Speak More Clearly British Accent

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Speak More Clearly is designed for both people who speak English as a second language and wish to speak English more clearly, and for native English speakers who wish to learn a different English accent. You can think of it as an accent coach to help learn a new accent for a language you already know.

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Speak More Clearly British Accent by Esther Bruhl Speech Therapist Speak More Clearly British Accent Speak English with Confidence! www.speakmoreclearly.com 1
Speak More Clearly British Accent by Esther Bruhl
Table of Contents Introduction 7 How to use Speak More Clearly 11 Notes on Rhythm and Intonation in English 19 Extra Tips for clear speech and pronunciation in English 23 Consonants 27 /p/ Consonant 28 /b/ Consonant 29 /t/ Consonant 30 /d/ Consonant 31 /k/ Consonant 32 /g/ Consonant 33 /f/ Consonant 34 /v/ Consonant 35 /th/ Consonant 36 /th/ Consonant 37 /s/ Consonant 38 /z/ Consonant 39 /sh/ Consonant 40 /zh/ Consonant 41 /ch/ Consonant 42 /j/ Consonant 43 /m/ Consonant 44 /n/ Consonant 46 /ng/ Consonant 47 /w/ Consonant 48 /h/ Consonant 49 /l/ Consonant 50 /r/ Consonant 52 /y/Consonant 54 2
British Vowels 57 /a/ Vowel 59 /o/ Vowel 60 /i/ Vowel 61 /e/ Vowel 62 /u/ Vowel 63 /ee/ Vowel 64 /er/ Vowel 66 /ar/ Vowel 67 /or/ Vowel 68 /oo/ Vowel 70 /oo/ Vowel 71 /oe/ Vowel 72 /ie/ Vowel 73 /oy/ Vowel 74 /ow/ Vowel 75 /ay/ Vowel 76 Sentences for working with Stress and meaning 79 Dialogues for working with pronunciation, stress patterns and intonation 83 Paragraphs for working with Stress and Intonation 87 Features to note when speaking English from other background Languages 91 The International Phonetic Alphabet 107 Table of Videos 109 3
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Speak More Clearly British Accent Prologue “Speak More Clearly” is designed for both people who speak English as a second language and wish to speak English more clearly, and for native English speakers who wish to learn a different English accent. You can think of it as an accent coach to help learn a new accent for a language you already know. When I created "Speak More Clearly" I wanted something that was clear and simple, and because frequent practise is the key to learning a new accent, I wanted the course to be very convenient to use. I have designed "Speak More Clearly" so that no matter where you are, at home, in the car, in the ofﬁce, on the train or bus, even if you have 5 minutes, you can practise your new accent. Because there is no complex software, or elaborate theory, you can practise while working at home, in the car, on the train, in the bus or even at your ofﬁce! Simply purchase and download the audio from www.speakmoreclearly.com and listen to it on your computer 5
Vowels or copy it to an MP3 player or a CD or tape. Then you can listen to and repeat the exercises any time you have a few spare minutes. Even if you are unable to speak out loud, simply listening and repeating the exercises in your head will help. Our accent training uses native speakers and everyday language to naturally and quickly improve your pronunciation. You simply listen to the exercise and repeat the word or phrase. Over time your natural language skills, and the expanded ability of the ear, will cause your accent in English to naturally change to be more like the native speaker in our audio training. The key to clearer speech is to practise frequently. I have included precise, detailed instruction for where to place your tongue and lips for each sound. This allows you to position your mouth for sounds you may ﬁnd difﬁcult, and practising the mouth position together with the audio input, will give you rapid progress. If you are ready to start learning a new accent, and you have not already done so, I encourage you to download the British Accent, American Accent or Australian Accent audio training course from www.speakmoreclearly.com/ and start right now! Remember this purchase is covered by our 100% money back guarantee so the only thing you have to risk is your time. With daily practise we guarantee that you to will improve your speaking skills. Best Wishes "Speaking More Clearly" Esther Bruhl 6
Speak More Clearly British Accent Introduction 1. How to obtain the best results from this program 2. Rhythm and Intonation as integral parts of speaking more clearly in English This program can be used to help develop a different accent in English- that is an English (British) or American (U.S.) accent, or for those wishing to speak English more clearly or to be understood better when speaking English. To hear the sounds, rhythm, stress, pitch, intonation and structure of a language we need to ‘attune’ our ear to the particular language. To do this we need to listen to the language over and over as we did when we were learning our ‘mother tongue’ when we were a child. When we can ‘hear’ the sound of a particular language we can then correct our speech production more easily and effectively. 7
Introduction To obtain the best results with this program we suggest that you repeatedly listen to the particular section you need, and repeat the production of the words or sentences over and over again aloud to yourself. This allows you to attune your ear, and for your articulators (mouth parts), to become used to moving in the new way and for this new way to become a speech habit. In this program each consonant and each of the major vowels are covered by: 1. An explanation/ description of how to make the sound 2. List words containing the particular sound 3. Sentences containing words with the target sound As well as this there will be some dialogues (dialogs) for practise of connected or conversational level speech. We will also touch on intonation patterns and speech rhythm. It helps to know when trying to reduce your accent in English, that most of the consonants can be paired. That is, there are pairs of consonants that are made the same way in the mouth. You make the same mouth movement. These pairs are called minimal pairs. The only difference is that one of the pair is made without switching on the voice in the throat (making sound in the throat), and one is made with voice activated. These pairs follow. The ﬁrst sound of the pair will be the whispered or unvoiced sound, and the second will be the voiced one. If you put your hand on the voice box at the front of your throat (the bit that sticks out-‘Adam’s apple’), you will feel it vibrate on production of a voiced sound, and there will be little or no vibration for the unvoiced sound. 8
