How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation One of the most important aspects of learning English is pronunciation. Without clear pronunciation, it is difficult to make yourself understood. First, start by learning individual sounds. After that, focus on the music of the language. You might be surprised by the following statement: Pronouncing every word correctly leads to poor pronunciation! Good pronunciation comes from stressing the right words- this is because English is a time-stressed language. In other words, some words- the content words- receive more focus, whereas other words- function words- are less important. Difficulty: Hard Time Required: Varies Here's How to Improve Your Pronunciation: Start by  learning individual sounds. These are called phonemes.  Use minimal pairs to practice individual vowel sounds. Minimal pairs are words in which only one sound changes. For example, pop - pep - pip - pap  changes the vowel sound. Using minimal pairs helps you isolate a sound to really focus on the small changes in sounds between vowels.  Learn pairs of consonants that are voiced and voiceless and practice through minimal pairs. For example,  f / v  the f sound is voiceless and the v voiced. You can recognize the difference between voiced and voiceless by placing a finger on your throat. Voiced sounds vibrate, whereas voiceless sounds do not vibrate. These pairs include: b / p - z / s - d / t - v / f - zh / sh - dj / ch.Learn the difference between pure vowels and diphthongs such as the oi sound in boy or aee sound in tray.  Learn the following rules concerning pronunciation: English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length). English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, non-stressed, words. Stressed words are considered content words: Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter- (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct- Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting- Adverbs e.g. often, carefully Non-stressed words are considered function words: Determiners e.g. the, a- Auxiliary verbs e.g. am, were- Prepositions e.g. before, of- Conjunctions e.g. but, and- Pronouns e.g. they, she. Try It for Yourself Read the following sentence aloud: The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. Now, read the following sentence aloud: He can come on Sundays as long as he doesnt have to do any homework in the evening. Notice that the first sentence actually takes about the same time to speak well! Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence. Exercise: Write down a few sentences, or take a few example sentences from a book or exercise.First underline the stressed words, then read aloud focusing on stressing the underlined words and gliding over the non-stressed words. Youll be surprised at how quickly your pronunciation improves! By focusing on stressed words, non-stressed words and syllables take on their more muted nature.When listening to native speakers, focus on how those speakers stress certain words and begin to copy this. More Tips toImprove Pronunciation Remember that non-stressed words and syllables are often swallowed in English.Always focus on pronouncing stressed words well, non-stressed words can be glided over.Dont focus on pronouncing each word. Focus on the stressed words in each sentence.

Oskar Schindler Essays - Oskar Schindler, Amon Gth, Krakw Ghetto

Oskar Schindler Essays - Oskar Schindler, Amon Gth, Krakw Ghetto Oskar Schindler Oskar Schindler was a wealthy German industrialist, who made much of his wealth by employing Jewish men and women in his various factories. In the Movie ?Schindler?s List? it starts off with Schindler is a restaurant with many high ranking Nazi officers eating there. He starts off by buying a officer a bottle of expensive wine, but it does not end there. Before the night is gone he has boughten dinner for all of the officers. This is how he made friends, friends with power. At this point the War was already underway and Schindler seized an opportunity to make some money. Thinking ahead he hires a Jewish accountant that he believes is very qualified for that position. At first this accountant is careful the way he acts around Schindler because Schindler is a member of the Nazi Party and fears for his life. The point of the movie in which Schindler starts to view the Jewish people differently is when the Nazis start to flush out the ghettos. From a hilltop he watches especially a little girl walking through the streets like she is abandoned. At this time he starts to pull his favors from those officers he treated to dinner a while back. He meets Geoth, a SS officer that is known for his cruelty in the Concentration Camps. Schindler starts to gain the trust and admiration of Goeth and he takes advantage of that friendship. He tells Goeth that he will pay him a certain amount of money for each Jew to work for him. As an excuse he tells the officers that it is merely ?cheap labor? to be used in his enamelware factory. For each person on the list he has listed also their specialty. Later he starts another factory, but this time the workers make bullets and shells. Once again he uses Jews as the workers but this time he is making no profits because the shells the workers make do not work. Schindler adjusted the machines to do so. By this time the war is almost over, so Schindler took to the road like many other Nazi officials. At his departure all his workers are present and they give him a paper with all their signatures with a short letter in case he is captured by one of the allied powers. From their he starts to break down saying that he could have saved more lives by selling his car and gold Nazi pin. Soon he gets into his car and starts to journey to another place. At the very end of the movie it shows all the ?Schindler Jews? and they all place a rock on his tomb. I believe that the Holocaust should never be forgotten because it should never happen again. This story, which was first told in a book called ?Schindler?s Ark?, had a great affect on me because it was so graphic and I will probably never see anything like it again for the rest of my life. For that reason it will also be a lasting one. The small girl in a red coat that Schindler was watching was only one of four places in the movie that had color. I believe that the meaning of the color was meant to show the harshness of the Nazi?s during the Holocaust. Near the end of the movie it shows the same girl with the colored coat laying on the wagon dead with many other people also. I think Oskar Schindler was a great hero if the movie was true, but his wife who is still alive thinks otherwise. In a interview with her she stated that her late husband really isn?t all that he?s cracked up to be. But the fact is that he saved many people and that alone would make someone a hero. The Schindler Jews definitely think he is a hero because after the war Schindler tried opening up other business, but they all failed miserably. He ended up going bankrupt. The Schindler Jews found out about that and invited him to Jerusalem and gave him money to help him survive. Their is also a memorial of him on a famous street in Jerusalem. I think Steven Speilberg?s reasons for making

Biomasses energy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Biomasses energy - Assignment Example Hence, there is increased release of carbon to the atmosphere. On the other hand, the reliance of biomass such as cutting whole tree will lead to a reduced intake of carbon. Most of the biomass is generally received from the forest (Greene and Lyutse 1). Forest is said to play a significant role as carbon sinks. It absorbs large amount of carbon that protects from global warming. Hence, cutting trees as a source of biomass will mean reduced carbon sink and hence more amount of carbon will not be absorbed. The Kaya concept is an equation used to determine the rate of carbon dioxide release to the environment based on the economic activity of nay given country. The rate of energy use of the country is shown to have a strong link to carbon intensity of that energy use (FREE 1). As most of the countries join the league of emerging economies, it is expected that there will be an increased emissions of products the most significant being carbon dioxide. This is because an increased out put per capita is expected to occur over an increased use of energy. Because of the increase, the concept makes various suggestions to the emerging economies. One of the significant suggestions is for these countries to engage in ways of reducing energy intensity. One alternative for the countries is to adopt increased efficiency in energy use. The other suggestion is to change consumer behavior when it comes to energy use. The changes are said to be real through adoption of ‘green energy’ in th e future. The wood industry is a legitimate player in biofuels due to its heavy carbon content. First, the wood industry has more reliable energy in the name of biopower as compared to other sources of energy that have been heavily used in the past (Union of Concerned Scientist(UCS) 1). The energy is beneficial to society once it is used in a sustainable way. The use of this form of power in a sustainable way means that