VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 16:38:32 05/28/07 Mon
Author: Andrea Faria
Subject: Peer editing to Fábio Vione's essay
In reply to: Fabio Vione 's message, "Task Three - Fabio Vione" on 10:29:36 05/28/07 Mon

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 (Ww 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. (R It would allow students their (Sp 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.
(We In a second time) students must get in touch with the phonology of the foreign language, so they (Wvf 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 (R 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 (Ww 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 (Bw pattern) their pronunciation would (Wo be surely improved hugely).


Fábio,
I think you did a pretty good job. It is clearly a process analysis essay. The subject is appropriate and inviting and the ideas are coherently organized. Your thesis is also clear, persuasive and sufficiently narrowed down. Your audience seems to be undergraduate students who want to improve their pronunciation. The developmental paragraphs present the procedures to follow in order to achieve the goal (improving one’s pronunciation) and give suggestions of books and resources the students can use to help them in their pursuit. The conclusion follows smoothly and, on the whole, you make the whole process look quite simple and problem-free. Maybe, along the developmental paragraphs, you could point out some possible difficulties the students might encounter and how to deal with them, just to give a better idea of what happens, in real life, when we try to apply the theory in practice. I also suggest you improve some ideas a little, to make them a bit clearer (I’ve marked them in your text, preceded by “R”). As to some terms you used, even for an audience mainly of undergraduate students, I think it may be interesting to explain, or exemplify, what segmental and supra-segmental aspects are. Maybe, you could also add some information about Praat, such as how to get it, how to use it, etc. Finally, don’t forget to add the references to the works you cited.

I hope I’ve helped a little, but please feel free to consider only the comments you find useful or relevant.

All the best, Andrea.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.