English Tip 8

How are you?

Most English students have a problem-- their English sounds unnatural. Of course, everyone has problems with some English sounds. That's OK and it's normal.

But there is a much bigger problem... and it's easy to change.

The reason many students cannot understand native speakers is that students don't understand common pronunciation , especially contractions.

Of course, you learned basic contractions. For example, you know that "I'm" means "I am", and you know that "you're" means "you are".

You may know these contractions, but we use many more that you probably don't know-- especially when you are listening to a native speaker.

For example, when native speakers speak FAST, they always use words like "outta", "gettn", "till", "havta", and "gonna". When you hear these, do you understand them? Do you understand them INSTANTLY?

"Outta" means "out of"... ex. "I'm gettn outta here" (I am getting out of here = I am leaving).

In normal conversation, we almost never say individual words clearly. We always put them together into contractions.

Most textbooks, however, teach individual words. You never learned to understand contractions or to speak in contractions fast.

"I put the lessons on my iPod and listen to them on the bus and when walking to work. In just three months, my speaking has improved. The lessons are fantastic! I'm telling all my friends about you."

-- Ramon Torres

**Tip 8: How To Sound Native
As you know, listening is the key to speaking. So your first step is to find spoken English with lots of (a lot of) contractions.

This can be difficult. Why? Because many English podcasts are, in fact, read. The speaker is reading something that was written with individual words. So, the speaker pronounces every single word slowly and carefully.

Another problem-- many podcasts, news shows, and radio shows use a more formal kind of English. The speakers want to sound clear, so again they pronounce every single word separately.

You need to find SPONTANEOUS speaking. Spontaneous speaking is unplanned speaking. It's normal speaking (or you need to find lessons that use a lot of contractions :)

Try to find stories that aren't planned-- these are the best. Listen to them everyday, and you will quickly learn natural pronuncation.

You'll learn to understand native speakers, and speak to them.

Good luck.