屠蓓-英语语音学习方法.doc

How to Improve Your English PronunciationPresented by Prof . Tu BeiEnglish pronunciation is different from Phonetics and Phonology; Im not going to talk about Phonetics and Phonology. What is Phonetics? Phonetics is “语音学”, Phonology is “音位学”. And these things are too theoretical,太理论了, so we are going to have a very very practical lecture, and this is not a lecture, and this is just a talk. Im going to give you a very practical talk and in this talk, Im going to give you a few tips, practical tips. Do you know this word “tip”? Tip. If you go to the hotel, sometimes you give the tips to-(laugh)to, to whom? To the attendant. If you go to the restaurant, you give the tip to the waiters and waitress. I dont mean that after this lecture, you will give me some tip. Umm I dont accept tips. so obviously, tip has another meaning that is a tip means a piece of advice, or some good suggestions, or even some very good methods. All right, yes, so Im going to give you a few tips, very practical tips. You can use them right away after this talk. Do you like that?. (Yes). Very good. And in my presentation, Im going to ask you a lot of questions. And Im going to ask you to join me a lot. Will you join me in the practice and in the exercises? (Yes). Very good. Now when we talk about English pronunciation, this is a very big topic. Do you think that we can cover everything in two hours? Thats impossible. 两个小时要把英语语音讲完，不可能。So thats why I try to narrow down. I want to narrow down to what? How to improve your English pronunciation? Ok. And I want to narrow down, even narrow down to how to improve your pronunciation with some good tips. All right. When we talk about language, we usually talk about language in two different senses, narrow sense and broad sense. 我们讲语言的话，有的时候我们说从狭义的去讲，从广义的去讲。Im going to talk about language in the narrow sense today. 今天从狭义的来讲。A language consists of three parts, sound, vocabularyand what else? grammar. All right? This is in the narrow sense. 从窄义的来讲，语言是什么？分成音，词汇和语法。Ok. Sound ,音) comes first. So English pronunciation is very important for us to learn a language. And Im going to talk about a lot how important English pronunciation is. When we talk about English pronunciation, we must ask ourselves five questions. Five QuestionsAll right? Do we have the five questions here? Ok. AhFive questions. Im going to answer the five questions one by one later. But lets have the five questions first. The first question is, what is good English pronunciation. Why this question is important? Because we want to set ourselves goals,我们要给自己定一个目标。Ok. What is the second question? Why is good English pronunciation so important? Why this question? If you know this is important, you would work hard to achieve the goals. Is that right? So we need the second question. What is the third question? 3、What impede or enhance the acquisition ofa reasonable pronunciation?What impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation? This is a very big question, right? Yes. Now, the acquisition of a good English pronunciation meaning 要取得一个很好的发音，要取得一个不错的发音，什么是阻碍你的，去取得一个好的发音，什么是推进你，帮助你去发音？All right? 所以这个问题的意思就说， what you are going to do and what you are not going to do, the dos and donts. All right? Yes. And the next question is: what are the priorities for Chinese learners. 首先对中国学生要解决的语音问题是什么？If you know the answer to this question, you know how to invest your time and effort. The last question: What are the tips on good English pronunciation? All right? 要想要取得一个好的发音，有什么诀窍啊？Now you are going to get some tips today. All right? Wait. Wait. Im going to tell you. Ok. Now lets answer the questions one by one. Ok? 1、What is good English pronunciation?No. 1. What is good English pronunciation? A lofty goal. This is very lofty. I cant reach. If I cant reach, this is too lofty for me. So a lofty goal meaning 非常高的一个目标。语音的目标非常高的目标是什么呀？Sound like native speakers. 我的语音的目标,我要和美国人讲得一模一样。Thats too lofty. Its very difficult to reach. Is that right? Its very difficult for me because Im old. Were adults. And the next goal. This is what I want to recommend 这是我要向大家推荐的一个目标. What is that? A modest, realistic goal 一个适度的，一个现实的，一个很适当的，对我们来说合适的这么一个目标是什么呀？To develop 培养一个什么样的呢 clear pronunciation. This is very important. If you dont speak clearly 说话不清楚，那人家也听不懂。