Is Bad Pronunciation Killing Your English Fluency?

What's up everyone! Today we're talking all  about fluency and I have a question for you:  

is bad pronunciation killing your fluency? Imagine  being fluent in English as a checkbox list and  

in a rather simplistic way we need to check the  boxes of vocabulary so you can use a wide variety  

of words that are appropriate in that situation  and grammar, you can organize your ideas into  

sentences using the correct form tense and so on.  But when it comes to developing advanced fluency  

you feel that your pronunciation is holding you  back. If something holds you back it stops you  

from developing or doing as well as you should. In  this lesson I'm going to explain what fluency is  

and the role that pronunciation has in it. We'll  also take a look at whether or not accent matters.  

Then we'll break down pronunciation into the three  key parts that are important for you to add oral  

fluency into your speech. But before we get into  it I want to let you know that we are here to  

guide you beyond the classroom to live and learn  and speak English in the real world. So be sure to  

hit that subscribe button and the bell down below  so that you don't miss any of our new lessons.  

So first of all what do we mean by fluency? Oral  fluency is the ability to speak a foreign language  

easily and effectively combined with the  ability to effortlessly understand others  

who use this spoken language. Some academics  regard fluency as smooth rapid effortless use  

of language and natural language use or language  that is spoken easily and without many pauses.  

Now when we talk about smoothness of speech  and natural use of language we are referring  

to pronunciation and of course this is a key part  of fluency. Fluent speakers are easily understood  

because they can clearly produce the individual  and joined sounds of English. So they've mastered  

rhythm, intonation, linking and stress. So  they sound natural when they speak now you  

can be fluent in English and have an accent. So  over on our Learn English with TV Series Channel  

we actually investigated the accents of Priyanka  Chopra, Deepika Padukone and Sofia Vergara who  

have an excellent level of English but they do  have an accent. So if you haven't watched those  

lessons I highly recommend you check them out.  I'll link them down in the description box below.  

Essentially pronunciation is the  way that we say words and sentences. 

But let's actually go a little deeper there are  three key aspects of pronunciation that you need  

to master if you want to become a fluent English  speaker. These are rhythm, intonation and stress.  

Now chances are you've probably acquired these  to some degree. You've probably imitated certain  

characteristics of the way that native speakers  speak and so you generally have the right rhythm,  

intonation and stress. However if you really  want to master these areas you need to understand  

certain aspects of them. So what is rhythm?  This is the speed and cadence of how you say a  

sentence. So as I mentioned before we don't say  each word at the same speed. That would sound  

very boring and very robotic. Now the rhythm  of English might be different to the rhythm of  

your native language, so it's really important  to understand the unique rhythm of English.  

Now think of rhythm as syllables and a beat. Look at this sentence. 

Generally we stress one or two syllables  in content words. So these are the words  

that carry the meaning of our sentence.  So here it would be workers going strike  

tomorrow. We don't stress syllables in  function words which in this example are  

the are and on. So these are the little words  that construct the grammar of our sentence.  

Now if you want to take your English from  rudimentary or just from holding your own to  

excellent then I highly recommend  our Real Life Native Immersion Course  

this 41 week course will take you on a Real-life  adventure of the English language each week  

exploring a different topic connected to our goal  to help you understand and use real native English  

and make it a permanent part of your life in a way  that is fun, natural and convenient. And the best  

part is you can try it right now for free with our  Three-Part Power Learning Series. All you have to  

do is click up here or down in the description  box below to learn more and sign up now! 

So if the rhythm is made up of beats, intonation  is the melody of the language. In fact this is  

often described as the music of English.  This refers to the pitch patterns that a  

speaker uses when communicating in English  and there are three patterns of intonation.

Lastly the other key aspect is stress. So this is  saying a syllable or part of a word more strongly  

and can be at word level. This can also change the  meaning of a word. For example present is a noun  

and present is a verb. So in a sentence you  could say she is present at the conference  

or she'll present at the conference. At  sentence level stress is important for  

creating meaning and communicating what  you intend to say and not something else.  

This is known as contrastive stress. Another aspect of pronunciation that is  

essential for fluency is connected speech. Now  imagine connected speech as all the things that  

I've just spoken about coming together. When we  talk about the rhythm of English and how some  

words are unstressed what we mean is that those  weak syllables are going to start to be reduced  

and linked to other words so your speech will  become a lot more natural and will flow more.  

So we've come to the end of our lesson but do  remember that the three key areas of pronunciation  

are rhythm, intonation and stress and ultimately  connected speech which ties everything together.  

So I hope pronunciation won't hold you back any  longer and you can start working on these patterns  

to improve. But now it's time to go beyond  the classroom and live your English. Aww yeah! 

So rudimentary is another way of  saying basic or not so developed. So  

if you were to describe someone's English in  this way we would tend to think of someone with  

maybe more of a strong or thick accent. Now  what we mean by having a thick or strong accent  

is someone that is speaking English with  more of a tone and the sound of their.