Pronunciation Professor: How To Improve Your Pronunciation And Become Fluent

Pronunciation Professor: How To Improve Your Pronunciation And Become Fluent | Dr. Ron Thomson

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Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 70

@默-c1r 2 ай бұрын

This was one of your best interviews. This perspective was very unique. It was interesting to hear a phonetics researcher as opposed to the people studying vocab or grammar.

@duckboki7 2 ай бұрын

Hey, thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

@默-c1r 2 ай бұрын

@@duckboki7 I enjoyed the interview very much and have listened to it a few times already, thank you for sharing your insights! I hope more language learners and teachers discover your work!

@Limemill 2 ай бұрын

All in all, this has been THE most interesting and informative language learning-related video for me in months, if not years. Thank you Dr. Thomson and Loïs

@duckboki7 2 ай бұрын

Thanks @limemill! Appreciated.

@ijafklasdf 2 ай бұрын

I'm glad you interviewed someone who specializes in pronouncation. Hopefully we see a few more of these from you.

@erikaalejandra8384 Ай бұрын

As an English learner, I feel that an accent shouldn't be a topic of conversation. Of course, we're going to have some kind of accent-we're not native speakers, and that's okay! We should feel proud of our accent because we are learning and doing something that can be really difficult: mastering another language❤

@ivanrevkov843 2 ай бұрын

Lois, could you make a video describing how You trained your american pronunciation?

@pohlpiano 2 ай бұрын

The argument for a silent period similar to the Refold system is actually a very interesting point!

@eduardoaraujo6504 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for another great interview. Your channel is an absolute must!

@loistalagrand 2 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@overlandkltolondon Ай бұрын

I am a native English speaker learning Thai. There is definitely an asymmetry in relation to speaking English with a Thai accent (acceptable) and speaking Thai with a British accent (a total non-starter). This is because English sounds present a much larger target for the speaker to hit than Thai sounds. There are sounds in Thai that do not exist in native English accents. There are vowel sounds that are distinct in Thai but which map to a single English vowel: e.g. the sounds transliterated 'oo' and 'eu' map to different accent versions of the same vowel in English, i.e. the vowel in 'school'. There is also a very strict word order in Thai. If you get any of these elements even slightly wrong, the comprehensibility is lost. It's like the difference between tuning a long wave radio signal versus a short wave signal.

@StillAliveAndKicking_ 2 ай бұрын

This is an excellent video, very informative. For a long while when I tried to produce a French accent, it felt as if I was trying to betray my roots, to pretend to be something that I’m not. In other words, it felt dishonest and not authentic. I found that listening to a large number of speakers allowed me to discover the common features, and to understand how the accent worked. I could then produce the accent naturally without sounding as if I was trying to immitate someone. One important aspect was to understand the timing of French, and how it differs from English. I now notice that English and German speakers usually cannot get the correct timing in French. I doubt very much that I would be mistaken for a French person, but they would not know which country I come from as I speak a sort of international French with no obvious regionality although seven years ago one of my French speaking bosses thought I had a Quebec accent in French. I did live there 30 years ago. I have since lost my Quebec accent as a result of listening to European French. PS Thompson is pronounced Tompson, that one is a nice gotcha for non native speakers!

@duckboki7 2 ай бұрын

I’m actually son of Tom, not son of Tomp. There’s a phonological explanation for why a “p” is inserted, and ultimately ended up leading to a misspelling (in the most common form of the name), which is etymologically absurd.

@StillAliveAndKicking_ 2 ай бұрын

@duckboki7 Yes, Robertson, Davidson, Jameson and so on. I think some pronounce your surname as Tompson, others as Tomson, at least in Britain, unless I am hearing something that is not really there.

@Limemill 2 ай бұрын

Being good enough to pass for a local during conversations is doable at an adult age even when the phonetic system is very different from your native one. I know this empirically. It is true, though, that you *can* find ways to overwhelm any such speaker to a degree where their accent and prosody start to give. But then, very similar things happen to native speakers who are extremely tired, for example. They start mumbling, mixing up sounds, intonating weirdly, etc. The way they do it would be slightly different as they don't have another default language to fall back to, but it will also be very noticeable

@overlandkltolondon Ай бұрын

I would go further and say that if the phonetic system is that far from your native tongue, then you probably *have* to develop a local level ability with the language to be understood. This is my experience with Thai: speaking Thai with a British accent is definitely a non-starter, and English with a very strong Thai accent is almost incomprehensible. Aiming for local intonation and prosody in Thai are essential if you hope to be understood without rapidly draining the energy of your listener.

@Limemill Ай бұрын

@ good point

@SoraiaLMotta 16 күн бұрын

As someone how had to pass through speech therapy for my 1st language I found facinanting that the process describe are quite similar. 1st perception in serveral chalenging ways, then how to pronounce it in different contexts, begining of the word, middle, end...

