How Can I Improve My English Pronunciation| Part 1| VOA english

How Can I Improve My English
Pronunciation? (Part 1)

Many people want to sound more like native English speakers. So
they send questions about pronunciation to us here at VOA Learning English. We
often get asked:

Question:

“How
can I improve my English pronunciation?”

Answer:

Today
we will look at two simple things you can do to improve your pronunciation.

Speak loudly enough

The
first is to speak loudly enough.

Many
people learning a foreign language worry about having an accent or
saying words differently because of their mother tongue.

Yet
there are plenty of people who have learned English as a second or even third
language. Take, for example, Hollywood actors Antonio Banderas and Jackie Chan.
The two are non-native English speakers. Banderas has a Spanish accent, while
Chan has a Chinese accent. But both men are easy to understand, partly because
they speak loudly and clearly.

When
speaking, the goal should be communicating to be easily understood, not
removing your accent, which is often hard to do.

To
read more on this subject, see our story called Keep Your Identity While
Changing Your Accent.

Listen for patterns

The
second thing you can do to improve pronunciation is to listen for patterns.

English
sentences have a rhythm. In other words, you
will find a kind of systematic arrangement, or order, to the words and expressions.
When you listen to someone speaking English, try humming along with the rhythm
of their sentences. Think of yourself making sounds like that of an insect.

Here
is an example: What are you doing in there?

The
line shows how the voice changes:

Here’s what it sounds like to hum this sentence.

It
is easy to make sounds while keeping your mouth closed.

Some
English learners like to listen to music and sing songs. These exercises will
help you to learn the rhythms of the language.

For
more exercises, see our story Improve Your Pronunciation by Training Your Ears.

Next
time, we will talk about some more things you can do to improve your
pronunciation.

And
that’s Ask
a Teacher!

I’m
Jill Robbins.

Dr.
Jill Robbins wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the
editor.

Do you have a question for the teacher? We want
to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or email us at learningenglish@voanews.com.

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VOA English| How Can I Sound American|| Làm sao để nói được giọng Mỹ

Today on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Igor in Russia. He writes,

Question: I'd like to speak with an American accent. Could you give me advice on how to improve it? Thank you so much.

Yours sincerely,

Igor, Russia

Answer:

Dear Igor,

An accent is more than simply the way one says individual words. It is also the way speakers use three things: intonation, pacing and stress. Intonation is the rise and fall in one’s voice when speaking. Pacing is how fast you are speaking. And stress is the word or words you play up, or emphasize, when you talk.

If you want to sound more like an American when you speak, there are a few sounds that experts say make up the American accent.

American sounds

The thing most people notice is that many Americans pronounce the "r" sound at the end of words, like “butter." And, in American English, the "t" in the middle of a word is often said like the letter "d."

Try making the “r” sound in these three words: better, door, poor.

Another of these sounds is the short “a” sound you hear in words like "cat." To make this sound, pull your lips back as if you are smiling, but keep your mouth open.

Try making this short "a" sound in these words: dad, map, tag.

Another sound you should watch for is the short "o," as heard in the words "bot" and "cod." Your lips do not need to be round to produce this “o” sound.

Try saying this sound in mom, got, and pop.

Practice makes perfect

The most important way to improve your accent is to keep on speaking and listening to American English. Try to hear the rhythm, or "music," of the language as you listen to Americans. The pace, or speed, should be slower than other accents. And it is not necessary to sound exactly like a native speaker. As long as you speak clearly enough to be understood, most Americans enjoy hearing a foreign accent. It makes you sound a little mysterious!

Our website has several Education Tips stories on pronunciation, as well as the new video series "How to Pronounce." To learn more, see Keep Your Identity While Changing Your Accent, our story about a program that helps students change their accents.

Your questions

What question do you have about English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.

And that's Ask a Teacher for this week.

I’m Jill Robbins.

Dr. Jill Robbins wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

accent – n. a way of saying the words of a given language

emphasize – v. to give special attention to when speaking or writing

lips – n. (pl) the two soft parts that surround the mouth

Do you have a question for the teacher? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.

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Ways to Make Studying More Powerful| VOA English| Tự học tiếng anh hiệu quả

Ways to Make Studying More Powerful

Many students ask VOA Learning English about studying. They want to know the best ways to improve their learning.

In this week’s Education Tips, we will explore four methods you can use: focusing, testing yourself, interleaving and teaching.

Focus

One of the best ways to organize your study session is to use the Pomodoro Technique. It is a powerful, but simple method that helps people focus on a task.

The idea is to use a timer. Let’s say, you set the timer for 20 minutes, and focus only on your studies during that time. You cannot check email, send text messages or do anything aside from your task.

When the timer goes off, you can reward yourself by listening to some music or having a drink of tea.

You can repeat the process as many times as needed.

If you would like to learn more details about the Pomodoro Technique, you can read a previous Education Tips story on our website, learningenglish.voanews.com

Test yourself

When you are studying, you should test yourself often. If you are using a textbook, then you can do practice questions from the end of each chapter, as we suggested in an earlier Education Tips. You can also find all kinds of online tests and quizzes for many subjects.

Flash cards are another tool. There are free flash card programs, or you could use pieces of paper. The point is that you make your questions somewhat difficult, and then practice with them regularly.

