Vowels bring a lot of colour to the way you speak!
A lot of the difference in English accents happens in vowels. Master those sounds and your pronunciation scores will improve significantly! This lesson will show you how.
What sounds are hardest for you? Which vowel sounds are most difficult in English? How many vowel sounds in your first language?
Get the student to reflect on where vowels are difficult for them. Typically people think in terms of spelling not sounds. They might say that "a" is difficult, when they mean the old schwa /ə/ (as in about /əbaʊt/ or banana /bənænə/—which is a great word to make a point with, since some learners will say all three "a" sounds the same*) or the vowel sound /æ/ (as in tractor /træktər/)
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* Let's all agree to disagree on how that middle "a" in "banana" is supposed to sound.
Let's tune your ears and warm up your mouth. Listen to your teacher and repeat! Don't forget to grade yourself.
Jog through some listen and repeat:
- ship / sheep
- pet / pit
- find / found
- cheer / chair
- bad / bed
Make sure your student is repeating clearly and smoothly. Make them slow down and overdo it. Make them grade themselves using the target idea from lesson 1 and focusing on monitoring & mimicking
