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Date Posted: 10:29:36 05/28/07 Mon
Author: Fabio Vione
Subject: Task Three - Fabio Vione

How to improve pronunciation

People usually think that acquiring a correct, near native pronunciation in a foreign language is impossible, thus refusing to improve this specific skill and focusing almost all of their attention on other topics. However, with the correct kind of practice and amount of effort, pronunciation can be improved a lot and such a level of competence may be achieved easier than it is commonly believed.
Firstly, students must be aware of the phonetic aspects of either languages: the one they are studying and their native one. For Brazilian students, for instance, a good introductory book would be “Fonética e Fonologia do Português”, by Thais Cristófaro. It would allow students their fist contact with important key points, such as the IPA chart and its phonetic alphabet, as well as basic concepts such as allophony, all in the language they know best.
In a second time, students must get in touch with the phonology of the foreign language, so they could understand how it is different from their native language’s and what would be important to focus on. To illustrate, if the aforementioned Brazilian students were learning English, reading “English Phonology: An introduction”, by Heinz Giegerich, would be one of the best ways for them to execute this step.
As the third and last step, practicing heavily what was learnt is mandatory. Students must hear what they are speaking and compare to how it is actually spoken by a native. A good way of doing that would be by using a speech analysis program, such as Praat. There, students can analyze various aspects which they have learnt in theory, including segmental and supra-segmental ones, utilizing as corpus their own recordings and native speaker’s.
In conclusion, improving pronunciation is not too hard as it may seem at first, and there are some steps which can be followed to make it easier. If people follow this pattern their pronunciation would be surely improved hugely.

_________________________

Sorry for the late post, Andrea.

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