A monologue is a short speech given by a character in a play. Sometimes the character is alone in a room, but not always. Because a monologue is designed to be spoken, not read, it is an ideal text for working on pronunciation and intonation in meaning-driven ways. […]
“Language is about managing relationships,” said Stephen Pinker in a 2007 TED talk entitled What our Language Habits Reveal, and in his presentation, Pinker points out that to socialize, you have to satisfy two conditions, “You have to convey the actual content,” and “You want to express the […]
Today we have a guest post by our friend and colleague Alice Llanos Stress and intonation can play a huge role in creating meaning. We all know that the phrase “excuse me” can sound polite, sassy or even downright rude depending on the stress and intonation given to […]
Being able to speak effortlessly is a great luxury. Expert speakers can assume that their messages and the intentions behind their words are coming across in exactly the way they intend. If they do think about sounds, confident speakers generally focus on the […]
Sounds are social creatures. While there is certainly value in helping students with individual sounds, the fact is that there is a lot more to pronunciation than segmentals. Imagine trying to have a conversation without knowing how we blend sounds together, or how sounds are so often reduced […]
The young Vietnamese man sat in the back and quietly looked at his book. When called on, he was silent for so long that other students became fidgety. When he did speak, it was a whisper. What do you do with a student like Thao? What if you […]
