Mastering English pronunciation is a big challenge for non-native speakers of English because most English words are not pronounced as they are spelt. For example, ‘Leicester’ is pronounced ‘les-ter’ (two syllables) and not ‘ley-ces-ter’ (three syllables) and the letter ‘k’ is silent in the word ‘knee’ and is pronounced ‘nee’ and not ‘knee’. Since a person’s English speaking skill or proficiency is judged by their pronunciation, constant exposure to native speakers’ English (for example, by listening to BBC or VOA news regularly) is required to achieve proficiency in the language. The focus of this week’s column is on two pronunciation apps for smartphone users to install and to practice English pronunciation.
Sounds: The Pronunciation App (www.soundspronapp.com) is a great mobile English pronunciation tool for all those who are interested in improving their pronunciation in English. The app, based on Adrian Underhill’s best-selling Sound Foundations, helps the user study and practice pronunciation. It works with any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS version 4.0 or any Android device running OS 2.0.
This app also has excellent features and one of them is the interactive phonemic chart which shows the 44 sounds of English in three different sections: vowels (12), diphthongs (8) and consonants (24). By tapping on a symbol, the user can hear the sound and by tapping on and holding a symbol they can hear the sound and an example word. They have the option of choosing either British or American English.
The free version of the app has only limited features whereas the premium edition, which costs $6, has many advanced features and more exercises for practice. The features include Vocabulary Wordlist, Top Ten Tips for Teachers, Teaching Plans for Teachers, Teaching with the Chart workshop video, and Top Ten Tips for Students. The Wordlist has over 650 high frequency words. Every word in the Wordlist has an audio recording that goes with it.
They can record their own pronunciation of a word and play it back, then compare it with the model provided. They can also practice their pronunciation in different ways like reading a word in the phonetic script and writing the correct word or seeing the spelling of a word and writing its phonetic symbols or listening to the pronunciation of a word and keying in the word heard.
Here are examples:
1) /ʤɔɪn/ join, /læm/ lamb, /nʌθɪŋ/ nothing,
2) taxi /tæksɪ/, announcement /ənaʊnsmənt/.
Pronounce it Right (www.pronounceitright.com/app_pronounceitright.php) is a very useful tool for anyone who finds it difficult to pronounce unfamiliar names. This application helps the user learn the correct pronunciation of non-English and other unfamiliar names of all major poets, authors, philosophers and celebrities such as Marina Ivanovna, Gilles Deleuze and Friedrich Ludwig. Users of the app can listen to the pronunciations directly from the app, without going online.
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk