Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: English sounds

My English sounds are quite a bit off. Instead of trying to speak 
faster, I'll now try to speak slower and get every single sound as close 
as possible to the intended one.
Do you know where I could find some recording of *very* slow speech?
The ESL podcasts are a little too fast for my purpose.
Kiuhnm

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Hi, why don't try with some english lessons for children?
(for example there's some children's stuff here
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/
)
If you're rather intrested in a word-by-word pronounciation, look at this
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=&submit=Submit
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/

 little too fast for my purpose.
Hai provato i brani in "special English" della VOA?
www.voanews.com/specialenglish/
Inoltre potrebbero interessarti 
http://www.btinternet.com/~eptotd/vm/vowelmachine/vowelmachine.htm
e
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/
(richiede Flash 7 o superiore)

 
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=&submit=Submit
Sorry!
I forgot to tell you that my target is *American* English.
Kiuhnm

 (richiede Flash 7 o superiore)
Do you remember who signaled that last link on this ng? :-)
Kiuhnm

 wrote in message
news:48d7998f$0$41655$4faf...@reader4.news.tin.it...
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You're not going to improve your listening comprehension or your speech by
listening to or imitating speakers who speak slower than normal people do.
According to this logic, singers should sing slower so that you can
understand them. You might understand them better, but would it still be
music?
The speakers on VOA broadcasts presented in  "special English" speak slowly
not because they want you to imitate them, but because they want you to
understand the material they are presenting.
The issue is not one of trying to speak faster or slower, but to imitate the
normal speech of normal people.
The best way to improve comprehension and speech is to listen to recorded
materials with accompanying text, and imitate aloud what you hear. Ideally,
this method would also involve recording your speech and comparing it to the
native speaker.
Joe from Massachusetts

 normal people do.
[...]
Not just that, of course, but why not? Sometimes watching a
magician's show frame by frame is a way to understand the tricks. ;)

 native speaker.
It's believed that if you want to learn new habits you have to repeat 
them (that's obvious) but also to *exaggerate* them (that's less obvious).
Every pianist knows that's impossible to acquire a good technique by 
playing fast. You must play at the highest speed you make no errors. If 
I read a sentence at normal speed, I can't pronounce the sounds 
correctly: my THs will be wrong, my vowels imprecise, etc...
How can you learn to produce the right sounds by keeping producing the 
wrong ones? If it works at all, it's certainly not very efficient.
That's the only thing on which any performer agree.
Even great performers play very slow at least once a week.
To me, the next logical step is to find a slow recording so that I don't 
have to rely on dictionaries, etc... for pronunciations.
I believe that if I can produce all the sounds correctly first with and 
then without conscious effort, then I'll be able to speak faster and the 
right sounds (i.e. reduced when needed) will be produced automagically. 
If that won't happen, I'll do the same with faster recordings.
My point is that you can't start with fast recordings. You'll never get 
the sounds right at that speed.
Kiuhnm

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As my piano teacher used to say: "study it slow, play it fast" (but in 
Italian!). The incredible thing is that if you study a piece very slow 
(the slower the better!), you'll be able to play it at full speed in no 
time! It's incredible because to become fast you don't need to practice 
at fast speed! If I find out I'm too slow at something, I practice it 
VERY SLOW and then I become faster.
Why shouldn't this apply to language learning as well? After all, 
language is like music and speakers are like singers.
Kiuhnm

 wrote in message
news:48d8f64a$0$1071$4faf...@reader2.news.tin.it...
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When my children started experimenting with the piano, the metronome was a
predominant fixture. It was set to the appropriate beat for the piece being
played, and not changed. After a while, they could play the piece without
the metronome.
Similarly, we have a built-in metronome which governs the speed at which we
speak.
If you can't pronounce certain sounds correctly, you haven't had enough
practice in  listening and imitating. Oxford says "Practice is a noun
meaning 'the action of doing something rather than the theories about it'".
Joe from Massachusetts

 meaning 'the action of doing something rather than the theories about it'".
As always, I have the impression that you don't read what I write or 
that you don't try to understand it.
Kiuhnm

 played, and not changed.  [...]
Argh! That's so not a correct way to study music!
:-/
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
SIR - I could not help but notice that almost immediately after you 
published a flattering Face value profile of Diane Greene, she was 
sacked [...]. I was wondering if you could soon write a Face value 
profile of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi? (the Economist)