These 3 Myths Prevent People From Improving Their Pronunciation

It's surprising to learn that someone else struggles with something that comes natural to you.

"What do you mean?" you might think. "Just do what I'm doing!"

And while imitation is often a perfect way to learn something - we do it with almost everything - something as complex as modifying the shape of your mouth to create foreign pronunciations tied together in a string of syllables, words, and sentences... seems a little more daunting of a task.

I mean, some of the simpler stuff can be explained pretty clearly, and in a lot of cases the sounds do actually overlap. No problem!

But when it comes to the highest levels of performance - the most advanced speakers have to be aware of the overall form of the language. Knowing about the phonology, the system of relationships and patterns between sounds of a language, is the first step.

Because most of the time, as many learn the hard way, the way people speak is usually different from how we learned it in a class. Even individual words are pronounced differently when they join other words in a short sentence!

But you'll see in this video a few common thoughts when it comes to learning a language, and particularly improving pronunciation and my responses to those claims.

The three myths all are ways to help shape your pronunciation practice and take your focus off of things that don't matter. You are in complete control!

If you understand the basic FORM of the language and its sounds, for example

- What sounds are commonly next to each other?

- Which sounds are never found at the beginning?

- Which sounds change depending on placement?

- What's the most common pronunciation and what is technically 'correct'?

you end up building CONFIDENCE in conversation since that analytical approach taught you everything you need to know. You start building awareness and start fixing your own errors because you know how the system works. No more relying on common practices unless they work well for YOU.

For more information visit other areas of this site and check out more videos related to pronunciation here!