Pronunciation Paul Gruber #1|JohnnyVo

Hi, I'm your instructor, Paul Gruber, and welcome to the Pronunciation Workshop's first training session. I am very excited that you have taken this first step to improve your English pronunciation, and I do hope that you enjoy this program and receive great benefits from it. Before we begin, I want to make sure that you have downloaded and printed out the training manual which accompanies this course. If you have not yet done so, please do it soon, because you'll definitely need it. Now, you may be wondering, how is it that I am going to help you change the way you speak? Well, basically, when you learned English as a second language, you kept many of the sounds and speech rules from your first language, and you are continuing to use them when you speak English. This is what gives you an accent. You are using the sounds and speech rules from your native language instead of the sounds and speech rules of English. And you know why? Well, because when you learned English, nobody ever showed you what the sounds and speech rules of English were, until now. That's where I come in, because I am going to show you and train you on how to use these sounds and speech rules correctly. Knowing and using these rules will help you reduce or possibly even eliminate your accent. Now, throughout the program, you're often going to see me point to my mouth to show you how to produce a particular sound. I want you to pay close attention and try to copy exactly what it is I'm doing. I will be showing you how to correctly form new sounds by changing the position of your tongue or changing the shape of your lips. These small changes are going to make very big changes in your speech. Regarding practicing, I recommend that you use the training manual and try to practice often. When you practice, I recommend that you start out speaking slowly, out loud in a strong voice while exaggerating all the mouth movements. What you will be doing is retraining the muscles of your mouth and your tongue to move in new ways which will produce new pronunciation patterns. These new speech patterns will slowly and eventually evolve into your own spontaneous, fast speech. But it is important that you start out going very slow. If you can pronounce words and sentences correctly speaking slowly, well then you'll have no problem saying them fast. I believe practicing is important but I do not believe it's the only key towards success. Being aware of your errors, that's the key. Being aware and also recognizing mistakes when you hear them will probably be the most important factor towards your improvement. Another thing I'd like you to keep in mind, and I'm sure you may have noticed this already, is that when most Americans speak, you will notice that we seem to open our mouths a lot and there's a great amount of mouth movement. Watch my mouth when I say something like, Wow, is it really raining on Wednesday? Did you see how much my mouth seemed to move? It wasn't with my lips flat. It wasn't, Wow, is it really raining on Wednesday? There was a lot of movement. My mouth opened wide but also my whole mouth moved forward. Now I find many foreign speakers, maybe because of their language's characteristics, they don't move their mouths much and there is very little facial movement. Because of this, to an American listener, the words often sound mumbled, making it very difficult for an American listener to understand what it is you said. One way to be better understood immediately is to become more aware of your speech and to really start opening and moving your mouth. I'd like you to try to observe what I'm talking about. When you speak to native-born Americans or watch TV or movies, notice how when Americans speak, generally our mouths really open big and our lips come forward. These movements have a lot to do with the sound of American English. I also want to add that I will often be asking you to repeat words and sentences on these videos. Try to think and act as if we're both sitting in the same room and I am directly right in front of you. Listen carefully to the words and sounds that I give you. Listen carefully to my pronunciation and watch my mouth. Then repeat the words back to me in your own voice with the techniques that I'm showing you as clearly as you can. Now at first you may feel a bit foolish talking to your computer screen, but really you shouldn't. Make believe you are speaking directly to me. You will find this to be extremely helpful and effective. During the course of this program, I will begin by addressing consonant sounds and then later on we'll work with vowel sounds. Now vowel sounds, as you know, are A, E, I, O, and U. Like A, O, E, E, I, and U. And consonant sounds are basically all the other letters and sounds. Like B, CH, S, T, G, SH, W, and of course there are many, many more sounds. The consonants that we are going to cover in this first session are the consonant