How r u doin', dude? It's quite a while since my last entry for the Pronunciation Diary, but that doesn't mean I didn't work on my pronunciation. In fact, dealt a lot with pronunciation and English accents recently and now I'd like to give you little update on what I've done so far.
Firstly, I recommend you taking a closer look at the "Pronunciation Practice Page" Frank and Hendrik have been working on for us. There you can find the most import resource on learning accents and improving your spoken English.
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| I really don't get the connection between Ben Franklin and English pronunciation... |
The first video I watched – and I watched it a couple of times by now – by Rachel on how to do a Ben Franklin Exercise (Sound like a Native Speaker). I haven't had time to take a piece of text and make that notes but I took a very close look on closed captions when watching a TV series. I tried concentrating on the subtitles and what the speaker actually really says and where he/she puts the intonation and stress in a word or sentence. Another thing here that I was particularly interested in was reduction and linking. Did you notice what happens when to vowels clash together, when one word ends in vowel and next starts with one? Have you notice how words are melt together and Ts become Ds ("Alodof peopleask me itit's")? What's more, it's a very useful exercise to pick up the right melody and rhythm of spoken English. All you have to do is pick a scene from your favorite TV series, take a transcript of it and work through it – word after word, sentence after sentence. On a whole, a Ben Franklin Exercise is an exceptionally time consuming thing to do (it took Rachel almost eight minutes for analyzing one sentence) but I'll keep working with it, as it pays you back a great deal.
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