Listening and Speaking - Practice Now & Improve English Skills #ELSA

how to improve your english listening and speaking skills welcome to gonaturalenglish.com i'm gabby your american english speaking teacher and in the next 10 minutes i'm going to share several examples of how to improve your english listening skills how to improve your english speaking skills and why it's easy to understand your english teacher but difficult to understand other native english speakers i'm thrilled to be able to share some of the things that you don't typically learn in an english class as we dive deeper into linguistics things like connection and linking between words word stress phrase stress and why when you hear a native speaker it sounds like they're talking so quickly okay let me explain and at the end of this lesson i'm going to show you an app that i recently discovered that uses artificial intelligence to help you train your listening and speaking skills you don't want to miss this because it is an awesome way that you can learn from anywhere with the helpful app right in your pocket it's super easy and awesome and i'll tell you more about how i use it at the end of this lesson so stick around and at the end i'm going to give you a listening quiz so stick around to test your listening comprehension so why is it difficult to understand native english speakers yet you can understand most of what i say and most of what your english teacher or tutor says well the basic reason is that i'm speaking very clearly i'm enunciating my words and i'm not being lazy or casual with my pronunciation you might also notice that it's easier to understand native speakers when they're giving a speech or when they're in a professional situation maybe presenting at a conference or leading a more formal meeting native speakers tend to speak more clearly and more professionally enunciating each word clearly however when we're in a more casual situation we tend to get a little lazy with our pronunciation and just do what's easy so instead of saying like when i go to a starbucks can i have a coffee i would probably be a little more casual because if i say each word very clearly like that they would probably think there's something wrong either with them or with me or maybe i'm angry because when you enunciate each word very clearly in a casual situation it can actually come across as angry i would be more likely to say can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee now that's actually not that much faster although it sounds fast right can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee it's basically the same length of time duration that it takes me to say each phrase but what happens is that i'm linking the sounds between each word so it doesn't just sound like individual words in a string can i get a cup of coffee what happens is i stress the key words can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee so get and coffee are our strongest most stressed keywords in this question can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee can i get a cup of coffee so basically what's happening is native speakers are stressing key words did you ever learn about how to stress phrase level on the phrase level in english and makes some keywords stronger or longer than others this is really important to sounding more fluent so i'm going to share some more examples with you words that sound different when we use proper phrase level stress words like for example should have should and have as you probably know can contract into should've so if i'm talking about a regret something i should have done but i didn't i would say should of however when we speak faster more casually it sounds like shoulda shoulda i shoulda done something differently instead of should have so first we have should have that contracts into should of and then what people actually say is shoulda i shoulda asked for sugar with my coffee but i forgot i shoulda asked for sugar shoulda asked for sugar shoulda asked for sugar that's kind of a tongue twister isn't it okay so shoulda is a way that natives say should have can you say it with these examples i would like you to repeat after me to practice your speaking as well shoulda i shoulda asked for sugar i shoulda asked for sugar now let's ask ourselves which words are stressed should is stressed and have is not and that is why it becomes should uh shoulda because the have becomes so small when we stress should that it just gets smaller and smaller from have to to should uh we can also apply this to would have and could have would have becomes would of when we contract and when we speak with linking sounds and stress could then have becomes very small and it becomes coulda i coulda asked for sugar what about would have would have becomes would've and that becomes woulda i would have asked for sugar if i had remembered but i didn't can you practice with me out loud let's practice these shoulda coulda woulda shoulda coulda woulda let's try it with a sentence again i shoulda asked for sugar i coulda asked for sugar i woulda asked for sugar let's take the sentence i want to get a what do i want to get how about a dog i want to get a dog a pet dog that's even better i want to get a pet dog that is so clear so easy to understand right that's the way that your english teacher would probably always say this sentence but a native speaker is not going to say it this way they're going to say i want to get a pit dog i want to get a pet dog i want to becomes i wanna i wanna i wanna get a becomes getta geta i wanna get a i wanna get a i wanna get a it sounds like one big word doesn't it even though it's four words i want to get oh five words i wanna get a i wanna get a and we don't say ie we say uh i wanna get a i wanna get out i wanna get a pet dog becomes pet dog pet dog it almost sounds like one word even though it's two pet dog i wanna get a pet dog i wanna get a pit dog i wanna get a pet dog can you say it with me i want to get a pet dog can you see what happens when we stress some words like want then the words next to it becomes become very weak so i becomes uh wants becomes one and then uh um sorry two i want two two becomes a awana awana get a becomes getta get is stronger than uh so it kind of like just absorbs uh into it i wanna get a but what happens with the t and the d they kind of like absorb into each other and combined into pet dog pet dog pet dog let's try it together again full