neck and bow your waist to understand what you are saying? It really hurts the foreign teacher's heart. Is there always something in your heart at this moment? If I say foreign teacher once, I will get the message and follow my meaning immediately. The way we look at foreign teachers must be sparkling. Aren't we proud?

The second advantage of correct pronunciation is that it can help you remember words. English pronunciation has its inherent strong rules, although this rule cannot be completely covered by dozens of pronunciation rules. Take myself as an example. If you give me any word, no matter what new word it is, I can pronounce it correctly, even if I have never seen it before. Why? This is the inherent law of English pronunciation. Since there is this rule, when we remember a word and spell it out, this inherent phonetic rule can naturally play a role unconsciously and help you deepen your memory of the word. Although this rule cannot be explained clearly in a few words.

The third benefit of correct pronunciation is to enhance reading ability. It seems that pronunciation has little to do with reading. I also suddenly thought of this aspect. Reading ability is not only a matter of vocabulary and grammar, but also a matter of language sense. Language sense is a very empty thing, but we can feel that when we read Chinese books, we still know the general meaning of words we don't understand; After reading this sentence, I know what to say next, and so on. This is the role of language sense. If it is incorrect pronunciation, you can't develop a sense of language at all, because incorrect pronunciation is free and uncertain. How can free and uncertain things form a single hunch?

The fourth benefit of correct pronunciation is the help to listening mentioned above. In fact, this benefit should be easy for everyone to understand. My own view is conservative, not as fast as what Li Yang said. I don't think correct pronunciation and listening can be without problems. Listening is often not focused on a word, we are listening to a sentence, and focusing on a word will often make you unable to understand the whole sentence. Correct pronunciation can improve your listening, but it can't completely solve the listening problem.

That's all for the time being. Let's add some later.

Methods to improve correct pronunciation

Finally, the best part. However, pronunciation is only the movement of the mouth, which is much simpler than other aspects of language learning, such as vocabulary and grammar. I often see people say: I found myself with a problem. I'm going to review what I did before and learn from the beginning. It doesn't really need to be like this. I guarantee that you already know and remember it clearly. Let's not talk about the problem. Let me refer to my point of view first. You don't need to review it deliberately, just pay attention to it in the future learning process.

1, you don't need to read books like Introduction to English Phonetics, you will get bored. You already know what these books say, but you can't find what you don't know in these books.

You don't need to remember any pronunciation rules. Although I said earlier that English pronunciation has its inherent strong rules, this rule is not rote learning. Even if you memorize all the pronunciation rules, you will be at a loss, and you can't pronounce any strange words as accurately as I said, because there are too many special cases. The inherent pronunciation rules of English are understandable. In the process of continuous learning in the future, you will find that even the so-called special cases, that is, those words that are outside the usual pronunciation rules, have their own rules.

3. Correct pronunciation in the process of practicing listening. This is the most important way to improve pronunciation. When you are listening, find a word that attracts your attention, stop and ponder it, then repeat it, break down the phonemes in this word, pay attention to how everyone pronounces it, and see how it differs from your own pronunciation. Do this often, and your pronunciation will naturally improve.

4. Pay attention to the pronunciation of a country. If you want to learn American accent, just ignore the difference between American accent and British accent, Australian accent and Canadian accent. It's enough for you to practice your beautiful voice. It's just an accent When you casually say a nice accent, and then an English accent, it's just an accent, and you will naturally know the difference between the two.

Learning English can be fun and should not be confined to one aspect. Don't think that I encourage everyone to be lazy, just say that you should pay attention to watching movies and listening to songs. I have said something about movies. Just a quick mention. Just say it silently or repeat what you heard at the movies, and correct it yourself. The pronunciation in the movie is the purest. I hope everyone will try to listen to English songs. To tell the truth, English songs can't bring you much benefits, but the most important thing is to help you in pronunciation. Listen to some songs with clear and loud pronunciation and listen to a few words to correct yourself. Because the singing of songs is full of emotion, you also need to pronounce the words you hear with emotion. The pronunciation of songs is sometimes very special, but it is extremely accurate. Please repeat it with special words. Your pronunciation has improved.

