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The 9 most important sounds for fluent English!
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Aren’t all sounds important for fluent English? Yes absolutely. Yet, there are 9 sounds or phonemes which, in my opinion, are crucial for clear and fluent English. The reason that I consider these phonemes to be critical is their frequency. In other words, they are more common than other sounds, hence important. If you…
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Spoken English through rap music
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Why rap music is good for improving English speaking and listening? Basically, I think of rap as the modern and hip version of tongue twisters. We all know what tongue twisters are good for. Rap though could potentially play a more powerful role in training the learner’s mouth and ears in producing and perceiving…
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What is a good song for teaching Conditional II?
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It’s “One Of Us” by Joan Osborne There you go! Now you know. But if you’re not in a hurry, stick around for a little longer and let me tell you what else you can do with the song ;). [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn7rIarpQBk&w=300&h=225] Well as you know, when you use conditional II (and III), you’re…
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The schwa sound explained
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What is the schwa sound? It is a very LAZY and typically quick and short. In the world of colors, it is equivalent to GREY. In the world of drinks, it is equivalent to water, NO TASTE! Got the idea? I say it’s lazy, because we don’t need to make any effort with the…
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Pronunciation Teaching: The Basics
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Pronouncing [t] in natural English
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In natural English, whether American, Canadian and Australian English (mainly), there are various ways to pronounce “t”. And I truly believe it is vital for English learners to be aware of how to pronounce “t” depending on what comes before or after it. 7 ways to pronounce “t” in natural English 1-Aspirated: Released with…
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How adult learners of English go wrong!
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Language is a complex set of utterances or sounds humans use to decode each others’ messages. Allow me to use the following metaphor: You turn your PC on, it asks you to log in. You punch in your password, a series of letters and numbers which the computer has to recognize and read to…
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Vowels Clipping
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What is vowels clipping? Or just clipping in phonetics? EVERY detail matters in language especially if you are really trying to sound closer to native speakers of English. One of those details that make a difference in how you sound is “clipping”. Clipping is the process of shortening sounds particularly vowels, and mainly long…
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Are you good enough to sell in English?
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We are all selling something aren’t we? We sell our skills and experience to future employers. We sell our vision to potential investors. We sell products to consumers and services to clients. Some of us even try to sell Gods to non-believers. Never before has the ability to sell been more critical for survival…
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8 must-know BE phrasal verbs VI
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Today, we’re going to look at “BE+AHEAD+OF” as an idiom as that is how it is commonly used. 6-He’s ahead of… Steve Jobs was definitely ahead of his time. = Steve Jobs’ ideas were way too modern, just as if they (the ideas) had come to him from the future. Now if we just…