Clear. Understandable. All right? Do you understand me? Ok. So my English is clear and understandable. All right? Pronunciation with 这个with after this with,with以后就比较难一点了. With appropriate intonation 语调 and stresses 重音. All right. Now these are the key words. Today, Im going to talk about this a lot. This goal I can reach. Do you think you can reach? Do you think you can reach this goal? Yes. Everybody can reach this goal. Because this goal is modest and realistic. 这个目标人人都可以达到，but with some effort. All right? You must invest enough time and effort. For adults, 对成人来说，to sound like native speaker is very very tough, very very difficult. Besides, not many people need to sound like native speakers. 你觉得我们所有中国人学英文都要学得象本国人学得一样吗？不需要。Only very few people, they need such pronunciation, like radio announcer, like TV anchorman and anchorwoman. Is that right? Like teachers who teach English. All right? Yes.只有少数人他需要lofty goal. But most people, why do you learn English? You want to learn English to communicate. Is that right? In both spoken English and written English. When I say communicate”, 我们学英语是为了交流吧，交流是书面的交流和口头的交流。我们达到这个交流的目的就行了。But clear, understandable, with appropriate stress and intonation . Is that ok? Yes. This is very important. All right? Ok. The kind of English 什么样的英语呢？我再加几句，Native speakers, they will accept, they will understand. 你说的英语是native speakers can accept and understand 这个你跟美国人交流，英国人交流的时候，他能够听懂你的话，他觉得可以就行了。But, but comfortably intelligible. Do you know this word intelligible ? Intelligible 就是说能听懂，understandable. 但是有一个地方有点难， comfortably understandable, not painfully understandable. 要让人家听得很舒服地我听懂了，而不是我很痛苦地我听懂了。所以我们现在的努力在什么地方，comfortably understandable. Ok？ You will speak the kind of English native speakers will accept and will understand comfortably although the pronunciation is not perfect. Its not like native speaker. All right? So this is the goal. So this is the goal. All right? Lets move on to the next question. 2、Why is good English pronunciation so important ?Comfortably understandable. Why? Why is good English pronunciation so important? 为什么语音好这么重要啊？我不喜欢语音，我就喜欢写，我就喜欢词汇，我能把字典都背出来。Ok. 今天我就要说服你。English pronunciation is very important. Its more important than learn all the words from dictionary by heart. All right? Why? Ok. Just now we said the purpose of learning a language is to communicate. If you want to communicate with people, you want to understand and to be understood. Is that right? You must understand and to be understood. This is your purpose. 我想听懂你的，我也想让你听懂我的。 就这么简单。So to make yourself understood. All right? I will give you a few reasons. If you have a good pronunciation, all right? You have confidence. Why? When you have confidence, you have good pronunciation. You have confidence to communicate with native speakers. 你要是语音好的话，你就有信心，你外国人来我不怕，我说了你能听懂，你说的我也能听懂。Is that right? So you have confidence. All right? And if you have good pronunciation, its just like you (have a) girls, have a beautiful dress, and boys in the very well-cut suits, all right? suits and tie. All right? Yes.穿着西装笔挺去参加会。You give people very good impression. First impression is very important. 你给人家的第一印象好不好啊？穿得很得体。Is that right? First impression is very often the last impression. Ok, so if you have good pronunciation, you give people good impression. And more important, if you have good pronunciation, you have more opportunities. Do you think so? 你要是英语好的话，你机会比人家多。If you go to job interviews, 叫什么？去面试的时候， 我当然选择我能听懂的那个人， 我听不懂的那个人， oh, sorry. So you can have more opportunities. You can go to the radio, you can go to the TV, like Yang Lan. Her pronunciation is good. All right? So she had more opportunities. Of course, she had other talents as well. So you have more opportunities if you have good pronunciation. If you have good pronunciation, you can make more friends. Because you can go to parties. All right? You can communicate with people and people like to talk with you. You can make more friends. So why not have good pronunciation? Good pronunciation goes a long way. Do you understand me? Good pronunciation goes a long way, goes very far. 有一个好的发音啊，你可以受用终身。