Pronunciation Pairs.pdf
The reason disyllabic words are great is that most tone change (sandhi) rules apply, but a single word is still short enough to be focused on properly. It also makes sense to focus on these words because modern Mandarin has a very strong preference for disyllabic words, meaning that if you know all possible combinations really well, getting pronunciation in sentences right is mostly a matter of practise.
Pronunciation Pairs.pdf
My hope is that you find this article helpful. If you want to learn more about Mandarin pronunciation, including tones, check out my pronunciation video course. It covers everything you need to know to speak clearly and with confidence!
Special thanks to HackingChinese.com for these word lists, they have proved invaluable to me. I created Videos, MP3s and PDFs based on them not only to help improve my pronunciation but, in the spirit of HackingChinese.com, to help others as well. I hired a native speaker to record the audio so it is first rate. All of my creations are available FREE (no sign up required) on my blog mandarinmania.com with credit given to HackingChinese.com for creating the lists. Thanks again HackingChinese.com!
i want to ask you kindly to make for us a blog post or a Youtube video explaining how to sort Chinese words or characters based on their tones with the script your friend has made for you , you had given the link to the script on github in your blog post : -on-tone-pairs-to-improve-your-mandarin-pronunciation/?replytocom=60294#respond
The vocabulary represents (non-rhotic) Australian English pronunciation, and although most of the words and minimal pairs will 'work' in other dialects of English you may need to discard some. For example, pairs like saw-shore, and spa-star are minimal pairs in Australian English and in other non-rhotic varieties of English, but not in rhotic dialects such as Canadian, Irish, Scottish and most US 'Englishes'.
We know that separating one word from another in these pairs might feel confusing. In fact, even some native speakers make mistakes while listening or speaking. But if you learn the basics of English pronunciation properly, English speaking actually becomes quite easy.
Learning to pronounce the schwa sound is important to developing a natural-sounding accent in American English because it helps the speaker avoid stressing the wrong syllable. For this reason, pronunciation exercises that focus on reducing certain sounds can be helpful to ESL students.
Shadow speaking is a technique for learning language. It involves listening to what someone says, then repeating it with as little delay as possible. This technique is often used with audio recordings to help people learn new languages. Common words and phrases are played on the recording, and the listener is encouraged to mimic what is heard. This can help language learners master difficult pronunciations.
Another positive trait of the book is that it keeps with contemporary findings relating to effective pronunciation techniques. For example, in Unit 1 and 2, Baker and Goldstein offer clear directions for making the sound of /i/ and /I/ (e.g., beat vs. bit). ESL learners sometimes experience pedagogical misdirection when they are taught the English /i/-/ I / distinction (Wang & Munro, 2004). While North American English speakers distinguish between /i/ and / I / primarily on the basis of vowel quality rather than length (Hillenbrand & Clark, 2000), learners of English from many L1 backgrounds tend to perceive /i/ as a long vowel and / I / as a short vowel with little or no difference in quality (Bohn, 1995). In the book, Baker and Goldstein well balance these findings and describe the distinction between /i/ and /I / both from vowel length and from the vowel quality.
In terms of language-level and age-related appropriateness, some of the features might be challenging for beginning students, and are best reserved for intermediate learners only. For example, Unit 2 requires a fairly extensive knowledge of how to form various types of questions. This might be appropriate with intermediate students, but may be difficult for beginning-level students who are still learning basic sentence structures. Other features that may be problematic for lower-level students include the spelling exercises, which require students to come up with words that have the sound in question, with the added restriction being that the new words conform to the specified spelling variation of that given sound. Finally, despite the claim that the textbook can work equally well with beginning and intermediate students, the units become progressively more challenging and detailed, regardless of the sound being studied. While a pick-and-choose technique is feasible for upper-level students, beginning learners might find the latter half of the book rather demanding. This could be especially problematic for those whose pronunciation difficulties happen to occur in the final portions of the book. As such, the teacher may need to make adjustments for ability when considering which part of the book to work on. 041b061a72