Accent training exercises: Learn vowel sounds with the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

Hi, everyone. A quick message before we get started on today's lesson. When you're speaking

English, are you constantly getting misunderstood? Are people asking you to repeat yourself a

lot? Or perhaps are they looking at you with a confused face, perhaps pretending they know

what you're saying when really they don't understand? If your answer is yes and you're

at that stage where you already know English and you can communicate, the problem is nobody

else understands you, then I really want you to watch until the end of this lesson because

I'm going to tell you about my Clear Accent Training Course. So, stay watching until the

end of the lesson, and I'll tell you how you can speak clearly and get over that stage

of being misunderstood and all the frustrations that come with it.

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I'm going to teach you four English vowels, and I'm going

to teach you those vowels in IPA. I'll teach you those symbols. When I was learning IPA

it took me the longest time to remember the sounds and to associate them with the symbols.

It actually took years; a really long time. So I'm not sure... I'm not sure if I was really

slow to learn this or it's... For some people it's easier than others, but anyway, this

lesson comes from what helps me to learn, which is when I practiced rather than just

try to memorize, it's when I get to experience the different sounds and that way it sticks

in my memory and that way I know. And another thing is we're only looking at four sounds

because we don't want: "Ah! Ah!" overwhelm, confusion. And we're looking at four sounds

because these four sounds are related, and when we learn them we learn them in comparison

to the other sounds.

So here they are: "I:", "I", "ʊ", "U:". So you can do this along with me while you're

watching the video. "I:", "I", "ʊ", "U:". Here's a drawing of a tongue. What happens

when we make these four sounds is that our tongue moves in position... The tongue height

changes in position and moves backwards from one sound to the other. Now, you might need

to practice this many times and get used to the feeling of... See if you can put your

awareness and your concentration on the shape of your tongue, and feel it as it moves back

through the sounds. "I:", "I", "ʊ", "U:". Do that enough times so that you can feel

your tongue moving, and that's how you know they're related. We can also go backwards

the other way, we can go: "U:", "ʊ", "I", "I:". That's harder for me; I had to think

about it. Let's look now at the lip shapes when we make these sounds. For I:, I've got

an English mouth so I don't actually move that much, but when I make these sounds I

go from the widest lips position to the most rounded lips position. "I:", "I", "ʊ", "U:".

So, "U:" you can see is more rounded, and I start in the widest position: "I:". Depending

on who's teaching you, who you're looking at, depending on how wide their lips are,

how big their mouth is, it's easier to see. But I've got a small English mouth, so you

can't really see it that well on me. So, practice that, going backwards and forwards. Look in

a mirror as well, and that way you can see how your lip shape changes when you make the sounds.

Okay, here we have two columns, these are called minimal pairs. This is for "I:", this

is for "I". The words are the same, except the vowel has changed. We have: "beet", "I:",

"I:", and then we have: "bit". So the only difference is the vowel. "Beet", "bit". And

the same through the rest of the list. "Sheep", "ship"; "deep", "dip"; "feet", "fit"; "cheap",

"chip"; "piece", "piss"; "he'll", "hill". When we do the minimal pairs, we get to feel

in our mouths and also we get to contrast the two sounds. It's helpful when we're learning

IPA. But the problem is not all the sounds have pairs of words for us to repeat and to memorize.

Let's look at this column now. In this column we're comparing the sounds for "ʊ" and "U:".

The problem is now we don't have pairs of words for these two sounds. There're not enough

words to get pairs that are still real words, so we have to use words that don't sound exactly

the same and have different sounds in. We start with: "look", "moon"; "could", "soon";

"sugar", "June"; "woman", "rule"; "bush", "screw"; "foot", "you"; "bull", "move". Now,

as you listen to me doing the list, perhaps a few words jumped out as not sounding like

the other words: "bull" and "rule". When we get the "l" in it, it changes the pitch of

the sound so it doesn't fit with the other words as neatly. So if you noticed that, you

must have heard the pitch changing. So what you can do is repeat these... These words,

the "ʊ" and "U:", repeat those so you get familiar with the contrast. And then we'll

move to these diagrams, these circle diagrams.

And what these diagrams are for is for us to practice changing from sound to sound,

going around in a circle. So, we start with "I:", "I", "ʊ", "U:", and it's the same...

Same changing sound in this one, and the same changing sound in that one. Because what we

want to do is get our tongue moving backwards into the different positions, and our lips

changing into the different positions. We want it to be really practical pronunciation.

So we'll say it, going around in a circle. "Deep", "fit", "look", "soon". And we'll say

it three times, but we can speed up as well. "Deep", "fit", "look", "soon"; "deep", "fit",

"look", "soon"; "deep", "fit", "look", "soon". Another thing we can do is say it backwards.

