Full video

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a lot of people ask me if it's possible

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to sound like a native speaker if you

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weren't born in the US they want to know

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how long it will take that of course

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depends entirely upon the individual

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really focused pronunciation practice

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can yield great results in this video

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I'm going to go over two different ways

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to study English to perfect your

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pronunciation all you need is the audio

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or video of a native speaker speaking

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first we're going to do a Ben Franklin

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exercise this is when you write down

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everything you can about what you hear

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whether or not you hear words being

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linked or if you hear something being

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reduced for example now we'll do this

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together to help you get an idea of how

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to listen to and analyze what you hear a

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lot of people ask me if it's possible to

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sound like a native

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speaker a lot of people ask me so the

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first thing I notice is this T is a flap

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T it sounds like a d a lot of that's

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because it's coming between two vowel

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sounds I also noticed that I hear these

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three words as one unit a lot of a lot

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of with the stress happening on the

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middle

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word a lot of a lot of people ask me I I

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also notice that this word ends in a

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consonant this word begins with a vowel

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there's no punctuation in between a lot

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of people ask and I do hear that L as

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really linking to the beginning vowel

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sound people ask another thing you'll

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want to note as you listen is any sounds

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that you know are difficult for you for

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example many of my students have

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problems integrating the a sound into

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their speech they know how to do it but

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they just don't use it in speech so I

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would definitely if I was one of them

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mark this a

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vowel so that I'll be sure to note it

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and then we'll hopefully begin to

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integrate a into my speech when I see

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this word

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ask a lot of people ask

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me let's keep

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going a lot of people ask me if it's

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possible to sound like a native speaker

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if it's possible to

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sound if it's possible to sound so I

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noticed the stress here

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POS first syllable is stress to sound I

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notice that has stress too if it's

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possible to sound the word two is

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definitely reduced to the schah so I may

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Mark that so I don't forget to reduce it

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possible to

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sound if it's if it's here's another

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case where one word ends in a consonant

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sound the next word begins with a vowel

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sound iFit if it's and I do definitely

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hear those connecting together if it's

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possible to

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sound a lot of people ask me if it's

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possible to sound like a native speaker

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like a native speaker I notice my voice

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goes up at the end here

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speaker that's because the sentence

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isn't over the next word is if I also

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notice the stress is is big

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small big

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small big

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small like a native speaker dat da

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dat like a native

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speaker also again here we have ending

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consonant sound beginning vowel sound

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like a likea I hear the K linking to the

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schah like a like a native speaker

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native I hear this t as a

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d because again it's a t coming between

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two vowel sounds will be a flap T sounds

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like a

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d like a native

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speaker in the entire sentence I don't

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hear any gaps or pauses between words so

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in some cases there's a very obvious

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link like when one word ends with a

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consonant and the next word begins with

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a vowel but even when there's not a very

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obvious linking sound there's never a

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gap between the

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words a lot of people ask me if it's

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possible to sound like a native speaker

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we've been working for several minutes

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and here we are only halfway through one

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sentence this is just an example of how

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you might take notes from the audio or

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video clip of your

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choice after you've listened several

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times and taken thorough notes you then

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put the audio or the video away and from

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your notes try to speak the way the

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native speaker was speaking if you can

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record yourself and then compare this to

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the native speaker this is how you can

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figure out where you still need to

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work and now we'll do an imitation

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exercise in this video you don't look at

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the text you're not concerned with the

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actual words because you do already have

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ideas about how words should be

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pronounced so in this exercise you're

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just listening and I Loop things three

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times in an imitation exercise so that

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you begin to think about the pitch

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changes and the musicality of the speech

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rather than the individual words

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themselves repeat it back exactly as you

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hear it even if you're not sure of the

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individual words it's okay that's not

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what we're going for in this particular

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exercise a lot of people ask me a lot of

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people ask me a lot of people ask me

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a lot of people ask me if it's possible

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to sound like a native speaker if it's

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possible to sound like a native speaker

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if it's possible to sound like a native

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speaker if it's possible to sound like a

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native speaker if you weren't born in

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the US if you weren't born in the US if

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you weren't born in the US

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because of the internet there really is

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an endless supply of audio and video

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where English is being spoken by native

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speakers I know looping something over

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and over as in the imitation exercise

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can be more of a hassle on your own

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that's why on my website I do have both

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Ben Franklin and imitation exercises

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ready for you so I encourage you to take

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take a look at these or any other audio

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or video clip that interests you and

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turn it into a pronunciation exercise

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study it this way it will really take

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you far in your

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practice that's it and thanks so much

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for using Rachel's English