Speaking and foreign language

Hi Scotty, welcome to the forum!!

This is something that I've thought about in the past because I used to be a TEFL teacher and found that pronunciation was a big hurdle for non-native tongues. I once did a session on a Japanese friend.. but never really followed it up.

When teaching English pronunciation there are a few techniques which are useful. The first is to repeat the teacher saying the sentence back starting with the last word then the last two words and so on until the whole sentence is made. 'today' 'you today' 'are you today' 'how are you today', which i guess kind of bypasses any resistance as it's quite confusing and focuses on sounds rather than content.

Another thing to do is to learn the phonetics for a language and use that to pronounce. With English there are 44 sounds. Words all too often aren't written the way they're pronounced. This can be fun as the students don't really know what they're saying, but they're speaking exactly like a native!

Another thing that might apply more to English than other languages is to get the beat of the language. English has a very distinct stress that you can tap your foot along to.

Which language are you trying to learn?

Andy.

Hi Andy,

I'm actually American and I have had French in school. I began learning German when I lived there for a year ( a few years ago ). And my husband is an Afrikaans speaking South African, so I am learning Afrikaans.
I do have a bit of a problem with the correct pronunciation. But it is actually more of a problem with my mouth not cooperating, even when speaking English ! You know the occassional 'can't spit it out' type thing.
I am just finding with the foreign languages that my reading and writing are much much further along than actual speaking. For example, even after living in Germany for a year and working in England in constant contact with my german colleagues, I still cannot hold a simple conversation.... something is stumbling me...

Since I recently took a test to actually see how far I am along on my German and score very well, I began looking for other reasons or solutions to speaking better. Hypnosis came to mind, but not sure in which way and under which category.

Cheers,
Donna

Hi Donna,

Well that's perfectly normal, speaking is usually harder than reading and writing because everything is happening that much faster. I think that listening without focusing too much on each word, but rather the meaning of whole sentences, aids learning the most. Students that I've taught who analyse too much, or begin to look stressed when something new is introduced, struggle the most.

As for the pronunciation of specific sounds, that's often tricky. Certain nationalities have great problems with certain English sounds. Try getting a French to say squirrel or a Japanese to distinguish between 'right' and 'light'. I know that I have great difficulty with the 'r' sounds in French and Spanish.

So hypnosis would help with both these areas. With general understanding it might be a case of aiding relaxation and standing back to look at the whole meaning. And with pronunciation perhaps when in a relaxed state or even when regressed to the mind of a child practice forming the mouth in the appropriate way. I'm sure that if a whole nation of people can make certain sounds, with practice anyone can.

I'm not sure if there's a specific field within hypnosis that deals with this, but perhaps if you approach a hypnotherapist they might be willing to help you.

Best wishes,

Andy

Hi Andy,
Very good point. If a whole nation can speak I certainly can! And I probably analyze too much by nature, as I am a computer programming consultant.
Thanks very much for your advice.
Donna