What makes English pronunciation difficult?

Some of the most important reasons why English pronunciation is believed to be so difficult are
:
There are some sounds in English that probably dont exist in your own language for
instance, English has 20 vowels and diphthongs (many languages only have 5).
There is no simple relationship between spellings and sounds in English.
English is a stress-timed language words and sentences have strong and weak parts.
This is different to many other languages throughout the world where parts of words and
words themselves may be given the same stress in a sentence. .
When English is spoken quickly, words are linked smoothly together and sometimes
sounds even disappear altogether (this is called assimilation). This means it can be hard
to understand, as well as speak English.

What are the five main areas of English pronunciation, and why are they
important?
There are five main areas of difficulty in English pronunciation. These are :

Pronunciation of individual sounds

Word stress
Sentence stress
Rhythm
Intonation

In the table below, you can see what the main problems are in pronouncing English and how
you might be able to improve.

Area of difficulty

1. Pronunciation of
individual sounds

Implications of this
particular area
There may be confusion
between minimal pairs (e.g.
bed/bad, ship/sheep) and this
may compromise meaning.

How to improve

Use lists to practise repeating

minimal pairs
Use tongue twisters to
practise special sounds.

Practise the sounds of

English by using the
phonemic chart.
2. Word stress

Sometimes words shift their

stress so word stress can
actually change the meaning
of the word (e.g. record
(v)/record (n))

Check your dictionary in

advance of a seminar or
presentation to make sure
you know where the stress
falls on long words. Repeat
the words.
An demonstration of how
word stress appears in the
dictionary can be seen here

3. Sentence stress

Sometimes emphasising
different words suggests
different contrasting
information (e.g. how does the
meaning change when
different words of the
following sentence are
stressed : Mary saw a red car
driven by a young man with
brown hair)

Try to exaggerate (make

even stronger) the stress on
key words this may sound
unusual to you, but will
probably sound perfectly
natural to the listener.

4. Rhythm

Rhythm is important to
maintain the flow of the
language. English is a stresstimed language. Problems
with this are not so likely to
affect comprehension but
getting the rhythm right does
help the listener to follow
your argument..

Practise reading poems,

limericks, etc out loud to get
a sense of how English
rhythm works.

5. Intonation

Getting the right intonation is Vary your voice more and try
important to convey the right not to speak in a monotone.
attitude i.e. high start for
questions, tentativity and wide
pitch variation to show greater
enthusiasm.

General advice for improving pronunciation

There is certainly a lot of general advice that we can give you to help you to improve your
pronunciation. You can try some or all of these ideas.
Find out what mistakes you make. If you do not know what mistakes you are making, you
will not be able to improve. Ask a native speaker what particular mistakes you have. You could
ask your pre-sessional or in-sessional EAP tutor or a friend or acquaintance. Ask people if they
can understand you and if you have not seen that person for a long time, ask if they think you
have improved. Ask your audience at a presentation whether they found it easy to understand
what you said.
Be aware of the face position of native speakers. English, unlike a number of other
languages, is spoken with a relaxed face. Make sure that your cheeks are relaxed before you
speak. Observe how native speakers speak and the position of their mouths.
Try to listen to good models of speech. Ask someone you know or a tutor to record for you
some technical words in your subject that you find it difficult to pronounce. Also check the
words in the dictionary to see where the stress falls.
Know about the particular features of English pronunciation. For example, make sure that
you pronounce and do not swallow the endings of each word. Note particularly the importance
of pronouncing s and ed endings. Remember that the spelling of a word does not always help
to pronounce it.
Have a very specific target for improvement for the week. Just saying my aim is to
improve my pronunciation is too general and unfocussed. You have to try and identify
particular aspects of pronunciation that you need to develop. Try to work specifically on one
aspect of your pronunciation each week. For instance, if you know that you have problems with
the th sound, make a plan to wok on this as much as possible during one week.
Some people find that recording themselves and listening back can help to spot errors in
pronunciation. But naturally, you need to have some idea of what mistakes you make first.
Mark up a reading text. Put marks and symbols on a reading text to show where words are
linked together, where the stress falls on long words, etc. Practise reading from the marked up
text onto a cassette or MP3 player.
Using pronunciation books and cassettes, and Internet web sites, can help. There are useful
pronunciation self-study books available and listening to the cassettes and practising repeating
them for ten or fifteen minutes a day can be time well spent. They will give you good models to
repeat. There are a lot of useful sites on the Internet that help you to improve your
pronunciation (see 'check them out' box above for a list of internet resources).
Slow down. Sometimes it is tempting to try and speak very quickly to give the impression of
fluency. However, this often affects the clarity of your pronunciation and makes it harder for
people to understand you. And remember, many speakers of English do not speak very quickly,

but are very fluent.

Try to sound interesting/ interested. Dont speak in a monotone but try to sound as if you
enjoy speaking English. Put emphasis on important words and say them a little more slowly, to
bring out their meaning.
Attend in-sessional pronunciation classes. The University of Warwick, and many other
universities, organise in-sessional classes for pronunciation development. If you are worried
about your pronunciation, try to attend these classes regularly. To find out more about CAL's
free English langauge support classes, click here.