Pronounce English effectively

1. Select “standard”

There are as many English-speaking regions in the world as there are pronunciation patterns. But only two English accents are considered standard: American English and British English. If you are learning English pronunciation, the first thing you should do is decide whether you want to speak in American English or British English.

2. Identify and pronounce all English sounds

Why is this important? Because English has a lot of sounds that Vietnamese does not have. Therefore, learning English pronunciation involves learning “new” sounds that you may have never said before. From there, you have a pronunciation
that is more similar to that of a native speaker. Note that the sounds in American English and British English have many differences. So if you study, you should only study according to one standard to avoid confusion.

Sound recognition means that you can hear a word and figure out what it is in English (for example, you hear the word wall, maybe the vowel is /o/).

Correct pronunciation means that after listening, you can say the word like a native.

To do this, you need to know about the English Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Learners need to recognize sounds in AmericanEnglish (Source: http://evaeaston.com/)

3. Learn to speak with accent

One of the basic differences between English and Vietnamese is word stress. An English word can consist of many syllables, but only one syllable has primary stress. Learning English accents includes 2 main contents:

Know where the word stress is.

+ Know how to stress the word for correct pronunciation.

An interesting point is that the stress of a word in American English and British English can be different. For example, in American English, the word massSAGE is stressed on the second syllable; and MASsage in British English has stress on the first syllable.
4. Learn to say the right tune

Every language has its own "music". The melody is that music. When speaking English, native speakers use a very specific tone. Learning English pronunciation includes learning this tune; it includes holding breath, pressing the right words, clarifying important words… When learning English melodies, learners sometimes feel like they are learning to sing.

5. Learn to speak with correct intonation

Intonation expresses the feelings or hidden meanings of the speaker. Each language has its own way of expressing intonation. Surprised, upset, sad, angry… all of the above emotional states can be expressed in spoken language through intonation.

6. Get in the habit of checking English word pronunciation

When you speak English, if you are not sure about the pronunciation of a word, do not guess. 60% of English words have a different pronunciation than spelling, if you don't check the dictionary, you will pronounce it wrong.

When reading in English, always ask yourself: “How does this word sound? What sounds does it include?”. If you are not sure, check the dictionary. If you have little experience with English communication or pronunciation, you must do this on a regular basis.

7. Practice listening and recognizing

Regular listening practice is the best way to learn English pronunciation. Turn on TV, radio, podcasts, shows, movies, etc. As you listen, focus on how each sound or word is pronounced. Try to guess what that sound is.

When you listen to non-native English speakers, you need to hear their pronunciation mistakes.

8. Practice speaking English word by word and in phrases

When practicing speaking, you can practice pronouncing words one by one or in clusters. There are many ways to learn, you can practice by saying each sound, practice speaking each word correctly or practice speaking in clusters.

How to practice speaking in clusters?

You can start by practicing saying the important words in the previous sentence, for example, when you want to say: “I want my brother to win”. First, you practice correctly pronouncing meaningful words in a sentence (content words): WANT, WANT, WANT; BROther, BROther, BROther; WIN, WIN, WIN.

Then put these key words together: WANT… BROther…WIN…; WANT… BROther…WIN…; WANT… BROther…WIN

Finally, read the whole phrase, remembering that unimportant words are read smaller, lower, and shorter than important words: i WANT my BROther to WIN.

Don't worry if you can't pronounce English words or phrases correctly at first. First of all, you need to focus on imagining how you should pronounce this word. In other words, you need to know the pronunciation of the word in your head, even though your mouth isn't quite listening to you yet.