Speak More Clearly British Accent /p/ and /b/ /t/ and /d/ /k/ and /g/ /f/ and /v/ /s/ and /z/ /sh/ and /zh/ (as in vision) /ch/ and /j/ While working with the program, it is extremely important to notice and include the aspects of rhythm and intonation at the same time as you practise saying the words and sentences. As these aspects are so important in conveying clarity and meaning in English, we have included the section on page 19 so that as you practise the sounds and words, you can also distinguish features of rhythm and intonation. 9
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Speak More Clearly British Accent How to use Speak More Clearly To get the most from this course you should follow these 4 steps • Step 1: Read and practise the introductory sections. • Step 2: Practise the sounds that are hard for you in English. • Step 3: Learn to pronounce the end consonants in all words. • Step 4: Learn to speak with the correct rhythm and stress. How much do I need to practise and how long will it take? To learn to speak more clearly in English, or to learn a new accent in English, you must break-up the task into easily managed chunks which you then combine. The improvement in your clarity, or accent, will compound as you go. It is important that you understand this and give your practice the required time. Each small piece you clear up has a compound effect on your clarity and the effect is greater than the small piece itself. In the following steps I will provide a guide to how much time you need to spend on each task. Whenever we ask you to practice something in this course, you should allocate at least 15 minutes of study as a minimum to for practise. 11
How to use Speak More Clearly Step 1: Read and practise the introductory sections The ﬁrst task is to carefully listen to and read the following sections: • “Introduction”. • “Notes on Rhythm and Intonation in English”. • “Extra Tips for clear speech and pronunciation in English”. • “Features to note when speaking English from other background Languages”. This is a very important ﬁrst step because these sections include speciﬁc relevant information regarding pronunciation and clarity in English. I recommend that you read one section per day over the ﬁrst week of your practise. That is, on the ﬁrst day read though the “Introduction” and listen to the audio. I recommend that you listen to all the material, as well as read it, because it is not just information. This course works by training your ear to hear the sounds of the English language. Step 2: Practise the sounds that are hard for you in English To quickly improve your clarity when speaking English, start by learning the sounds you can’t say, or can’t say well. You should make a list of these sounds and check your progress each week. If you are unsure which sounds need attention just ask a native English speaking friend or a work associate. Besides sounds such as /r/, which is different in lots of languages, and ‘th’, which doesn’t exist in a lot of other languages, most people usually need to work on vowel production as well. We recommend that you only work on 1 or 2 sounds at the same time. Don’t try to practice many new sounds at once but instead focus on mastering just 1 or 2 sounds before starting the next sound. 12
Speak More Clearly British Accent For each sound that you need to master do the following: 1. Start by saying just the sound itself. Listen to and repeat with the audio using the detailed instructions on how to form the sound. Use this to get your mouth used to moving in this new way. It is most important that you say the sounds, just reading them will not change your accent. 2. When you have mastered the sound practice saying it in a word. Listen to and repeat the single word exercises and practise saying words that have the sound at the beginning, middle and the end. Practise these two steps until you become used to your tongue and jaw going to the new position in the word and how your tongue feels in your mouth. Don’t move on until you can say the words well. If you are having difﬁculty making the sound in a word, begin by breaking the word up and then putting it back together very slowly. For example: Say ‘th’ (don’t forget to hold your tongue in that position slightly longer to control it), then make a slight pause and then say the rest of the word. ‘th-ink’. Do this for a couple of days in a row with the words in the word list and then say it faster with less of a pause. OR... Hold the ‘th’ position a bit longer than normal and slowly blend it into the vowel after. ‘th~ink’. 3. Once you have control of the new sound at a word level, next practise the sentences. Listen to the audio and say it after the speaker. At this point if you need more sentences to practise you can ﬁnd others in other sound sections in the program that contain words with the sound you need. Or you can make up your own sentences from the word lists provided. 13
