You cannot just listen and repeat if you want to learn correct pronunciation. Even if you listen to native speakers very often, your brain does not get enough information on how to produce the same sounds. You can only fake these sounds as a parrot does!
What does your brain need to know in order to produce correct English sounds ? It needs the exact information on where to place the tongue, lips, jaws and teeth for each sound. Let's look, for example, at sound 'a'. Each language has its own way to pronounce this sound. The tongue, lips, jaws and teeth move differently in different languages. So sound 'a' in Arabic or Farsi sounds not like 'a' in English or Hindi.
If you want to reduce your accent, to learn correct pronunciation, you need to learn how to move your tongue, lips, jaws and teeth to make each sound. It's very similar to learning gymnastics. Your muscles must learn a new way to move !
In our courses we use special Pronunciation Gym Training to learn the sounds well. Once you learn how to make each sound, you can easily use the IPA chart ( a special ' alphabet' of sounds) to memorise them and read phonetic transcriptions in dictionaries.
There is a very useful application for iPad, Apple iPhone, and Android OS devices to practise the IPA chart. You can download it free of charge ( click here to learn more or download ).
But remember that you cannot learn sounds as a parrot does, by listening and repeating only. Learn how to move your tongue, lips, jaws and teeth FIRST! Get it done right!
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☛ Pronunciation Gym Training is included in all Lingua Lab courses☝.
