To practise speaking English is compulsory when learning this language, however, many English learners always have problems with their speech because they can not speak fluently or foreigners cannot understand them. Simply because you are too impatient when ignore the most important elements of this skill. There are three most important factors that you must pay attention to when practicing speaking English:
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Pronunciation
Pronunciation is the pronunciation of English words, as well as Vietnamese, the wrong pronunciation will lead to misunderstanding. Therefore, in order to communicate well, we must first practice the correct pronunciation. Not only the correct vowels and consonants but also the final sound which is the most important element of an English word should be practiced carefully. In English, there are words having the same pronunciation but being different final sound, for example: bag / bæg / bag, while bat / bæt / is bat. If you make mistake of pronunciation, the listener will understand a different meaning.
10 steps helping you learning foreign languages successfully.
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Stress
Stress of a word or a sentence helps the listener to know the word, or distinguish the meaning of words. In English, there are words having only one writing, but with different stress, they mean different things. For example, present / pri’zent / is a verb, but present / ‘gift’ means a gift. Therefore, proper stress is one of the deciding factors in speaking English.
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Intonation
To practice speaking correctly, practice pronunciation and stress. But to practice speaking English fluently, improve your intonation. Intonation is the stress and glide in a sentence. When you say an English sentence, major words are read aloud, and other words can be read smaller, this is the principle that Westerners understand the sayings of others even when they speak small or quickly. So what are the words that are stressed? They are “noun, verb, adjective and adverb”. So, when practicing speaking a sentence, you have to practice reading loudly and clearly these kinds of word. The best way to practice your intonation is to open up VOA news, listen to them and mimic their intonation one by one sentence until you can produce it as they read it. Once you get used to the intonation, speaking English fluently will not be a problem anymore.
