{"id":38067,"date":"2018-02-22T17:27:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T16:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/?p=38067"},"modified":"2020-12-16T11:53:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T10:53:36","slug":"5-powerful-tools-to-perfect-your-pronunciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxfordhousebcn.com\/en\/5-powerful-tools-to-perfect-your-pronunciation\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Powerful Tools to Perfect Your Pronunciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foreign accent and understanding<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

When you meet someone new, what\u2019s the first thing you notice? Is it how they look? How they speak? A person\u2019s accent holds a lot of information and it tells a story about where they come from, where they grew up, and even where they\u2019ve been living more recently.<\/p>\n

When you speak a second language, sounds from your first language will probably come out when you speak, giving you a \u2018foreign\u2019 accent.<\/p>\n

But is this a problem? Not necessarily, as it\u2019s a part of your identity and certainly not something you have to lose.<\/p>\n

Pronunciation only becomes a problem when it causes a breakdown in communication<\/em><\/span> between you and the people you\u2019re talking with. Perfecting your English pronunciation is about making yourself understood.<\/p>\n

In this post we\u2019ve got 5 powerful tools to help you do just that!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listening skills<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Pronouncing words in a second language is difficult for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

Perception<\/em><\/span>, which relates to how we hear sounds, is one of the biggest problems for learners. Believe it or not, when you listen to someone speak in a second language like English, what you and I hear is not the same; it all depends on your first language.<\/p>\n

Basically, the English sounds are filtered through the \u2018sound system\u2019 of your first language.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The biggest problem for English language learners relates to vowels, as there are twelve different vowel sounds in English – compare that to 8 in Catalan and just 5 in Spanish!<\/p>\n

This explains why certain English words can sound so alike<\/em><\/span>. Here are a few examples…<\/p>\n