Pronunciation Diary - Day 1

We all probably think that our pronunciation will improve naturally as time goes by and we continue to study English. Unlike grammar and vocabulary, though, pronunciation cannot simply be learned by heart. There are a number of rules to consider and an immense amount of time needs to be spent on listening and speaking practice in order to improve pronunciation. Most important of all, however, is to choose an accent that we want to copy to avoid using the accent of our native language.

I have never had problems understanding the phrases muttered by the other students in class back in my schooldays, of course. As we all shared the same mother tongue, we probably all had a similar accent, tended to make the same mistakes in pronunciation and confuse the same false friends. When I went abroad last year I finally realized how important pronunciation really is. I had a hard time understanding my Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Malaysian friends speak English. They were not bad in English, mind you, but if I did not completely concentrate on exactly what they were saying I could not understand a single word they said. Of course, this was mainly due to pronunciation problems.

My personal main difficulty in pronunciation is the fact that my teacher never settled for one accent – British or American English. Therefore it took me quite a while to understand the many subtle differences between British and American English. I tend to use American English mostly, as the accent is easier to imitate. My main problem remains that I watch British as well as American series, TV shows and films. Some words I have only ever heard pronounced with a British accent, consequently I use the British accent as well, confusing my communication partner.

Realizing this problem I decided to only concentrate on one accent to imitate in the future – the American one. I would still like to be able to use a British accent in the future, but as for now improving my pronunciation is my main goal. To improve my pronunciation I have done the different exercises mentioned in the week-by-week and searched for additional ones on the internet. Furthermore, I will try to find out the different pronunciation of new vocabulary before I start using them. 

Merriam-Webster Perfect Pronunciation

American English Pronunciation