R and the consonant W. Okay, are you ready? Here we go. Let's get started. Let's start with the American R. R's are everywhere. They are probably the most commonly occurring consonant sound in English. One reason for this is that R's affect vowel sounds, especially when an R falls at the end of a word or after a vowel sound, as in the word car, or the word air, or the word turn. After working with so many non-native English speakers from around the world, I believe the R sound is one of the main causes for being misunderstood in American English. Therefore, this is why I've chosen to start out with this sound. Now in some languages like Arabic and Spanish, the R is produced by bringing the tongue forward in the front of the mouth, behind the upper teeth, and rolling or trilling the tongue. Like that. Now in some other languages like German and French, the R is produced in the back of the throat. But this is not how we produce an R sound in the United States. In American English, in order to say a clear R sound, two distinct things have to happen. The first thing is that our mouth and our lips come tightly forward, as if you would be saying the OO sound. Do this with me. Say OO and make sure you're bringing your lips all the way forward. Say OO. That's it. You see how your lips are forward? That's what you want to do. This is the position your mouth should be in when you produce an American R. Like that. And I'll bet you no one ever told you that. Now, the second thing is that your tongue moves back in your mouth. It doesn't come forward, it's pulled back. This is probably the opposite of what you are doing right now. So, for example, in the word ROCK, notice how my lips are coming forward and my tongue moves back in my mouth and I push out the R sound. Watch this. ROCK. Do it with me and exaggerate the R. ROCK. Watch it with my head turned. ROCK. You see that? See how the whole bottom of my face came forward? Don't be afraid to do this. This forward mouth movement is what is going to give you an American R sound. It's not ROCK and it's not ROCK with your lips flat. Your whole mouth really has to come forward. Now, later, I recommend that you practice doing this in front of a mirror while watching your mouth. Really, push out the R and remember to pull your tongue back. Now, one way of checking if you're doing this correctly with your tongue is by actually putting your finger around an inch into your mouth while saying an R word. Watch this. ROCK. Like that. You should be able to take the tip of your finger and feel the tip of your tongue. If you do these two simple things, bringing your mouth forward and pulling your tongue back, I'm telling you, your speech is going to be clearer and you're going to sound so much better. Okay, we're going to start out with R's at the beginning of words. Here we go. Repeat after me. ROCK. RIP. REACH. ROAD. RAIN. RICH. ROAM. RAISE. ROBE. RICE. Very good. Now, repeat this sentence. The round rooster rushed into the wrong road. Very good. Now, pronouncing R's like this may feel a little weird to you, but if you notice, this is how most Americans talk. Okay, now let's do R's at the end of words or after a vowel. When a foreign speaker produces an R which is at the end of a word or follows a vowel, it's usually very weak. It's not really heard and it leaves the word open or unfinished. Like in the word CAR. Now, you may say CA, ending with an A vowel, but it's not CA, it's CAR. Your tongue has to pull back. CAR. And also your lips close a little bit in the front. The R needs to be very strong and you need to close the word. CAR. Let's practice these words. Repeat after me. CAR. FAR. STAR. DOOR. BEAR. FORE. AIR. YEAR. And that has a high vowel sound. YEAR. TURN. And POUR. Very good. Okay, now let's discuss R's in the middle of words. In the word VERY, for example, which is a frequently used word in English, the R occurs in the middle of the word. It's not a D sound. The word is not VEDY or VERY. It's VERY. Make sure that the R sound is strong and your lips are coming forward. Your tongue is back and you push out the R. VERY. Like that. Practice these sentences with me, nice and slow. He is very, very nice. Like that. See how my lips are coming all the way forward? Next one. She is very, very tall. Here are some more practice words with R in the middle. Repeat after me. DIRECTION. ARRANGE. ERASE. CORRECT. MARRY. GARAGE. ORIGINAL. HURRY. ZERO. MARINE. BURY. OPERATION. CARING. ARRIVE. EVERYONE. Okay, very good. Now, R's are often combined with other consonants and form what we call R-blends. It is important to understand that the R sound is the strongest sound of the blend. And your lips often come forward before you even say the word. An example of this is the word GRAPE. Now, notice how my mouth comes forward before I even say the word. GRAPE. Did you see that? And notice in the word GRAPE, the R sound is stronger and you even hear it more than the G