Speak English like an American (American accent training )-Part
#2
#2
Welcome to American Accent Training. This book and CD set is designed to get you started on your American accent. We'll follow the book and go through the 13 lessons and all the exercises step by step. Everything is explained and a complete Answer Key may be found in the back of the text.
What Is Accent?
Accent is a combination of three main components: intonation (speech music), liaisons (word connections), and pronunciation (the spoken sounds of vowels, consonants, and combinations). As you go along, you'll notice that you're being asked to look at accent in a different way. You'll also realize that the grammar you studied before and this accent you're studying now are completely different.
Part of the difference is that grammar and vocabulary are systematic and structured— the letter of
the language. Accent, on the other hand, is free form, intuitive, and creative— more the spirit of the language. So, thinking of music, feeling, and flow, let your mouth relax into the American accent.
Can I Learn a New Accent?
Can a person actually learn a new accent? Many people feel that after a certain age, it's just not possible. Can classical musicians play jazz? If they practice, of course they can! For your American accent, it's just a matter of learning and practicing techniques this book and CD set will teach you. It is up to you to use them or not. How well you do depends mainly on how open and willing you are to sounding different from the way you have sounded all your life.
A very important thing you need to remember is that you can use your accent to say what you mean
and how you mean it. Word stress conveys meaning through tone or feeling, which can be much more important than the actual words that you use. We'll cover the expression of these feelings through intonation in the first lesson.
You may have noticed that I talk fast and often run my words together. You've probably heard enough "English-teacher English"—where ... everything ... is ... pronounced without having to listen
too carefully. That's why on the CDs we're going to talk just like the native speakers that we are, in a normal conversational tone.
Native speakers may often tell people who are learning English to "slow down" and to "speak clearly." This is meant with the best of intentions, but it is exactly the opposite of what a student
really needs to do. If you speak fairly quickly and with strong intonation, you will be understood more easily. To illustrate this point, you will hear a Vietnamese student first trying to speak slowly
and carefully and then repeating the same words quickly and with strong intonation. Studying, this exercise took her only about two minutes to practice, but the difference makes her sound as if she
had been in America for many years.
V Please listen. You will hear the same words twice. Hello, my name is Muoi. I'm taking American Accent Training.
iv
You may have to listen to this CD a couple of times to catch everything. To help you, every word on the CD is also written in the book. By seeing and hearing simultaneously, you'll learn to reconcile the differences between the appearance of English (spelling) and the sound of English (pronunciation and the other aspects of accent).
The CD leaves a rather short pause for you to repeat into. The point of this is to get you responding quickly and without spending too much time thinking about your response.
Read more :
Speak English like an American (American accent training )-Part #1
Speak English like an American (American accent training )-Part #3
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