sentence i want to get a pet dog i want to get a pet dog i want to get a pet dog let me share one more with you let's talk about i have to because this is really interesting to me because you have to can also be expressed as i've got to i have got to or i got to it's really not proper but people say this all the time so for example i have to go to the store i could say i have got to go to the store or i got to go to the store look again it's not proper i can already imagine the comments coming in why are you teaching it this way well i never said i was teaching proper queen's english i'm only teaching the way that natives speak so that you can understand it but i don't really recommend saying i got to do something but you know it depends on the situation and the circumstance so let's start with i have to i have to go to the store i have to have to becomes have to because have is stressed and two is a little small preposition that is not stressed i have to go to the i have to go to that go is stressed and to the two is a preposition teeny tiny word doesn't get stressed and the is an article that does not get stressed either i have to go to the i have to go to that i have to go to them and do the next thing i have to go to the store okay very good how about i have to get uh for example i have to get a pet dog let's use the same example i have to get a i have to get a pet dog i have to get a pet dog you're doing great just remember there's a flow there's a stress these stressed words are like beats in a song i have to get a pet dog i have to get a pet dog i have to get a pet dog i have to get a pet dog i have to get a pet dog okay a pet dog we stress dog here i have to get a pet dog like i mentioned some people might say i got to get instead of i have to i gotta i gotta or i've gotta would be a little bit more proper i've gotta get a pet dog i've gotta get a pet dog so again just to summarize these are three examples but this happens all the time all the time in english with many many different words in different sentences the important thing to take away is that phrase level stress is important and certain words like verbs or objects are stressed more than prepositions or articles or pronouns so keep that in mind you want to put an emphasis on your main verb you want to put an emphasis on an object you want to put an emphasis on anything that's really important in your sentence that will help you to minimize the other words and remember to minimize those prepositions minimize the articles so that they kind of get absorbed into the verb or the object like we practiced in those sentences so next i'm going to give you a listening quiz to see if you can identify the words that i'm saying and i'll ask you to do a dictation which is where you listen to what i'm saying and then write in the comments what you hear i'm also going to tell you about an app that uses artificial intelligence to help you train your listening skills and your speaking skills it can actually listen to what you say and give you a percentage score of how close to accurate or native like your pronunciation is so i'm going to show you how that works on the screen so that you can see what it looks like on my phone big and clear and i'll walk you through how to use the app called elsa if you want to learn more about elsa there is a page at gonaturalenglish.com elsa where you can learn more about it if you open up the description i'll link directly to the app so that you can easily download it but let me show you how interesting and helpful it is to use this app i highly recommend it elsa speaks is a cutting edge app that uses artificial intelligence to pinpoint your mistakes in english pronunciation you'll get a score on your pronunciation based on a native speaker environment that's great now what if i put the stress on the wrong syllable let's see what happens environment okay great let's try another one i'll try it the wrong way first companies okay great so it taught me let me try the right way companies cool all right love it and you'll get precise feedback on each and every sound and while learning with elsa you'll not only be able to work on your pronunciation skills but you'll learn more vocabulary and phrases to help you to communicate using more words and while you learn with elsa you will not only improve your pronunciation but you will learn more vocabulary as you see it in the phrases that you practice it has a dictionary that shows you words to practice and you can improve your pronunciation of these new words as well elsa is like a companion on your smartphone that you can take with you to practice your english anytime anywhere it's convenient for you 24 7 24 hours a day seven days a week and what's more is elsa has partnered with go natural english to collaborate on a special promotional offer 80 percent off of their lifetime membership 30 off of their one year membership you can get that special offer by clicking on the link in the description or by going to gonaturalenglish.com elsa now let's practice your listening right here i'd like you to take this opportunity for a dictation practice can you write what you hear number one i have to go to the store one more time i have to go to the store two i should have made more coffee i should have made more coffee three i wanna get a new laptop i wanna get a new laptop very good if you would like more listening and speaking training and explanations as to why english works the way it does then make sure that you're subscribed here to go natural english and visit gonaturalenglish.com for a collection of our best english speaking tips all in one place on the website thank you so much for watching again i really appreciate you learning here with go natural english and i hope it was helpful if it was or if you have any questions let me know in the comments i'm reading them all even if i can't respond to every single one i do my best and i appreciate each and every one of you thank you so much for watching and bye for now

Channel: Go Natural English

Views: 99,458

Keywords: American Accent Training, American Accent, Go Natural English, Gabby Wallace, listening and speaking skills, listening, speaking, improve listening skills, improve speaking skills english, native english teacher, speaking practice, english lesson, english speaking, fast english listening practice

Id: DvGA_TpGm8w

Length: 16min 48sec (1008 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021