Josh from splashenglish.com coaches a student's English pronunciation on Cambly, focusing on L and W sounds and intonation. Watch how specific corrections reshape the student's accent in real time.
Hi, Josh. Teacher.
Hello.
Nice to meet you too.
Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. It's Josh from splashenglish.com in this video, I'm going to share some tips to improve your English pronunciation and accent. I did one on one coaching with some of my students on Cambly. For those of you who don't know, Cambly is an app that lets you talk to native native speakers anytime, anywhere. Okay, so let me share my tips on pronunciation and accent. Wait. But you might be wondering what's wrong with the Korean accent. Well, there's nothing wrong with the Korean accent as long as the other person understands you. But some learners want to be able to sound and speak like a native speaker. If that sounds like you, then keep on watching. Okay, first, let's talk about the sound. Just place the tip of your tongue at the back of your front teeth and that's how you pronounce the l sound. That's a D. L is. Let's try Lemon. Repeat after me. Lemon.
Lemon. Lemon.
Next, let's try lion. Lion.
Lion. Lion.
How about this word? Still. S, T, I, L. L. Still. You went still, but you want to go still. Okay, we need to work on this a little more. Let's try a different word. How about simple? Simple. Simple. You're not using a 10. Let's hear before and after. How about this? A lot of. A lot of. Here are before and after clips.
A lot of. A lot of. A lot of. A lot of.
The second clip was much better. It was more of an open sound and it sounded very relaxed. Okay, let's try this one. All call ball. You said you want to do all call ball. Now let's hear from another student. Okay, this student was able to pronounce the L sound much better. Let's try this sentence. She is taller than me.
She is taller than me. She is taller than me.
Let's watch before and after clips.
Taller than. Taller than. Taller than. Taller than. Taller than. Taller than.
Were you able to hear the difference? The second clip was much better. She sounded a lot more relaxed. Now, if you're still having difficulty with the L sound, here's my suggestion. When you do L, stick your tongue out a little bit. Okay. Next is W. W W sound. If I were a bird, I would fly. If I were. If you look at the sides of my lips, they drop slightly. But overall, I'm still relaxed and my tongue is a little bit curled. Okay. Okay, let's watch the clip.
If I were a bird, I would fly. I wore. I wore. I wore. I were.
I Were I were not wore, but were. How about this one? I worked really hard. Worked. Same thing. Not to be confused with walked. It's not walked. It's worked. Let's hear before and after.
Work, work, work, work, work, work.
Okay, next one. I was busy all week. Many Korean people do week, week. You don't have to stretch your lips so much. It sounds very forced. You can just relax. Just go. Week, week.
I was busy all week.
I was busy.
I was busy all week.
Let's watch the before and after clips.
Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak.
It's subtle, but the difference is there. Let's talk about intonation. One aspect of intonation that you could improve on is to connect the sounds together. For example, a lot of people ask me why my car is so old. Okay, give it a try. A lot of people ask me why my car is so old. So a lot of. A lot of. T kind of sounds like D. A lot of. A lot of. Then people ask. People ask me. People ask me. You can connect L and A and then. So old. It sounds like there is a W between the two O's. So it becomes so old. A lot of people ask me why my car is so old.
A lot of people ask me why my car is so old. A lot of people ask me why my car is so old.
The second part of the intonation is the inflection. Is your voice going up or going down? You can express your emotion by varying your tone. For example, we have this sentence. It's a baby girl. It's a baby girl. Okay, so if you are very happy and excited, how would you say this?
It's a baby girl. It's a baby girl. It's a baby girl. Baby girl. Baby girl. Baby girl.
So clearly, the second one sounds much happier. Next, a long vowel and a short vowel. Okay, so for example, eat. And it. Eat. A long vowel. Simply breathe out longer. You don't have to stretch your lips. You don't have to go eat. You don't have to do that. You just need to breathe out, exhale a lot longer. So eat. Let's read these words together. Fit feet. Fit feet. Sit, seat. Sit, seat.
Feet, feet. Sit, seat.
How would you read this sentence? Some Korean students have this intonation. Have a sit. Have a sit. Have is way too high and seat is too short. Instead, the tone should be flat, should be the same, and the seat should be longer. So have a seat. Have a seat.
Have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat.
Here's the last sentence for today. I want you to try saying out loud, you should never brush your teeth before you eat ice cream. Which words have the highest pitch, highest tone? Probably never. And ice. Right? You should never brush your teeth before you eat ice cream. Okay, so never and ice tend to be high in pitch. Which one's along? It's probably teeth, eat and cream of ice cream.
You should never brush your teeth before you eat ice cream. You should never brush your teeth before you eat ice cream.
So in the first clip, this student said, before you eat ice cream. Before you eat ice cream. For some reason, eat was very high in pitch. But if you say it fast, eat should not be the highest pitch. Before you eat ice cream. Before you eat ice cream. So see you and eat. I'm kind of connecting you and eat. You eat, you eat, you eat. So it sounds a little bit off when you go, you eat ice cream. Instead you would say, you eat ice cream. So when we say ice, that's when the tone goes up. And then when you eat ice cream. Ice cream. So pronunciation is about producing the right sound, such as L's and w's and R's. And you can improve your pronunciation by changing your tongue placement and the shape of your lips. Accent and intonation, on the other hand, are about emphasis. Now, you can emphasize a certain sound by changing the volume, how loud or how quiet, or by changing the length of a vowel. So make it longer or make it shorter. Or you can change the pitch, high pitch force like this, or low pitch force like this. So when you're speaking, you can convey different emotions depending on which word you emphasize, depending on where you put the accent. Okay, so those were some of my tips on improving your pronunciation, accent, and intonation. If you would like to practice speaking English with a native speaker, make sure to check out the app cambly. As long as the phone has the Internet connection, you can use the app virtually anywhere. You can go out for a walk at a park and then talk to a native speaker over the app. Or you could even talk to a native speaker while you're in the bathroom. If you have questions or concerns about pronunciation, accent, and intonation, just send me an email or leave them in the comment section below. And make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, Splashenglish. And I'll see you next time.
It's really useful for me. So thank you so much today.
Thank you. Bye. Bye.
See you. Bye. Bye.
Thank you so much.
Bye. There's one thing I forgot to say, and it's that thank you to all the students who have given me the permission to use their lesson videos. It takes some courage to go up in front of people to demonstrate your English pronunciation, let alone a YouTube channel. So thank you so much to all the students and thank you, Cambly, for making this happen. Now, one more thing. This is a learning environment, so I welcome any constructive criticism, advice, suggestions. However, if you attack or make fun of any of my students personally, your comments will be deleted. So let's keep a respectful and fun learning environment. Thanks for checking out this YouTube channel and I'll see you next time.
