Skills in English for the non-native professional
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  • Skills in English for the non-native speaker
    • Native Proficiency: La filosofía.
    • Native Proficiency: La metodología.
    • PLANNING YOUR LEARNING: WELCOME TO COACHING FOR ENGLISH
      • TRAINING FORMATS
      • Modalidades de formación
    • THREE LAYERS: UNDERSTANDING THE NATIVEPROFICIENCY APPROACH
      • LANGUAGE SKILLS
      • COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS
      • PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
  • Contacto – Acerca de esta web / Contact – About this website

Skills in English for the non-native professional

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Speaking Skills

CoachingEn EspañolFAQLanguage SkillsLearning TipsListening SkillsPronunciationSpeaking Skills

Cosas que ocurren cuando hablas.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Esta web y su blog están dedicados a aprender inglés. Este post va de cosas que tienen que ver con hablar… cualquier idioma. ¿Qué pasa cuando hablas? ¡Empezamos!

Cuando hablas, llevas a cabo acciones – o al menos las desencadenas.

Cuando hablamos, estamos llevando a cabo actos, porque no hablamos si no hay una razón para ello, aunque solo sea interrumpir el silencio: hablar por hablar. Siempre hay una motivación, y hablar es parte de ciertas acciones, como por ejemplo convencer a alguien. O que alguien haga algo por ti como traerte la comida del restaurante chino porque llueve y te da pereza cocinar.

Cuando hablas controlas y manipulas el flujo de aire.

Para hablar y pronunciar sonidos, el mecanismo más frecuente es controlar y manipular el flujo de aire cuando sale. Es lo más típico en la mayoría de los idiomas y en la producción de la mayoría de los sonidos en casi todos los idiomas. Sin embargo hay sonidos en algunos idiomas que se pronuncian al coger el aire con la boca. Otra posibilidad es la de retener el flujo de aire en la boca, manipulando la presión del aire y soltando ese aire de golpe. En este video lo explican muy bien:

Aunque no hayas entendido todo lo que este experto y habilidoso de la pronunciación explica, lo básico es que hay lenguas en el mundo que usan alternativas al aburrido sistema de echar el aire hacia fuera. Que somos unos sosos, vamos.

Cuando hablas utilizas una gran parte de tu cráneo.

Si entras en una cueva y gritas, probablemente te vuelva un eco de tu voz. Tu cráneo, más allá de alojar órganos sin demasiada importancia como el cerebro, tiene una serie de cavidades en su interior. Por eso cuando vas en avión “se te taponan los oídos” y cuando tienes catarro tienes una sensación de tener parte de tu cabeza llena de ¿algodón? (realmente es mucosidad…).

Al hablar usamos todas estas cavidades, el aire avanza por ellas salvo que algo se lo impida (los ya mencionados moquetes). No solamente usamos las fosas nasales y la boca, sino que usamos los senos, que son unas cavidades que tenemos en la cara y que nos sirven como cámaras de resonancia al hablar.

Cuando tienes catarro no hablas por la nariz, sino todo lo contrario.

¿Cómo vas  a hablar por la nariz si la tienes llena de “mocos”? De hecho cuando hablamos y tenemos congestión nasal (o peor aún, sinusitis) no podemos usar esas cavidades para emitir sonidos. Por lo tanto lo que nos suena “nasal”, es en el mejor de los casos, un sonido nasal muy forzado (si nos queda algo de apertura nasal sin bloquear) o directamente denasalizado. Es decir, lo que notamos no es que usemos la nariz, sino que hablamos sin usarla.

Cuando hablas tus pliegues vocales vibran a velocidades alucinantes.

Los pliegues vocales, los  mal denominados “cuerdas vocales” son las puertas que abren y cierran, regulando el flujo de aire entre los pulmones y el exterior. son una válvula estupenda que no solamente nos permite regular la respiración, sino que en algun momento de nuestra evolución nos ha permitido crear el lenguaje. La glotis es el espacio entre ellos si están abiertos: si están cerrados la glotis no existe.