But, you should be careful about flash cards. Think carefully about making different kinds of questions. Many language learners put a vocabulary word on one side of a flash card, and the definition on the back. Every flash card suggests the same basic question: what does this word mean?

While it is useful to remember what different words mean, be sure to make other kinds of questions – why questions or how questions, for example. So, you might ask, “Why are determiners important?” or “How can I tell the difference between the progressive tense and the simple tense?”

Interleaving

When most people study, they do “blocked” practice. In other words, they only study one topic at a time.

But research suggests that a different kind of practice, interleaved practice, may be better for long-term learning.

Interleaving is a technique that means you mix different topics. So, for example, in one study session you might spend time testing yourself on vocabulary words and then test yourself on grammar. Or, if studying math, you could mix multiplication and division problems.

A 2020 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that interleaved study was much better than blocked practice. The study examined 54 7th grade math classes over a period of 4 months. Some classes did interleaved assignments while other classes did blocked assignments.

One month later, students took a surprise test. The results were powerful: “The interleaved group outscored the blocked group, 61% versus 38%,” the researchers wrote.

Teaching

Teaching is also a powerful way to learn. In a study published in Contemporary Education Psychology, researchers compared different groups of students. Some students did not expect to have to teach information, while others did.

Researchers Fiorella and Mayer wrote that when students actually teach a lesson, “they develop a deeper and more persistent understanding of the material than from solely preparing to teach.”

In the Guardian newspaper, David Robson points out ways to teach others, even if you are alone.

“If you don’t have a willing partner, you could imagine describing it to someone, or draft an email setting out what you’ve learned in as much detail as possible,” Robson wrote.

Closing thoughts

You can put all of these techniques together to make a powerful study plan.

For example, you might organize your study sessions with the Pomodoro technique. Then, you can test yourself and interleave different topics. After that, you could take a break, reward yourself and do another Pomodoro session.

There are many options. You can create your own plan based on what you need to learn. But what you will realize is that when you focus and do tasks that are at the right difficulty level, your brain will become tired. Some days, you might only be able to do one 20-minute session, for example. Other days, you might do many 20-minute sessions.

After all of that mental training, you will surely need to rest and recover. We will explore that topic in a future Education Tips story.

I’m John Russell.

John Russell wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

focus – v. to direct your attention or effort at something specific

session – n. a period of time that is used to do a particular activity

technique – n. a way of doing something by using special knowledge or skill

practice – n. the activity of doing something again and again in order to become better at it

determiner – n. grammar : a word (such as “a,” “the,” “some,” “any,” “my,” or “your”) that comes before a noun and is used to show which thing is being referred to

persistent – n. continuing beyond the usual, expected, or normal time : not stopping or going away

reward – n. something good that is given or received for doing a task or job

topic – n. a subject of discussion or thought

draft – v. to write something or make a version of something that may be changed later on

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The difference between "BUY" and "PURCHASE"| Voa english

Buy and Purchase

This week we answer a question from Julio in Peru. He writes: Question: I would like to know the difference between BUY and PURCHASE and when to use each of them. -- Julio, Lima, Peru. Answer: Dear Julio, Thanks for asking about these words. As you know, "buy" and "purchase" can be used in similar sentences. They can both be used either as a noun or a verb. One difference between them is how formal they sound. Compare the following sentences. Put "buy" or "purchase" in the space. I would like to ______ a new home. She wants to _____ a hamburger. Like most English speakers, I would say "purchase" for the home and "buy" for the hamburger. You probably wonder, why does English have two words with exactly the same meaning? History of the words We can understand this better with a little history. English developed from the languages of Germanic tribes of Northern Europe. Words from that time are what we call Anglo-Saxon. In the year 1066, William the Conqueror and his forces began to take over England. William was from Normandy, in France. For the next 300 years, everyone in English courts and in government spoke French. English was a language for everyday use. As a result, French had a great effect on the English language: about 10,000 French words were added to English. We still use many of them today. As you might suspect, English speakers use the French words for more formal situations and the Anglo-Saxon words for common ideas and things. One way you can tell the difference between the French words and the Anglo-Saxon words is their length. Anglo-Saxon words, like “buy,” are often short, while “purchase” and other French words are longer. Buy Julio asked how to use "buy" and "purchase." We usually use "buy" as a verb. For example, I will buy food for the party. It is not so common to see "buy" as a noun, but you do find it in cases like this: The police stopped a drug buy on the street. Purchase We often use the verb "purchase" for when legal documents are involved, such as in: The government purchased a new contract for 1,000 airplanes. And you should use "purchase" when you need a noun form, as in: You made a smart purchase when you bought gas before the price went up. In summary, try to use "buy" for simple actions, and "purchase" for more formal exchanges of money for goods. And now, I will ask you to do something. Please send your questions about English to us by email: learningenglish@voanews.com. And that's Ask a Teacher for this week. I’m Jill Robbins. Dr. Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story formal – adj. related to serious or official speech and writing hamburger – n. a flat, usually round piece of ground beef that is cooked and served usually in a roll or bun conqueror – n. a person who takes control of a country or city through the use of force Anglo-Saxon – n. the language of the Anglo-Saxons summary – n. a brief statement of the main points of something  Do you have a question for the teacher? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or email: learningenglish@voanews.com 

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