Key to better listening comprehension

1.       Understand what makes native speakers hard to understand

What make native speaker hard to understand?

Ø  The great number of vowels and dipthongs in English. Some of them very similar to each other minimal paits.

·         Boat : Bought

·         Mad : mud

·         Hurt : Heart

·         Men : Main

·         Than : Then

·         Bit   : Bet

·         Live : leave

Ø  The way that native speakers shorten and link sound.

Speech pattern  1

Contarted verb and negatives

I`am, he`s, they`ll, we`ve, won`t, can`t, ok, i`ll do it.

(no stress on i`ll: no particular emotion)

I will do it. Nothing can stop

(stress on will : shows deternation)

Speech pattern 2

Weak forms

Examples :

·         I can ski

·         I kn ski

§  Here`s my book.

§  Here md book

Speech pattern 3

Phonetic links

Examples :

ü  He wroks as an engineer

ü  He work sazanen gineen

v  She is interested in it

v  She (y) is interested in it.

All in one

·         He won`t accept it from me.

·         He won`t accept it fromme

2.       Improve your own pronunciation.

Common pronunciation trap 1 :

Some spelling = same sound

“ ea”-/i:/(jean)

-          Great

-          Hear

-          Learn

-          Instead

`u`-/u/(put)

-          Judge

-          Fubrious

Commonpronunciation trap 2 : word stress

1.       Which syilable is strased?

Devalopment  or  development

2.       You might expect the following word to be pronounced similarly

Propose  &  PURpose

3.       Learn primarily with your ears rather than eyes.

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT THEY SAY`!

1.       Listen to audio books rather than read the printed version.

2.       Listen to the radio and watch films in English as much as possible.