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How to break the "speaking blockade" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| MakiMaki Triglot Newbie Poland Joined 4268 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, Spanish, English Studies: German | Message 1 of 8 31 January 2014 at 12:34pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I've been learning English for years in school and I'm using it almost everyday. I
don't want to be too full of myself, but when I'm writing with some native English speakers, they often ask if I'm native as well. So, I guess my typing skill is not bad. The problem started when I wanted to talk with somebody on Skype. I don't know if I'm too shy or what, but I couldn't say even a word. I think that this happened becouse I know my pronunciation is rather bad than good. I feel like the most difficult sounds for me are / θ/ (th, like in thin) and /ð/ (th, like in then), like in three. So, are there any good tutorials, books etc. for practicing these sounds? Videos would be good as well (I remember that one video helped me a lot when I wanted to roll my r, becouse I couldn't do it despite the fact I'm native Polish speaker). I will appreciate any helpful responses. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5757 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 8 31 January 2014 at 2:04pm | IP Logged |
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There are many helpful techniques written about in this forum. I'll try to find the links to better explanations, but first my personal experience.
I myself am not too bad at producing foreign language sounds in isolation, so I'm not much help when it comes to the actual production of the sound. What I personally do is to read about the phonology, and then I listen a lot, and watch people talking. And I try to imitate them, until it sounds kind of right. However, I seem to control much of the spoken language with my conscious knowledge of the pronunciation rules of that language, and that takes up quite a lot of my mental ressources. When I then try to come up with a meaningful contribution to a conversation, and I'm probably excited and nervous because I am not used to talking to that person or in that language, I suddenly find that I lack the, let's say, bandwidth to think of something clever, come up with a grammatically correct sentence, and use good pronunciation at the same time. Some people simply reduce the effort they make to consciously monitor their speech for grammar or pronunciation - which is a good way of using language practice, as your practice partner will correct your most glaring mistakes first and you can gradually improve. But I myself end up bewildered and unable to speak at all. Later, a good expression might pop into my mind. I would assume that you probably have a similar issue with speaking. So, what helps me with this is: - Finding social situations in which I do not feel pressured to talk in the second language, but still have the opportunity to join in the conversation when I feel like I can say something - Chorusing, shadowing and other methods that work with parroting relatively short bits of audio until your throat gets used to the movements needed to produce that sound (I can't stress this enough, I tend to get a sore throat from trying to speak French, and chorusing the way Olle Kjellin wrote about it really helps with that, better than anything else I tried) - Reading aloud (if you are not too sure your self-correction is up to scratch, use a book and audio book, there's a lot available for free, for example on project gutenberg) - Audio exercises, especially FSI style drills that give you a prompt, let you reply, and then give you the correct answer (I know FSI doesn't exist for English, obviously, but there are methods that use similar drills, probably also for English) - In class, oral exercises that mostly rely on summarizing/rephrasing/paraphrasing information that is already given, like answering questions to a lesson text. May sound boring to some people, but it certainly helps me, at least when the teacher pays full attention and corrects me the way my French teacher did, by giving body language clues while listening, helping with a phrase when I was totally stuck, and only after the answer letting me repeat words I had mispronounced, pointing out mistakes or suggesting better expressions. A tutor might know how to do this? Things or threads that might also help: - 'language islands'. I can't find the thread I read this in; I think emk wrote about it (or Splog? or both?) - if I remember correctly, the idea is that you first practice a small number of topics you will likely end up talking about, so that you can talk about them without having to think about what to say next or how to say it. Then, when you are in a conversation and notice you're about to hit a brick wall, you can try to steer the conversation back to one of your 'island' topics. This doesn't mean that you should only talk about those safe topics, it's more a tool to help you restore your energy or gain the courage to talk more in your second language. Improving your accent English Pronounciation Amy Walker on English accents, she gives some pointers for how she learns all those accents and I think most of it applies to learning the pronunciation of a second language English Pronounciation Shadowing vs Echoing Chorus Method But basically, the trick is to learn to perceive the sounds as they are in the second language (learn about phonology and then listen a lot, both for comprehension and for the actual sounds), to learn how to produce those sounds (there may be videos on youtube, but mainly it's a question of practicing, and playing around with the sounds until you can produce them), and then you have to practice either by talking, or when you aren't a person who can do that, by using exercises like the ones I've mentioned until you can use those target language sounds without having to think about what you're doing and whether you're doing it correctly. I realize that most of the strategies I mentioned do not only improve your pronuncation, but also the automacity of your grammar or are aimed at doing that. That was my intention. Oh, and when you aren't sure about self-correction, it may help to record yourself reading aloud and speaking freely, and ask native speaking friends to point out the issues you need to work on. Edited by Bao on 01 February 2014 at 12:03pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6348 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 8 31 January 2014 at 2:11pm | IP Logged |
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If you go to youtube.com and search for "how to say English th" you will find a lot of videos. If you use them, come back and let us know if they were helpful. YouTube vids on how to pronounce TH 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5121 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 4 of 8 31 January 2014 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
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I don't understand why this post got tagged with 'Silent Period'. The silent period in language acquisition has a specific meaning and is both a phenomenon which can be observed in learners and a specific approach to language acquisition. The problems the OP seeks advice on are related to pronunciation, shyness, being self-conscious, etc. Note that the OP mentions that he uses English almost every day in school, and I would be very surprised if he didn't speak at all in class. Would a moderator please remove the tag 'Silent Period'? I'm happy to provide links to what 'Silent Period' really means if necessary (please PM me). Thanks.
@MakiMaki: sorry, I can't help you. I'm sure others will shortly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5900 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 5 of 8 31 January 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged |
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Well you've already gotten lots of good advice but I'll add my experience anyway.
One thing I've tried on occasion that's helped is to have native audio through a headset (at normal speaking volume) and try to follow along with what they're saying, but with mouth movements only. If you do this right, it seems like it can subtly trick your mind into thinking you're able to make the same sounds as the native speaker. Don't try to make the sound while doing this. Just the movements without the voice. Maybe try that a bit and see if it helps. Easy enough to give it a try if you have some native audio available. It can be music, actually music is a good option. Good luck :-) Liz Edited by Lizzern on 31 January 2014 at 4:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4613 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 6 of 8 31 January 2014 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
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I think you just have to bite the bullet and talk. Then again, it depends if you are learning "on the job" and simply have to speak, attrocious grammar and all, or are taking more measured and studied approach.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| MakiMaki Triglot Newbie Poland Joined 4268 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, Spanish, English Studies: German | Message 7 of 8 01 February 2014 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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To be honest, I trained more with the vowels than with "th", here are the results:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0nSGSrEzMbZ - cat [kæt] http://vocaroo.com/i/s0CJ3OrQhlSz - cut [kʌt] http://vocaroo.com/i/s1M2DI3OtWP8 - that [ðat] http://vocaroo.com/i/s1MwE4xTqn1I - thin [θɪn] Thanks for your support. I really appreciate it! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5719 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 8 of 8 02 February 2014 at 10:11am | IP Logged |
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Native English speakers will have the deciding word but to my ear 'cat' sounds off. I thought I was listening to the 'cut' file.
Dictionary 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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