@twodyport8080 2 ай бұрын

The longer I study the more I am convinced that extensive listening is NOT the key to listening fluency. At least with what I study but maybe not all languages like Chinese. I actually think reading and speaking(imitation) are the key. I analysed a lot of audio and realized messages are compressed in real life therefore what you need to get good at understanding the way the language is templated/chunked. By that I mean, when you hear some sound your brain will "search" for the closest matching template/chunk and map that across as the meaning. Just listening does not work when the information is missing. You need that knowledge about templates/chunks. I found it best to build that up by active practice of immitation and reading. Of course to imitate you need to listen, but just listening alone is not sufficient.

@James_zai_dongbei 2 ай бұрын

What happened to your last sentence? It makes no sense

@twodyport8080 2 ай бұрын

@@James_zai_dongbei fixed

@StillAliveAndKicking_ 2 ай бұрын

I used to listen to French podcasts, and progress was slow. Later on I changed to include reading a transcript while listening, and progress was much better. As you say, real speech includes lots of contractions and deviations from careful speech, making it very hard to decode if you do not know these contractions. Reading a transcript allows the brain to learn those changes.

@asdocneter 2 ай бұрын

@@James_zai_dongbei I think he unintentionally forgot the "are" and the sentence should read: "but maybe not all languages *are* like Chinese." (but what is "listening fluency" I have no idea... how can one's hearing be fluent...?)

@mac1024 25 күн бұрын

I work as German teacher and occasionally habe students who, even after learning for 2-3 years, have no accent at all, that means I would't be able to tell if I didn't know (I had had an American, Chinese, Swede, Korean, Turk)...it happens rarely, but some people seems to hear differently.

@malenalucero6473 2 ай бұрын

This interview was very insightful. I agree with the comments saying that it's useful also listening to people specialized in pronunciation.

@Limemill 2 ай бұрын

From personal observations, I think that, for integration purposes, there is a certain threshold that has more to do with prosody than accent per se after which most locals stop noticing, subconsciously, the accent and, therefore, stop adapting their own speech and treating their interlocutor as an out group member. Would be interesting to theorize what this threshold consists of for the majority of people as this can have very powerful real-life applications for second-language acquisition

@__adachi__167 2 ай бұрын

Fascinating interview, specially the part about "um" and "uh" fillers vs. silent pauses. Please follow up with more about shadowing. Also I caught your cats getting frisky at 50:00.

@k-lala 2 ай бұрын

Thank you very much for the interview! Lois and Dr. Thomson! It was very insightful and helpful✨

@rsloma71 2 ай бұрын

This interview is very interesting. It provides a knowledge based on science but in a simple and practical way.

@jjero1 2 ай бұрын

What an incredible and useful interview. Thank you so much.

@dufifa 2 ай бұрын

Thanks, the pronounciation and speaking of guest was moderate challenging for me, no simplifying

@msmendes214 2 ай бұрын

This one was so good! Thanks so much! (also, your English accent is so good that I truly would have never guessed you are a native French speaker. Lol like the gentleman mentioned, yes I can hear hints of pronunciation differences in your accent that don't exist in a native English speaker's accent but it's so small that I personally can't pinpoint what is the native language)

@Alec72HD 2 ай бұрын

If you didn't know about Kiwi or Aussie accents, wouldn't you think they have a foreign accent ?

@msmendes214 2 ай бұрын

@Alec72HD I think of those accents as regional. But I'm not sure I'd think of it as a foreign accent in the same way I do when someone wasn't a native English speaker. For example, I can tell hindu/urdu speakers aren't native English speakers completely separate from the fact their English is usually UK accented

@dylanx9327 24 күн бұрын

Effective methods: 1. you need to present the sound contrasts in multiple phonetic environments/context - more words (like minimal pairs) 2. multipole voice/talkers to listen to (about 3 talkers).. 3. Immediate (item by item) feedback.. you have to be corrected immediately on your accuracy...either that you got it correct/ or if wrong, hear correct pronunciation again/ or be told what they thought it was that you said.. 4. stick to only one dialect...

@eduardoidiomas5216 2 ай бұрын

That was a good one!

@mle3699 2 ай бұрын

Great interview, very insightful. Thank you.

@fabianpm23 25 күн бұрын

Thanks

@Autumn_Forest_ 17 күн бұрын

@00:06 The Professor’s surname is pronounced “TAHM-suhn” (the H in Thompson is silent).

@ghazypheda 2 ай бұрын

شكرا

@duckboki7 2 ай бұрын

خوشی ہوئی کہ آپ نے اسے پسند کیا۔

@christiankennes6050 2 ай бұрын

Interesting interview on new topics

@maybeide8078 2 ай бұрын

"King's english", exactly, that's what I learned at school in Germany. Really funny, talking to the US collegues using "Queen's" english. Unfortunately, in the US "slang" is used extensively, even by the president, especially the new one, Mr. Trump, as well. And this is not taught at school, moreover it is seen as an error.

@To-lose-La-track 2 ай бұрын

Learning is finding out what you already know.(с) Richard Bach

@little_engine_goes_to_Thailand 2 ай бұрын

I learned Chinese (Mandarin) while working in Taiwan. I can play online video games with Chinese players, and most don't realize I'm a foreigner. Some may ask which part of China I'm from because of my accent (possibly influenced by a Taiwanese accent). Occasionally, they don't even believe me when I say I'm a foreigner. While I'm far from fluent, on a good day, I can pull it off.

