Senior Pure Pronunciation

Key Benefits:

• There are three distinctly separate levels which which offer great transition and progression  from one to another: Elementary (A2), Intermediate (B1-B2) and Advanced (C1-C2).

• Easy-to-use two-page units: key pronunciation points are presented on left-hand pages with a range of exercises on facing right-hand pages.

• Free downloadable audios offer a clear model for learners to listen, repeat and practise their own pronunciation.

• Self-diagnostic tests at Intermediate and Advanced levels help learners identify and focus on their own pronunciation problems.

• Additional reference section includes a learner-friendly answer key, fun exercises to practise phonemic symbols, a guide for speakers of specific languages, exercises on minimal pairs and a glossary of specialised terms.

• Yes, Learn only encourages the use of genuine Cambridge resources on this course.

Learning a new language is not an easy task. There are many things to consider, like difficult grammar rules, extra vocabulary, and even new pronunciation. As an English Second Language learner, you might feel nervous about speaking and participating in long conversations. That’s totally normal!

 

Fortunately, improving your pronunciation can help make you feel more comfortable during these times.

Practicing your pronunciation is an important part of your studies and this course is available to help.

 

Good English Pronunciation Helps Others Understand You More Quickly

Having difficulty speaking and pronouncing words properly are common problems for many English language students. That’s because English has many difficult sounds, such as “th” and “ch.” It’s important to keep in mind that more speaking practice does not always mean more pronunciation practice. Those two subjects are separate. Speaking practice helps you learn how to make natural sentences in real conversations. Pronunciation is all about making sure you sound clear and are easy to understand.

 

By using the correct sounds when you speak, others can quickly understand what you’re trying to say. If you are great at grammar and know many different words, good pronunciation will help others hear and understand you even more clearly. This Pure Pronunciation course enhanced by Yes, Learn includes other language elements that support your speech such as grammar, phrasing and conversation skills.

 

Good Pronunciation Can Help Improve Your Professional and Social Skills 

If you’re studying with Yes, Learn, then you might be looking forward to meeting new people and having all kinds of interesting conversations together. Of course, it can sometimes be hard to feel confident speaking in another language. You might feel shy at first or worry about making a mistake or being misunderstood. Our teachers, lessons and classrooms are trained and designed to create a safe space for mistakes, correction and guidance. Yes, Learn only provide experienced Native English teachers with the professional attitudes and personality to accommodate this, every lesson.

Fortunately, having good pronunciation will make you more confident. You will be able to participate in conversations, getting to know your classmates and those around you much better. In this way, having good pronunciation can even help you make friends more quickly or connect with people that are important to you in you working life. Speaking will no longer be a hard activity, but a fun way to improve your English while making meaningful connections with other people.

 

 

Reach out to us at Yes, Learn today and see how we can help.

 

What is the CEFR?

The overall aim of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is to provide objective criteria for describing and assessing language proficiency in an internationally comparable manner.

  

Download the Guide

(Links to Cambridge’s external resource in their original location).

 

This is why Yes, Learn has reviewed this course and with consultation agreed to add it to the courses that we offer.

In order to make the material accessible to learners, terminology has been kept as simple as possible. The remainder of this Introduction describes how the course is organised, and it is followed by a Map of the contents using standard terminology. English Pronunciation in Use Elementary progresses from individual sounds, through sequences of sounds, and stress in words, to intonation patterns in phrases and sentences. Of course, as soon as learners begin to speak English, they need to begin to develop control of all these features in parallel, but the step-by-step, incremental approach adopted here is designed to facilitate a clear progression and a clear focus on one thing at a time. Nevertheless, learners do not necessarily have to work their way through all the units in each section in sequence; they can alternate units from different sections.

 

What model of pronunciation?

As a model for learners to copy when they speak, I have used a standard southern British accent. This can be regarded as a provisional target, but learners will vary as to how closely they will want or need to achieve it. Some features of pronunciation are important for listening, but less essential for learners to imitate, and these are labelled as such. Nevertheless, attempting to reproduce these features should help learners in their ability to understand speech which contains them, and they may want to make the effort of incorporating them in their own English. In the listening exercises, a wider variety of accents can be heard, including some nonnative speakers; it is important that learners at this level begin to get exposure to a variety of accents.

 

Section A – Sounds and spelling

Unit 1 deals with some general issues of pronunciation and spelling. Units 2 to 23 introduce the phonemes (sounds) of English, first the vowels and then the consonants. Generally, two sounds are introduced in each unit, though some units have one or three. They are paired on the basis of similarity of spelling, similarity of articulation and potential for confusion. Guidance is given as to the most frequent spellings of each phoneme, and practice is given in some significant contrasts between phonemes.

 

Section B – Syllables and words

Section B introduces the concept of syllables, the distinction between strong and weak syllables, and stress patterns in words.

 

Section C – Phrases, sentences and grammar

Section C moves the focus from individual words to phrases and sentences, and highlights links between pronunciation and various aspects of grammar which are learned at elementary level.

 

Section D – Conversation

Finally, Section D deals with aspects of intonation in the context of sentences and longer stretches of language such as dialogues, stories and conversation. It also covers some characteristic intonation patterns of common lexical phrases. Intonation is very variable, and the intonation patterns attached to phrases and grammatical structures in these units are certainly not the only ones possible. However, they are very commonly – characteristically, even – used in these contexts, and the associations between intonation and contexts should help to make the intonation patterns memorable.