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  • “I can only watch movies with subtitles. If  I turn off the subtitles, I get so lost!” 

  • Natives speak so fast!” “I can understand my  Teacher, but when I listen to someone else,  

  • I don't understand anything!” “My listening is really bad.” 

  • “I get so frustrated when I have to  ask someone to repeat what they said!” 

  • How can I improve my listening?”

  • If you ever said any of these phrases  or something similar to them, you are  

  • not alone. Understanding fast English is one of  the greatest challenges English learners face.

  • Maybe you understand English when you  read or when you speak to some people,  

  • but overall you feel like you  need to improve your listening.

  • In today's lesson, you will learn 5  

  • listening secrets that will help  you finally understand fast English.

  • But first, if you're tired of trying boring  and ineffective methods to learn English,  

  • you've come to the right place! Every week  we release lessons to help intermediate and  

  • advanced learners just like you to speak English  with confidence. So if you're new here, make  

  • sure you hit the subscribe button and bell down  below so you don't miss any of our new lessons!

  • Secret 1: Adjust your expectations 

  • Successful advanced learners understand the  importance of managing their expectations.

  • Before we get into practical things you can  do and learn to understand fast English,  

  • it's important that you  remember three basic things:

  • 1. Don't try to understand every single word

  • If you try to understand every single word you  hear, you will get frustrated and discouraged.  

  • Instead, focus on meaning and specific  phrases. Start small, and keep improving.

  • 2. Embrace the fact that some sounds in  English might not exist in your first language.

  • If you want to understand English betteryou have to be willing to learn the most  

  • common sounds and pronunciation  features of the English language.  

  • Those might not exist in your native  language, so be open to learning them.  

  • 3. Don't expect to understand  everything overnight.  

  • Developing your listening skills is a life-long  process and it will take time. Be patient.

  • Secret two: exposure.

  • In order to understand fast English, you need  constant, daily exposure to the language.  

  • Some ways to do that include watching  movies, TV series and listening to podcasts.

  • Maybe you feel comfortable listening to  American English, but how about British,  

  • Scottish and Australian English, for exampleRemember that the English language has many  

  • different accents and dialects. Make sure you  have enough exposure to the different varieties.

  • Also, did you know that most people who speak  English in the world are non-native speakers?  

  • Listen to non-native speakers as well. This will  make your experience learning English much richer

  • By the way, with our RealLife English app you  can do just that. You can listen and talk to  

  • people from all over the world. You can also  improve your listening skills with our podcast,  

  • which comes with transcripts and  vocabulary notes for you to follow along.

  • If you feel lost and insecure speaking English,  

  • we highly recommend you download  our RealLife English app.

  • You can download it for free at the  Google Play or the Apple App Store.  

  • You can also find the link up here  and down in the description below.

  • Become a confident English speaker and join the  global conversation by downloading the app now!

  • Secret 3: Learn Connected Speech

  • Have you ever stopped to think  about whatfast Englishreally is?

  • While it's common to believe that natives speak  too fast, this is not technically true. Yes,  

  • some people do speak faster than others, but  most of the time, the reason you can't understand  

  • is because natives have the habit  of linking and reducing sounds,  

  • so it's important that you  learn about connected speech.

  • Let me give you an example. Notice that I'm speaking both ways  

  • at the same pace, not too fast, not too slow. But  they still sound different, right? Why? Because in  

  • the second form I'm using connected speech. So let's analyze the connected  

  • speech in this sentence: When you have a word that  

  • ends in T or D and the next word starts withconsonant, we normally cut out the final T or D.

  • In this example, notice that we have the T for  “butand the next word, “then”, also starts  

  • with a consonant. In this case, we don't pronounce  the final T inbut”. Instead, we saybuh-then”.

  • Also, we have the D forhadand the next  word, “to”, starts with a consonant. Again,  

  • we don't pronounce the D for  “had”. Instead, we sayhAh-tuh”.

  • The T in the wordtois sometimes pronounced  as a flap T and the “o” is usually reduced to  

  • a schwa sound, “uh”. It's very common  for Americans to pronounce itduh”.  

  • In England, you would probably hearhAh-tuh”  while in The US you would probably hearhAh-duh”.

  • It's also common to cut the H in the  wordhim”, so we would sayim”.

  • If the next word that follows a final T or  D is a vowel, we tend to pronounce the T  

  • or D with a flap T sound. This is  especially true in American English.  

