How to Learn American English Pronunciation
Learning American English pronunciation is easy. Contrary to some beliefs, you don't need to memorize the signs and symbols of the American English phonetic alphabet to do so. After all, native speakers of American English learn how to pronounce words most often by listening and repeating and many of them have never even seen the phonetic alphabet. You don't need to enroll in a class or course to improve your American English pronunciation. Instead you can just take advantage of the many sources that abound on the Internet.
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Instructions
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Visit the website eleaston.com/pr/ (see References) and click on "Alphabet" at the top of the page. On the following page, click on every letter of the English alphabet. Listen to each sound and repeat it out loud. Do this until you can mimic the sound of each letter effortlessly without hesitation.
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Spend extra time on vowels. Go to the website pronuncian.com/podcast.aspx and click on the podcast "Introduction to other vowels." Listen and repeat the vowels as you hear them. Don't worry about their phonetic symbols. Continue in this manner with the other podcast "introduction to short vowels."
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Visit the website rachelsenglish.com. This is a website developed by an ESL teacher that has a very good section of American English pronunciation exercises based simply on the concept of imitation. The videos are dynamic as they are often clips taken from American television shows. Click on "Exercises" at the top of the website. Click on "Imitation exercises."
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Click on each video on the "Imitation exercises" page. Follow the directions exactly: don't worry about the meaning of the words just try to imitate the pitch, stress and sound as best as you can.
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Watch two to three hours of American television each day. Listen and repeat phrases as the characters are speaking. Don't worry if you don't understand the meaning of the words that you're saying. The more you practice this, the more you'll understand.
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Talk to native American English speakers. Try to repeat the things they say the exact way they say it. For example, in English, the words "I'm going to go to the store" sound like just a few words compressed into: "Im gunnago tothe stor." Ask them to correct your pronunciation, even if they understand you.
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References
- Photo Credit computer image by Orlando Florin Rosu from Fotolia.com
