Speech Tips
Talk Clearly With Face Mask
SPEECH TIP. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
Seven of our current student-learners are ITAs, International Teaching Assistants, for Chemistry or BioChemistry. They want to know—how do you lecture using a facemask.
Answer- You will need to maximize using the Six Clear Talk Strategies.
In brief, first, talk a little louder. Your voice has to penetrate or go through a mask. Download a free app from the internet for a Sound Level Meter—digital. Aim for decibels in the 70s.
Second- speak each word clearly. Each word is important
Third- Pronounce the north American quick consonants quickly (p,t, k, ch and b, d, g, j)
Fourth -AND speak the slow consonants slowly (all the rest!).
Fifth- Pronounce the vowels very clearly. American English long vowels have two sounds (all except one!). American Short Vowels have one sound, BUT two are slowly spoken or stretched out. Those are the American English short vowel /a/ as in the memory word “hat” and the American English short vowel /o/ as in the word “not”.
Fifth and most important—DO NOT SLUR the words together. Do not do like this “Whatchadoing. “ Instead, what are you doing.”
Remember, these strategies for American English come from 100 years of research… starting all the way back to when the telephone was first invented.
REMEMBER, people cannot see your mouth.
Remember, some consonants are 30 to 40 dB SOFTER than the vowels.
Hope this helps. Happy Talking.
BELOW IS Clear Talk Mastery Speech Tip # 57 for “ch” as in “chin”. This is one of those consonants that is 30 to 40 decibels softer than vowels. Be sure to say it in the American English manner- very quick!
copyright 2020 Clear Talk Mastery, Inc
Make a Really Good Impression On People
Blog 181 for Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020
Make A Really Good Impression On People
Best tips or advice for job interviewing will make you a star for when you first meet someone. Especially for someone you want to impress.
The best communicators plan and practice the following techniques whenever they can.
Use these tips from interview experts and trainers:
- Learn all you can about the person/s you are going to meet and/or the organization in advance.
- Be ready for “Tell me about yourself,” Even have an elevator speech ready because people love to know about your work. It’s an entrance to connection and knowing a bunch about you quickly. If you are internationally born or born in the US, tell them where you were born or where you grew up. The personal information helps to set rapport and satisfy a curiosity
- Know your lines. Great tip here. Actors do it, and you should do it too. That is, do memorize a few short quotes and have them ready. They will help you respond in a memorable manner to questions. The lead-in to a memorable quote can even be—I heard a wise person say… Or, for example: My mother had “patience” as her middle name. She used to quote St. Ambrose- “Have patience with everyone, especially yourself.”
copyright 2020 Clear Talk Mastery, Inc
When do you emphasize the syllable with the root word?
Website Speech Tip FOR Tuesday, AUGUST 25, 2020 Do you want to understand why sometimes you are supposed to put the word syllable accent or stress on the same syllable as the root word and sometimes you are not supposed to ?
English Pronunciation: Have you ever wondered why when you add a suffix onto a root word, sometimes the word syllable accent stress stays on the same syllable as the root word and sometimes it moves to the syllable next to the suffix ending?
Here’s the answer. First, please recall that English is largely built from Germanic, French and Latin languages.
Second, the German language keeps the syllable accent stress on the same syllable as the original root word.
Here are the German based suffixes to memorize- “y,” “ly,” “ful,” “some, “ “ness,” “less”.
Do yourself a favor, and memorize these. Then when you see them, you will know to emphasize the “root” word with going up in pitch on that syllable.
For more detail, click on the link to our blog of Monday, August 24, 2020 for “y,” “ly,” “ful.” Blog link goes here.
I will come back with more info.
Here is an important take-home message. The Germanic language was wise and clever. The “root” word of a multiple syllable word is the MOST important. So emphasize that. Go up in pitch on that to guide the listener. For written language, the reader’s eye will recognize right away the “root” or “root word” or “stem”. The meaning of the word will leap out at the reader. And beautifully, human beings will figure out the meaning of the suffixes. They will intuitively and probably even consciously recognize “y,” “ly,” “ful,” “some,” “ness,” “less” to make the root word into another part of speech.
Video 44, January – Janus is the root, put the word syllable accent on :Jan
copyright 2020 Clear Talk Mastery, Inc
English Speech Pronunciation: How to Say Words Ending in Y, LY, Ful
Published August 24, 2020 by Dr. Antonia Lawrence Johnson and Clear Talk Mastery, Inc.
English Speech Pronunciation- How to Say Words Ending in Y, Ly, and FUL- Inherited from German
Have you ever wondered why when you add a suffix, that little syllable at the end of word, sometimes the word syllable accent stress stays on the same syllable as the root word? BUT you notice that sometimes the word syllable accent stress changes to a different syllable. How’s a person supposed to know where to put the word syllable accent stress when adding a suffix at the end of the word?
Fact is—to be good at English speech pronunciation, you have got to emphasize with your voice the accented syllable.
Has this ever happened to you? You say a word, pronouncing every consonant and vowel accurately. Then the listener says, “What?”. You say it again with perfect consonants and vowels? Again, “What?!” By this time the listener is frustrated. You are frustrated. Then the listener says, I know. I know. You mean this word. And the listener pronounces the word. BUT the listener emphasizes a syllable by going up in pitch on that syllable, the “stressed” or “emphasized” or “accented” syllable.