Do you think so? Yes. So good pronunciation goes a long way. I give you an example, if at a party, ok, in this party, everybody should speak English. At the party, you learn English, you want to try your English, you want to talk with an American, the American comes to you. He says, “Lovely day, isnt it?” And he speaks so fast. You dont understand. You say, “I beg your pardon”. He knows that your English is not so good, so he slows down. He says, “Lovely day, isnt it”. “Lovely day, Lovely dayPlease say it again.” And then he says, “Lovely day, isnt it?” “Im sorry. I dont understand you.” And then the American says, “Oh, I said I want to talk to someone else. See you later.” “I beg your pardon.” You still dont understand. Its very embarrassing. Do you think so? Yes. So. He, his English is not understandable, is not that kind of English that is clear with appropriate intonation and stress. He doesnt understand others. All right? So this is important. Lets move on to the third question. Next one: What impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation? 什么影响你有一个好的发音啊？就是这个意思。Ok. Now. No 1. The learners native language,你的母语会影响你发音的。So dont think: my Chinese is very good. Of course, our Chinese is very good. So you think, when I learn English, I can use Chinese to learn English. I can write Chinese under the words. Thats the worst way to learn English, English pronunciation. Somebody writes down “三克油”,咱们炒菜的油，三克就够了,“三克油”就是 “Thank you”. And I think you can give a lot of other words. Dont do that. This is no good. Because native language does not enhance, I mean, pronunciation. Sometimes, its a drawback, draw you back, all right? So when you are learning English, try to get away from the influences of your native language. When I say “native language”, I also mean your regional dialects. You are from Shan Dong, you are from He Bei, you are from Hunan and all parts of China. Dont try to find the similar sounds from youre your regional language. 不要到你自己的方言里找相同的类似的发音。“哎，我的那个方言里有这个音诶，差不多诶”Dont do that. When you are learning English pronunciation, you are learning a new language. Its brand-new. Its new. All right? Yes. Start from scratch，从头开始. I tell you I learned Russian when I was in the middle school, so I was lucky. When I came to this university, I learned English from scratch, from the very beginning. All right? I didnt have many bad influences. Ok? Yes. Well, in the Chinese saying, a piece of white paper, blank paper, you can draw the best picture，一张白纸上可以画最新最美的图画。如果你现在已经不是一张白纸了，你就把你当成一张白纸从头来起。This is the best way. Native language,主要就是说，尽量地不要和中文去对比, 要对比对比它们的不同点, 不要对比它们的相同点, 我可以告诉大家英文里头没有跟中文一模一样的音，没有一模一样，只有差不多的音。All right. This is the first one. The second one is the learners age.年龄。Ok. The learners age. The younger the age when you begin to learn English, the better your pronunciation. Generally speaking, 总的来说. So the earlier, the better. But its never too late to learn. This is what I want to tell you. Ok. The earlier, the better, but its never too late to learn. 越早学英语, 你的发音会越好，但是任何时候开始学英语都不晚。Please remember this: The earlier, the better, but its never too late to learn. All right? Why the earlier, the better? I think the reason is very easy. All right? I want to say something. I think its very sadits a sad thing in China and also in some other parts of the world many children, they are learning incorrect pronunciation every day. Its a sad thing. Why? Because children, they learn very fast. All right? Once you learned, its very difficult to unlearn. Do you know this word? Learn, unlearn. 学到了, 然后错了, 我重新把它改过来，unlearn, which is difficult. It is more so for English pronunciation. 在这点上, 发音是最最难的. Just now, I said language has grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation. All right? Its a sad thing children are learning English incorrect pronunciation. 如果这些孩子们在那里学英文, 老师是发音不正确的话, 这是害了他, 而不是帮了他。为什么? 语音一旦学会了, 要改比词汇, 比语法要难得多。我的拼法错了, book, b-o-a-k, no, thats wrong. Ok, b-o-o-k. You correct. But if you pronounce book incorrectly, I have to correct you again and again. Today I correct you. Tomorrow you go back. And I have to help you with a lot of exercises. Oh. Very painful. Do you think so? So once you learned, its very difficult to unlearn, with English pronunciation, with any pronunciation. So if you want to learn English pronunciation, try to find a good model. Model,不是那个模特, 要穿衣服学模特, 要学好的发音要找一个好的样板.你要是找不到一个老师, 你找磁带啊, 你找录像啊, 录音啊. The best. Is that ok? If you learn from a teacher whose pronunciation is not so good, it will be very difficult for you to correct. So age. The earlier, the better, and try to find a good model. All right? Lets move on. The learners exposure. What is exposure? 暴露。我们现在都暴露在这个灯光下,暴露在太阳下。也就是你接触英语的,你接触英语的时间和程度，Your exposure. 我这个地方还要加上一个,你接触英语的时间,程度,和是好的英语还是差的英语. Ok? The learners exposure is also important. Ok. Try to find every opportunity to be exposed to good English as much as possible. 想办法让自己暴露在好的英文里头。