Speak English Naturally: My pronunciation secret for difficult words

Hi.

I'm Rebecca from engVid.

In this lesson you're going to learn a pronunciation secret that will help you to say English words

more easily and correctly, especially long, difficult ones.

Okay?

Now, this is actually a professional technique that's used by actors, and singers, and linguists,

and lots of people who have learned many different languages and want to or need to pronounce

words correctly and authentically.

Okay?

Now, the reason why pronunciation is difficult for everyone when you're learning a new language

is because when we grow up speaking our native language, we get used to...

Our ears get used to hearing certain sounds, and our mouths get used to making certain sounds.

And when we learn a new language, like English, then you have to train both your ear and your

mouth to work a little bit differently.

Okay?

Now, the other part is because English is not phonetic, it's not completely phonetic.

A large part of it is.

Some people say about 80 to 85% is phonetic, but a lot of it is not phonetic.

What does that mean?

That means when we see a word, the way we say it is not the way it looks.

Right?

So, there's also that factor to take into account.

But this technique can help you with both of these difficulties.

Okay?

So, first let's look at what we normally do when you're learning how to pronounce a word.

Okay?

So normally what we do is we do something called frontchaining, and I'm going to explain

to you exactly what that is, but what I'm going to teach you in this lesson, the secret

is something called backchaining, and that's what we will practice.

Now, let's take our first example and do what people normally do, even teachers, even ESL teachers.

All right?

When they're teaching classrooms, they don't normally spend that much time on pronunciation

because they don't have time.

There's so much to teach and the class is so big, there's so many students it's difficult

to spend time on pronunciation.

So naturally, people have a harder time learning that and mastering that.

And if you think about it, when a child is born and when a child is growing up, it doesn't

learn to read first, it just learns by listening.

So this is an opportunity to listen afresh, like new in a different way to words so that

you can reproduce the correct sound, the correct pronunciation.

Okay?

So let's take our first example, and our first example is the word "pronunciation".

Okay?

Because by the way, a lot of people do not say this word correctly.

Now, let's do it in the standard way, frontchaining, and see what happens.

So in frontchaining, we start pronouncing or saying the word from the front and going forward.

So if I did that, if I was teaching you how to say this word by using frontchaining,

I would say to you: "You need to say it like this: pro-nun-ci-a-tion."

Okay?

I've divided up here just to make it a little bit easier for you to see and hear the syllables.

Okay?

This long word happens to have five parts, five syllables.

Right?

So it's quite long.

Pronunciation.

So when a student hears that, they're like: "Oh my god, I have to learn so many different sounds",

and it's a little bit scary because there are five sounds, you know, that have

to follow.

So, what happens when you feel scared or nervous about something?

Your brain shuts down.

You don't learn as effectively.

You don't learn as well as when you're happy and relaxed.

So the advantage of learning in...

Through the other system, the other technique called backchaining is that you feel much

more relaxed because when we did it from the front we had to learn one, two, three, four,

five different sounds.

But look what happens when we use backchaining.

So, backchaining is a technique that teaches you how to pronounce words starting from the end.

So let's do that now and see what happens.

So let's just take this last syllable, and we can say: "tion".

So all you have to learn right now is the word "tion".

Not word, part of the word.

Next: "ation".

You can repeat it after me.

"ation, ciation, ciation, nunciation, nunciation".

And last: "pronunciation, pronunciation".

So what happened?

When we started to say this word, and especially if it's a word that's really strange, you've

never heard it, all you had to learn was one sound, not five.

So it's not scary, it's manageable.

It's something you can do, it's something you feel relaxed about.

We're breaking down this word into small, manageable chunks.

All right?

And whenever something's small and manageable, we feel much more relaxed.

So your brain is also going to cooperate with you much more.

Okay.

So that's what I did.

I basically backchained this word, "pronunciation" for you.

Now, with the next example I'm going to go one step further.

Because as I mentioned, English is not always phonetic, so what if we backchained, plus

we wrote it in a way that actually is what you supposed to say?

So let's do that.

So here's this word: "information".

Okay?

"In-for-ma-tion", four syllables.

If we frontchained it, that's what you do.

But let's backchain it, and this time I've written it phonetically the way it actually

should be said, not the way it's spelled.

Don't worry about how it's spelled.

We're not teaching spelling here.

We're teaching pronunciation.

So, how does "tion" actually sound?

Because it's a "t-i-o-n", right?

It sounds something like this: "sh'n".

"tion".

Okay?