How to use Speak More Clearly You can practise sentences you use a lot at work tip: or socially that have the particular sound in them. For example if you have to answer the phone in a particular way using words with the particular sound, practise the sentence a lot using your new way of saying the sound. 4. Time to practise in the outside world! If you ﬁnd this difﬁcult set yourself little practise goals, e.g., ‘I will use my new way of saying the sound every time I’: • Answer the phone. • Talk to someone in a shop. • Buy a ticket for the train. • Speak to my neighbour. • Speak to a work or study colleague. Obviously the more you practise, the quicker the new speech becomes automatic, and the sooner you can work on a new sound or something else. The aim is to be using the new sound 100% of the time when speaking English. How much do I need to practise and how long will it take? For some people to be using the new sound in speech all the time may take a week or two and for others a month. Some people may be able to work on two sounds at once. Do not be disheartened as each time you acquire a new sound you will become much clearer! For many people just learning one or two sounds will make a noticeable difference. Note: Different sounds may take less or more time to make automatic depending on your mother tongue and whether you are used to moving your mouth in this way. 14
Speak More Clearly British Accent How to acquire vowels more easily Follow steps 1 - 4 as above but note the following: 1. The audio is extremely important for the vowels and you need to listen and repeat over and over to ‘hear’ the vowel sound. What you can clearly distinguish/’hear’ you can produce more easily. 2. Most languages have some vowels that sound almost the same and so attuning your ear is important. 3. You might have to ‘put it on at ﬁrst’, that is pretend you are mimicking the speaker like when we are younger and copy what someone has said exactly the way they have said it. This may sound strange to you but it will speed-up your progress. 4. Note the length of the vowel. This is very important. 5. If it is a long vowel you could hold it on just slightly longer in the beginning to get a good sense of how it sounds and feels. By making sure you say the last consonant often the vowel will be said more correctly and not too short. Pronouncing long vowels too short has a huge effect on the clarity of your speech and how others understand you. The example that follows shows how the meaning can change easily with the vowel length. • I am buying a ship (short vowel) • I am buying a sheep (long vowel) Step 3: Learn to pronounce the end consonants in all words If you are from an Asian, Spanish, Italian or any other language background where most of the words end in a vowel, this step is very important. See the section “Languages where most of the words end in a vowel”(p. 92), otherwise skip to Step 4. 15
How to use Speak More Clearly How much do I need to practise and how long will it take? This section needs to be practised 5 minutes every day for 3-4 weeks (or more) to make it automatic. You must also practise using it in everyday situations with your goals, i.e., on the phone, in a shop, with a work colleague, with a friend or family member etc. It is very worthwhile practising this feature until it is automatic in your speech as it makes a huge difference in clarity. Step 4: Learn to speak with correct rhythm and stress Go over the notes at the beginning of the course entitled “Notes on Rhythm and Intonation in English” 1. Listen to and repeat after the speaker in the section of the program called “sentences for working with stress and meaning.” 2. Mimic, or copy, how they phrase the words together and how they stress certain words by making the vowel slightly longer, higher in pitch and slightly louder. There are examples of the same word stressed differently to give a different meaning as well. 3. Listen to the section “ﬁrst dialogue”. 4. Print it out and listen again, and as you listen highlight the key words with a pen or marker. That is, the words that are stressed or emphasized. These are the words that carry the meaning and are said with a slightly lengthened vowel, slightly higher pitch and slightly louder. For example if you say “I had a great weekend” and stress the word ‘great’ (the vowel sound in the word is lengthened etc). 5. After highlighting the key words, say the sentences after the person on the audio emphasizing and stressing the 16
Speak More Clearly British Accent same words they are ( hopefully the same words you highlighted), and begin to feel the ﬂow and rhythm or melody of English. 6. Do the same for the other dialogues and the news item at the end of the program. The elements of stress, rhythm and melody can be difﬁcult depending on your background language and your ear for languages. It is recommended you go over each dialogue and the news item quite a few times. You can also carry out the same process with the sentences provided on each page at the end of the individual sounds. The more you do this the better your ear for the melody will become. How much do I need to practise and how long will it take? If you repeat this exercise for 10-15 minutes a day for about 2-3 months, you will notice a big difference. You can use different news reports as well. A ﬁnal word on your practise While this may seem like a lot of work over a long period of time, as soon as you start to change something you will already notice a difference in the clarity of your speaking. If you practice just 15 minutes a day, and remember to use it in your everyday situations as well, you will notice a signiﬁcation improvement in a matter of two to three weeks. I know that this works because I have my private clients tell me how much their speech has improved after the ﬁrst few weeks and the ﬁrst few lessons. I encourage you to stick with your practice and to reap the beneﬁts of learning to Speak More Clearly. 17
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