Speak More Clearly

Background Language Manual for

POLISH SPEAKERS

by Esther Bruhl
Speech Therapist

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What you need to know about English pronunciation if
you are a Polish background language speaker.

In this manual you will find:

1. Important practise techniques to make your practise more effective for

quicker results.

2. Where to start, and suggested order of what to work on first, next etc
for best results

3. Specific background language training - what you need to know about

English pronunciation for your background language

Important Practise Techniques

Use Headphones - Use headphones when you are listening to the

trainer in our program or to an audio of a native English speaker. This
allows the new neurological pathways you are developing for your
English accent to become stronger. You are vibrating the nerve (auditory
nerve), from the ear to the brain’s speech and language centres more
directly with headphones on.

Work on 1 or 2 elements at a time - choose 1 or 2 elements to work

on at a time and work on them till they are automatic in your everyday
speech.

This way you are giving your mouth muscles a chance to remember
and get used to the new way of moving your mouth, otherwise you are
just doing what you did before. If you don’t feel your mouth moving
differently then you aren’t changing your pronunciation.

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You could choose a vowel to work on in words and sentences, and at
the same time you might work on elision and linking for more flowing
speech.

Or, you could choose a consonant such as ‘th’, and also work on making
sure you say the end consonant in every word etc. If you try to change
too many pronunciation elements at once, the elements don’t become
automatic in your everyday speech. After only a little while you will
begin to notice how all the elements accumulate to make your English
pronunciation clearer.

Tips for Consolidation into everyday speaking situations - Make

your new pronunciation automatic

Usually people speak without consciously thinking about their

pronunciation. To make your new English pronunciation automatic you
need to consciously think about the speech element you are targeting
and practising, and use them while you speak to others. It doesn’t matter
if you speak slightly slower to do this, people will just notice that you are
clearer.

Be brave and actually use your ‘new sound’ in your everyday situations.

Put up signs on/near your phone, at your desk, on your hand etc,
to remind you what you are practising. You can just draw
something that means something just to you, if you don’t want
to put the actual speech sound there.

Read aloud to yourself for 5 minutes everyday from a text

(magazine, book, study papers etc), and concentrate on noticing
if you are making an effort to use the new pronunciation element
correctly.

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 Ask a friend or family member to correct you, if you make a
mistake with the pronunciation element you are practising. You
need to let them know that you really want them to do this
otherwise, they don’t usually bother.

Record yourself reading something and listen back and see if you
remembered to use your new pronunciation 100% of the time.

Mimic and repeat aloud

I know this seems obvious, but unless you actually repeat aloud after the
trainer in our accent training course, your mouth doesn’t get a chance to
practise the new movements for your new English pronunciation.
Don’t be afraid to mimic properly.

Literally copy the way the trainer is saying things like we sometimes
mimic someone funny, or some other accent. It takes effort, but the more
you literally mimic, the quicker the results. When you really mimic you
will usually feel that you are using your mouth a different way than you
usually feel it move.

Old way/ new way technique

This technique is useful for whatever you are working on mastering with
your English pronunciation. It is especially useful to use when you are
mastering consonants or vowels in English, that aren’t in your original
language.

Let’s say you are trying to learn the ‘a’ (/ae/) vowel, and you usually say
‘ah’ instead.

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 Go to the word list on the ‘a’ practise page in accent training
course, or make up a list of ‘a’ words.

Then say each word the old way (your usual way), and then the
new way. You have to do something different with your mouth
the second time otherwise you will say the same thing twice!

You may need to do this several times using the same word
list till your ‘ear’ and mouth get used to going to the new
pronunciation when you say it the ‘new way.’

Then just say it the new way

Then practise using the ‘new’ way in words in the sentences on

the practise page.

For example if you say long ‘ah’ instead of short ‘a’ you would say:

bahg then bag (/baeg/)

blahck then black
sahck then sack
ahnd then and
hahve then have etc.

Record yourself
There are a couple of reasons that this is worthwhile. Firstly, you can
use this to get closer and closer to the same pronunciation as the audio
trainer in our course.

