Non native English speakers: how do you improve your pronunciation?

[nuria2012]

Hello dear parents,

After my ups and downs about speaking to my daughter in my second language (English), I have decided to teach her as better as possible. I am collecting some videos in order to improve my pronunciation. I will never have the same pronunciation but if I want my daughter learn a second language with some quality I must do it.

Perhaps, many of you have a perfect pronunciation, that is not my case, although some native speakers have said to me that it is good... I would like to try to collect some videos in order to do a daily routine about my own curriculum in order to teach my daughter who is now twelve months and a week.

Well, I have some videos downloaded from youtube and some resources that I bought last year. Now my option is collecting free resources from the web until I get my next job. I have put it before, but I expect that those non native speakers who are, perhaps, doing   the same that I am doing, share their findings.
Books
Get rid of your accent   amazon
Photo dictionary with audio cds  amazon
Kiddy English  library   A simple book
Websites
http://www.agendaweb.org/listening/advanced.html listening exercises
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/English/Listening.htm real English
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/vDMBVVKoQZ0&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/vDMBVVKoQZ0&rel=1</a> like these practical vocabulary series very much . I like the accent and it is not boring.

 I have looked for more practical vocabulary series created by the same author and I have not found them. It is a pity.


Apart from the previous resources, I have had to learn a lot of vocabulary related to babies.
It is a hard task, trying to teach a baby to speak a second language, being a non native speaker. I am very interested in keeping in contact with those non native English who have the same objectives for this year. We could help each other. I am interested in blogs such as Mario´s blogs.

[mario]

Nuria,

Thank you for your advices.

I actually don't have a focused material like you to improve the accent. What I sometimes do is to look for a certain word on Youtube watching family home-made videos. For example: pacifier.
I know people say to their babies more paci than pacifier, but I was not sure how they used to say it since I only read it. So I look for parents saying paci on youtube.

Or sometimes, when I'm watching a movie and I realize that someone said a word in a way very different than the way I do I pause, rev, and then watch and repeat it a lot of times until I think I have "mastered" the word considering my limits.

The word "world", for example, I trained a lot in a day when I was a teenager, listening the beginning of the music Bullet with Butterfly Wings (Smashing Pumpkins). It's not a easy word for a native Portuguese speaker.

LR is helping me a lot to improve my baby vocabulary, although I've doing this naturally watching a lot of videos on Netflix, cartoons, and nursery rhymes.

[nuria2012]

Hello Mario,
thank you for your answer. I have looked for Netflix on the web. It is a pity because it is not still possible in Spain. I had never heard about it before.

I also make use of cartoons and nursery rhymes at home. They are very useful in order to introduce any language and I can learn new tunes, some words and more things. I agree with you in the fact of the great advantages of working with LR. It is amazing what one can find here.

See you

[mario]

Hello nuria,

About Netflix you can check this article on my blog (It's in Portuguese and at least here in South America who speaks Spanish can understand Portuguese and vice-versa)

http://diariodospapais.com.br/como-assistir-o-netflix-em-portugal-sem-vpn/

If you can't understand Portuguese, you can use this Google Translated version:

http://translate.google.com.br/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=pt-BR&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdiariodospapais.com.br%2Fcomo-assistir-o-netflix-em-portugal-sem-vpn%2F&act=url

[nuria2012]

Thank you

[Lappy]

Hello Mario and Nuria.

There are a lot of great accent tutorials available on YouTube (most of which I'm sure you've seen already!) I myself speak and write English as my second language, although my level of English is very close to that of my native tongue (which is Tagalog/Filipino).

My husband and I have taught some accent classes before, and from experience, we found that people find it especial helpful to do vowel exercises - especially when trying to attain a "neutral" English accent. Vowels and their sounds closely dictate the accent which you speak in, so to master vowel sounds may help you get the key to unlocking a neutral English accent!

Here's a video which I found on Youtube of this young woman practicing vowels and vowel sounds:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Uc2Y7xxkp5s&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Uc2Y7xxkp5s&rel=1</a>

I hope it helps! Have fun learning!

[mario]

Great! Thank you Lappy.

[verita]

English is my second language too. I also use YouTube etc. I graduated from English philology so I have quite a start in general, but it doesn't make it easier to talk to babies (in my case anyway), unless I talk in a very adult manner, if you know what I mean...
But as an English teacher I suggest minimal pairs (can you get a book like "Sheep or ship?") There are also some excercises on the web. Like here http://www.shiporsheep.com/
besides, repeting what you consider ideal pronounciation and when pronouncing look in the mirror so that you see how you actually pronouncing words. You can find description of both manner and place of articulation of every sound, so you can then practice

[lelask]

You might laught but I did learn, or better said, corrected some pronunciation with PreschoolPrep Company dvds

[nuria2012]

Thanks for your nice answers!

Lappy Thank you for your video and your answer. Yes, I know that in youtube there are many youtube videos dealing with English pronunciation. I also believe that one of the most outstanding aspects to be worked in  English speaking lessons are the different sounds of the vowel sounds. It is one of the most frequent obstacles that any non native speaker has when studying the English language. I have a collection of them, especially those with British accent, that is fo the accent that I worked at university, and for me it is easier to understand. However, my daughter is saying youtube videos with dissimilar accents in her cartoons, youtube videos. It is better that she is able to understand all the accents. I wish it can be achieved in my case as well.

Verita,  I think that you share my difficulties to speak to babies        ! Well, at first, when I began to speak to my LO, I said `It is so difficult to speak to a baby, because I was unware of words such as cradle, cot, teat, having a tramptum, doing poo and wees… My books of university lacked of so beautiful words… Then I began to look for information on the web. When I found Brillkids I shouted for joy. I could not believe it!!! A website where the early learning was ttihe subject and where children had the opportunity to read. I was looking for flashcards to  print for my LO. Then, I found the forum. My first impression was that the advertised product , was only that an advertisement… But in the forum there were too many parents who repeated the same positive arguments over and over again. Then it is true. Babies can read… So many parents to lie all over the world!!! I did the trial and I was impressed with the course. I did it as another step in the teaching of my LO. The resources of English Deluxe and the forum began to encourage me to reflect on the great advantages of starting this beautiful language learning teaching. It is not the same teaching a group of students having a regular schedule, similar to what I had in my private lessons that trying to speak to your baby all day long about nappies, rattles, and any other concept related to babies. As many of the parents of this forum, I have had to study the word and its pronunciation. The pronunciation of a large number of unknown words had to be learnt as quickly as possible if I wanted my daughter began to listen to me in the English language, my second language. For this reason, I have my ups and downs. I thought, will it be good to teach my baby how to master a language if I am always finding out the meaning of the new words in my thick dictionaries? Whoops!!

Lelack, thank you for your nice comment. It is true. I have also had to take advantage of very basic dvds in order to learn more English language. Even in those dvds, there were some words that I mispronounced…. Hence my obsession to improve my accent.

Sorry for so boring long answer… I needed it. Sorry, if I make some mistakes. Sometimes when I write I make silly but serious grammar mistakes, my thoughts and my fingers are crossing in the computer      !

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