The last individual task

I decided to practice some talk because our oral exam is coming. So I found a website with questions about anything you can imagine and chose some of them. I answered them and then I chose 3 questions and my answers and uploaded them. My answers were brief and short, just straight answers to straight questions. My pronunciation of the word ‘analyses‘ was wrong, I knew that I was going to say it wrong at the moment my mouth opened, I never know the correct pronunciation of this plural of analysis, I always hesitate whether there is /s/ or /z/ at the end of the word. I should be able to remember it now. Then I said ‘I finished the course‘ and it does not fit into this context, I should have said canceled or discontinued because I got my money returned and I stopped going there, I did not finish the course. And my pronunciation of the word ‘piano‘ was not correct, I found the pronunciation just after I recorded it. Maybe I should focus on some improvement concerning aspiration, for example in the word ‘car‘, I say it without aspiration and i tis so frequent word that I should say it without Czech accent.

Why study English for Education

At first, I didn’t exactly know how should I interpret this task, how to make the advert so it was both clear and brief. But I came up with the idea of asking questions at the very beginning of the advert and then following up these questions. I made more persuasive than informative, but I wanted to make it like this. Maybe I should say some information about day, place or time when the entrance exam takes place or something like that. I exaggerated sometimes, but this added more like persuasion into the speech. I think the exaggeration made my pronunciation better, because I spoke quite slowly and with enthusiasm. The intonation and melody really matter in English. I think I connected the words nicely and tried to differ from weak and strong forms of prepositions etc.

Individual task

I listened to some scenes from the series Friends this week and decided to imitate Phoebe and Monica in one of the scenes. It was quite difficult to choose the scene, but I chose this one in the end, because there are some useful phrases and connected speech etc. I had troubles with the very first sentence. Phoebe said it so quickly that I recorded it maybe twenty times. But that is English so I didn’t give up. We learnt that in English the tempo, the way you say things is very important. So I tried to emphasize things that should be emphasized. If Monica or Phoebe sounded ironic, I said things ironic. I tried to speak as quickly as them and it wasn’t so difficult in this particular scene. Maybe I should have chosen some monologue so it was easier to get the point of the scene, but that is quite difficult with the Friends. Anyway, it's not easy to imitate both Monica and Phoebe like every actor in the Friends I think.

News report

This task was quite difficult for me. I watch TV news reports every day and it is known that their style of speaking is a special one, but when you must record some news like them, you will find that their job can be difficult. I tried to record an interesting story, I think the story I recorded is up-to-date and can attract people. I spoke not too fast, not too slowly and I tried to pronounce everything correctly. I noticed that I should say v and w better – e.g. the very first word welcome – I should have said welcome with ‘open’ w. The same with working etc. Generally, my speech could be more fluent and natural, too. I know that I should focus on that.

Individual task

I decided to describe pictures this week, because I think it is good to produce some language. I randomly found some pictures on the internet and tried to describe them. I always try to describe more the atmosphere and background of the picture than describe people’s clothing, some items in the picture etc. I found out that I hesitate a lot when describing a picture. And this doesn’t sound naturally, I think this is the main thing I should work on in the future. When describing a picture, I have always many ideas in my mind, but it is quite difficult for me to express them all, so I say something differently. I don’t like the word position in ‘He has some card with his name and position’ – I should have said work position, employment status or something like this. And I pronounced bed more like bad, I should focus on pronunciation of bed. As for the second recording, I used wrong preposition – I said satisfied of and that should be satisfied with. On the other hand, I tried to use expressions like could have been…, might be… and so on to describe what people in the picture could have been doing and I think I succeeded.

Individual task

A story for children - The lion and the mouse

I enjoyed recording this task. First, I found a nice fairytale that I found interesting and appropriate to record for my purposes. Then I found the pronunciation of some words I did not know, because when telling a story for children, it is important to understand everything. And finally, I found some sound effects to make the fairytale more interesting and beautiful. I recorded the fairytale many times, because I tried to combine sounds and narration and it was difficult for me for the first time, as for my technical skills… But I think I was successful. I think I was successful in linking words. My pronunciation was simple and clear concerning the language the fairytale is written in. I hope I said ´laugh´ correctly, because I have problems with the pronunciation of the word. And the pronunciation of ´roar´ was sometimes problem.

