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Free accent reduction methods? | ||
Tags: Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6387 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 33 of 43 06 May 2015 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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What I've recently started doing is pronouncing things in a different language to avoid subvocalizing while reading. In order to improve my pronunciation, that is. I think this works better if you have a (nearly) perfect representation of the pronunciation in your mind, and haven't spent hundreds of hours pronouncing the language incorrectly.
I actually started by using football chants, simply because I wanted it to be more meaningful than 1-2-3 or something. Someone else might prefer prayers or slogans, whatever you believe in. I've also picked "important" words with problematic sounds, such as the Portuguese nasal vowels that I'm forever insecure about. Next I might do the ng in Finnish and English. It's definitely easier to do in a strong language. I don't even prepare in advance (apart from listening to a chant on youtube maybe). I find that it's better to repeat 2-3 words than one, then you get some rhythm and variation. In my case they're generally noun phrases or just groups of nouns, rather than complete sentences (this can be done too, but probably requires more preparation). TBH I'm not sure this improves my reading speed, but it does make reading more enjoyable. One site mentioned that when you think you're reading boring stuff, maybe you're just bored of your own inner voice. I also find that I stumble if I try to stop subvocalizing by pronouncing words in the same language the book is in. I'm not saying subvocalization is inherently a bad thing, but for me this experiment has been worth it so far. edit: I made a short recording to demonstrate my Portuguese pronunciation. It's definitely improved, though I obviously can't judge how much. Edited by Serpent on 06 June 2015 at 6:50pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shinkarom Diglot Groupie Ukraine allthetongues.hRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4098 days ago 40 posts - 59 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian* | Message 34 of 43 06 May 2015 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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If anyone likes, I can share a link to a post on chorusing that I wrote on my blog.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6387 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 35 of 43 07 May 2015 at 3:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Certainly!
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| shinkarom Diglot Groupie Ukraine allthetongues.hRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4098 days ago 40 posts - 59 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian* | Message 36 of 43 07 May 2015 at 9:54am | IP Logged | ||
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http://allthetongues.hol.es/uncategorized/chorusing-foolproo f-method-learn-foreign-accent/
Nothing special. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4997 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 37 of 43 07 May 2015 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting post shinkarom, good quick summary of how to do the method on one's own, quite similar to what I did. I'll check out the Speech Analyser software whenever I decide it's time for more pronunciation work. I just used Audacity to loop the recordings, I hadn't thought of using software specific for the task. I wonder if looking at the pitch graphs for the original recording and for a recording of myself repeating it could even be useful for comparing intonation, rather than just relying on my ear for feedback.
Serpent's post about subvocalisation is something I've thought about myself. I've wondered whether reading a lot can reinforce pronunciation habits because of the tendency to "pronounce" in your head, and therefore be counter-productive if these habits are incorrect. These recent posts have gotten me in the mood for trying another round of pronunciation work. Maybe sometime in the next few weeks I'll give it a shot and report back on my log. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shinkarom Diglot Groupie Ukraine allthetongues.hRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4098 days ago 40 posts - 59 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian* | Message 38 of 43 07 May 2015 at 11:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Have no fear, pitch graphs are an immense help in learning intonation. Just make sure to set the pitch graph type to "Semitones".
Please comment on my post. This is the only way (well, except donation) I can be persuaded to write further. You know how hard it is to subvocalize with the proper pronunciation? I usually give up after a paragraph. And that's bad, because no pain means no gain. I can also record something and show how is my Serbian pronunciation after drilling one sentence. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4997 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 39 of 43 07 May 2015 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | ||
I've added a comment :). I'll experiment with the pitch graphs soon. Most of my previous work on accent has focused more on rhythm and stress than intonation, as I felt they were more important and Italian intonation can vary a lot regionally, but it's still something to tackle sooner or later. I know what you mean about subvocalising: making an effort to do it properly does slow down reading. Plus there is the same potential flaw that your internal pronunciation model that you're using to subvocalise may not be perfect. I suppose there are two parts to pronunciation improvement: techniques that improve your internal model (phonetic analysis, studying phonology) and techniques that put it into practice (reading aloud or subvocalising, shadowing); doing too much of the latter and not enough of the former could worsen bad habits. The chorusing method combines both, as the idea is to practice but also improve from the repeated feedback, which is part of its appeal for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shinkarom Diglot Groupie Ukraine allthetongues.hRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4098 days ago 40 posts - 59 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian* | Message 40 of 43 07 May 2015 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tank you Gary, for your comment.
I have a question about English (specifically American) pronunciation. Where do I start from? Right now my pronunciation is atrocious, and I know I need to do something about it, but I'm really scared to do it. But what sounds do I practice first? And if I start practicing those soudns won't it fossilize other sounds? Edited by shinkarom on 07 May 2015 at 1:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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