Lo más alucinante es el papel que tienen en el lenguaje. Los pliegues vocales regulan y doman el chorro de aire que sale de los pulmones, que tiene la misma sutileza que un matasuegras, y lo modula en vibraciones regulares creando una señal acústica que luego modulamos en la boca. Esas vibraciones rara vez bajan de los 85-100 ciclos por segundo en una persona adulta. Las mujeres por lo general suelen tener una frecuencia más alta y los niños y niñas hasta la pubertad tienen una frecuencia mucho más alta (ahora entiendes por qué los gritos de los niños en el restaurante el domingo te molestaban tanto…).  Las frecuencias a las que se mueven los pliegues vocales vienen  determinadas por la fisiología, pero dentro de lo fisiológicamente posible, cada comunidad lingüística tiene unas preferencias que se aprenden copiando a la gente que te rodea. Es uno de los factores  por los que hay gente que nos suena rara, porque no encajan en esas preferencias.

Cuando modulamos de forma voluntaria el flujo de aire y esas vibraciones de los pliegues con motivaciones artísticas, eso se llama cantar.

 Cuando hablas, te oyes a ti mismo por los oídos y dentro de tu cabeza a la vez. 

He hablado más arriba de los senos que rodean la cavidad nasal y que nos sirven de cavidades de resonancia. El sonido es una vibración con lo cual todo lo que entra en contacto con esa vibración se contagia de alguna manera de ella. Además a través de las Trompas de Eustaquio, nuestra cavidad oral está conectada con los oídos. La vibración de nuestra voz, por lo tanto nos llega desde dentro de la cabeza y desde fuera a la vez.

Por eso cuando nos grabamos y nos oímos después nos suena raro (hasta que te acostumbras): porque solo lo estamos oyendo desde fuera. Y por eso para practicar un idioma está muy bien grabarse a si mismo y escucharse. 

Espero que os haya resultado interesante. Creo que saber estas cosas te da una perspectiva diferente de la voz humana y de lo que es hablar un idioma.

Como siempre, si tenéis dudas, preguntas, quejas. sugerencias… escribid:

info.nativeproficiency@gmail.com

 

Cosas que ocurren cuando hablas. was last modified: November 5th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
5th November 2018 0 comment
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Communication Across CulturesCommunication SkillsPronunciationSpeaking Skills

Would you like to be taken seriously?

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Being taken seriously is a serious issue. It is mostly about respect and treating people equally. But sometimes we don’t treat people seriously for a number of reasons, objective and subjective. Maybe we do not want to be taken seriously. But what if we do and we fail? Seriousness is in the eye of the beholder. The way you look, the clothes you wear, your haircut.

How you sound? Yes, being taken seriously is also a matter of how you sound. More so in English than let’s say in Spanish. How you sound is a very wide concept, so let’s have a look (I will try and make it quick) at the factors that make you sound serious.

If you mean business, act the part. Sound the part.

It goes without saying that what you say is important. But the way you sound is part of your sales pitch.

First of all: the individual sounds.  Pronouncing clearly and correctly the individual sounds is important to a great extent, because it is the base of what makes us understandable.

Let’s say you arrived to your hotel room and found the bed sheets have not been changed since the last guest’s departure. You call reception and you politely ask “could you please change the bed shits?” Chances are you will hear a stiffled chuckle and sooner or later someone will come to your room and change your sheets. However you may become “the guest who asked to have the shits changed”. Quite likely they understood you perfectly because of the context, but still, what they heard was shit, and not sheet.

Lesson #1: individual sounds can be the difference between two words. If you make mistakes with that in a professional context you may give off an aura of amateurship. This happens to native speakers too, because being a native speaker is no guarantee either.

Let’s continue: We do not spell words sound by sound, and we don’t say words in total isolation. Our brains do the work of cutting up the pieces when we hear them, because we recognize when and where to cut. However you need to train your brain – not your ear as people would expect – to make these fine distinctions. This is called “connected speech“. Chopping everything in discrete pieces as you speak is tiring and confusing on the listener, specially if they are native speakers and they are expecting you to connect the sounds and the words.

Lesson#2: sounds and words do not happen in isolation and when we speak we connect them constantly rather than finish one and start the next. It is important to learn to do this confidently because your listeners’ brains are expecting you to do it. Otherwise you are puzzling and annoying them one word at a time.

Finally (for now), we need to discuss intonation. Intonation patterns, the “ups” and “downs” in every sentence are not a whim or a choice for the speaker. They have meanings like the difference between questions and statements, or the difference between being “neutral” or expressing sarcasm. Your audience will probably be more understanding of mistakes with this if they know you are a non-native speaker. Or they may be thinking “he’s been here for five years and still speaks like this?”. Or you might be sounding offensive without noticing.

