#02. Improve Your Pronunciation - Study Session 2

OVERVIEW of SPEECH SOUNDS

-{ Click 'HERE' for the transcript of my voice }-

[ Follow the below 'flow chart' while listening to me.]

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Click on the above image to download the Interactive Phonemic Chart

(It may take 30 to 50 seconds for the first time to get the chart downloaded.)

You can listen to all the speech sounds individually with a click of your mouse!

There are 44 speech sounds (phonemes) in the IPA.

These phonemes are divided into two BIG GROUPS.

vowel sounds consonant sounds

Vowel Sounds themselves are divided into two SMALL GROUPS.

Monophthongs Diphthongs

( Pure Vowels ) ( Gliding Vowels )

A Monophthong (pure vowel) can be either short or long in length.

Short Vowels Long Vowels

---------- >:< ----------

Consonant Sounds could also be divided into two different groups.

Voiceless Consonants Voiced Consonants

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Note: Please don't be terrified out of your wits seeing the details I've laid out above. You know, if the truth were to be told, it is as easy as falling off a log. Just grab on my tail! Things will begin to fall in place as you go along with the study sessions. All I'm asking is give yourself a chance..!

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Activity: Now, download the interactive phonemic chart. Click and listen

to the phonemes in groups of vowels, consonants, pure vowels, owels, diphthongs, voiceless consonants and lastly voiced consonants.

Try to remember the phonemes belong to each group. You

could also get a piece of paper and write down the phonemes

in groups from memory. Make the sound as you write a symbol.

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Supplementary Aid:

In this video Dave Sconda gives some tips that could help you remember

the speech sounds better.

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Exercise: Answer the following questions. Type your answers in the comment

box below.

1. What is the technical term for speech sounds?

2. How many speech sounds are there in the IPA?

3. Name the two big groups of speech sounds.

4. Name the two small groups of vowel sounds.

5. Name the two kinds of pure vowels.

6. What is a diphthong?

7. Name the two kinds of consonant sounds.

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*Participants are encouraged to comment on each other's work!

*Onlookers are welcomed to share their observations, specially teachers!

This will surely make the session more lively and fruitful.

Thank You!.

This Study Session is moderated by G & G: Gabriel | Galina

" Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. "
~ Chinese Proverb ~

~* GS *~

July 18th, 2012

P.S. Study Session 3 will be posted on July 21th, 2012

Click HERE to go (back) to the contents page at EC Virtual Classroom.

Study Session 1 Study Session 3

Don't forget to click the 'Like' button if you find the posting useful!

Tags: English, Gabriel Sowrian, Pronunciation

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Comment by sadigheh on May 10, 2013 at 7:05: Hi dear Gabriel ,i'm really very grateful to you for IPA lesson,God protect you

Comment by white rose on November 10, 2012 at 14:37

Hello

These are answers of question of the second lesson:

the technical term for speech sounds is phonemes.

2. There are 44 speech sounds in the IPA.

3.The two big groups of speech sounds are vowel sounds and consonant sounds .

4.The two small groups of vowel sounds are monophthongs (pure vowels) and diphthongs (gliding vowels) sounds.

5.The two kinds of pure vowels are long and short.

6.Diphthong is combination of two pure vowel sounds.

7. The two kinds of consonant sounds are voiced consonant sounds and voiceless caonsonant sounds.

I hope i did well.

Comment by Gabriel Sowrian on September 17, 2012 at 11:13: Hi, Vishal!

First, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our class “Phonemes and Pronunciation”.

Second, we are very happy that you're wanting in enthusiasm to improve your English pronunciation. Galina and I will do our best to help you with this quest of yours. That's a promise :-)

Third, you have gratified our wishes by answering all the questions correctly. Now, since you’ve already understood the basic idea about speech sounds and symbols, you are ready for the audio assignments. Move on to Study Session 3; listen to my audio; watch the videos; observe the animations of the two phonemes in focus and finally record your assignment. If you haven't learned how to use a voice recoder or embedding an audio player, you can read my blog "Make your voice heard". (Please leave your comments there about the blog!) Till then, happy learning and have a pleasant week ahead, Vishal. Cheers!

Best regards,

~* GS *~

Comment by Vishal on September 8, 2012 at 17:49: Dear Galina Mam,

i was busy so i can't do this few days ago. but now a days I'm free so i hope now i will do continuously...

1.The speech sounds are technically termed as Phonemes.
2.There are 44 speech sounds (phonemes) in the IPA.
3.The two big group of speech sounds are such as: Vowels sounds and Consonant sounds.
4.Two small group of Vowels sounds are such as: Pure Vowels and Gliding Vowels.
5.Two kind of pure vowels: Short vowels and Long vowels.
6.Diphthongs is a combination of two pure vowels.
7.Two kind of consonant sounds such as: Voiceless consonant and Voiced consonant.

Thank you

Vishal

Comment by selma on August 31, 2012 at 13:50: Hi Bimal,

Thanks for that short brief,

Comment by Bimal on August 31, 2012 at 11:51

Dear Prostomolotova,

The speech sounds are technically termed as Phonemes.
There are 44 speech sounds (phonemes) in the IPA.
There are two kinds of speech sounds such as: Vowels sounds and Consonant sounds.
The Vowels sounds are of two kinds such as: Pure Vowels and Gliding Vowels.
The Pure Vowels can further be divided into two such as: Short vowels and Long vowels.
The Gliding Vowels can be named as Diphthongs or a combination of two pure vowels.
There are two groups of consonants such as: Voiceless consonant and Voiced consonant.

Bimal

Comment by JayVee on August 15, 2012 at 16:00: Teacher Galina, forgive me for being impolite... I did my first assignment in study session 5. I'll go back to previous session (3 and 4) and do my assignment there. hehe... Thank you sooo much :)

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 15, 2012 at 15:34: Dear JayVee, we are really glad to see you here with us! If you want to have good English pronunciation, you should know everything about English sounds and phonemes. Take your time learning the material and join us in the next Study Session 3. You'll have to record your voice there. If you don't know how to record your voice, this is the link to Gabriel Sowrian's blog "Make your voice heard" http://my.englishclub.com/profiles/blogs/make-your-voice-heard

We are waiting for you....

Comment by JayVee on August 15, 2012 at 14:22: Dear Teacher Gabriel and Galina, I am glad and proud to be here - joining the class and enjoying everything here. You are all incredible with all these works. Thank you for providing us such a cool material. And to other great learners, you really deserve the best because you do your best. You all have my respect.

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 1, 2012 at 18:47: Dear Mayumi!

We are very glad to see you here! I know you're a very active member of "Be A Newscaster" and " Karaoke" group. So, like Selma, you know a lot about pronunciation. Anyway, Gabriel gives us the theory of pronunciation from the very beginning, so I think, you'll know a lot of new things. You gave absolutely right answers to all questions. Great job! We're waiting for your in our next Study Sessions.