Here I’ll be posting thoughts on teaching and improving listening skills, as well as audio clips for the “daily squeeze” feature: little examples to savor the blends and blurs of quick, natural speech. Be sure to click through the previews below to hear the examples.
It’s very common to drop /h/ in “he” after a consonant, so “when he” sounds like [wɛni]. Note also how the /t/ in “got” is dropped; the voice stops and as the lips close for ‘b’ in “back,” we hear an unreleased /p/. when he got back to his desk [wɛnigɔp˺bǽk˺tɪzdɛ́sk]
This expression is useful for those moments when two people begin to talk at the same time, and there’s an awkward pause. You’ll often hear “I was just going to say” before one speaker begins again. Since it’s just a signal of taking a turn, we often don’t pronounce it clearly, and the words blend …
“Well, y’aint in the woods now are you son?,” he asked. [wɛ́l jẽ́ʔn̩ǝwʊ́dz nǽʊ áɹjǝ sʌ́n hiǽst] I don’t hear a distinct, intrusive [w] in “now are,” as is often heard in sequences like “to eat,” perhaps because this speaker doesn’t have much lip-rounding at the end of “now.” Note that this speaker was born …
“I’m going to” (to express future or an intention, not motion!) can sound like [áɪmgǝnǝ], [áɪŋgǝnǝ], [áɪŋǝnǝ], [áɪŋnǝ], [ámǝnǝ], [ámnǝ], [ámǝ], all heard in North America. A few examples: I’m going to [ŋǝnǝ] do this, and then… I’m going to [áɪŋgǝnǝ] be there… I’m going to [ámǝnǝ] be there, don’t worry. Yeah, I’m going to …
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to Barcelona to the International House ELT conference. While I was there I had an opportunity to talk with Richard Cauldwell, who was giving a plenary talk on training teachers to deal with authentic recordings. He mentioned a page on American Voices that described how …
Let’s face it, understanding native speakers can be hard. If you’ve ever felt lost listening to a conversation in English, or frustrated when you tried to watch a movie in English, you know what I mean. I’ve been in that situation, too. When I studied in Russia for the first time, I often didn’t …
I’ve been reading JJ Wilson’s How to Teach Listening and finding that much of what he writes mirrors my own experience teaching advanced students. It also touches on what we want to accomplish with American Voices. Wilson writes, “Although there is an abundance of authentic material on the Internet, most of it doesn’t come in a …
I make bread for our family about once a week, usually two or three loaves. That’s not much, but since I do it all by hand, I can adjust the ingredients as I like. Whole wheat or white flour? Honey or brown sugar – or just yeast, salt, flour, and water? No problem. If I …