vocabulary #2

 

Hey everyone!

It's time for another round of vocabulary learning strategies! This time I am going to tell you how I intend to study for the second progress check in English. For this exam we have to study about 700 words (!!!!!!), including definition, collocations and the right pronunciation. Yes, you’ve read right.  

First of all we (a couple of other students and me) formed a group to make a glossary (which is a lot more helpful). Then we split up the words, so everyone had to work on a little more than 100 words. The columns of the glossary included the definition of the word, the German translation (which, especially I, definitely need), example sentences, word family (words which have the same roots) and collocations. 

There are a number of websites I used when working on the glossary, but the main website was vocabulary.com. It just provides you with the simplest definition and dozens of up-to-date example sentences of very reliable sources such as the New York Times. The only information you do not get at vocabulary.com is a German translation, which is, by the way, a negative aspect of this website. Besides using vocabulary.com, I often work with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. It also shows you good and easy understandable example sentences. 

For finding German translations I usually go with pons.com. It’s a website which is uncomplicated to navigate through and gives you a great German translation (not only for English). What’s more, sometimes you can even look up some unfamiliar phrases. 

As soon as we had finished the glossary (which took us a looot of time, despite being 5 people working on that), I started to work my way through this forest of words. Pretty soon I found out that this is going to be a very very very challenging exam!!! Fingers crossed I will pass it!

pronunciation post #2

Hello everybody! I am back with pronunciation blog post #2.
This time, I went a bit more into details when practicing my pronunciation. I watched a couple of videos from different youtube channels, such as videos from Amy Walker and Rachel's English (although in my opinion, Rachel's videos are a bit too theoretical and I am not sure if completely analyzing every sentence or word I am saying works for me) and I read through various websites regarding any pronunciation tips and tricks.

First of all I need to tell you that I am aiming for an AMERICAN ACCENT. Although I think the British accent sounds very cute too, I would prefer myself having an American accent.

Well, the first thing I came across on every single page I looked at was the "schwa" sound (pronounced like "uh"). It is said that this sound is the most common sound in the English language and a main characteristic of the American accent. I found a very helpful intruction on how to make the schwa sound:
"Put your hand on your diaphragm and push until a grunt escapes. Don't move your jaw, tongue or lips; just allow the sound to flow past your vocal cords. It should sound like uh, not ah."

A good word to practice this sound is: photography ("phuh-tah-gruh-fee"). Other words where the schwa sound occurs are: love, was, today (today for example was a word I totally pronounced wrong all the time - I didn't say tAday but tUday), forever, money, because, wonder, etc. (schwa sound in bold letters).

Another sound which I have to work on is the "th" sound. Although I know how to pronounce both of the th sounds, I am always a bit too sloppy and imprecise when I am speaking or reading words with the th sounds.

Well, there is the voiced th sound and the unvoiced th sound. When I was looking them up on the internet I came across this definition:
"In general, the voiced th sound occurs in far fewer words than the unvoiced th. However, the voiced th sound is more common in function words (such as articles, pronouns, and demonstratives). For example, the function words the, that, them, these, they, their (and more), are pronounced with a voiced th".

If you do not know the difference between voiced and unvoiced, just remember: if you make a voiced sound you can feel vibrations in your throat and on your lips.

To make the voiced th sound just put your tongue between your theeth and blow/press the air out. Words which contain the voiced th are: thought, thanks, math, with, therapy, mouth, etc.
To master your th pronunciation try to say these sentences:
"Think about this thing, that thing and those things".
Think and thing are pronounced with an unvoiced th sound whereas this, that and those are pronounced with a voiced th.

Or: "I will eat anything healthy with my teeth".

I realized that I find it very difficult to say "these things" in one sentence. So I will have to work on that!

More sounds that are hard to distinguish are the "ch" and the "sh" as well as the "s" and the "z".

To practice the "ch" and "sh" sounds try to say this sentence:
"Those sheep are cheap". (and hey, there is even a th sound in this sentence ;) )

Regarding the "z" and the "s" you need to know that the "z" is voiced and the "s" is unvoiced.

Try to say: sip - zip, bus - buzz
"Because it's sunny and he's fair skinned he has to wear sunscreen".

Well, after practicing the right pronunciation, it's important to know another main characteristic of the English language: melody or intonation. This means, if someone wants to acquire an English accent it is important to say everything with a nice little melody.

So let's work on our English accent! ;)

It's all about pronunciation #1!

This new blog post is about pronunciation. Well, I guess everyone who speaks foreign languages always aims on speaking them fluently and with an accent that sounds like the one of a native speaker. But we all know too, this isn’t very easy. Every “nation” has their own accents when speaking in a foreign language, i.e. when Italians or French speak English. Also Germans have a very, let’s say “unique”accent when speaking English. This always is very funny if you listen to them, but no one actually wants to sound like this too. So to lose this accent, I am currently working on my pronunciation. 

Since I started learning foreign languages, I love to read a text out loud whenever I can. This means, if I am studying I usually speak aloud. I not only enjoy this, it also helps me to improve my pronunciation. But this is not enough anymore. We definitely have to get  to another level when it comes to practicing pronunciation. Even though I hate listening to my own voice (even in German! – I just think I sound terrible - do I really have such a deep voice?!?!  – but I guess most of us do not like listening to their own voice) I started recording myself. There is a pretty good website on the internet (vocaroo.com) where you can record yourself and save it as a MP3 file. Also the quality of the sound is good!

I started with one of the exercises provided by our English teacher. On this website, they suggest reading a story (without looking at it before) and retelling the story afterwards. Well, it has come to my attention that my pronunciation is better when I am reading something than when I am talking freely. But this is actually not something that surprises me. It’s just easier to pronounce a word when you actually see it.
I also started to read aloud when reading a book (but I have to admit it is harder for me to follow the content of the book when reading aloud, as I then focus on pronouncing the word rather than really understanding what I am reading). Still, I think reading aloud any English texts that come across you will help to improve your pronunciation. 

When I am watching an English movie or simply an interview in English, I use to listen to the pronunciation of the actors. As I love how the English language sounds, I often find myself to go into raptures about a certain person speaking English if they have a special accent or dialect or something. I also like to figure out which accent they are speaking as I am interested in that too. 

There is still a lot of work to do regarding my pronunciation – but I will stay tuned!