English Pronunciation:
Going from one language to another is not
an easy task, particularly if you are an adult. That is because when speakers of any language learn to make the sounds required in their own language, the muscles required to produce those speific sounds get strenghened. To make new sounds later on the sound producing muscles have to be retrained and special exercises are necessary. So when learning a new language as adult poplle have
difficulty in making new sounds present in the language they are trying to
learn, which are not in their own language.
Sometimes it so happens that they cannot differentiate between two distinct
sounds which are present in the other language.
This creates problems because a native speaker of a language may not
understand what a foreigner is saying to them. The
problem becomes more serious when people make fun of such foreign speakers behind
their backs.
You should not feel bad for not being able to pronounce all sounds in the English langauge correctly. Ask a native English speaker to pronounce some of the sounds in your language which are not in English. The laugh will be on them! So instead of laughing at each other try to learn the sounds that you are not famililar with which are present in the English lagugage. After you have learned to pronounce the sounds which you could not pronounce before you can then laugh. This time you will laugh not because you want to make fun of someone but because you should be happy for achieving something, which is not at all easy - learning to pronounce correctly words in another language.
It is possible
to learn to pronounce English words correctly by following the procedure given below:
(a)
first of all become aware of
the new sounds in Englsih which do not exist in your language,
(b)
distinguish the sounds, if
necessary, with other sounds that you would normally confuse with because of
your language background
(c)
learn how those sounds are
made with your sound equipment - mouth
(shape), tongue (placement), lips, nose, teeth and palate (position of tongue on teeth and palate), throat etc.
(d)
learn to make those sounds by
doing special exercises, if necessary
(e)
practise those sounds
regularly until they become part of you, that is you can make those sounds correctly
without having to think about them or make any special efforts
If you follow the above procedure for all sounds that were new to you, no one will make fun of you anymore. You will have learned to pronounce all sounds required
in English.
We give below some practice exercises for different problem sounds for people of different language backgrounds.
1. Ask someone who knows the difference between the two sounds that you want to learn to pronounce correctly. Ask them to explain to you the difference between the two sounds and show you (placement of tongue and from which part of the mouth they are making that sound) how he makes those two distinct sounds.
2. Very slowly recite the corresponding poem or text, making special efforts to pronounce the words written in bold (which make the sounds you are trying to learn to distinguish) correctly.
3. When you think you have got the two sounds correct and you can see a clear distinction between the two sounds, you can recite the poem or text, grdually but at a gradually incresing the speed. You should try to reach that speed when you can barely understand any of the other words in the poem or text but you or somebody else listening to you can still hear the words containing those two sounds.
4. Recite as many times as you can to get the sounds into your "muscle memory". That is they come automatically to you when you see the words. You no longer have to think about the sounds.
5. Recite the poem or read the relevant text in front of the person whose help you had sought earlier about the two sounds. If the person says you are prnouncing the words marked in bold letters correctly then you have achieved what you wanted to achieve. Give yourself a pat on the back.
6. Help others with similar problems to learn the difference between the two sounds that you have mastered.
All about J and Z - a poem by Dr. Mushfiqur Rahman
This exercise is mainly for those who do not find any difference in sound between the two English letters "j" and "z" and use their sounds interchangeably
or randomly.
The sound is made when pronouncing the English letter j as in John, Jack, Jill, Jar, jam, just, jail. The sound is also made when pronouncing some words containing the letter g as in geography, geology, geometry,
The sound can be made by touching the front part of the tongue on the palate just behind the upper front teeth and then separating the tongue from the palate.
The sound z is made when pronoouncing the English letter z in words as in Zebra, zero, zoom, zoo, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, etc.
The sound can be made by taking the front part of the teeth just behind the upper front teeth front close to the palate. WIthout touching the palate some air should be blown out through the space in between the toungue and the palate let it go our of the teeth.
,
Difference between P and B - an old nursery rhyme and tongue twistet with the letter P in most words
This exercise is for those who do not have in their language the sound made with the English letter B.
Normally, these people cannot differentiate between the sounds made with the two letters P and B.
Difference between L and R ( for Japanese, Cantonese and people from some Southern African countries)
Difference between "th" and "s" (for Japanese) think pronounced as sink
Difference between "s" and "sh" (for Bangladeshis and Assameses) - should pronounced as sould sh and s used interchangeably
Differntialte between "ch" (rural Bangladeshi) and "s" or "sh" (the word sir pronounced as char or the wod shall pronounced as chall)
How to pronounce "w" and "v" (for Bangladeshis and Japanese) wool pronounced as ool, wound pronounced as oond
Differentiate between the sounds "bh" and "v" (Bangladeshis) valley pronounced as bhalley, van pronounced as bhan etc.
Differentiate between the sounds "ph" (aspirated ph) and "f" (Bangladeshis) - the word flower pronounced as phlower or fanta pronounced as phanta or panta
Differentiate bewteen p and f (Noakhalians in Bangladesh) the word pan pronounced as fan, part pronounced as fart
Differentiate between the vowel sounds "o" and "oo" (Sylhetis in Bangladesh) the word goal pronounced as gool
Differentiate between b and bh (Sylhetis in Bangladesh) - the word abhor pronounced as abor
Pronouncing words that start with two consonants (for Pakistanis) - the word school pronounced as sakool
How to pronounce words with double consonants appearing together in the middle of a word( Chinese)
Differentiate between "th" as in the word this and "z" (Egyptians) the word this pronounced as zis
Differentiate between the sounds "z" as in hazard and "zh" as in mirage, barrage, pronounced as miraaj or barraaj
Differentiate between the two ee sounds - short ee shoud as in pin, bin eyc and the long ee sound as in key, bean, keen etc
Differentiate between the two sounds made by the vowel "o" one as a pure vowel o sound and when it sounds like a diphthong as in "go" "boat" etc.
Contributions from visitors tp the website on the above English sounds (poems or text for practice) are welcome. Your contribution will be duly acknowledged on the webiste.
© Amin Rahman MARN 0322761