6. Look up the dictionary more. Although pronunciation is heard, not read, you can often find the inherent pronunciation rules of English by looking it up in the dictionary. Not those useless universal pronunciation rules. This is a pronunciation rule that allows you to say whatever you see. It won't happen overnight, but persevere and you will find the result. When you are sure of your pronunciation, look it up in the dictionary. If it's too much trouble, check Kingsoft.

7. Find a sentence and record the pronunciation you actually hear, not the pronunciation you think of with your own pronunciation rules. Is the real actual pronunciation. Is it very different from the original pronunciation of "should"? But this is the actual pronunciation of foreigners.

8. Pay attention to the intonation. I have a classmate who works as an interpreter for Arabs. Her English is calm and calm, and she doesn't take a breath. I admire her deeply, but she can't. Just like we read Chinese, we feel the sentences with our heart and give some feelings.

Matters needing attention

Something worth remembering.

1, the phonetic notation in the dictionary is not very accurate. Phonetic notation lets you know how words are pronounced, but it can't tell you how to pronounce them. You should supplement this deficiency with your own pronunciation practice. There is also the question of what dictionary to look up. Domestic dictionaries are not recommended here. There is nothing to explain. Students studying American English should use Webster's dictionary or Langdon's dictionary.

2. The International Phonetic Alphabet is inaccurate. This is true, especially for American English. The more accurate phonetic symbol is Webster's, that is, Webster's phonetic symbol or KK phonetic symbol. Personally, I prefer Webster's phonetic alphabet, which can better reflect the actual pronunciation of Americans.

3. Novices don't need to be accurate. Just remember that you will slowly correct your pronunciation in the future. Many people will be discouraged when learning phonetic symbols, so let it go first and learn to write other things that can excite you. When I first learned Japanese, I didn't pay attention to the pronunciation of Japanese pseudonyms after only one day. Although Japanese pronunciation is much simpler than English pronunciation.

4. Individual things:

The [o] in American English hot, pot and mop is more like the abbreviation [a] in hard hard, laugh;

Will become will; ;

Thinking will become thinking; ;

He usually doesn't pronounce the h in front of him, and when he meets him, he will pronounce it meedim；;

Congradulate, etc. T-linked, often read D, such as meedim or above;

What are you doing? Actually, what are you doing?

You read the leaf lightly, you read it lightly. In fact, pronouns can generally be read lightly.

And will lightly read en, or will be omitted as lightly read a;

Military, secret, the American phonetic symbol after ary is marry's [ERI]; The corresponding theory is often emphasized.

Half and so on in American English may all be hat, mat and so on

If you can read continuously, read continuously.

5. Experience the pure American pronunciation with your heart.

Because it is very troublesome to input phonetic symbols by computer, I have been looking for it for a long time and I don't know how to input phonetic symbols I can't go into more details. Let's just watch.

On the Natural Pronunciation of English

What is natural pinyin?

Natural Pronunciation is an introductory course for children in English-speaking countries in the United States to learn American English. The basic function of natural pronunciation is similar to that of China's Chinese Pinyin. Phonetic symbols of Taiwan Province Province. The difference is that Chinese Pinyin and Phonetic Alphabet are another set of symbols developed outside of words. However, natural pronunciation does not have another set of symbols, and it still uses 26 English letters.

The basic concept of natural pronunciation is to understand the difference between the name and the sound of letters. Almost everyone knows 26 letters: A, B, C, ..., X, Y, Z. However, the catchy 26 letters are all letters' names. Pronunciation represents the names of letters, just as everyone has his own name. Natural pronunciation refers to the "sound" of letters. Just as everyone has his own voice different from others, letters also have their own unique voice.

For example, the spelling of "PET" in English is "pet", and there are always three English letters "P", "E" and "T" in this word. Natural pronunciation is to find the pronunciation of words through the sounds reflected by letters. The pronunciation of the letter "p" is /p/, and the pronunciation of the letter "e" is/ε/. "PET" is the pronunciation of /pεt/. In the example, "phonetic symbol" is quoted to indicate the pronunciation of letters, which is intended to make it easy for everyone to understand. In fact, natural pronunciation does not need phonetic symbols. Children who have learned natural pronunciation will directly reflect the pronunciation of the word "pet".