Lesson #3: intonation is like the icing on the cake. But a rather important icing. There may be more pressing matters, such as the two above. However, mastering it will still make a huge difference in how effective or confusing your communication efforts are. In reverse, pay attention to people’s intonation when they speak to you: they might be saying more than words alone can express.

Did you find it interesting? Do yo think you could use some help with any of this stuff?

Info.nativeprofiency@gmail.com

Would you like to be taken seriously? was last modified: November 6th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
2nd October 2018 0 comment
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CoachingFAQLanguage SkillsPronunciationSpeaking Skills

Why do I sound “foreign” when I speak other languages?

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Sounding foreign when you speak a language is something that will automatically set you apart. It may not carry negative consequences for you, but still you will sound “not us”. If this worries you, the first thing to do is identify the reasons why you are spotted as a foreigner, as a non-native speaker. Also it is good to realize – as we will see below – that there are degrees and sounding foreign does not always entail serious problems. Sometimes it is even desirable!

Other times, however, not being a local is the worst thing that could happen to you.

But how do they know I am a non-native speaker?

There are many reasons why you might sound foreign when you speak English or any other language. They all have in common one thing: these are areas in which both languages diverge. It is not a matter of how big the difference is, but how relevant. If a tiny difference is relevant for communication in one language and you fail to discriminate correctly, then you will easily be detected as a foreigner.

Next I will go over a number of aspects which are common reasons for Spanish speakers to sound foreign when speaking English:

  • Vocabulary choices: One of the telling signs that you are talking to a spaniard is the choice of vocabulary. English has a lot of “duplicate terms” which are used as formal or informal alternatives, technical or layman vocabulary, and so on.  Very often, most of the tecnical, formal terms are of latin or greek origin and they overlap with the meaning in Spanish to different degrees (from false friend to full coincidence). What do you think happens? Right. Spaniards tend to use the latin and greek terms which makes them sound bookish and unnatural in colloquial situations. You can’t blame them. Solution: pay close attention to how native speakers refer to things and adopt their vocabulary, as silly as it might sound sometimes. In case of doubt, if you have two synonyms and one sounds or is clearly latin or greek or you would use it in Spanish: choose the other one.
  • The vowel system: just do the math: if you try to speak a language with twelve vowel sounds, while still pronouncing the five vowel sounds from Spanish, you are bound to get in trouble. Those twelve sounds are there because they are used. Any of those twelve sounds can be the difference between two words. Why do they have to use twelve when you can use five? Why do you have to use five when you could use twelve? Who cares? It does not matter. Solution: train your ear and your mouth to discriminate each of those sounds. This is key for both speaking and listening. If you do not make those distinctions, you might mix-up words, which is potentially embarrasing.
  • Voiced consonants: At phonemic level (individual sounds), the other great challenge for Spanish speakers is the presence of minimal pairs of consonants (voiceless – voiced) where in Spanish only the voiceless exists. (note: a voiced sound is a sound that involves vibration of the vocal folds, for example /d/. A sound that does not involve vibration of the vocal folds is a voiceless sound. ) Again, these sounds often determine the difference between two words which are otherwise identical.  Solution: the same as with the vowel system. You need to learn to identify them and pronounce them correctly.
  • Connected speech: English is a language of fewer stops and frequent speed changes. Like in French, so-called liaison (the connection of two or more words when they are pronounced together) is frequent. Solution: groups of words that appear frequently in the same sequence will suffer this phenomenon.
  • Speed changes: The rule is simple. If the listener is expected to predict the following word or words, then the speaker will accelerate. In contrast, if the listener is going to find it difficult to process the information, e.g. new data then speed is reduced and pronunciation is also more careful and emphatic. Solution: this is directly related to connected speech. If you have predictable strings of words, you can safely speed up without worrying that people will not follow you. However if you are going to say something unpredictable or you just want to make emphasis, then you will slow down to make sure you get your message across.
  • Intonation patterns: We tend to think that intonation is a given, and also that we can change it for emphasis any way we want. The conventions of the language you are speaking say the opposite: questions and statements are told appart because of the intonation pattern. Solution: listen to the melody when people speak. How things rise and fall as they speak.

Even if you are a native speaker, you need to practice, practice, practice.

