connected speech & ng

I'd say there is not a problem for me to use connected speech for me, or at least I guess and hope so. Maybe there are mistakes in the recording, but it is based on the fact I don't use some of the phrases very often or on a daily basis. I know that many phrases like these are used in songs and I have no trouble while using them in private. But even if I pronounced it absolutely correctly (which I don't), there would always be a space for my improvement. Let me sing a lot then.


The second task will be probably the same for several following weeks. Since I have no more problem with the th sound I have to improve my ng sound. As I have learned pronounciation is just a matter of practice and that's why I am doing my best to improve also this error. I watched many videos on youtube and they all were based on these words you can hear on the recording, so that's why I used them. I think the word "oblong" was mispronounced - the word stress should be different, but I hope ng sound sounds better than during the speaking session. Anyway, a lot of practice has to be done, but every single correctly pronounced word is a small step for me to pronounce it correctly without thinking about it.

names & titles

This task was a lot of fun and surprises! I was shocked how some names are pronounced correctly and learned somethig new. Now I know, that Selena is everything but not "Seléna" and even more. During the recording I had several problems with too distinct pauses and word stress, especially talking about "Archimedes". Th sound doesn't seem to be a problem anymore which is brilliant and gives me more space to focus on other weaknesses - articles and word stress.
   

There was no doubt about what I should pratice this time - the instructions were given during our consultation and therefore I focused on th sound in the middle of words. You told me to pronounce everything, anything, something, nothing and so on perfectly next time, so I've done a lot of work to improve that. Based on what I can hear I'd say there is no big problem if the task is based on these words and I know what to focus on, but when speaking about a given topic, I make mistakes and forgot to use it correctly. But "the", "they", "this", etc. were also problem and I was able to learn how to pronounce it correctly even without thinking about it, so the above mentioned and similar words will also become no problem for me, I swear.

2nd recording

List of words:


Well, to sum it up, even though this excercise might have seemed to be easy, it actually wasn't at all. It showed me that I should focus on stress much more and that it makes a huge difference based on whether it is used correctly or not. One of my biggest problems is the word "earlier", I could do anything in the world but still I will pronounce it wrong. Also I believed the word sunbathing is pronounced "sanbáthing" which was obviously incorrect. This all comes from me being lazy to find the right pronounciation while I was learning these words and the wrong way of pronouncing them have remained in my head. A lot work to do, Jana.

Individual task: 



As I have said many times, my weaknesses are th sounds, articles and word stress. I decided to focus on the first one. I wanted to sing, but than I realized somebody could be injured seriously, so I left Thousand Years and found a great excercise full of th sound containing words. What's more, these words were concentrated in sentenced and followed each other so guickly that I almost broke my tongue, but practice makes a master. I kinda exagerrated to make my brain realize where to use th and where not. I have to say that some words are no more problem for me and cannot even understand how I could have pronounced them incorrectly, but some are still a problem and that's why my fluency sounds so weird and needs to be improved. Well, repeating, reading loud and practicing again and again.

basic intro, 1st recording

Given that this was the first recording I know for sure there are many mistakes, especially in fluency. While speaking live I don't feel like I do pauses the way I feel when listening my own voice. Since I've been doing my best to improve my pronounciation, especially th sounds, I'd say that it's obvious that I am moving forward to be better, because instead of realizing that I succesfully placed the right th sound (as I would have done 4 months ago) I can hear that I forget to use it or where I used it wrong instead, which makes me happy about my progress. Another problem is word stress and pronounciation of some words at all. These are exactly the points I mentioned while being asked about my weaknesses at school so this first recording is just a confirmation of what was said. I obviously have a lot work to do.So, let's do it!