Speaking and Pronunciation Week 3 ESL Programs

Dalhousie College of Continuing Education

Jennifer MacDonald

THE CONSONANTS OF CANADIAN ENGLISH

Voiceless VoicedIPA Examples IPA Examples

Stops/Plosives

(1) bad, lab (2) pet, map

(3) did, lady (4) tea, getting

(5) give, flag (6) cat, back

Continuants

(7) find, if (8) voice, five

(9) think, both (10

)

this, mother

(11) sun, miss (12

)

zoo, lazy

(13) she, crash (14

)

pleasure, vision

(15) check, church (16

)

just, large

(17) how, hello (18

)

man, lemon

(19

)

no, ten

(20

)

sing, finger

(21

)

red, try

(22

)

leg, little

(23

)

wet, window

(24

)

yes, yellow

Speaking and Pronunciation Week 3 ESL Programs

Dalhousie College of Continuing Education

Jennifer MacDonald

Consonant Exercises

Think of 3 consonants that you have some trouble with.

For each of these consonants, come up with 3 words where this consonant appears in word initial position, 3 words where this consonant appears inside a word, and 3 words where this consonant appears at the end of a word.

Practice pronouncing these words. Record yourself saying them and listen to your pronunciation.

Speaking and Pronunciation Week 3 ESL Programs

Dalhousie College of Continuing Education

Jennifer MacDonald

Put it all together: (Source: http://accent.gmu.edu/howto.php#)

Have you called Stella? Ask her to bring these things

with her from the store: six spoons of fresh snow peas, five

thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her

brother, Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and big toy

frog for the kids. If she wants, she can scoop these things

into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at

the train station.

Speaking and Pronunciation Week 3 ESL Programs

Dalhousie College of Continuing Education

Jennifer MacDonald

Intonation Patterns

Statements

Victor works at a \bank.

I haven't read this \book.

We went to the theater \yesterday.

General questions

Do you visit them /often?

Have you seen my /keys?

Are you ready to /start?

Could you give me a /pen, please?

Alternative questions

Do you want /coffee or \tea?

Does he speak /English or \German?

Tag questions (expected vs. unexpected answer)

Halifax has crazy \weather, \doesn’t it? (expected answer)

Your birthday’s in \December, /isn’t it? (unexpected answer)

Enumerating

/One, /two, /three, /four, \five.

She bought /bread, /cheese, /oranges, and \apples.

Introductory phrases

If he /calls, tell him about the \conference, please.

According to his /words, he was at \home.