First - listen to the trainer say the word (or sentence)

Then - record yourself mimicking them
Then - listen to them again and listen to yourself and see if there is a
difference

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Then - repeat this recording process again getting closer and closer to
the trainers production

Secondly, you can use this to listen for your progress. After practising
and consolidating a few pronunciation elements, you could record
yourself talking or reading something, and you will be amazed to hear
the difference in your speech.

Start Simple if you are having particular trouble with pronouncing

something
Let’s use the ‘th’ sound as an example of a sound that can be tricky to
say in words and in sentences.
If you are having trouble saying it in a word:-

Start with the ‘th’ at the beginning of words in our word list on
the ‘th’ page in our training course

Say the words in 2 parts with a slight pause between the ‘th’ and
the rest of the word. E.g. th-ink ( the – means to pause slightly);
th-in etc

Do this every day for a few days

Only after a few days of getting your mouth used to the new
movement from a ‘th’ to a vowel, do you attempt to put the word
together. Otherwise, you are just saying the word the old way.

Very slowly hold the ‘th’ sound on for longer than normal and
control it and run it into the vowel after it. E.g. th…ink The dots….
here means you held on -made lots of air come out of your
mouth- for the ‘th’ and ran it slowly to the ‘i’ sound.

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 Then do this for a couple of days, then say the word together at
a normal rate.

After that, use the sentences on the page to practise saying

your new ‘th’ even when the word is in a sentence. Consciously
notice and pay attention to see/feel if you are doing the ‘th’ word
correctly even when in a sentence. You may need to say the
sentences slowly at first to make sure you are giving your mouth
a chance to coordinate itself for your new ‘th’.

If you are practising something more complex, like English

pronunciation stress patterns and melody, start simple. The
correct stress patterns help the listener understand you much
better.

Use the simpler sentences on any page in our accent training

course (or any audio of a native English speaker), to listen to the
audio trainer. Pay attention to which syllables are stressed and
which are weak, in the words that are longer than one syllable.

If you are practising noticing and mimicking which words are

stressed in a sentence, start with simple sentences rather than
whole passages to begin with. You need to give yourself the
opportunity to attune your ‘ear’ and mouth at first.

People sometimes say, but my English is good why do I need to start

simple. Even though your English language skills are good, you need to
give your mouth a chance to learn to pronounce words differently to
your native language for clear English speech.

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 What you need to know about English pronunciation
for Polish background language speakers.
Where to start! Suggested order of what to work on first, next etc

1) Practise pronouncing the ‘th’ sounds – unvoiced and voiced

For the unvoiced ‘th’ sound make sure you aren’t saying a /t/ instead,
and for the voiced ‘th’ make sure you aren’t saying a /d/ instead.
Importantly, make sure you are holding your tongue out between your
teeth long enough –hold your tongue in position with your top teeth- and
let out enough air. Hold your tongue wide, not narrow. Spread it wide a
bit. Don’t flick your tongue back quickly, but hold it there, and then go
to the next sound in the word.

For the voiced ‘th’, hold it long enough and feel your tongue vibrate
or tingle as you switch on voice in the throat, and let air out at the
same time. Make sure you also practise going from words ending in a
consonant to a word beginning with a voiced ‘th’. For example: on the, in
the, want that, one that, wanted the, can they etc.

Use the ‘old way/ new way’ practise technique mentioned in the practise
tips. For example, for unvoiced ‘th’ say:- ‘tink – think’ so your mouth gets
used to the feel of the new way as opposed to the old way. Or for the
voiced ‘th’ say:- ‘dis – this’ etc.
.
2) The /r/ sound in English is a totally different sound
The /r/ sound is a totally different new sound. It isn’t made in the same
way as you usually say it, and needs to be practised till you can use it
in everyday speech. As well as learning your new /r/ sound, remember
when you say the vowels er, or and ar :

For British and Australian English you don’t say the /r/
For American English you do say the /r/

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You can always get a 1:1 skype lesson with me here if you are having
difficulties.

3) Make sure you put voice into the voiced consonants- especially at
the end of words
Make sure you use voiced consonants properly at the end of words.
If a word ends in a /b/, /d/, /g/,/v/, ‘j’ or /z/ make sure you say these
sounds properly and with voice switched on in your throat.

Don’t say /p/ for /b/. For example: don’t say rup instead of rub, or pup
instead of pub.