sound. GRAPE. Here are some practice words with R-blends. First, at the beginning of words. Here we go. TRAINING. TRUST. TRIP. GREAT. TROPICAL. BRING. PRINT. PRESIDENT. PRODUCT. CRACKER. CRAWL. BREAK. Okay, now in the middle of words. SUBTRACT. WAITRESS. NUTRITION. AUSTRALIA. INTRODUCE. COMPRESS. OPPRESSION. BETRAY. Very good. Okay, now let's practice R-sounds in sentences. These sentences are filled with R's. Keep the R-sounds strong. Don't forget to bring your mouth forward and pull your tongue back. Say these sentences with me. Here we go. The story he read on the radio was incorrect. Her career in the law firm is permanent. Richard and Brooke took a ride in their brand new Range Rover truck. Everyone will respect the royal family when they arrive at the airport. Be sure to close the word AIR. It's not AIR-port. It's AIR. AIR-port. Like that with a strong R-sound. The trip to the Rocky Mountains will be rescheduled on Friday. Very good. Okay, now let's talk about W-sounds. W-sounds are very similar to R-sounds. The major thing to keep in mind is that in English, when you see a W, it always has a W-sound. Like in the word WHAT. Again, notice how my mouth moves forward. One way to make sure you are doing this correctly is to first say OO with your whole mouth forward. Like that. And then open and close your lips to make the W-sound. Like this. That's how you produce a W. Like that. It's never a V-sound. Where you are like biting down on your lower lip. Never. We'll be going over V-sounds in the fourth session. The reason I mention this is because many foreign speakers, especially German speakers, say, for example, VAT with a V for the word WHAT. Instead of saying, what will we do, which is correct, they may say, what will we do? And that is not right. And many people may not understand you. Bring your mouth forward on those W-words. What will we do? Say it with me. What will we do? Very good. Now, as I said, the W and the R are similar. Both of them are made with your mouth in a forward position and your tongue pulled back. Your mouth should be a little bit tighter when you say an R. Listen to the similarities and differences between these R and W words. RICK WICK RIGHT WHITE It's not VITE with a V. It's WHITE with a W. Very good. Also be aware that the W-sound occurs in some words beginning with the letter O. Like in the words ONE and ONCE. You might not be aware of this. Practice these W-words with me. We'll start out with W at the beginning of words. Don't forget to bring your mouth forward at the beginning of each word. WHY WHICH WHEN WHAT WIPE WISH WAIT WING Very good. Okay, now with W in the middle of words. ALWAYS AWAY BEWARE AWAKE SOMEONE REWIND HALLOWEEN HOLLYWOOD Now practice these W sentences. THE WIND FROM THE WEST WAS VERY WET. Remember, VERY starts with a V-sound followed by a strong R. WAS VERY WET. Very good. WE WOKE UP AND WASHED THE WHITE WASHCLOTH. WE WAITED FOR THE WAITRESS TO GIVE US WATER. WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME IN WASHINGTON AND WISCONSIN. Very good. Now, while we are talking about W-sounds, I'd like to mention Q-sounds. How are Q-sounds related? Well, Q-sounds are made with the K-sound and the W-sound put together. You may not have known that. So, for example, the word QUICK is pronounced with a K and a strong W-sound. CO-WICK. Like that. Repeat some of these words beginning with the Q-sound. QUESTION QUIET QUEEN QUALIFY QUIT QUEBEC QUILT And also in the CH word, CHOIR. Very good. Okay, here now is a paragraph which contains many R and W-sounds. You may want to practice reading this paragraph a few times. Notice how my lips come forward on all my R's and W's. Try to do the same thing. And don't forget, do not roll your R's. Don't do that. Here we go. Ray was born in Russia. He dreamed of building the perfect roller coaster at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. He had a friend named Fred who lived in Norway. Fred's profession was designing railroad tracks and his career involved traveling all around the world. Ray thought it would be perfect if Fred designed his roller coaster ride. Fred was creative, brilliant, and worked well with railroad tracks. He would be the perfect engineer for the project. The ride took two years to construct and was painted red and white. Everyone really wanted to ride the brand new roller coaster. Very good. Now if you strongly push out those R's and W's, when you practice, eventually your R and W sounds are going to be clear and your speech will be much easier to understand. If you have the time, watch this session again and practice your pronunciation along with me. Then take out your training manual and practice on your own. All the word lists and reading passages that are on these videos are in the manual as well. I hope you enjoyed our first session together. Feel free to watch this session again. I'm Paul Gruber with the Pronunciation Workshop and I'll see you next time.