Sunday, December 4, 2011

Understanding Pronunciation

In English every child learns the saying, "Practice makes perfect." We hear it during piano lessons and baseball practice. There's a problem, though: it's not true!

Years ago I heard the founder of Franklin-Covey say it differently. "Practice makes permanent," he said. If you practice something incorrectly enough times, it will become a bad habit. (This is why I quit playing golf.)

Many Koreans have this problem. They have used Konglish pronunciation thousands of times. They have permanently bad pronunciation.

The solution is to stop repeating and start thinking. To improve your pronunciation, you have to understand what your mouth is doing. It is a little weird at first, but it will actually help you fix your pronunciation.

Do NOT memorize this material. Explore what your tongue, teeth, lips, and your voice do when you speak. You'll gain understanding. It will enable you to solve your own pronunciation problems. The best English speakers don't memorize--they think.

(This lesson will only cover consonants. You can find more pronunciation posts here.)

Exercise

You make consonants by blocking your air, using:

  • your teeth
  • your tongue
  • your lips
  • a combination of the above

Your job is to figure out which. You also need to figure out whether the consonant uses voice, uses no voice, or is nasal.

Hint: Start with consonants formed by your lips.

Good luck! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

Use the consonants here:


to fill in the blanks here:


No comments:

Post a Comment