Recently
I’m quite concentrated on developing my pronunciation. I’ve been trying a few
things which you can find interesting.
Today I’m
going to tell you about the first I tried.
I used an
interesting app prepared by British Council and called LearnEnglish
Podcasts.
It took my
attention because it’s about podcasts – as you know I use them a lot.
The app includes
three Series with ten episodes each. Every podcast lasts 30 minutes, so we have
plenty of audio materials to listen to.
But with
the app you can not only download podcasts to listen to them, but also to see scripts
synchronised with audio.
How can you
use it to practise pronunciation?
First of
course you can listen to the whole episode. Without looking at text. After that
you can check your understanding by doing some exercise.
Then you
can listen to it once again with reading the text. You can also try to read aloud
with native speakers if you like. But first just listen to the native
pronunciation.
The next
step is to use pause button – Listen to a short part of the podcast and try to
repeat it, recreating sounds as aright as it’s possible.
And the
last step – read the text first and that listen to the recording to check if
your pronunciation was OK.
The app has
some other useful tools for listening and repeating sentences. You can set an
appropriate recording speed. So the app is both for more or less advanced
learners.
Although
the podcasts can look a little bit too easy for advanced English speakers I thing
it’s perfect for pronunciation exercises.