The role and help of natural pronunciation in learning American English

People who learn American English have the same obstacle: they dare not speak (dumb English). The reason why I dare not say it is because I can't say it, or I am afraid of making a mistake. Why don't you talk? Because I haven't mastered English pronunciation skills yet. Why are you afraid of making mistakes? Because my understanding of English grammar is not thorough, in fact, the two keys to learning American English are pronunciation and grammar. Natural pronunciation can help learners of American English reach the level of "seeing the pronunciation of words and listening to spelling". Once they see the pronunciation of words and hear the words they write, the effect of memorizing English words will be greatly improved. Once the vocabulary increases, you can speak more English. The next step is how to modify spoken sentences, which depends on the familiarity with English grammar.

Let's get rid of grammar problems and learn natural pronunciation. Children will know 50% of the spirit of American English. Because today's children can read, read, listen and write. In this way, the strangeness and fear of American English will be swept away. On the contrary, you will have a sense of accomplishment in learning American English! The psychological barriers to learning are gone, and with a sense of accomplishment, are you afraid that you can't learn?

What's the difference between natural pronunciation and phonetic symbols?

Let's get down to business and define the phonetic symbols. Phonetic symbols are designed to facilitate people from non-American countries to learn American English. The use of phonetic symbols, like Chinese pinyin and phonetic symbols, is actually a set of "deliberately made phonetic symbols". The difference between Chinese and English lies in the organization of words. Chinese characters are ever-changing, such as pictophonetic characters, phonetic symbols, transliteration characters, foreign words and so on. We can't find a set of regular pronunciation skills for the structure of monosyllabic characters. Therefore, the pinyin and phonetic symbols of Chinese characters are very important, which can help Chinese learners read Chinese characters correctly.

However, English words consist of only 26 letters. The composition of any English article comes from different permutations and combinations of these 26 letters. In this case, we only need to find a set of systematic pronunciation rules in these 26 letters, so as long as we master the pronunciation rules of these 26 letters first, we can simplify the complex and learn English well, and speaking English is no longer an unreachable dream.

Having said that, some people may ask, why not learn phonetic symbols and learn natural pronunciation? Since phonetic symbols are specially designed for non-American countries to learn American English, why not teach phonetic symbols in Norm American? The reason is simple, because it is unnecessary. As mentioned earlier, Chinese pinyin and phonetic symbols are necessary, because the structure of Chinese characters is too complicated to plan a set of rules for reading and pronouncing words from the structure of the words themselves, so pinyin and phonetic symbols are necessary. However, the composition of phonetic symbols can not be separated from 26 letters, and they have their own set of pronunciation rules. After mastering this set of pronunciation rules, you can not only write and listen to English, but also read and speak English through letters. Learning phonetic symbols in this way is like carrying coals to Newcastle, which not only carries coals to Newcastle, but also increases the learning burden.

There are countless types of phonetic symbols: from the international phonetic symbols that existed more than 100 years ago, to the KK phonetic symbols that came out one after another, and the Oxford phonetic symbols ... each set of phonetic symbols is not uniform, and the average number of each set of phonetic symbols is about 50. Compared with the natural pronunciation of 26 letters, phonetic symbols are more time-consuming and laborious to learn. And after learning the phonetic symbols, it can only be used in English "reading". There is no way to use them. However, natural pronunciation is different. While learning natural pronunciation, the basic elements of English are 26 letters, and the skills of natural pronunciation can be applied to the four parts of listening, speaking, reading and writing at the same time. Therefore, Noel American vigorously promotes the course of "natural pronunciation" in order to let children learn American English easily in the most effective and simple way.