  • Modal voice range: There are things we notice straight away and yet we still do not quite know what they are. One of those is the frequency of people’s voices. Everybody has their own modal frequency, which is the usual rate at which their vocal folds vibrate. At individual level, this is one of the factors used in voice recognition. At group level, it is one of the factors why we know where someone comes from. Every language community has their own modal range, which is usually different enough from neighbouring communities, so you know if an outsider is among you. That’s one of the factors that make you sound “off target” even if you have mastered other factors. Solution: Do you enjoy playing with your voice, imitating other people,  specially different fictional characters, or even friends and members of your family? Then you have the vocal flexibility to actively manipulate and modify your vocal range and adapt. If your self-awareness prevents you from doing those silly things… you will never get anywhere. (Note: in case you were wondering… the vocal folds (often misnamed as vocal chords) are two membranes located in your larynx that regulate the outflow of air into the mouth. They have the ability to vibrate at high frequencies, and they produce a sound pulse which is modulated in the mouth and nose cavities to produce speech.) 
  • Degree of glottal closure (in women): All right, this is getting very nerdy.  We are talking now about a space called the glotis. The glotis is the space between the vocal folds (see above), when they are not closed against each other. When we are speaking and the vocal folds are vibrating, the flow of air escapes according to the rhythm of those vibrations, so the folds open and close very quickly. For efficiency, it is very important that folds only let air escape when they have to, and otherwise no air escapes. However, in some places (e.g. the UK) it is frequent to find that many women’s vocal folds never close completely but stay partially open all the time so the flow of air is not interrupted but just drastically reduced.  This results in that kind of female voice that sounds extra delicate and elegant, soft and effortless. If a female speaker comes from a language community where this does not happen, then she will sound different from native speakers. Solution: this is not a pathology, but objectively a full closure of the vocal folds is desirable, from an efficiency point of view. If you still would like to speak like that, you would need a speech coach.

Here is a video that shows what I am talking about. You will see the two vocal folds (those white membranes at the center) as they vibrate. they open and close. In this case they do not close completely, which explains why the voice sounds sort of “weak” or “airy” (not technical terms!) In most people, male and female, the gap between the folds closes completely before it opens again.  As I said, this opening is not a pathology in itself, but some pathologies have it as a consequence. Note: this video is what is called a stroboscopy, which creates the same effect as stroboscopic lights at your local disco: it makes movement seem slower. This woman’s vocal folds are probably moving at a rate of about 150 times per minute, which is too fast for the human eye.

And this is the kind of voice you would hear: yes, that kind of gap was what gave Marilyn’s voice that dreamy, delicate touch.

 

Why do I sound “foreign” when I speak other languages? was last modified: October 15th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
15th October 2018 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning TipsListening SkillsSpeaking SkillsUncategorisedVocabulary

Sing along to improve your English.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Do you like listening to music? Do you like going to concerts? Do you like singing in the shower? All these things can help you improve your English skills, specially listening and speaking.

Listening is the most obvious since that is what you are doing: listening to the music. But if you have no idea what the song is about, you will never improve. Songs are usually short and repetitive, so they are ideal language bites that you can handle better than a film or a TV show. By singing along, you let yourself experiment at the same time as you have fun. It is a great way to practice your speaking and feel safe. And eventually try your skills at karaoke night.

As I have mentioned in other post about listening, there are many things that can go wrong when you listen to something, which can be summarized into “whatever is new and or unexpected“. It could be a new or unexpected grammar item, complex, unfamiliar vocabulary or an accent you have not been exposed to.  Many of these things could happen to you occasionally in your own language – it happened to me on a trip to Seville years ago. In any case, none of those problems are related with your ability to discriminate words or even sounds. They just make it harder. If it is new, you can not possibly understand it.

Songs, specially pop music are a controlled territory, a sandbox where you can play. In the old times we swapped photocopies of the lyrics. However, now there are lots of online resources. But beware, more often than I would like, those lyrics have been uploaded by fans and their listening skills can not be trusted. Even if they are native speakers. Why?

Because they have their own problems with grammar, vocabulary and spelling, and unless they take the trouble to check things… and you know, nobody likes to admit that they have to improve their spelling or their grammar in their own language! That’s why grammarly and similar services thrive.

