A
few lessons ago we had to record ourselves in class in order to have our
pronunciation analysed. We had to read out a text we had written ourselves, a text we
haven’t seen before and we also needed to describe a picture. A couple of weeks
later we received our feedback and had to start working on improving said
flaws.
The most common mistakes that I seem to make is the wrong pronunciation of the consonants
“d” or “t”. I seem to have difficulty in distinguishing the two different ways of
pronouncing the d and t in the words e.g. “tin” and “dame”. A video on a
subpage of the BBC website helped me solve this problem by showing me
how those two sounds are actually produced. Even though both sounds are created
by touching the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front teeth, they
still sound different. The trick is, in fact that when pronouncing a t, a puff
of air is supposed to leave your mouth. You’ll see that I am right if you try out the following: hold a thin piece of paper in front of your mouth and say the words “dame”
and “tin”. If you do it correctly, the paper will sway a bit when you pronounce
the "t".
Another sound I seem to struggle with is the pronunciation of the “v” and the “f”.
The same website I mentioned above also had an interesting video on this topic.
The “f” sound like in the words “fat” or “coffee” is produced by touching your lower
lip to your top teeth and blowing air out of your mouth. When you pronounce the “v”
sound like in e.g. “move” or “very” your lips and teeth are supposed to touch
in the same way but they are supposed to create a vibrating sound.
The last sound that I would like to improve on is the "ae" sound as in “lap”, “back”
or “trap”. Only after getting my pronunciation feedback I realised that I never
ACTUALLY pronounced one of these words correctly. After listening to the
correct pronunciation and the explanation of how the vowel is produced, I had a
hard time pronouncing words like “stamp” or “trap” because the new way of
pronouncing the words felt so foreign to me.
Altogether, I realised that there are still a number of flaws in my pronunciation but I am glad that I now am aware of them. My pronunciation is nowwhere near perfect but I love a good challenge and that is why I am definitely going to try and improve in order to get as close to perfection as possible. :-)
Pronunciation is a vital aspect for our future as
translators or interpreters. Having a vast knowledge of vocabulary and
grammar is equally as important but you should still pay enough
attention to your pronunciation. A lot of people don't focus on their
pronunciation at all and that is why I think it is a very good idea to make it a
part of our upcoming progress check.
I think that my pronunciation is quite good. When required to speak
freely though, I sometimes stumble over my words or mispronounce things, simply
because I feel pressured. If I come
across a word that I am not sure about as how to pronounce it, I simply look it
up in my monolingual dictionary. This dictionary, the Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English, is really a very helpful tool for me. The CD version of
this dictionary is extraordinary because it offers both audio files for the
American and the British pronunciation and therefore helps me with distinguishing the
American pronunciation from the British. It helps me not only to improve my
pronunciation but also makes me aware of the differences in pronunciation in
different cultures.
A webpage recommended in class called shiporsheep.com. is apparently very helpful
if you’re trying to improve your pronunciation. I decided to take a look at the
website to see for myself.
So this is how the page basically works: The homepage consists of a table
filled with word pairs . The pronunciation of the illustrated word
pairs is very similar and therefore they are often mispronounced. Sometimes
the correct pronunciation depends on a sole vowel sound. On this page you can
click on the particular vowel sound of the words which then redirects you to another table
of word pairs for that particular vowel you chose.
An example would be the similar sound of the
vowels “e”and “ae” as in the words “pedal” and “paddle”. Only reading or seeing the difference doesn’t
really help with mesmerising the information though, which is why the website provides AUDIO
FILES. You can listen to them as often as you like in order to properly learn the difference between the two words. I really find these audio files helpful
because non-native speakers who might have difficulty pronouncing certain
things can easily improve with the help of this website.
I worked through about half of the words on the website and I realized that there
are (already!) three different vowel sounds I have difficulty with: the “I” and
the “e” as in tin or ten, “Ae” and “a” as in had or hard and “ae” and “a” as in am
or arm. Before finding out about this website I thought that my pronunciation was quite good. I only realised that I still need to work on my pronunciation after going through the contents of this page. I am definitely going to work through the rest of the examples on the website because I think it is the best thing I could possibly do to improve my
pronunciation. I recommend you take a look at this website as well because it will show you that there is so much more to learn about pronunciation and in the end you'll benefit greatly from it.