这个翻译是直译的,意思就是说,你要找机会让自己接触英语, all right? Yes. To find as much as possible. I think today is an opportunity. All right? Yes. And you have many other opportunities. We have a series of lectures. All right? Yes. So try to seize every opportunity, all right? Try to be exposed to good English as much as possible. Is that ok? All right. Next one. The learners innate phonetic ability. Phonetic 就是语音的, ability是能力,innate 就是有点天生的了。这个,学语音嘛, 有的时候有点不公平, 有的人,some people they have more ability, some people, they have more innate abilities. And some people have less innate abilities. All right? We call it aptitude, 天赋. So some people learn quicker, faster and some people learn better than others just like to learn to play the piano, to play ballet. All right? Yes. Different people have different abilities. If you have innate phonetic ability, you are lucky. All right? If you dont have innate phonetic ability, dont feel upset. You work harder. You redouble your efforts. You can make it. You can do as well as those who have innate phonetic abilities. 我在这儿不是瞎说的,我们在这儿北外的老师都知道,我们教过多少学生, 有的学生他有语音天赋,但是他不用功.有的学生他没有语音天赋,但是他特别地用功, 他特别地努力,最后还不是一样地好吗? Ok. Hesitant. InonohenonoThis is bad speech habit. Ok. If you speak like that, your English sounds very jerky, not very fluently, not very smooth. Do you know smooth? We say, when you speak, we speak just like water flows. Ok? But now, the water is not flow. The water is like that (手势). Its not right. This is also important. If you have bad speech habits, try to get rid of them. So we finished all the five questions. All right? Now lets move on to the big question number 4.4、What are the priorities for Chinese learners?What are the priorities for Chinese learners? Im going to spend most of the time on the last two topics. For the Chinese learners, remember, the tips, the tips are coming. What are the priorities for Chinese learners?再把这句话说一遍中文是什么？对中国学英语的人来说，最首要要解决的问题是什么？All right? This is very important, because in English pronunciation, you have a lot of aspects. 英文里头语音当中项目也挺多的，for instance, sounds, consonants, vowels, 就是语音有单音，有元音，有辅音，and stresses, intonation, linkage连读, loss of plosion, incomplete plosion, 失去爆破，等等，intonation, and rhythm, a lot of things. But what are the most important things for us Chinese students to solve? All right? Number 1. Weak forms.可能大家没想到吧，怎么把弱读放在第一个？Yes. Yes. I want to stress this. I want to emphasize. 我今天就要强调这个,weak forms. Because this is very important. Ok, lets go on. Word stress. Stress,重音, Word stress,单词重音. Next one must be sentence stress (语句重音). And the next one, rhythm. This is a new word. Actually you are very good at rhythm. Young people, nowadays, are very good at rhythm. 现在的年轻人，这个rhythm 特别好。节奏特别好。Because of disco, disco, dancing. Rhythm就是节奏。Learn this word after me. 学这个字。 Read after me: Rhythmrhythmrhythm. Very good. Ok? Next one. Intonation. Ok? Intonation. I think these are priorities for Chinese students. If you want to learn English pronunciation well, you must put these things first on the top of your list. Is that ok? All right. Now you probably will ask me a question. What about the sounds, vowels and consonants? 你的意思就是说元音和辅音就不重要了？No. I didnt mean that. 我没有说它们不重要。我是说它们的重要程度对中国学生来说没有这几个更重要。Single sounds are important. 这个单音也重要。单音重要是在什么情况下？在它不影响你理解意思的情况下，单音可以稍稍马虎一点。For instance, pleasure. This sound appears in just a few words in English. 英文里头有 这个音的词不是特别多。所以它不太容易引起误解。如果你发得不是特别好，你说Its a pleasure to me. People understand you. All right? People understand you. It does not affect understandability.它不影响人的理解，就不太要紧。But listen, I give you some examples. He is sick.他生病了。Right? If you say ik, , what does ik mean? Meaning he is stupid脑子笨. and s 在这种情况下单音就一定要发准，because they affect understandability ,影响理解了。Is that right? He is sick and he is thick. Now give you another example. Listen. Somebody said to me, “I have a lot of keys.”你有好多钥匙啊？No, no, I have a lot of keys. 哦，你有好多大大小小的钥匙啊？Oh, no, no, I have a lot of keys. They call me Mommy. 哦，你有好多钥匙，他们叫你Oh, nono, not keys, oh, you mean kids. 哦，你有好多小孩，他们都叫你妈妈。I have a lot of keys. You should have saidHow to say it? Kids. Kids. Kids. Well, this is important. 单音到这个地方就重要了，它影响你的理解了就重要了。Dont say I have a lot of keys. 在中国也没有这种情况，I have a lot of kids. So these things are important. Whywhy are they so important? I finished this. Ok. Please move on. Number 5.5、What are the tips on good English pronunciation?What are the tips on good English pronunciation? Here are the tips. 这个tips可以翻做给你们一些建议呀，给你们一些诀窍呀，给你们一些好的方法呀，all right? First, you must know, you must have the