So provided you got the lyrics right, you kill several birds with the same stone:

  1. you learn some new vocabulary and expressions but without being overwhelmed.
  2. you are going to listen to the songs you like many times… repetition is good practice.
  3. you may probably learn new cultural aspects.

Other useful resources you may need to use are genius and urban dictionary. These two are very useful: genius is a database of song lyrics. Those with a green tick sign have been verified. The others… up to you! Urban dictionary, like genius, is a collaborative platform in this case people upload definitions and explanations, as well as examples of slang terms and expressions (which may well be what you were not understanding in the lyrics). Careful with the definitions, sometimes they are not very scientific.

A warning: these days in commercial hip-hop music and other types, they include commercial brand names (drinks, clothing, fast cars…) in the lyrics (and you can see them in the music videos). That is product placement, just like the breakfast room in “Médico de familia” where all possible brands were visible, even on the calendar on the wall.

 

 

 

Sing along to improve your English. was last modified: September 18th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
25th September 2018 0 comment
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Listening SkillsMusic Video reviewSong reviewSpeaking SkillsVocabulary

Lyric video: “Happy” by Pharrel Williams

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

When I originally wrote this post, this song was everywhere and it had made it to the Oscar awards nominations! for best song. This is Pharrell Wiliams’ “Happy” for the film “Despicable me 2”. I found it interesting as an excuse to talk about several things:

1) The love of double meanings by English speakers, in this case songwriters.
2) The importance of stopping (or rather, slowing down) at the right places and how it changes meaning.
3) Using “like”, that slippery dangerous word.
4) And other stuff, but that will be after you watch the video.

Honestly, I did not look at the song credits, so I don’t know if Mr. Williams himself or other people wrote this song, but it is very clever. It is constantly playing with the word like, or more specifically with the expression “feel like” in contrast with feel… like “x”.

The first expression as in:

“I feel like going to the cinema today.”

Here “feel like” means “I would enjoy/love doing that.”

The second expression as in:

“I feel like a rat in a trap.”

Here “feel like something” is a comparison. You are not that something but you feel in a similar or equivalent way.

So sentences in the song can be understood as either about what someone wishes for, or the description of their feelings.

“… if you feel like a room without a a roof.” (so either you are wishing you had one or your feelings can be compared to a room without a roof).

Moving on to my second point, we can look at this:

“… if you feel like happiness is the truth.” which can be read as:

[if you feel like happiness][is the truth] (meaning: the truth is you feel like happiness, you would like to feel happy, that’s what you want.)

Or:

[if you feel] [like happiness is the truth] (meaning: your feeling is equivalent or similar to thinking that happiness is the (only, most important) truth.

The most important thing about these lyrics is how all meanings are perfectly combined in a way that the message is absolutely positive and optimistic, every and any way you look at it.

Ok, so here’s the video, finally. An after that, there’s more to comment!

 

What I’m ’bout to say. Recently I was explaining my students how in words like about, the initial sound is the neutral vowel known as “schwa”. Thanks Pharrell for helping me by showing how weak that vowel can be, to the point of disappearing in some varieties of colloquial English.
Sunshine she’s here. He’s playing with us again. Sunshine is a word used in the same way as dear, honey or other endearing terms. So it could be Sunshine! she’s here! or a double-subject, nonstandard way of saying “She’s here and she is like sunshine for me.”
Like I don’t care. colloquial way of saying “as if I don’t care”.
Clap along. A phrasal verb. What does it mean? If you are familiar with go along, that means to go in parallell with something, as opposed to following someone. So the meaning here is to go along someone or something, and at the same time, clapping your hands. So walk and clap! (Which I think he does at some point in the original music video). Also, when you are doing a music performance, like a concert, if the public claps following the music, they are clapping along!
Give me all you got, don’t hold it back. Make an effort, use all your strength. Show me all those bad news, I am not afraid! (Because I am happy…). Don’t hold it back, don’t keep any bad news for yourself.
Can’t nothing bring me down: he is a rap singer! Using inversion for emphasis! (=Nothing can’t bring me down).
I hope you enjoy this post. Feel free to leave your comments below or contact me here.
Lyric video: “Happy” by Pharrel Williams was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
4th March 2014 0 comment
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App ReviewLanguage SkillsSpeaking Skills

Pronunciation basics

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

If you would like some theory first, start here… if you would like some advice, start at “rule #1”. IF you just want to get to the practical things, start below rule #4 (a pity, because I think my advice is quite good hehehe).

