How to learn English well? One of the big challenges when it comes to learning English is listening. Even if youve studied English for many years, you might find it hard to understand real, full-speed English conversation. How do you get better at understanding natural English speech? Listen to the sounds, not to the words! The problem is that you were probably taught to pronounce and understand English words. But when we speak naturally, we dont speak in single words. We speak in sentences. Words change when theyre in sentences in several ways: English has stressed and unstressed words. Unstressed words become very quiet. A lot of the vowels change to an uh sound. Some letters change their sound depending on whether youre pronouncing them normally or carefully. For example, a lot of people say the t in city as a d sound. Words blend together. We may start pronouncing the next word before were completely finished with the one before. Its all very complicated. You cant keep track of all the rules. But theres a part of your brain thats very good at figuring this stuff out. When you practice listening to English, dont try to match what you hear with your expectations. Dont let your brain correct the words that you hear. Just listen to the sounds like youre listening to music, or listening to a birds song. Repeat what you hear, but repeat the sounds, not the words. When I started to offer audio recordings of my lessons on PhraseMix, I had to make a decision. Should I hire voice actors who would read really slowly and clearly? Or should I have them read at normal speed and with normal, sloppy pronunciation? It really wasnt a hard decision. I chose to make the recordings as natural as possible, so that my students could hear what English really sounds like. Tomorrow Ill finish up by reviewing the ideas that Ive taught you. Ill also share a few more quick suggestions for how to learn more quickly.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:32:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015