The Pronunciation Diagnostic Exercise

Now that the results of the Pronunciation Diagnostic Exercise have been revealed it is all about improving on the weak points of my pronunciation. First of all, I will consult websites featuring pronunciation tools which help me check the words I erred on for their correct pronunciation. Therefore, I will go to Demidex.com where you can find British and American Pronunciation and a good definition of words. Secondly, I will look for sounds similar to those I mispronounced in order to thoroughly exercise difficult sounds. I will start with words resembling the tricky sounds of ‘spiral’ and ‘aluminium’ as I got them wrong in the diagnostic exercise.

Another useful task is practicing the pronunciation of entire word families. This not only is a repetitive exercise, but also is a good way to prepare for words where the pronunciation differs greatly. This can happen with nouns, adjectives or verbs within the same ‘word family’ as the emphasis of a word sometimes changes as the number of syllables grows. In order to dedicate to pronunciation even more I will take the pronunciation test provided by antimoon.com. Such tests are particularly helpful as you are confronted with tricky questions .

Another way to boost my spoken English in order to render it more genuine is choosing difficult texts which I then record, just as we did with the picture description the reading exercise and the dialogue in class. This will give me the possibility to listen to my own voice as often as I wish and be as strict as possible with myself when I hear lazy ‘th’ sounds or other words pronounced in an odd or wrong way.

As I also want to improve my fluency and pronunciation in general I am convinced that watching youtube videos can take you a long way. Since there are numerous videos with not exactly serious content you have to be cautious when it comes to making a selection of appropriate videos. I consider lectures and academic speeches or news reports quite reliable. It is also essential to be careful when it comes to accents such as Australian. Moreover, you should be aware that ‘street slang’ or ‘ghetto language’ are no good examples. They may do more harm than good to your pronunciation.