A long time ago, when students asked me about pronunciation I would go automatically on a rant about many things, that boggled their minds and probably discouraged them from trying to do anything about it. I hope I have changed. In today’s post I will try to offer a foothold for those who feel lost and don’t know where to start.

Think of languages as flats in a building: they all have the same function: languages are self-contained communication ecosystems. This is one flat, this is another. The owners of the flats can modify and adapt the internal distribution in the way they think is best. That is why languages are sometimes similar and sometimes they are different.
To follow the same metaphor, imagine your flat, the layout, the rooms, the furniture… and now think that as you visit your neighbour’s flat, you find out that he’s got a different number of rooms, or he built an extra bathroom, has a shower instead of a bathtub. Still, it is a flat and the family live there.
Languages are diverse and their pronunciation too. Therefore, it is very important to learn to manage that difference.
Rule #1 Different is good. It is refreshing, it can be funny. All right, it can also be frustrating and confusing. Be a good tourist, enjoy the view.
Rule #2 Awareness of its importance. Pronunciation is not only needed for speaking better but it will improve your listening skills. The bigger the difference between what you expect to hear and what you actually hear, the worse your listening skills will be. If you know what you can expect to hear, then you will recognize the word.
Rule #3 Make an investment. Investing your time and effort (and perhaps some of your money) in learning pronunciation for a language (English here) will get you good returns. All languages have things in common and you can recycle what you learn. Once you learn to go from your native system to a new one, you can reproduce that movement to other languages. Once you learnt to adjust the movements in your mouth for new sounds, you are not just learning those sounds, but how to try new experiences, like an exotic ice-cream flavour.
Rule #4 Know your strengths and weaknesses. Identify your challenges. With the help of a good teacher, a good book and/or good online resources you can find out what your standing point is by learning the basics about pronouncing your native tongue.
You will be very surprised to realize the complex adjustments you make constantly in your mouth. The bonus of learning to pronounce new sounds is that they are very likely to appear in other languages that you may want to learn. The more vowels you can pronounce, your ability to assimilate new ones will improve. It’s cumulative learning.
OK, you feel you are past the motivational speech stage and you want to get down to work. You should start by gathering your tools. My recommendation is to start here:

 

This is an excellent app by the British Council that consists of an interactive chart of the phonemic symbols that represent the sounds pronounced in English. You can click as many times as you want on each symbol to hear the sound it represents.

Why do you want to do this? Because if you go to your dictionary (paper or online) you can find these symbols after the word you are looking up. That means you can figure out how a word is pronounced, without actually hearing it. At least its standard pronunciation.

 

But there is more. If you click your mouse on the little blue tabs on the top right corner of each symbol, you will find examples of each sound in context.

This is a good tool to get you started. My advice here: build on those examples and make your own list of words that include each of the sounds that you find problematic.

This is very similar to what Macmillan, the book publishers, have on their website:

http://www.macmillaneducationapps.com/

However the Macmillan app is more complete, as you will be able to see. First of all, there are two version: a limited version for free (the one I am using for this demonstration) and the full version.

 

 

 

Once you start the app you will find a menu with several options. We wil go through the first three of them. The “more option” is only interesting because it includes the instructions!

 

 

The chart os the part which reminds us of the British council app. You have the buttons, you can hear the sounds if you tap on the symbols. If you tap and hold you can hear one example.

 

 

Let’s go now to the practice section. This section is limited in the free version of the app. You can judge for yourself once you download it. The full version is worth the money though. Here you have three options: read, write and listen. In the read section you will be given a phonetic transcription (oh those funny symbols!) and you have to figure out which word it is. In the write section, you are given a word and you have to write it with phonetic symbols. Finally in the listen section, you will hear a word and you will have to write it! Here you have some screenshots for you to get an idea.

 

 

Good I did it!

 

 

Will I get this one right? Let’s check!

 

 

Oh this one was pretty easy!

 

 

The listening part is probably the most difficult… and sometimes you get surprised. Listen well! There is actually no “b” in “lamb”!

 

 

Well, I hope you can all benefit from these tools. I believe they will empower you, whatever your level, to improve your listening and speaking skills. And provided you have a tablet or smartphone, you can use in anywhere (yes, even there). Enjoy!

Pronunciation basics was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
13th March 2014 0 comment
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