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Tuesday 1 October 2013

Does pronunciation scare you?

Spanish students of English tend to be too ashamed when it comes to getting the right pronunciation. Some students are so scared that they prefer not to speak at all! Break free from your bonds and have a laugh with Gloria. I'm sure you've already seen her on TV.

Then do the second part of this worksheet.
And, of course, post a comment:  how important is pronunciation  for you?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I think that pronunciation is important when you speak in English. I'd say that in English there are words with similar pronunciation but with very different meanings so If you don't pronounce these words correctly perhaps you could be misunderstood. A good example could be the difference in pronunciation between "beach" and "bitch".
However the pronunciation isn't a huge problem when you want to comunicate in English because other people can understand what you mean using the context of the conversation.

Marta Estévez

Sara Carrero said...

Pronunciation is very important for me, because if you don’t pronounce words in a correct way, people won’t understand you. In fact, a friend of mine went to England few months ago and he had problems to have a bath because he didn’t pronounce the word “shower” correctly.
However, pronunciation and accent are not the same thing. You must have a good pronunciation but keeping your own accent.

MChary said...

In my opinion a mispronunciation gives a misunderstood. Actually this results in bad situations and you finish giving up friendship or relation. Once I was speaking about my daugther and the other person understood doctor. In this occasion it was funny. But this is not always as the other examples that my classmates have written. A good pronunciation makes a good understanding. Although you can communicate you can feel bad because you have to explain a lot to be understood. So , the better your pronunciation, the better you will be understood. The more you listen to, the more you speak. It is a homework forever, ufff

Unknown said...

I feel that a good pronuntiation is the result of years speaking a language among native speakers. The more relaxed you feel and the less you think in this matter the better you´ll speak.
On the other hand, in my view it is really complicate to hide your accent as a foreigner, but this is not important in order to be understood. For exemple, I am from Valencia and people tell me day after day ... where are you from? You aren´t from Huelva. And evidently they understand me or I hope so!!!

Unknown said...

In my opinion many people can speak English, but, can they communicate reasonably well?
In the case of Gloria, a non-native speaker of English, I feel very embarrassed when i hear your voice.But at the same time, it´s very funny to see how she move your hands or your body to emphasize all the things that she want to say; maybe because she know perfectly that your pronunciation is difficult to understand for other persons.

gabi said...

Well, obviously I agree with my classmates. We must be aware that important is a correct pronunciation maybe the most important for me. You can have learnt a lot of grammar or have written a lot of letters o mails but at the end, the main way of communication between people are the words. As said Raul a good pronunciation is the result of years learning and training . Unfortunately, Sofia Vergara, one of the best Latin American actress paid , needs more of two things.

Rocío M. Gómez said...

I feel that pronunciation is very important now that I'm in an advanced level of English and I often look up in the on-line dictionary how I have to pronounce the new that I've learnt and even I check the old words I already knew.
When I started learning English I thought that the most important was to learn by heart the new vocabulary and to remember how to write it. But, as I said before, all is different now and I realize that pronunciation is basic to establish a good communication either with native or non-native speakers.

Eugenio said...

What a nice video. I´ve never seen this series on TV, but I´ve just noticed that it is really funny.
I´ve enjoyed the way in which the main character mispronounce.
I couldn´t agree more with my classmates. Although Gloria have really serious problems with her pronunciation, you can understand her, but sometimes misunderstanding can lead you to a huge problem.
One friend of mine couldn´t buy a comb at the Chemist´s because of a mispronunciation.

Eugenio said...

CORRECTIONS (I´m sorry)

What a nice video. I´ve never seen this series on TV BEFORE,...


I´ve enjoyed the way in which the main character mispronounceS.

Although Gloria REALLY have serious problems...