@YogaBlissDance 2 ай бұрын

THAT'S a limited vocabulary, I think he meant in a certain context, there would be a "tell" a word or use of phrase that would mark u as non native.

@little_engine_goes_to_Thailand 2 ай бұрын

@@YogaBlissDance Here’s a corrected version of your text: Yes, definitely- totally agree. What I was trying to convey is that with the right motivation and attention to detail, it is possible to train your mouth and vocal cords to produce new sounds. Accents are simply the result of applying your pre-learned vocal patterns to the sounds of a newly learned language.

@Dr_haytam 2 ай бұрын

Is using babbel and pimsleur at the same time à good idea in order to learn german

@keepitshort4208 2 ай бұрын

I'm a very slow learner and I want to learn Turkish. I'm more of a reality escapist, so it's hard for me to have interest in things. what's the best way for someone like me who is way below average level ?. Also would appreciate if you could let me know the prompt that i can use to learn the language through chatgpt.

@georgettezanker7499 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for your incredibly informative interviews. However, just went to your Anki core decks to find that no Black Friday discount has been applied. Yet...

@bantorio6525 18 күн бұрын

... (5:32) ... even though Lois has a good command of English, I'm able to detect that he has an accent ... and there's nothing wrong with that ...

@asdocneter 2 ай бұрын

Stating that 'nobody gets there completely' is an inaccurate generalization. I think that achieving an undetectable accent as a by-product of mastering a language (in terms of vocabulary, grammar, etc.) is indeed unlikely and often results in an approximation at best. However, if the learner prioritizes accent training and prosody as integral components of language acquisition, and works with a dedicated coach, this skill-like any other category (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, reading)-can be refined and perfected. I'm 48 years old, and English is my second language (Hebrew is my first). Despite this, I have absolutely no detectable accent-my speech is predominantly Californian, with an occasional hint of Texan. Not only do I teach English, but I am also a practicing accent coach, specializing in helping learners refine their pronunciation and master the nuances of American English. Although uncommon, a few students and accent trainees have undeniably achieved a perfect General American accent.

@Limemill 2 ай бұрын

He does make a strange remark right after where he says maybe it's possible to pull it off when it comes to regular conversations, but that, given the right test, you can still "break" someone's accent. Which is interesting, of course and makes sense but pulling it off for conversational purposes is what 99% of the people would consider to be the goal. Additionally, I think given the right test it's possible to make even a native speaker begin to mispronounce words

@asdocneter 2 ай бұрын

@@marcelosilveira7079 My line of work, and specifically the nature of my particular job, doesn't necessitate a website. But if you want to share with me what you're looking for, perhaps I can help you find it 🙏

@asdocneter 2 ай бұрын

@@marcelosilveira7079 My line of work, and specifically the nature of my particular job, doesn't necessitate a website. But if you want to share with me what you're looking for. perhaps I can help you find it 🙏

@tanyastepanova1631 2 ай бұрын

Cats in the background 😂❤

@malemaline 2 ай бұрын

How do you work on pronunciation with a class of 30 and one teacher?

@yukiyuki1263 2 ай бұрын

Can this pronunciation expert speak any foreign languages fluently with beautiful pronunciation?

@duckboki7 2 ай бұрын

If I could, that would falsify my claim that it’s unrealistic to aim for accent free L2 speech. My Urdu pronunciation is definitely comfortably intelligible, however.

@stephenmetzler729 2 ай бұрын

If you take the average non native speaker of course that is the case, but if you take an opera singer or british actors using am American accent. I do not believe this persons statement. It is just wrong because even though it is the case for the majority that have not changed to a fully native pronunciation. I myself learned Chinese and don’t really have an accent. I feel like this person only knows what is likely not what is possible.

@zak8953 2 ай бұрын

You almost certainly have a foreign accent. It's more likely native speakers aren't giving you accurate or honest feedback. Even though Loïs speaks FANTASTIC English, he has a foreign accent and certain other non-native habits and patterns. Which is interesting because a lot of the professional linguists do not point this out for whatever reason. Again, this is not to take away from Lois' English ability as it is very high. I do have a bit of an obsession with second language acquisition as an adult with regards to accent and pronunciation.

@Limemill Ай бұрын

@@zak8953 I've absolutely met / heard people of all sorts of origins who have learned my mother tongue to a point where I would not be able to tell them apart from native speakers. Sometimes it actually creates issues because you then start treating them as full-fledged native speakers and relax completely in your messaging, but they don't necessarily get all the cultural memes, obscure slang, etc.

@DestinationNative 2 ай бұрын

Save yourself the hour this interview takes, and just do Shadowing drills on a daily basis in your TL. It really is that simple. Do that for 30 days, and watch as your pronunciation, and comprehension (by pure repetition of vocabulary multiple times), goes through the roof. Everything else is chaff.