  • For example, “At eight o'  clockbecomesAdei-duh clock”.

  • So when we put these connected speech  elements together, we have something like:

  • Notice that in England we tend to  pronounce the letter T more often  

  • than Americans. That's why it's important  for you to listen to many different accents

  • If you want to learn more about connected speech  Ethan and I made two lessons with more examples.  

  • You can find the link to the lessons up here andwill also link them down in the description below.  

  • Make sure you watch them after this lesson!

  • Secret 4: Know where to put  the stress in the sentences

  • Sentence stressis about knowing which words  to emphasize in a sentence. In every sentence,  

  • we have two kinds of wordsContent words and Function words.

  • Content wordsare the words that  carry the meaning of the sentence.  

  • They are usually nounsverbs, adjectives and adverbs.

  • On the other hand, “Function wordsare words  that connect the main ideas in a phrase.  

  • While they carry a little bit of meaningtheir main use is to put it all together.  

  • They are usually prepositionsauxiliary verbs and linking words.

  • Let's look at some examples. You will  see some sentences on the screen. First,  

  • I will give you some time to try and identify the  words that would be stressed in pronunciation.

  • The verbstudyand the adverb “a lotare  stressed here. “I mustis reduced to Imus and  

  • the article “a” is reduced to a schwa sound, huh.

  • The verbsmadeandcalledare  stressed, just like the noundinner”.  

  • The auxiliaryhadis abbreviated and the  wordswhen sheare spoken continuously.

  • The wordsbeen”, “countryandtimes”  are stressed. “He hasis reduced toHe's”  

  • and the wordmanyis pronounced quickly.

  • However, notice that the phrasein  and out of thegets really reduced,  

  • since it is formed by three prepositions  (in/out/of), one linking word  

  • (and) and an article (the).  So we say i-na-nouh-duv-thuh.

  • As you can see, it's much more  productive to focus on sentence stress  

  • rather than on individual sounds.

  • However, there is one very special sound in  English that you should pay attention to.  

  • This little sound, when applied correctlycan drastically improve your listening skills  

  • and your pronunciation. And this is actually the  next and final secret we're going to talk about:

  • Secret 5: The Schwa sound

  • Theschwais the sound we make when we need  time to think about what we're going to say  

  • next: uh. Almost all vowels that are not  stressed in a word will be pronounced with  

  • an uh sound. Because of this, the schwa is  the most frequent sound in spoken English.

  • Since this sound is very common, if you  work on producing the schwa every time  

  • it occurs in a word, not only will  your pronunciation improve but also  

  • your listening comprehension  will automatically get better.

  • Let's understand this sound in a bit more detail.

  • Take a look at the wordconstruction”.

  • First, you need to identify the vowels. In this  case, we have the vowels “o”, “u” andio”.

  • Now you need to determine which one of these  vowels is stressed, or pronounced more strongly.  

  • In this case, it is the vowel “u”, as intruc”.

  • That means that the other vowels, “o”  andiowill have the exact same sound.  

  • Which sound is that? That's  right, the schwa sound, uh.

  • So we pronounce this word:

  • Other examples include:

  • Knowing about the schwa is really importantbecause when we apply connected speech  

  • elements in a sentence, unstressed  vowels tend to have the sound uh.

  • For example:

  • Would you like us to create a lesson only about  the schwa sound? Leave a comment saying “I'd like  

  • to learn more about the schwa sound”. If there are  enough requests, we might just create one soon

  • To recap, here are the 5 secrets  to understanding fast English:

  • Secret 1: Have realistic expectations

  • Don't expect to understand everything overnight.

  • Secret 2: Listen to all kinds of English

  • Have daily exposure to both  native and non-native English.

  • Secret 3: Learn Connected Speech

  • Study how natives link and connect the sounds.

  • Secret 4: Know where to put  the stress in the sentences

  • Practice identifying Content words  and Function words in a phrase.

  • Secret 5: The Schwa sound

  • Study and implement the  schwa sound in your English.

  • I hope you enjoyed this lessonIf you want to keep learning,  

  • I highly recommend you watch this one next.

“I can only watch movies with subtitles. If  I turn off the subtitles, I get so lost!” 

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A2 初級 美國腔

Do This If You Want To Understand Fast Enlglish(Do This If You Want To Understand Fast English)

  • 109 2
    Zong yu Lin 發佈於 2022 年 01 月 26 日
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