Don’t say /t/ instead of /d/. For example: don’t say mate instead of
made, or hat instead of had, or bet instead of bed.

Don’t say /k/ instead of /g/. For example: don’t say back instead of bag
or pick instead of pig.

Don’t say /f/ instead of /v/. For example: don’t say mofe instead of move
or lofe instead of love.

Don’t say /s/ instead of /z/. For example: don’t say docks instead of dogs
(the /s/ says /z/ here) or frocks instead of frogs.

Don’t say ‘ch’ instead of ‘j’. For example: don’t say larch instead of large
(the ‘g’ is saying ‘j’ because it’s followed by an ‘e’ letter) or etch instead of
edge.

4) Work on distinguishing and saying the difference between the

following vowels
Use the relevant accent training course pages to practise with, and listen
to the trainer to attune your ear to the vowel sounds.

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Practise Tip
Practise saying the word pairs below. If the pairs have a long versus a
short vowel, make the vowel longer than usual at first, so your mouth
really feels the difference between the short and long productions. Make
sure you make the long vowels long enough, because if you don’t it
can change the meaning of the word.
i (short) - ee (long)
bit – beet; sit – seat; fit- feet; bin- been; kip- keep; bid- bead;
lyn- lean; tick- teak;
tim- team; riff-reef; bitch- beach.
The bin has been sitting on the seat so I can’t fit my feet there.

e (short) – a (short)
pen -pan; bed –bad; ben – ban; lend – land; set – sat; met – mat; pet –
pat; hend ( not a real word)- hand;

Also learn how to say the following English vowels: ‘er’, long and short
‘oo’, and the difference between ‘u’, ‘a’ and ‘ah’.

Diphthongs
These are made up of two vowels said together quickly. Don’t leave out
the second vowel sound. Don’t cut them short.
Here are some of the main ones:
oe as in boat or toe
ow (ou) as in cow or house
ai (ay) as in bay or rain
ie as in pie or height or light
oi (oy) as in oil or boy

You will find a detailed explanation of how to make each vowel sound
in your mouth and practise words and sentences in our accent training
course.

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5) Don’t get /v/ and /w/ mixed up
/v/ is made with your top teeth holding the middle of your bottom lip.
You need to tuck your lip in a little bit under your top teeth.

/w/ is made with both lips placed quite forward (a bit like you are going
to kiss someone).Over-do this at first to get the feel of it

Use the word lists on the /w/ page in our accent reduction course to
practise. You can use the ‘old way/’new way’ technique at first to have
your mouth muscle memory feel the difference. Look in the practise
techniques section in this manual.

For example say: ‘ven’ and then say when; ‘vet’- wet; ‘vot’-what; vin-win;
vest-west. Make sure you match your /w/ and /v/ sounds to the right
words in your everyday speech.

6) Make sure you practise the different elements of the stress and
rhythm of English

English is a stress timed language so not all the syllables are

pronounced with the same vowel length and clarity (weak and strong
form in English), and not all words in sentences are stressed or
emphasised equally. English listeners listen for the emphasised or
stressed words in sentences to give them the meaning of what you are
saying.

You need to stress the main meaning words in a sentence more than the
not so important meaning words. If you give everything similar stress
as in a syllable timed language, then your English speech won’t sound
flowing and smooth, but choppy and staccato.

Practise these different elements of English stress patterns below.

Practise one at a time at first.

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Practise Exercise 1
=Practise stressing the main meaning words in sentences.
Listen to the trainer in our accent training course say a sentence and
note which words they put more emphasis on = say slightly louder, with
slightly higher pitch, and the vowel is held on slightly longer. Then
mimic that. It takes a little while sometimes to hear it.
You could even print out the page, and underline the words that the
trainer stresses so you know which words to mimic the stress on.

For example: He went out first and then everyone else followed quickly.

The bold words are the stressed main meaning words- they give the main
meaning of the sentence. If you took the words not in bold away, you
would still get the meaning. Continue to do the same over and over again
till you begin to understand and hear the rhythm and stress of English.
Note: Choose any audio lesson page in our course, and use the
sentences there to do this exercise, for example the /m/ page.

