Saturday May 15th, 2008
English Pronunciation Podcast 36-
Front Vowel Review: This podcast is a review of the vowels which we have learned in previous podcasts: the front vowels /i/, /I/, /ɛ/, /eI/ and /æ/. This podcast provides practice exercises which will make your pronunciation of these important vowels clear and distinct.

In this weeks podcast, we're going to review the front vowels .
/i/, /I/, /ɛ/, /eI/ and / æ /.
These vowels are called" front vowels" because our tongue is more forward when we pronounce them.
** I strongly recommend that you listen to the previous lessons about these vowels if you haven't already, before using this podcast.
Podcasts #2, #4 and #6 give complete detailed instruction as to how to pronounce these vowels correctly.

The Importance of Review:

Although in the past few weeks we've been focussing on the consonants I want to emphasize the importance of still reviewing the vowels , especially the more difficult ones.
Some of my best private students in New York have told me that they are always reviewing the material from past lessons. This is called maintenence of the fundamentals. Maintenence of the fundamentals will keep your pronunciation skills strong and consistent.
It's like a professional musician who still practices the same scales everyday, or a dancer or athlete who warms up with the same routine everyday.

Build a Strong Foundation:
Practicing the fundamentals is essential because these are the building blocks of more complex communication. Review and practice of past lessons keeps the foundation of your skills strong. A strong foundation will allow you to build more advanced and more complex pronunciaton patterns.

So now we're going to do some exercises which you can use from to time to review the front vowels. You can also use them as warm up exercise at the beginning of your pronunciation practice session.

Exercise: Review of front vowels /i/, /I/, /ɛ/ eI / and / æ /. This exercise creates a clear distinction between these vowels . Listen and repeat the groups of words, paying careful attention to the vowel differences within them.

/i/                         /I/                        /ɛ/                    /eI/                        /æ /      

seat                    sit                      set                  sate                       sat

meet / meat       mitt                   met                 mate                   mat/Matt

dean                    din                   den                 Dane                   Dan

heel/heal            hill                    hell                   hail                    Hal

beat                     bit                     bet                    bait                     bat

read                     rid                   red/read           raid                   "rad"

keen                    kin                   ken                   cane                  can

Exercise : Listen and repeat the following sentnces containing the /i/ , /I/ and /ɛ/ sounds.

I couldn't sit in my seat during the set.

Walking uphill in high heels is hell!

We weren't too keen about meeting Ken's kin.

Jen and Gene are drinking gin.

Exercise: Listen and repeat the following sentences containing / æ /, /ɛ/ and /eI/ :

Matt has met his perfect mate.

Can* Ken walk without a cane ?

Jen, Jane and Jan are sisters.

* "can" in this case is unstressed, so it will usually be pronounced /KIn/ by native speakers. (See podcast#8)

Training tip: Practice these sentences on a daily basis . It only takes a few minutes to repeat these sentences a few times.
Start by saying them slowly and gradually bring them up to your regular rate of speech.
Improving your pronunciation and reducing your accent is all about reviewing and practicing regularly. The more you practice regularly, the easier it will become to say the sounds distinctly and correctly.
Just ten minutes day of practice can really make a difference!

The Right Training Tools for Better Pronunciation:

It's important to have the right training tools in order to improve your accent.

That's why I recommend that you check it out my English Pronunciation Course in mp3 format- Best Accent Training mp3s!

No matter what your first language is, Best Accent Training has the lessons you need for speaking English clearly and correctly.

All the sounds of English in one course!

Best Accent Training mp3s contains all the vowels and consonants of English with step by step instructions and practice exercises.
You'll learn how to pronunce the sound just like a native speaker and then practice it in words and common expressions and idioms that Americans use all the time.

You'll also get syllable stress lessons, intonation lessons and connected speech!

Every lesson also comes with a complete transcript (pdf) so you can read along if you want.

Best of all, Best Accent Training is a fast and easy download that you can put on your mp3 player and take with you wherever you go!
I specially designed it for that purpose!

Download Best Accent Training today and practice your pronunciation wherever and whenever you want to!

Any questions, comments or suggestions ? Contact us at:  contact@englishpronunciationpod.com

Thank you and see you next time!

"Excellent!
After practicing with Best Accent Training daily,
I can say that my English communication has improved 100%. "
- Domingo Ponce Rodriguez- - Marketing Manager USA (Spain)

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