If only relying on the spelling method, learners are still likely to mispronounce, instead need to create the habit of listening and feeling the sounds when learning English.
Students always ask Moon: "Is there a way to look at a word and be able to pronounce it correctly?". Here you probably want to ask about English spelling rules. I am not against the English spelling method, but from a scientific point of view, this method does not supplement your listening and speaking ability.
English spelling can help you understand how to break words into syllables and how to detect which letters can be read as this or that sound, but it has many limitations such as:
- Remembering the rules will be very tiring, and even more tiring is that every rule has exceptions. English has many words borrowed from different languages around the world, such as Latin, German, French... so it is essentially impossible to spell like Vietnamese. For example, the words: comb, tomb, bomb... have completely different pronunciations.
- Focusing on applying rules, learners may ignore or underestimate the importance of listening and feeling the sound. Meanwhile, if you want to speak English clearly, you need to listen to the correct pronunciation of the word. Relying on the letter to pronounce, you will ignore this "listening to speak" factor.
- Spelling only focuses on words, it does not supplement other elements of pronunciation such as rhythm, intonation, reduction, linking sounds. These other components are very important, helping you speak naturally, as well as listen to English well.
Here are three effective and scientific ways to practice English pronunciation:
- Get in touch with and practice many words by listening to English regularly. When listening, it will be very effective if you can combine pronunciation knowledge to listen and feel the stress and sounds in the word. For example, you know that the word "comb" has the vowel /oʊ/, "tomb" has the vowel /u/, and "bomb" has the vowel /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. You already know how to pronounce these sounds very correctly, without being "Vietnamized", and can immediately recognize the sounds when you hear others pronounce them. Thus, you will be confident when listening, and know for sure that when you pronounce, the listener will understand. If you only rely on the letters, 90% of the time you will pronounce the above words incorrectly.
- Make a habit of listening to check the pronunciation of strange, long or difficult words, instead of just reading based on your subjective impression. When looking up a dictionary, it is best to know which sound each IPA sound represents, for example: how is the pronunciation of /ɪ/ different from the pronunciation of /i/? At the same time, make sure you read the correct stress with multi-syllable words, for example: which syllable is the stress on the word "innocent". At the same time, online dictionaries now have a speaker button to read samples, make sure you listen to a sample pronunciation of the word.
- Although you need to know about IPA, you should not just focus on reading the transcription. Instead, I always teach students to listen and feel the sound to pronounce the word correctly. For example, when pronouncing the words "sit" and "seat", the way to listen is to feel the difference between the two words, and when pronouncing, the listener knows what word you are saying. Learning IPA is just a support. With the right approach, you will speak and sound correctly from the beginning. This is an arrow that kills two birds with one stone.
Moon Nguyen (Moon ESL)
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