"Soon", "look", "fit", "deep"; "soon", "look", "fit", "deep". We'll do the next one now.

"Beat", "hill", "woman", "move"; "beat", "hill", "woman", "move"; "beat", "hill", "woman",

"move". You can say it backwards. "Move", "woman", "hill", "beat"; "move", "woman",

"hill", "beat"; "move", "woman", "hill", "beat". And we'll do this one. "He'll", "ship", "sugar",

"soon"; "he'll", "ship", "sugar", "soon"; "he'll", "ship", "sugar", "soon". "Soon",

"sugar", "ship", "he'll"; "soon", "sugar", "ship", "he'll"; "soon", "sugar"... You say

it fast, like a tongue twister, say it enough times, you'll get it right. "Soon", "sugar"...

"Soon", "sugar", "ship", "he'll"; "soon", "sugar", "ship", "he'll". Or pick words that

don't have s in it... In them, it'll be much easier. So with these you can go backwards

and forwards, you can do fast and slow, you can change to put your own words in and do

your own practice.

Now what's useful is to put the vowels with consonants. These are just nonsense sounds,

but they help us to practice the vowels together with a consonant sound. So, I'm going to read

this line: "bi:", "ki:", "si:", "mi:". "bi:", "ki:", "si:", "mi:". This line: "bI", "kI",

"sI", "mI". "bI", "kI", "sI", "mI". "bʊ", "kʊ", "sʊ", "mʊ". That didn't sound right.

"bʊ", "kʊ", "sʊ", "mʊ". "bʊ", "kʊ", "sʊ", "mʊ". "bu:", "ku:", "su:", "mu:". What's good

about doing this is you can change with other consonants as well, you can do with a "da"

or a "ta", and it lets you practice those different sounds, and you really have to think

when you're saying it. You have to think about the phoneme, otherwise you'll say it wrong.

You can't just read it, but you can read these words. So I'm going to go through the list

from the beginning until the end. "bi:", "ki:", "si:", "mi:", "bI", "kI", "sI", "mI", "bʊ",

"kʊ", "sʊ", "mʊ", "bu:", "ku:", "su:", "mu:". Now, another exercise you can do to really

make you think and get your tongue exercising is to improvise the order, so you just...

You just pick any... Any one, and you say it. So, what we could try is I'm going to...

I'm going to point and then you say it, and I'll say it. I'll give you a little time,

you say it after and you can check if it's right. "bI", "kʊ", "su:", "si:", "bi:", "mI",

"bu:", and you can do more practice, make your own list of words like that.

Now we have the real challenge. So, this... The line has a different vowel sound along

it, and it goes like this and we say the phonemes at a different volume, depending on how tall

they are or how short they are. If they're tall we say them louder, and if they're small

we don't say them as loud. Now, this is... This is quite tricky to do. I've not practiced

this yet, so hopefully I'm going to get it all right. You can do it... You can do it

along with me, or you can pause when I've finished and try it yourself. I, i:, ʊ, i:,

u:, I, I, ʊ, i:, u:, ʊ, i:, i:, ʊ, ʊ, ʊ, i:, I, i:, I, i:, ʊ, u:, I, I, ʊ, u:, I. Right.

I know I made mistakes that time. It's hard. It's hard, I told you it's hard. I'll try

it again. Hopefully this time it's going to go better. I, i:, ʊ, i:, u:, I, I, ʊ, I, u:,

ʊ, i:, i:, ʊ, ʊ, I, i:, I, ʊ, u:, I, I, ʊ, u:, I. To be honest, I'm thinking about it too

much because I'm trying to do it correctly. When you do it, don't worry so much about

saying the wrong sound, just have a go and try and let it flow. So, anyone with a keen

ear and you know I've made a mistake, if I made a mistake, it's because it's hard. It's

improvised and I haven't practiced a lot, but I'm showing you that's the point. Even

when you know these things and you've learnt them a long time ago and you keep practicing

them, you still have to think about it a lot of the time.

Great, so you made it to the end of the video. Now it's my turn to tell you about my Clear

Accent Training Course which I made for people in your situation, people who are being asked

to repeat themselves again and again, and people who are getting that confused face

when you're speaking English because they don't quite understand. Well, I made my Clear

Accent Training Course to teach you how to speak clearly so that you get over those communication

difficulties, so that your accent is clear so that you can be easily understood. If you

are ready to totally change the way you speak and learn a practical method for improving

your accent, it's time to click the button and it's time to get a clear accent. I'll

see you soon. Thanks for watching. Bye.