Speak English Naturally: My pronunciation secret for difficult words

TRANSCRIPT

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".

[jaimeherrera]

Even having English as my first language, I still had trouble with spelling because of phonetic but after learning back chaining, it made a million more sense. Thank you!

[hammaadali]

Dear ma'am you don't know that you're my favorite tutor as well and you know when you teaching i feel like directly you're talking to me. I don't feel that i am watching your channel i feel like that you're in front of me and i am attend you live class. And your teaching sense is brilliant. I watched other tutors video but i couldn't feel as like you.
Thank you very much!!!

[goodearth]

She is undoubtedly one of the best Teachers I have come across ; she comes to the point straight away with total clarity, makes learning English grammar a pleasure ! Best regards from India

[edgarclaudiovelascoguzman]

Another brilliant lesson of yours teacher Rebecca. Thanks for your hardwork, your way of teaching is just outstanding!
Best regards from Bolivia!

[thiagoluis]

Rebecca. You changed the way I have been learning english. I'm so glad to find your videos. You're so much kind. Thank you!

[isabelolsson]

I thank you Rebecca for your lessons, I am sure that many people like me benefit from your knowledge and experience. My best regards to you, from Sweden. 🙅🙅🙅🙅🙅❤️❤️❤️❤️😄😄😄😄😄

[philv]

I think the most important lesson when learning English as a foreign language is this:

When learning vocabulary, always hear how it is pronounced. Otherwise, there is a good chance you will learn it wrong and nobody will understand you.

[hamzaabou]

The best English teacher i have ever seen
I really appreciate what you do for us
Greetings from Morocco

[Profadrialves]

I've never learned that way you teach! You're awesome.
thank you so much for all your amazing lessons. ❤💪👏👏👏👏

[gracepagcanlungan]

Thank you Ma'am for you have been sharing your knowledge to us. Honestly, I'm not fluent speaking in English but I should learn this. God bless

[sukanyachauhan]

Hey Rebecca!!
I'm glad to find your channel. You are best for me. I checked multiple lessons by you on YouTube also solved questions on engvid.
I really love the way you share stuff. I enjoying seeing you teaching English like this. Never had any tutor like you before in my life.

You come so prepared with your content. Provide examples and the way you do the question and answers ' yes I know you get it, that's correct' it feels you are just in front of me and guiding me.

Love your teaching style.... 🥰😘

[phumzilemanyathi]

Thanks so much, the back chaining technic really helped. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me.

[ysisauroradiazgamboa]

Life put you in front of me. You're amazing covering my holes to stay flat...
Thanks Rebecca for being present!

[mariamkinen]

I appreciate your style. I was told that I have a naturally 'English' r. It's soft. Doesn't roll . 😊no fear, mimic. Kids mimic what they hear... btw. I have done this with my students. At first very many fear...

[anilkumar]

You're a very nice teacher Ma'am 😊🙏

[chrisvershaw]

Personally, the words mentioned in this video pose no pronunciation problems. An unfamiliar vocabulary word that is difficult to spell and pronounce, such as giardiniera, creates a problem. English incorporates words from many different languages, e.g. Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German, and etc. When English does this, it often keeps the foreign spelling and pronunication; for example, a word such as with the standard english pronounced alphabet and spelling. Good Luck and God Rebecca's backchaining method stands on solid ground. As mentioned, a reputable dictionary and an IPA chart are authoritative.

[washimkhan]

Hello Miss,
I learn a lot of Subject from you, Thanks and Best regards,
Md.Washim Khan, Bangladesh.

[giftythomas]

Dividing the words into syllables is a good way of learning pronunciation...but actually for those whose mother tongue is not English, ' stress' is the key aspect to get the pronunciation correct.

[homeschoolmadrasa]

That is amazing: isn't it actually the way in which little babies learn to speak?? Having experience with many children at home, I know when a child starts speaking, he / she repeats the last part of words or sentences he/she hears . So it means the backchaining is probably more natural and spontaneous, isn't it? Wonderful!

[vsc]

OMG! The knowledge pronunciation is very easy! Thanks for this video!