BLOG # 176 for Saturday, July 25, 2020

Date of blog: Saturday, July 25, 2020

Title of blog: Of  All the Things You Can Do to Get Clear English, What Are the Most Important?

Of all the things you can  do to get clear English, what are the most important?

Let’s talk muscles.

You need to make specific speech muscles strong to produce clear English speech sounds.

Are these different than the strong muscles needed for other languages?  Yes.

How do you make exactly the right  muscles get strong enough for clear English?

You make them strong  the same way that you make other muscles of the body strong.  You load the muscles you want strong.  You make those muscles stiff and hard.  You  make the muscles work hard. Then your body grows those muscles.

That is the same thing you do when you want strong arm muscles.  You lift bar bells that weigh a lot, like at least  five pounds or four kilograms.

 The sound for speech comes from inside your throat and the action of the vocal folds. Muscles in your chest around your lungs  and muscles attached to the vocal folds make strong voice for speech sounds.

Why  do you need  strong speech muscles for English?

You need strong speech muscles for English speaking so that people can hear  the consonants at the ends of your words. Those are the most likely to be too soft for listeners to hear. They are also the most difficult for human beings to make loud.

How do you grow strong muscles?  Make your muscles work hard and strong.  Then your body will grow muscles  and make muscles stronger exactly where you need them for clear English.

Honest to the universe, you need strong muscles in your mouth—lips, tongue, and jaw.

How do you make these muscles strong? 

To make your lip muscles strong , make them stiff and hard. Push the lips together hard.  Do that for these sounds

1. “b” and “p” sounds

2. “m”

To make clear English sounds, you need to do this—

At the same time you are pushing  your stiff lips together  for the “b” sound, you make a loud voice from your throat. Make the “b” as loud as you can so you grow muscles . This “b”  is a quick sound.

For the “m” sound,  at the same time you press your lips together, make a loud voice from your throat.  This “m “ is a slow sound.

For the “p” sound, at the same time you push your stiff lips together, push a strong burst of air from your lungs.  If you want to, you can put your hand in front of your mouth to be certain you can feel the strong puff of air you need for the “p” sound in English.

So what do you aim for?  You aim for and get strong, loud English consonants at the ends of words. And  get strong, loud consonants at the end of every syllable in a multiple syllable word. That’s because every syllable in English has a meaning.

Bad news and good news.  Bad news first.  All this is so simple and  complex at the same time.  You’ve got to coordinate muscles while you are making speech muscles strong.

Good news is that you have been coordinating  muscles of your mouth and other parts of your  body ever since you took and swallowed first milk.  And you’ve been coordinating muscles of your mouth and the rest of what would become an organized speech system ever since you spoke your first baby sounds and words.

More  muscle  coming in the next blog.

copyright Clear Talk Mastery, Inc. 2020

Date of Blog,  Thursday, July 16, 2020

Title: Do  You Know How to Prevent Speaking Mistakes?

Do you know how to prevent speech mistakes?   When you realize a difficult word  to pronounce is coming up, then slow down and say that word letter by letter, syllable by syllable. Say each sound CAREFULLY.

This is exactly what native-born and non-native born speakers of English do!

It is OK to pause or stop right before the word to figure out in your brain “how” to say the difficult English speech sound.

Aim for perfect consonant pronunciation.

Determine the accurate vowel pronunciation and do perfect pronunciation.

Just to remind you.  There are fourteen (14) American English vowel sounds.  There are five letters “a”, “e”, “I”, “o”, “u” always used, and sometimes “y” is a vowel sound.

Just to remind you, there are three  syllable structure rules for North  American English “long” vowels-  1) open syllable structure rule,  like in the words “be, no”,

2) silent “e” syllable structure rule, like in the words “smile, bike”, and

3) digraph syllable structure rule, like  “tie, bloat”.

And there is one syllable structure rule for North American “short” vowels—1) closed syllable structure rule,  like in the memory words “hat”, “bed”, “it and hit”, “not”, “up, hush”.

Just to repeat—to prevent speaking mistakes, just slow down and pronounce every consonant and vowel with great care and accuracy when you get to it.

Posted as a Blog