Individual task b) GA

This time, I decided to compare RP and GA pronunciation. I found two recordings of the same text by two different people, one speaker speaking RP English, the other speaking GA English. We did this kind of exercise on our Phonetics lessons, so it inspired me. I imitated the native speakers, I tried to sound like them concerning the accent, the tempo etc. RP pronunciation is about linking words, not pronouncing ´r´ sound and it was difficult for the first time I recorded it, but then I liked it. I got used to it. In the b) recording, it was something completely different. I said ´r´ at the end of words like car and year, I said /hostl/ instead of /hostail/ in hostile, I said /grainding/ instead of /grinding/ in grinding etc. Also, I pronounced words like utterly or unforgettable with ´d´ sound, but in RP I said more like the ´t´ sound - /ʌtəli/ with clear ´t´. It was interesting to record this type of recordings, I liked it. I noticed that I have problems with long texts to read sometimes. Endings of texts make me problems, I read slowly and with pauses.

Individual task a) RP

The party - Mr Bean

Firstly, it is important to write that I recorded this party with Kateřina Kobylková. We took it quite seriously, we agreed on the day, place and time when we will be recording and we met. Our party lasted for 3 hours. We spoke only in English during these 3 hours, except 2 interruptions by family I think. But we really tried to say everything in English, including asking for water, making fun while recording and so on. But there was one let´s say mistake. We both are quite crazy and we love irony, sarcasm etc. and that kind of influenced our recording, because we laughed half of time. We described some photos of our childhood, we played English activity and then we played a game created by Kateřina. Unfortunately, we had to cut our one hour long recording to just about 6 minutes. Anyway, I was quite satisfied with what we recorded. I noticed that I used quite a lot of question tags, which I think is important in this kind of speaking between two people, it shows some interest. On the other hand, I used completely wrong phrases sometimes. Sometimes it was hard to find some word for us, so we had to look it up in a dictionary, but before, we tried to explain it in English and it was fun.

The party - activity

The party - photos

The schwa sound - individual task

I decided to record the same recording we recorded with Dr. Černá in the beginning of the winter semester. I found interesting to compare the difference between the recording which was recorded 4 months ago and the recording I uploaded today. The main aim was to find all schwas in the text and pronounce every word and sentence correctly. I think there is a big difference between these two recordings. This time, I reduced most of the schwas which really made the pronunciation better. To be honest, 4 months ago I did not really know how to pronounce the schwa sound and that was the problem. Now, I did not say /kapbo:d/ but I said /kʌbəd/ in the word cupboard. I did not say /wud/ but I said /wəd/ as for the weak form of would. The same with could. I did not say /laibrery/ but /ˈlaɪbrəri/ in the word library. The thing is that I really tried to connect all the sentences and avoid saying for example /ænd/ instead of /ənd/, /tu:/ instead of /tə/ etc. concerning the weak forms of these words. As I listened to my recording again, maybe I was too interested in the schwa sound and I forgot to say th sound properly, but it was just in two words I think. I must learn how to concentrate on all the aspects of reading some text like this.

What gift will you give your boyfriend for his birthday?

Do you eat breakfast every day?

I chose questions concerning everyday life and I tried to give some good questions. I chose questions which seemed to be quite easy to me, I had many answers prepared in my head. But then, when I actually recorded them, I was a little lost sometimes. Actually, it was hard to say my every thought in 1.30 seconds, I usually talk better after some time, so that was the problem. I need to practise this, because I think I could have problems with time, for example at the exam. The first recording – I should have said milk is like my coffee, not milk is my coffee. Then, I was confused with the whole milk-coffee thing a I had a slip of the tongue, I said …with coffee I prefer some… and I thought …with milk I prefer some… And in the end, I just could not remember the word bacon or sausage… The second question – I said gifts like this and I should have said gifts like these, I did not realise it probably. Another problem was the pronunciation of the word motif – I said /ˈməʊtɪv/ and I should have said /məʊˈtiːf/ - with the stress on the second syllable. And in the end, I said I got it printed…and I should have probably said I give it printed or I could not find the proper phrase.