Let's learn some helpful tips for learning American English pronunciation. [MUSIC] We've asked some English teachers to give you advice on learning American English pronunciation. So let's meet the teachers. >> Hi, my name is Jolanta, and I teach English as a second language here in Irvine. And I am also a non-native speaker. >> Hi, my name is Rachel Fernandez. I teach English as a second language at UCI. And I am from California. >> Hi, my name is Meg Parker. I'm an instructor at UCI and my native language is English. >> Today's question is can connected speech affect your listening comprehension? >> When I first time came to the United States, I went to a restaurant with a friend and the waiter was speaking so fast that I just could not understand what he was offering me from the menu. And he asked me, do you want a soup or salad. And I thought he asked me if I wanted a super salad. And I said no. I don't want a super salad, I'm not really hungry. I just want a small salad. And [LAUGH] the waiter looked at me with bewilderness in his eyes. He was shocked because I could not understand. But my friend quickly told me that Jolanta, he asked you for soup or salad. So you have to make a choice, did you want soup or did you want salad? So then I understood that, right, I have to also learn how to listen. I have to practice my listening skills to be able to hear what people say and to be able to also pronounce the way a native speaker would say, right? Because native speakers speak very, very fast. They cluster the words together. And this is the hardest probably part for us to differentiate, right, what the words are that they are saying. >> Okay, so this is something that happened in a low level speaking listening class. And we have a ten week program. This poor student came in week three after class and said, Rachel, I have a vocabulary question for you. And I said, shoot, what is it? And he said, the word is snoo. I don't know what it means, and I can't find it in my dictionary. And I said, snoo, hm, I don't think I've heard of that before. Could you spell it for me? And he spelled it out, and he said, maybe it's S-N-O-O, snoo. And I looked at it and I said, no, I'm sorry. I don't think that's a word. Where did you hear it? And he said, you! You say it every day! And I said, [LAUGH] what? And he said every morning you ask about the snoo. And I thought, man, and every morning I say, good morning, hey everybody. What's new? And so I'm saying what's new and he understood what snew? And so all the other students in class are answering me and this poor kid is thinking I don't know what the snew is! What is she asking about? But it's that linked thing we do in English where my s from the what's goes over to the new and I say what's new. What's new? What's new, what's new. >> Today's question was can connected speech affect your listening comprehension? And the answer is yes, absolutely. So maybe you're wondering, what can I do about it? How can I improve my ability to understand connected speech? Let's listen to a few ideas. >> So a lot of times my students ask me, it's so overwhelming that in English you use so much connected speech. How can I start to understand? Because it's hard for your listening comprehension if you can't start to pick up on what the connected speech is. And so, some things that I tell them to do are, number one, it's really good to listen to something and try to dictate it. So try to write it down. Especially songs. Songs have a lot of connected speech in them. Even Americans get confused sometimes about what the singer is saying. So listen to a line of a song, stop your CD player or your computer and try to write the line down. And that way you're kind of forcing your brain to try to listen and decide, what are those written words that go with the connected words you're hearing? I do that when I'm learning Spanish and it's really fun. Another thing to do just watch television, watch a movie with the captions on in English, or with a script. So you can see, he's saying wuddoya, but here on the script it says what do you. So then you training your brain to start to pick up on those common connected sounds. So that later your brain automatically knows, wuddoya, that means what do you. >> So to sum up, you can train yourself to identify common connective speech patterns by listening to and dictating or writing down what you hear. This is especially fun to do with music. Also, you can watch TV or movies with a script or with captions and follow along with the words. If you follow these tips, your brain will start associating the connected words with the written words. And you'll start to have an easier time recognizing connected speech. Finally, connected speech is difficult, but it's a fun challenge. It's a little like solving a puzzle. At first it's hard but the more you do it and the better you get, the more rewarding the experience, so good luck. [MUSIC]