Practise exercise 2
=Practise stressing the correct syllables in words with more than one
syllable

In a stressed syllable, the vowel is said clearly. In an unstressed

syllable, the vowel is not clear but said as a short /u/ sound – the
schwa vowel / ə/.

For example in the word ‘currently’ – the syllable “rent”, is the weak one
so the word should be said ‘currəntly’ or ‘comfortable’ should be said
‘cumftəble’; the word control is said ‘cəntrol’ not control. The ‘o’ becomes
the weak vowel so it is the weak syllable.

Start to listen to other speakers around you, and listen for the stressed
and unstressed syllables in words of more than one syllable.

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If you stress the wrong syllable in a long word, people don’t
understand you.

Stress on different syllables can sometimes change the meaning of a

word.

For example: `ob ject (noun)- a thing

ob `ject (verb) – to disagree to something
Copy the trainer in the course as they speak, and notice which syllable
they stress or de-stress (say weakly), when saying words of more than
one syllable. Notice this, and practise this using the sentences in the
lessons in our course.

Practise exercise 3
=Practise phrasing words in sentences
Again because words in English sentences are not said as equally
stressed units, we listen for meaning and clarity of speech also according
to how the words are grouped or phrased together.

For example: The director said he would divide the introduction into
two parts.

At the end of each phrase, there is a very slight pause and very slight
pitch raise and the vowel is drawn out very slightly.

The words in the phrase (underlined groups of words), are said smoothly
and flowingly together. I have also highlighted the main meaning words
to be emphasised in bold.

Use any of the sentences or dialogues in our accent training course to

practise this.

Practise exercise 4
=Practise linking and Elision

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Elision is when we join a word that ends in a consonant to the following
word if it begins with the same consonant.
For example: ‘want to’ – we don’t say them with each /t/ sound
pronounced separately.
We join them – ‘wanto’ ; ‘head down’ becomes ‘headown’ – He put his
‘headown’ on the pillow.

Linking is when we join a word that ends in a consonant to the following

word if it begins with a vowel.
For example: ‘want it’ becomes ‘wan-tit’;
The sentence ‘There was a big onion on a table.’ Is said
‘There wasabi-gonion ona table.’
Use any of the sentences on any of the vowel, consonant, the dialogues
and passages pages – listen to the trainer and notice where they make
the linking or elision in the sentences and copy them.

Print out a few pages and highlight or mark the elision and linking in the
sentences. Practise these over and over for a few days so your mouth
gets used to moving like this.

This is an important element to make your English speech more flowing

and understandable.

Remember to use whatever you have been practising in your everyday

situations when you speak- even if you have to slow down slightly at first.

7) Make sure you aspirate the /p/, /t/ and /k/ sounds
In English when you say these consonants you also release a puff of air
at the same time. This gives your speech a more native English speaking
sound to it.

Click here to access an audio training lesson on this. You will also find
specific instruction on how to make each of these consonants in our
course.

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8) Make sure you pronounce the ‘ng’ / n / sound correctly at the end of
words.
Don’t say a /k/ or /n/ sound instead of an ‘ng’ at the end of words.
For example the word ring is not said ‘rink’ or ‘rin’.
Use the instruction in our pronunciation training course to practise saying
the ‘ng’ at the end of words correctly.

9) Intonation
As you work on all of the above speech elements, also listen to and
mimic the intonation (melody) of the English trainer in the course. Listen
for when the trainer’s pitch goes up and down. Polish intonation is
generally much flatter than English.

When you know how to produce the English sounds and stress patterns
correctly, your speech becomes much clearer. We created our accent
reduction courses to help you know exactly what to do to reduce your
accent. We also included lots of specific practise material to make your
practise more effective and easy.

Get your free 7 day trial for the Australian accent online course here.
Get the downloadable British accent course here or the American accent
course here.

Good Practising.
Best wishes, Esther Bruhl
Speech Therapist and Accent Reduction Coach

P.s. If you have trouble knowing where to start for your own personal
situation, it is worth having an audio assessment with me to get clear
and to make your practise more effective – click here to get more
information.
P.p.s. If you want to take your pronunciation to the next level and
progress 10 times faster, you can have 1:1 live lessons on skype with
me. for more information click here.

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