Posts Tagged ‘online learning’
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
Happy Face - Accent Reduction Tools
When we first learn the English alphabet, we are taught that there is only one /n/. While this may be true of our written language, there are in fact two very important and different ways in which /n/ can be pronounced in spoken English. The first [n] is what often comes to mind as the regular [n], such as the [n] in the words “nice”, “never” and “knowledge”. This [n] is a short and sweet sound that temporarily directs air through your nose before the next sound quickly redirects it back into your oral cavity.
The second and perhaps more obscure pronunciation of the /n/ consonant is called the syllabic [n]. The syllabic [n] is very important in the production of the North American English accent and it is characterized by an elongated direction of air through the nose. In other terms, the syllabic [n] is simply held for longer than the regular [n]. It is very easy to identify the syllabic [n], because it appears every time the [n] is the last sound in a word. For example, common words such as “phone”, “mean” and “button” all contain the syllabic [n].
The bolded words in the following sentences contain the syllabic [n]. Practice reading these out loud and remember to hold any [n] that is the last sound of a word. Can you distinguish between the two different types of [n] sounds?
1. Transportation - The bus is an efficient source of transportation.
2. Phone - Pick up the phone!
3. Earn - How are we going to earn money?
4. Complain - He came to complain about an employee.
5. Croon - The singer continued to croon well into the night.
Tags: accent, accent reduction, accent reduction training, Canadian Accent, English accent, English as a Second Language, foreign accents, Jeff Madigan, mispronouncing, north american english accent, online learning, pronounced, pronucation, pronunciation training
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
It’s the 21st century, and everybody is addicted to the computer. We’ve become so reliable to the internet that we do everything on there, from shopping, to entertainment, and even learning. Learning something online has become very popular these years, and everyone is trying to make the most of it.
First, it is important to choose what exactly you want to learn at the moment, and be specific. There is no point in learning something you will never use. If you are an English teacher, you would most likely never have the urge to learn how to put together a car. On the other hand, if you are someone who would like to learn English online, you would have to be more specific. You can choose how to read English, write English, or speak English. You may want to master all of these within a few years, but when it comes to learning something new, starting one step at a time is a good idea.
Next, you want to take advantage. Think about it, the internet contains millions of information about billions of things. What is the point if you do not use as many of those sources related to your topic as possible? Let’s go back to the person who is learning English online. The internet would be a great source of practice. On the web, you can find many English-related quizzes and games to play in order to improve your grammar and vocabulary. In addition, there are many videos and articles you can take a look at to advance in your studies.
Hopefully this has helped to change your view on online learning, and provided you with a clearer path on experiencing success when learning online.
accent reduction techniques - accent reduction tools
Tags: accents, British English, Canada, Canadian Accent, career, English, English as a Second Language, english training course, ESL, foreign accents, online english training, online learning
Posted in Human Resources, Language and Culture, online learning | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
In accent reduction training, people often discover that the way they learned to say a sound isn’t always the way that the sound is produced. This is especially true in spoken English with regards to the perfect tenses. English has the Past Perfect (I had studied English), the Present Perfect (I have studied English) and the Future Perfect (I will have studied English). These tenses have rules of course, and should be used correctly with appropriate adverbs such as already, yet, before, and so on. The problem is that native speakers rarely apply these rules. In accent reduction training, we can improve our stress and rhythm by reducing auxiliary verbs. However, we can also consider avoiding the Perfect tenses altogether and thus avoid those tricky auxiliary verbs.
Jim had been there before
Can also become:
Jim was there before
| Grammatically Correct |
Commonly Spoken |
|
|
| Have you eaten yet? |
Did you eat yet? |
| Have you already finished? |
Did you already finish? |
| I had been there before. |
I was there before. |
| Have you ever broken a bone? |
Did you ever break a bone? |
| I had had one after. |
I had one after. |
| I have never seen one. |
I never saw one. |
| I have seen that movie five times. |
I saw that movie five times. |
| I will have done it by this time tomorrow |
I’ll do it by tomorrow. |
| I have been studying all day. |
I studied all day today. |
| I have been working the whole day. |
I worked all day long. |
Tags: accent, accent reduction, accent reduction courses, accent reduction training, accents, English, English accent, mispronouncing, online learning, pronucation, pronunciation, pronunciation training
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Thursday, April 8th, 2010
I read a editorial by Matt Gross in the New York Times about his quest to find a program to learn a language. His experiences ran through the spectrum of programs out there, from iphone apps, to the well known Rosetta Stone. Some services are free, such as google translate, but others he notes, can cost as much as $85 per week. That works out to $4420.00 for a year.
None of the programs he mentioned included any aspect of monitored progress, which we feel is what makes the L2 Accent Reduction online course so distinct.
Many programs require the user to listen to audio CD’s and memorize phrases. Even Matt Gross mentions that the differences are that some help you to “remember it better”. Of course the problem is: what is the point of remembering a phrase if you can’t properly pronounce it? Youtube is full of videos from people who will ask random strangers to give feedback on their pronunciation. Here is one example: CLICK HERE
Of course, most people don’t want to go to the lengths of broadcasting themselves. Besides, the feedback of an untrained person is rarely helpful.
Would you spend $4420.00 for an online course?
Tags: accent reduction, iphone, Matt Gross, New York Times, online learning, Rosetta Stone
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Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
Every day I come across another online accent reduction course that seems to be the same old thing. I recently talked to a guy on youtube who gave advice about accent reduction. He advised people to just get a tape recorder and practice recording themselves and repeating it.
It is surprising that most of these accent reduction programs and CD’s and DVD’s are simply doing the same thing. I mean, how do you know if you are saying the word correctly or not? For an example of what I mean click here. On a side note, the lesson in this video should include some information about the schwa sound.
I’m happy that our online learning software is monitored by real ESL specialists and that clients are marked if they are saying sounds correctly or not. I think it would be hard to improve from just a DVD or a CD.
Tags: accent reduction, accent reduction courses, accent reduction programs, accent reduction software, online learning
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