So just say: "sh'n, sh'n".

Next: "may-sh'n, may-sh'n".

Good.

Next: "fer-may-shen, fer-may-shen".

Don't worry about the spelling changes.

"fer-may-shen".

Next: "in-fer-may-shen, in-fer-may-shen".

Okay?

Now, what happened?

Yes, there were spelling changes.

Doesn't matter.

Here we're not...

We don't care about that.

We care about: How does this world...?

Word actually sound?

So write it in a way that will help you to say it properly based on what you hear.

Now, how do you know how the word is supposed to be pronounced?

Well, you go to a good dictionary, for example the online, the Cambridge English Dictionary

shows you how to pronounce every single word with a...

In a British way and in an American way.

What we teach on engVid is usually the American way, except for some teachers who are British

who teach you the British way.

Okay?

So here what I'm teaching you is the American pronunciation.

So you can use any kind of online...

Good, reputable online dictionary.

All right?

To teach you the correct pronunciation, and then backchain it like that, and you will

end up with a much more accurate presen-...

Pronunciation of the words.

Now, you can not only use this technique for words.

You can actually also use it for phrases and sentences, but I don't recommend that if you're

doing it by yourself.

It's better if you're listening to a real teacher in a live classroom who is a native

English speaker, and she...

She or he can teach you the correct intonation and everything.

But it is definitely useful for you to use with words.

Let's try a few more words.

You know that this is one of those lessons that's going to help you to make a big breakthrough,

right?

Good.

I'm glad you know that.

Let's get started.

All right, this word, frontchaining "February".

Okay?

Let's try it the other way, through backchaining.

Ready?

"ree", say it after me.

"air-ree", "roo-air-ree", "Feb-roo-air-ree".

Okay?

This actually a word that's mispronounced by lots of students because they sometimes

say: "Feb-oo-air-ee".

It's not "Feb-oo-air-ee", it's: "Feb-roo-air-ree".

"ree, air-ree, roo-air-ree, Feb-roo-air-ree".

Now you've got it.

Good.

Next one: "Wednesday".

Let's backchain it.

Okay?

Are you ready?

Look how easy it gets when you actually just listen.

Don't look at the word.

Just listen.

"Wednesday".

Now let's backchain it. Ready?

"day,

Wenz-day".

Do you see how easy it became when we did the two things?

We backchained it, plus we wrote it phonetically.

We wrote what we should actually be saying.

"day, Wenz-day".

Good.

Let's try a third one.

"Ambassador".

Let's backchain it.

"der, a-der, bas-a-der, em-bas-a-der".

Okay?

Good.

Very good.

"Ambassador".

And it doesn't matter that here it was being pronounced...

Sorry, spelt with an "a".

The actual sound isn't "ambassador", it's "embasader",

so: "der, ader, basader, embasader".

You've mastered the correct pronunciation of this word, and many other words that end

like that, by the way.

Okay?

Next: "knowledge".

So many letters, so many useless letters in terms of our pronunciation.

Right?

Let's see what happens when we backchain it and when we write it phonetically.

Are you ready?

"lij".

There's only two parts now.

"naw-lij".

There are only two parts, really, to the sound of this word, the pronunciation of this word.

"lij, naw-lij".

Isn't it much easier?

Don't you find it much more enjoyable to say this word than this word?

I hope so. Okay?

"naw-lij".

"lij, naw, naw-lij".

Ready.

Okay.

"Psychiatrist", okay?

"Psychiatrist".

Again, lots and lots of letters. Right?

And let's start from the end, but this time you do it and then I'll do it.

Okay?

So, backchain it.

Did you get it?

Let's try together: "trist, a-trist, ky-a-trist, sy-ky-a-trist".

Okay? Excellent.

All right?

If you were able to backchain these words, then you could backchain any words.

All right?

And remember this is a strategy that's used by the professionals.

The linguists teach it, the actors use this when they need to act a part and it's a different

pronunciation, they need to play a British actor or an Australian actor.

This is how they master the techniques, the correct pronunciation.

And you can do it, too.

So I'm glad, I'm so glad that you watched this lesson today so you could also save so

much time and improve your pronunciation with a very big breakthrough.

Okay?

If you enjoyed this lesson and if you have not already subscribed to my YouTube channel,

please do that now so you can continue to get lots of lessons that will save you probably

years of time in terms of your English learning.

All right?

And please go to our website, www.engvid.com for lots and lots of other lessons about everything

to do with English, including pronunciation.

Thanks for watching.

Bye for now.