Brief list of international phonetic symbols

Aa[？ ]Bb[b]Cc[k]Dd Ee[e]Ff Gg[g]

hh[h]Ii[I]Jj[d]Kk Ll[l]Mm[m]Nn[n]

oo[]Pp Qq[k]Rr[r]Ss[s]TT

uu[λ]Vv[v]Ww[w]Xx[ks]Yy[j]Zz[z]

Types of natural pronunciation

The rules of natural pronunciation are simple. As mentioned above, no matter how many kinds there are, the basic elements are only 26 English letters, and learners do not need to memorize special symbols other than these 26 English letters. Natural pronunciation can be divided into three categories: monosyllabic letters, vowel sounds and special combinations.

Monosyllabic letter

The individual pronunciation of 26 letters (alphabet or letters) is an introductory course of natural pronunciation. The learning content at this stage is to let children understand the concept of natural pronunciation and practice the skills of natural pronunciation. The learning goal is to let children learn to read words with natural pronunciation skills. The purpose of listening and writing. The learning level reaches 150-350 monosyllabic words and 350-650 simple disyllabic words. The total number of words is 500- 1000.

Vowel pronunciation

Pronunciation of short vowels and long vowels is the second stage course of natural pronunciation. The learning content at this stage is to let children know more about the necessity of vowels. Any English word must contain at least one vowel. Without vowels, it is not a word. The number of vowels in a word is the number of syllables. For example, "dog" has only one set of vowels ("o"). "Window" has two vowels ("I" and "O"), so "window" is a disyllabic word. "P.S." has no vowel group, so it is not a word, but an abbreviation of a group of phrases (abbreviation of Post Script; Passenger ship; Sheriff; The learning goal of the public school is to let children master the pronunciation rules and skills of single vowels, vowel groups and vowels. Learning level reaches 500- 1000 monosyllabic words and 800- 1200 simple disyllabic words, totaling 1300-2200 words.

Monovowel basic component

A, Britain, Italy, Europe and friends

Basic elements of vowel groups

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Separate vowel basic elements

A e, e e, I e, o e, u e.

Special combination (special combination)

Includes five parts:

1. Consonant mixing: BL, FL, CL, GL, PL, SL, BR, Cr, DR, GR, FR, TR, PR, STR, Sn, SP, SW, SM, ST.

2. The special sounds of letters c, g, y (c, g, y): ce, ci, cy, ge, gi, gy, y as the ending sound.

3. Consonant combinations: th, sh, ch, wh.

4. Pronunciation of "ou", "ow" and "oo": ou, ow and oo.

5.r-controlled vowels: ar, er, IR, or, ur.

The learning content at this stage is to let children know the special combination of natural pronunciation. The learning goal is to let children master the correct pronunciation of more than 70% English words through repeated spelling exercises. Monosyllabic words with learning level of 800- 1200, and polysyllabic words with learning level of 1000- 1500. The total vocabulary is 180.

The above three categories cover 44 pronunciations of English: 26 letter tones, 5 long vowels and 13 special pronunciations. These 44 pronunciations are the basic elements of American spoken English. Is it difficult to learn American English? It's not difficult at all! As long as you learn 26 letters, you can begin to learn to read and write, and as long as you learn 44 pronunciations, you can be familiar with listening and speaking. Is it much easier to learn American English than the ever-changing people in China?

What are you waiting for? Now speak American English loudly! (I: Zhao Lu)

(Vicki: Shanghai New Oriental New Concept Book One Star Teacher. Born in Taiwan Province Province, graduated from the United States. After ten years in America, I have rich experience in American English teaching for more than ten years. He used to be a trainer of major American English schools in Taiwan Province Province, a graphic model of Konica Photography Association, and the first president of Beixian Youth Drama Club in Taiwan Province Province. The professional certificates or qualifications obtained include: Las Vegas franchise dealer, Nevada pistol license, Sichuan Opera face-changing project, Beijing Xue Ming traditional performing arts, and member of Beijing Xue Ming Magician Association. I love traveling and have been to 22 countries on five continents. Cheerful personality, enthusiasm, dedication, strong affinity, optimism and sense of humor. Fluent American oral English and relaxed and humorous classroom style make students study without pressure. Life goal: Never too old to learn.