So today, I want to talk to you about two online resources
that you can use to improve your pronunciation.
Before we begin, I'd like to remind you to subscribe
to our channel for more video lessons
on how you can practice and improve your English.
This lesson is going to be a little bit of a learning tutorial
because I'm sure many of you out there want to
improve your pronunciation and one of the most
common questions that we get is people asking us
How can we practice our pronunciation?
What resources are out there?
So today I want to show you two resources
that you can use to practice your pronunciation
and do all of this completely on your own.
So the first online resource that I'd like to show you
is called Youglish.
Now, Youglish is a search engine that will help you find
The pronunciation of any word out there,
and it searches through a lot of different videos on YouTube.
So if you want to know the pronunciation of a certain word or phrase
You can type it into the search, and it will show you a lot of
different videos with the words or phrase that you are
looking for, so you can see how people
are pronouncing this in context.
So let's just take a sentence for example.
And the sentence is...
"Where do we go from here?"
So we can just type that into the search
and it's going to bring up different videos
with people saying that exact sentence.
So you can see it just immediately goes to a video,
just a random video that it found on YouTube.
And it highlights the words that you just typed in.
So, now we can listen to different people say that sentence
in different context.
...have a soul-searching moment of
like, where do we go from here?
Like, what do we do now?
Where do we go from here?
Not only that, we can divide the search up
and say that we wanted to hear the American pronunciation of it.
We can click right here where it says US.
So now we can hear people saying this sentence
in an America accent in different context.
So, where do we go from here?
It's easy to point the finger at corporations and blame...
...computing. And finally, where do we go from here?
And the videos will just continue playing.
And you can go back and listen to them again
and you can just keep listening to them over and over.
To hear how people are saying it.
To hear the rhythm and flow of their speech.
And the intonation as well as the emphasis.
And so you want to hear it in a British accent.
Then we can click where it says UK
and listen to a British accent.
...got here and what's happening.
But where do we go from here?
...which comes out twice a year,
So where do we go from here?
...final round. The eggheads lost one earlier.
Where do we go from here?
The answer is film and TV.
Even if we want to hear it in an Australian accent,
we can find videos with people saying it
in an Australian accent.
Now, where do we go from here?
...it's beautiful. Okay. So where do we go from here?
...very pretty area. So where do we go from here then?
So Youglish is a very important tool
if there is a word or sentence that you want to hear
and see well, "How are people saying this word?"
And also find out, well what context is it being used in.
So how do we improve our pronunciation
and how do we practice it.
To put it in simple terms, pronunciation is just
two different parts.
The first part is just making sure
that your mouth is in the right position in order to make
individual sounds.
Are you able to get your mouth in the right position
and push the air in and out to make sure that that sound
is coming on correctly.
The next part is listening to the way that sound is said correctly.
And then trying to imitate that and repeat that
and say it in the same way.
Because when people are talking and communicating,
they are taking groups of sounds, putting them together,
to make words, and putting those together to make sentences.
And when we listen to them come together
there is a rhythm and flow to it
because of intonation, emphasis, and stress.
The next pronunciation resource I want to show you
is called Yarn.
And Yarn is a site that it's full of short
video clips from movies, television, music.
And this is a great resource for actually
practicing your pronunciation.
And you can do this by using a technique called Shadowing.
And Shadowing is when you hear something
being said and you try to repeat it
in exactly the same way.
You're trying to use the same intonation...the emphasis.
And you're really trying to shadow
what you are hearing.
And shadow exactly what is being said.
So say that we want to know more about the word
"Colossal."
And see how it's being used and actually practice saying that.
We can do a search on Yarn for that word
and up comes a bunch of videos
using the word colossal.
So let's listen to some videos and then we'll repeat.
It would be a colossal understatement.
It would be a colossal understatement.
It would be a colossal understatement.
It would be a colossal understatement.
It would be a colossal understatement.
...in the most colossal way.
...in the most colossal way.
...in the most colossal way.
...in the most colossal way.
...in the most colossal way.
I paid for a colossal donut.
I paid for a colossal donut.
I paid for a colossal donut.
I paid for a colossal donut.
I don't have a donut.
I paid for a colossal donut. I don't have done
Now let's say that we want to practice a sentence
and we want to use the question,
"What's the matter with you?"
Now this can mean two different things.
It can mean, "What's the matter with you?"
like "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
And it also can mean, "What's the matter with you?"
like, "What's your problem?"
And this is a great way to listen to
how it's being said so you can understand how to use it
when you want to express those feelings.
So again, we can do a search for "What's the matter with you?"
and we find a lot of different videos
using that exact question.
Let's start out with some people asking that question
like you know, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
Wasn't matter with you
What's the matter with you?
That's my Nicholas Cage impression. It's really bad.
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
I sound like an owl...YOU...YOU...YOU.
What's the matter with you?
Now let's see how it's used in the context of
"Hey. What's your problem?"
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you?
Yeah, I can't do that one very well.
What's the matter with you?
So as you can see, with each of those videos
we're saying the same question,
but we're saying it a little differently
depending on the context
and the meaning that we want to convey.
But this is a great way to practice your pronunciation.
Because these videos are short.
And you can just listen to the way a word
or a sentence is being said
in a variety of contexts using a variety of intonation.
And try to repeat and repeat and repeat
and shadow what you're hearing.
And for additional practice and to make it even better
I would recommend recording yourself as you're doing
this using your cell phone or a device on the computer.
So then you can go back and listen to the way that
you are saying it and then listen to the way
it's said in the video.
And then when you listen to yourself saying it,
you can compare that with the actual video.
And by doing this you'll be able to identify
perhaps certain sounds that you're having trouble
making because they don't match up with what you're hearing.
Or perhaps you hear that your intonation is just a little off.
Or maybe you are not emphasizing
a word the same way.
So I highly recommend recording yourself
as you doing this.
So if you want to improve your pronunciation
use the resources that are available to you.
I will put a link to both of these sites
in the description below.
And what I'd like you to do is in the comments,
let us know what you are doing to practice your pronunciation
How are you trying to improve?
What resources are you using or what methods?
And I think this will help everybody and maybe we
can learn new ways techniques or find out new
resources that we can continue to practice and improve.
Sharing is caring.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
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