Speaking Skills

a. Speech training
Pronunciation
The way words are articulated or said by the speaker; E.g. saying ekspecially instead of especially Febuary instead of February ekcetera instead of etcetera

Enunciation
Forming sounds into words that are clear and distinct; E.g. saying goin instead of going madder instead of matter wanna instead of want to
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3 aspect of pronunciation:
Sounds
Vowels, consonants

Stress
Word stress, linkage, sentence stress

Intonation
Rising tune, falling tune
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a.

E.g in sentences :
You say Shoulda Lemme Whatdayado? Should be Should have Let me What do you do?

b.
a. b.

Importance of pronunciation and enunciation

To be able to understand and to be understood To avoid misinterpretation or misunderstanding
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c.

d.

Pronunciation is a combination of sound, stress and intonation pattern; Pronouncing words correctly must be done in a natural way the right stress in a sentence and linkage within a sentence;

English Pronunciation Problems faced by Malaysian students

Sounds examples

English sounds that dont exist in Bahasa Melayu Certain words cant be pronounced by Chinese students Certain words are a difficulty with Indian students Dropping the final consonant of English words Identifying shorter and longer vowels Pronouncing words individually instead of using linkage

// is replaced by (d)
/r/ is replaced by /l/ Dropping the /h/ in house as ouse Makin instead of making sheep / ship

Stress, rhythm and intonation

stress is the pronouncing of a word or syllable with more force than the surrounding words or syllable;
petite i want to eat

word stress
involves only one syllable words which is higher in pitch in order to achieve certain effect

syllable stress
involves words with more than one syllable, where the pitch is higher on one of the syllables
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a. b. c.

there are three stress syllables in the english:

primary secondary unstressed primary stress is more prominent than secondary stress while unstressed syllables are not stresses at all

stresses are important because different stressing can changed the meaning of the words
a. b. verbsnouns nouns verbs,

rhythm when speaking, people do not always speak at a regular beat throughout it altered from phrase to phrase; people tend to quicken the pace of unstressed syllables and linger a bit longer on stressed syllables; the knowledge of rhythm will make us sound more natural and native like in our speech;

there are three types of intonation:

the rise-fall pattern the fall-rise pattern the combined pattern

the rise-fall pattern is used for making statements and also for wh questions; the fall-rise pattern is used in yes/no questions, greetings , requests for repetition; the combined pattern is used when speaker intends to continue speaking after a pause, an indication that the listener should not interrupt;
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Voice Modulation and projection

modulation is a change in stress, pitch, loudness or tone projection is the act/condition of projecting voice; good voice modulation and projection will ensure that the listeners understand us better; it also ensure that our speech is natural and appropriate to the context; different languages have different voice modulation;

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 minimal pairs
two words which differ from each other by only one distinctive sound (phoneme) and which also differ in meaning sin/shin, sick/thick, sank/thank

long and short sounds

refer to vowels that are pronounced either short or long; fit/feet, ship/sheep, pit/peat

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 elision
consonants are sometimes dropped in order to get the rhythm of speech flowing; cu(p)board, gran(d)mother, wan(t)

juncture
helps a listener to distinguish between pairs such as see mill and seem ill;

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 strong and weak forms

When the vowel is not given full value, it is called a weak form ( ) whereas the vowel that is given its full value is called a strong form;

homophones
Words which sound alike but written differently and have different meanings; Know/no, steal/steel
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 homonyms
words which are written in the same way and sound alike but have different meanings;
lie verb
To stay flat on ones stomach or back not telling the truth

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