Both of you are now happy!. And the listener says, “You put the accent on the wrong syllable. That’s why I could not understand the word.”
To repeat, because it is soooo important– to be good at English speech pronunciation, you have got to emphasize with your voice the accented syllable.
Let us start with easy. With some multiple syllable words which have the suffix “y”, “ly” and “ful”, the emphasized syllable is the “root word” or “root” or “stem”.
That rule came about in German because of wanting to direct the listener to the most important part of the word.
Yay, speakers of English can thank the German language for this!
Recall that English is heavily built from German, French and Latin languages.
Now here is your new learning. If you see a word ending in “y, “ “ly,” or “ful”, pronounce the word with the emphasis or word syllable accent or “accent” on the root.
You remember this for your Clear Talk Mastery instruction—when you emphasize a syllable in a multiple syllable word, go up in “pitch” on that syllable and the vowel sound in that syllable.
You probably know this also: There are languages which do not emphasize a syllable in multiple syllable words.
You probably know this also: Many other languages use the technique of always emphasizing a syllable in a multiple syllable word. However, their speaking technique is to go a little louder only on that emphasized syllable.
But the technique in English is to emphasize a syllable by going up in pitch for that syllable.
What is pitch? That is measured in hertz, hz. Not decibels dB which is the measurement for volume or loudness. Keys on a piano from left-hand to right-hand go from low pitch to high pitch. Do re mi fa so la ti do— Maybe you sang those 8 notes in a musical octave when you were learning in school to sing.
Do you remember learning a song that went like this “Do/Doe, a deer a female deer. Ra/ ray a drop of golden sun. Me a name I call myself. Fa/Fa(r) a long long way to run. So/Sew a needle pulling thread. La/Lah a note that follows so/sew. Ti/tea a drink with jam and bread. That will bring us back to So/Sew, So/Sew , So..
This is a very famous song in North American, melody and lyrics, the words, composed or written by Rogers and Hammerstein for a musical show on the famous Broadway in New York City and the famous movie The Sound of Music.
If you play a musical instrument, if you sing, you know about pitch.
The untrained human being voice when it goes up in pitch, will also go a little louder in volume. But importantly, singers learn to change their pitch in singing and not go up in loudness unless that is what they want.
Children and adults who are native-born North American speakers of English learn to do pretty much the same. They learn to go high enough “up” in pitch for accented syllables, so that listeners can hear or notice the emphasized syllable.
Let’s circle back to multiple syllable words that end in “y”, “ly,” and “ful”.
You probably already know the general rule. If you have a two syllable word, put the accent on the root word, not the suffix. That’s easy!
But for 3-syllable or 4-syllable etc. words which end in “y”, “ly” and “ful”, which syllable to you emphasize? That is the question.
Here’s the answer. Do yourself a favor, and memorize this: Put the word syllable stress on the “root” or “root syllable/word”.
Practice these using speaking aloud and not just reading with your eyes—
BAKE, BAK-er, BAK-er-y
FAC-tor, FAC-tor-y
FLAT-ter, FLAT-ter-y
FLOWER, FLOW-er-y
SLIP- per, SLIP- per-y
BUB-ble, BUB-bly
CHEER, CHEER-y, CHEER-i-ly
HEART, HEART-y, HEART-i-ly
LOVE, LOVE-ly
MIGHT, MIGHT-y, MIGHT-i-ly
PRAC-ti-cal, PRAC-ti-cal-ly
PUR-pose, PUR-pose-ly
FRIGHT, FRIGHT-ful ___ FRIGHT-ful- ly
PUR-pose, PUR-pose-ful ___ PUR-pose-ful-ly
WASTE, WASTE-ful __ WASTE-ful-ly
WON-der, WON-der-ful __ WON-der-ful-ly
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Do you want to understand about the “th” and weird spellings with “b,”p,” “t,” “s”?
Website Speech Tip FOR MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2020
Do you want to know about“th” and why “b,” “p,” “t,” and “s” have come into the spelling of particular English words and give them weird spelling?
Some words have these letters which either you do not pronounce or are in a series of letters that have a different pronunciation. How did this happen to these words? Borrowing from another language’s spelling is a major reason. In Renaissance times, it became popular to borrow Latin spellings for otherwise typical words.
The word doubt was borrowed from the French douter but was given new spelling based on the Latin dubitare.
This manner of spelling words is called Etymological Spelling. This system of spelling relies on traditional spelling rules and not on typical English pronunciation rules or changes in pronunciation. Other words etymologically spelled are indict(Latin indictare), receipt (Latin recepta) subtle (Latin subtilis).
Sometimes when the spelling was changed, the pronunciation was changed. For the “th” sound , “throne” used to be pronounced and spelled trone. Then Latin spelling was reintroduced with an “h” after the “t”, and the pronunciation changed. Also, bankrupt got its “p” from the Latin rupta.
Etymological Spelling makes pronunciation difficult. BUT for written English, it has the advantage of similar spelling of the root word for many words. Thus our mind or our subconscious can focus on and intuitively understand the meanings of many related words.
For more, see our blog #179 for Wednesday August 12, 2020.
Add in link to blog http://www.cleartalkmastery.com/blog/2020/08/12/english-speaking-training-why-some-english-words-have-strange-spelling-etymological-spelling/
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