How to Improve Your English PronunciationPresented by Prof . Tu BeiEnglish pronunciation is different from Phonetics and Phonology; I’m not going to talk about Phonetics and Phonology. What is Phonetics? Phonetics is “语音学”, Phonology is “音位学”. And these things are too theoretical,太理论了, so we are going to have a very very practical lecture, and this is not a lecture, and this is just a talk. I’m going to give you a very practical talk and in this talk, I’m going to give you a few tips, practical tips. Do you know this word “tip”? Tip. If you go to the hotel, sometimes you give the tips to---(laugh)to, to whom? To the attendant. If you go to the restaurant, you give the tip to the waiters and waitress. I don’t mean that after this lecture, you will give me some tip. Umm… I don’t accept tips. so obviously, tip has another meaning that is a tip means a piece of advice, or some good suggestions, or even some very good methods. All right, yes, so I’m going to give you a few tips, very practical tips. You can use them right away after this talk. Do you like that?. (Yes). Very good. And in my presentation, I’m going to ask you a lot of questions. And I’m going to ask you to join me a lot. Will you join me in the practice and in the exercises? (Yes). Very good. Now when we talk about English pronunciation, this is a very big topic. Do you think that we can cover everything in two hours? That’s impossible. 两个小时要把英语语音讲完，不可能。

So that’s why I try to narrow down. I want to narrow down to what? How to improve your English pronunciation? Ok. And I want to narrow down, even narrow down to how to improve your pronunciation with some good tips. All right. When we talk about language, we usually talk about language in two different senses, narrow sense and broad sense. 我们讲语言的话，有的时候我们说从狭义的去讲，从广义的去讲。

I’m going to talk about language in the narrow sense today. 今天从狭义的来讲。

A language consists of three parts, sound, vocabulary…and what else? …grammar. All right? This is in the narrow sense. 从窄义的来讲，语言是什么？分成音，词汇和语法。

Ok. Sound ,音) comes first. So English pronunciation is very important for us to learn a language. And I’m going to talk about a lot how important English pronunciation is. When we talk about English pronunciation, we must ask ourselves five questions.Five QuestionsAll right? Do we have the five questions here? Ok. Ah…Five questions. I’m going to answer the five questions one by one later. But let’s have the five questions first. The first question is, what is good English pronunciation. Why this question is important? Because we want to set ourselves goals,我们要给自己定一个目标。

Ok. What is the second question? Why is good English pronunciation so important? Why this question? If you know this is important, you would work hard to achieve the goals. Is that right? So we need the second question. What is the third question?3、What impede or enhance the acquisition ofa reasonable pronunciation?What impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation? This is a very big question, right? Yes. Now, the acquisition of a good English pronunciation meaning 要取得一个很好的发音，要取得一个不错的发音，什么是阻碍你的，去取得一个好的发音，什么是推进你，帮助你去发音？All right? 所以这个问题的意思就说，what you are going to do and what you are not going to do, the dos and donts. All right? Yes. And the next question is: what are the priorities for Chinese learners. 首先对中国学生要解决的语音问题是什么？If you know the answer to this question, you know how to invest your time and effort. The last question: What are the tips on good English pronunciation? All right? 要想要取得一个好的发音，有什么诀窍啊？Now you are going to get some tips today. All right? Wait. Wait. I’m going to tell you. Ok. Now let’s answer the questions one by one. Ok?1、What is good English pronunciation?No. 1. What is good English pronunciation? A lofty goal. This is very lofty. I can’t reach. If I can’t reach, this is too lofty for me. So a lofty goal meaning 非常高的一个目标。

语音的目标非常高的目标是什么呀？Sound like native speakers. 我的语音的目标,我要和美国人讲得一模一样。

That’s too lofty. It’s very difficult to reach. Is that right? It’s very difficult for me because I’m old. We’re adults. And the next goal. This is what I want to recommend 这是我要向大家推荐的一个目标. What is that? A modest, realistic goal 一个适度的，一个现实的，一个很适当的，对我们来说合适的这么一个目标是什么呀？To develop 培养一个什么样的呢clear pronunciation. This is very important. If you don’t speak clearly 说话不清楚，那人家也听不懂。

Clear. Understandable. All right? Do you understand me? Ok. So my English is clear and understandable. All right? Pronunciation with 这个with after this with,with以后就比较难一点了. With appropriate intonation 语调and stresses 重音. All right. Now these are the key words. Today, I’m going to talk about this a lot. This goal I can reach. Do you think you can reach? Do you think you can reach this goal? Yes. Everybody can reach this goal. Because this goal is modest and realistic. 这个目标人人都可以达到，but with some effort. All right? You must invest enough time and effort. For adults, 对成人来说，to sound like native speaker is very very tough, very very difficult. Besides, not many people need to sound like native speakers. 你觉得我们所有中国人学英文都要学得象本国人学得一样吗？不需要。