Please give my some advice about pronunciation...

English as a Second Language Listening, speaking, pronunciation and accent
1

Sirs,

English is my second language, I’m a Vietnamese.
I have so many trouble with my current pronunciation. Is there any idea to help me to have to correct pronunciation? My sound is very bad. I didn’t pay much attention for it.

Please advice me if you can…
Thanks, Hieu.

2

As a Vietnamese, two of you your biggest problems are going to be with distinguishing [s] and [t] at the ends of words, and [l] after different types of vowels. You probably pronounce [l] as [w] after [i], [e] and [?], and you might pronounce it as [n] after [u], [o] and [a]. You need to pronounce it as a real [l] in all positions.

Another thing to work on is the clusters of consonants. You might say [t] instead of [st], where that combination appears in a word. That’s another problem to work on. In fact, a Vietnamese student of mine lost points on a test last week, because he wrote “trapped” instead of “strapped”. He left out the S because of his accent. So those clusters are important to master.

3

Hi Hieu,

In addition to what Jamie has just said I’d like to point out that in order to improve your pronunciation you must sharpen your listening skills. Can you distinguish between the different consonants, vowels and diphthongs?[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: Sales clerk advises customer in jewelry store.[YSaerTTEW443543]

4

Thank you very much for your advices, Jamie & Torsten.
I will try to follow your hints to improve my pronunciation.

I’m not sure i could distinguish among consonants, vowels and diphthongs. Maybe i need to spend more time to improve everything!
Again, thank you for your advices.

5

Sounds good, Hieu. Please also note that the noun is advice is uncountable.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: Employee is being briefed on how to get travel costs reimbursed.[YSaerTTEW443543]

6

Hi Torsten,

BTW, i have another question regarding to how to remember the phonetic of the know words, like: dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.htm.
If you can, please advise me too.
Thank you very much

7

Hi Hieu,

To improve on pronunciation, you need to listen to words and sentences spoken by native speakers and then repeat them many times. You need to abandon preconceived notions on how a word or sentence is supposed to sound to you…listen to how a native speaker say it then repeat it exactly, no matter how weird or “wrong” it may sound…you’ll get used to it :slight_smile: then it sounds right.

8

…and make sure you listen to native speakers of American English! It will impress Hollywood execs should you endeavor to become an actor.

hehe

9

Hi, Jamie

Your advice for Vietnamese people is very beneficial !
Could you, if possible, give the same advice for Russian speakers (cuz I’m russian ;)) I would really appreciate it

Thanks

10

Hi,
I’d like to know your opinion about my pronunciation.
Thanks.

11

But if you wish to become a super-star, then you will definitely need to have an authentic English accent. :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Kitos.

12

Subway, for us to make an opinion about your pronunciation we will obviously first have to hear your voice. Make a voice recording and post it onto the Forum so that we can give you an opinion.

Kitos.