Hey guys! Hope you all getting on well with your exams and still have some motivation left for the final week!
I know it took me a while to write something, but what use is a blog post when I have nothing really important to say?
It took me some time to figure out what way is best for ME to practice my pronunciation. I know that I need some exam pressure to find out what kind of practice I really need, but now I have some useful tips to share with you.
1) It really helps me to learn English with my 12-year-old brother. He might not help me with the AWL words, because most of them he hasn't even heard yet, but he tends to pronounce words wrong, and I help him to pronounce them the right way. We both benefit from this exercise: I need to speak clearly and be confident about the way I pronounce the words, and my brother will improve his reading skills.
2) I am really a fan of dialogues when it comes to practicing pronunciation. You can put so many emotions into your voice, change the pitch of your voice, and play with intonation. So I started reading film scrips! I have to admit, I did not come up with this idea myself, I came across it in another blog post. But it's a brilliant idea! You just search for a movie you like on http://www.imsdb.com/, search for a good passage to read and if you want to, you can watch the movie scene afterwards to see if you got it right.
3) I noticed that I have difficulties changing into a different language (mostly English) from one sentence to the other. Or say an English word in a German sentence. I often hear myself pronouncing the word, or the beginning of the English sentence VERY German, although I usually know it better, my brain just doesn't work that fast. I know people who switch between several languages really fast without any problems, and I really envy them. In order to practice a smooth transition from one language to the other I often try to randomly switch to English in conversations, and most of the time, it works! (at first, people will look at you in confusion, but they will get used to it, I promise.)
4) Last but not least, I would like to present you two women that really helped me with my pronunciation. Both of them really know what they are doing!
https://www.youtube.com/user/rachelsenglish As I want to focus on American English, I really like listening to Rachel. I like her facial expressions when she's showing how to pronounce a vowel. She also provides pronunciation exercises and explains the differences of vowel sounds in American and British English.
https://www.youtube.com/user/amiablewalker Amy Walker focuses on American accents, it's a lot of fun listening to her!
Maybe some of my tips help you as well. They might not be the ultimate way to practice pronunciation, I know, but they helped me a lot.
Good luck for your exams!
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