English pronunciation lesson - Use international phonetic alphabet (Part 1)

www.londonschoo... Having a hard time with English pronunciation? Want to get rid of your accent? This lesson will give you tips on how to pronounce English words correctly - by using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In the IPA each symbol is associated with a particular English sound. Download examples of IPA sounds in everyday English words here: www.londonschoo.... Practice your pronunciation by pronouncing these words.
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, my name is Salvatore Sorce. I am one of the Voice trainers here at the London School of English.
Today I would like to talk to you about English pronunciation, specifically for people whom English is not a first language. Three thing I am going to cover today the use of the:
- IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet and why.
- Differentiating between different vowel sounds
- And also clarifying the use of consonants
How we use them, why we use them, what different types there are.
Let us just have a quick look at our first topic which is the use of the IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet. The International Alphabet is a system of symbols which are used to identify a symbol to a sound. I will give you an example; I am going to write this word on the board: English, very simple. However, for the foreign speaker coming to the UK and seeing this for the first time, they may look at it and speak it as they see it.
Which would be English, English. Now what is beautiful about the IPA or the International Phonetic Alphabet, is that it offers you a very simple, methodical understanding of this symbol means this sound. So if I need to transcribe this into the IPA it would look like something like this: …
Looks nothing like the word, does it? But surprisingly it gives us all the sounds we need: E N G L I SH, English.
So, that is why we use it, I know it can freak some people out, and that is absolutely ok. You do not have to learn a new language of symbols but once you understand that this symbols means this sound, it actually liberates you to say ok, in this word, in this context this symbol makes sense to me. So I would use “E” instead of E for a clearer pronunciation.
The next section I am going to look at the differentiation of vowel sounds and then we will have a look at clarifying of consonants.
So I will be right back in a second.