Most English students have a problem – their English sounds unnatural. But there is a much bigger problem that’s easy to change.
The reason many students cannot understand native speakers is that students don’t understand common pronunciation, especially contractions.
Of course, you learned basic contractions. For example, you know that “I’m” means “I am,” and you know that “you’re” means “you are. But native speakers use more that you probably don’t know.
You may know these contractions, but we use many more that you probably don’t know – especially when you are listening to a native speaker.
For example, when native speakers speak FAST, they always use words like “outta”, “gettn”, “till”, “havta”, and “gonna”. When you hear these, do you understand them INSTANTLY?
“Outta” means “out of.” For example: ”I’m gettin outta here” (I am getting out of here = I am leaving).
In normal conversation, we almost never say individual words clearly. We always put them together into contractions.
Most textbooks, however, teach individual words. You never learned to understand contractions or to speak in contractions fast.
SECRET TIP: FIND SPONTANEOUS SPEAKING WITH LOTS OF CONTRACTIONS
As you know, listening is the key to speaking. So your first step is to find spoken English with lots of (a lot of) contractions.
This can be difficult. Why? Because many English podcasts are read. So, the speaker pronounces every single word slowly and carefully- this is good when you are a beginner but less good when you are an advanced student.
Another problem – many podcasts, news shows, and radio shows use a more formal kind of English. The speakers want to sound clear, so again they pronounce every single word separately.
You need to find SPONTANEOUS speaking. Spontaneous speaking is unplanned speaking. Try to find stories that aren’t planned. Listen to them everyday, and you will quickly learn natural pronunciation.
You’ll learn to understand native speakers, and speak to them.
Good luck,
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