{"id":20776,"date":"2018-06-29T11:20:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T16:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/blog\/prep\/?p=20776"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:41:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:41:57","slug":"4-pronunciation-mistakes-all-language-learners-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/languages\/4-pronunciation-mistakes-all-language-learners-make\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Pronunciation Mistakes All Language Learners Make"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all know it&#8211;conjugating verbs is hard. So is memorizing new vocab. But nothing\u00a0trips up new language learners quite like pronunciation. You\u2019ll probably learn to read and write in your target language perfectly\u00a0way before you can pass as a native speaker, since nailing your accent is usually the final hurdle to becoming perfectly fluent.<br \/>\nThe pronunciation mistakes you\u2019re probably making are largely dependent on your native language, as well as your target language. A quick\u00a0Google search\u00a0brings up\u00a0tons of articles geared toward\u00a0English speakers learning to pronounce\u00a0Russian words, or\u00a0Spanish speakers attempting to speak\u00a0English correctly.<br \/>\nIt\u2019d be\u00a0smart\u00a0to read up on those at some point, but before you do, check out these common pronunciation mistakes that pretty much all language learners make. Sometimes, the remedy lies not in drilling a specific set of words, but in\u00a0reimagining your approach altogether.<br \/>\n<div  class='avia-icon-list-container   avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_iconlist  avia-builder-el-first '><ul class='avia-icon-list avia-icon-list-left av-iconlist-big avia_animate_when_almost_visible avia-iconlist-animate'>\n<li><div  style='color:#005de8; ' class='iconlist_icon  avia-font-entypo-fontello'><span class='iconlist-char ' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue812' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'><\/span><\/div><article class=\"article-icon-entry av-iconlist-empty\"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='iconlist_content_wrap'><header class=\"entry-content-header\"><h4 class='av_iconlist_title iconlist_title  av_inherit_color '  itemprop=\"headline\"   style='color:#240f6e; '>You are not being musical enough.<\/h4><\/header><div class='iconlist_content  '  itemprop=\"text\"  ><\/div><\/div><footer class=\"entry-footer\"><\/footer><\/article><div class='iconlist-timeline'><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div><br \/>\nCorrect pronunciation is so much more than\u00a0saying your vowels correctly. There\u2019s also stress, intonation, phonemes, accentuation, pauses and\u00a0rhythm to consider. Some tonal languages, like Thai,\u00a0Chinese and Vietnamese, depend on tone to indicate meaning. In other words, if you don&#8217;t use the right inflection people might not understand what you&#8217;re saying&#8230; at all.<br \/>\nEven if the language you&#8217;re studying isn&#8217;t tonal, you\u2019ll benefit a lot from paying attention to its musical cadence.<br \/>\nInterestingly enough, the link between music and language\u00a0isn&#8217;t incidental. Studies\u00a0show that children who start studying music before\u00a0they&#8217;re 7 years old often have a stronger sense of grammar and verbal\u00a0IQ and bigger vocabularies\u2014 not to mention a better\u00a0ability to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/106\/7\/2468.short\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">process subtle differences between sounds<\/a>, which has an obvious payoff when it comes to pronunciation and language-learning.<br \/>\nDon&#8217;t worry&#8211;if you&#8217;ve never studied an instrument, there&#8217;s still hope for you. Listen to native speakers and tune into the language as though you\u2019re listening to a song, and don\u2019t be afraid to sing rather than speak,\u00a0paying special attention to your intonation.<br \/>\n<div  class='avia-icon-list-container   avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_iconlist  el_before_av_iconlist '><ul class='avia-icon-list avia-icon-list-left av-iconlist-big avia_animate_when_almost_visible avia-iconlist-animate'>\n<li><div  style='color:#005de8; ' class='iconlist_icon  avia-font-entypo-fontello'><span class='iconlist-char ' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue812' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'><\/span><\/div><article class=\"article-icon-entry av-iconlist-empty\"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='iconlist_content_wrap'><header class=\"entry-content-header\"><h4 class='av_iconlist_title iconlist_title  av_inherit_color '  itemprop=\"headline\"   style='color:#240f6e; '>You are not doing your warm-up exercises.<\/h4><\/header><div class='iconlist_content  '  itemprop=\"text\"  ><\/div><\/div><footer class=\"entry-footer\"><\/footer><\/article><div class='iconlist-timeline'><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div><br \/>\nAthletes have warm-up sessions, musicians play scales and language learners have pronunciation exercises.<br \/>\nYou&#8217;ll have the best\u00a0luck with pronunciation if you treat it like a skill that requires\u00a0developing\u00a0muscle memory. And that\u2019s not just figurative&#8211;learning the correct mouth positions is actually really important when it comes to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.babbel.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-improve-your-accent-with-these-5-simple-tricks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">improving your accent<\/a>.<br \/>\nTo\u00a0figure out the pronunciation drills\u00a0you need to improve your accent, research the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org\/ipa-sounds\/ipa-chart-with-sounds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">International Phonetic Alphabet<\/a>\u00a0in addition to\u00a0the correct mouth positions for the language you\u2019re studying. You&#8217;ll also want to practice the vowel sounds regularly.<br \/>\nThe key with any of these mouth exercises is to remember to do them often. Repetition is your friend.<br \/>\n<div  class='avia-icon-list-container   avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_iconlist  el_before_av_iconlist '><ul class='avia-icon-list avia-icon-list-left av-iconlist-big avia_animate_when_almost_visible avia-iconlist-animate'>\n<li><div  style='color:#005de8; ' class='iconlist_icon  avia-font-entypo-fontello'><span class='iconlist-char ' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue812' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'><\/span><\/div><article class=\"article-icon-entry av-iconlist-empty\"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='iconlist_content_wrap'><header class=\"entry-content-header\"><h4 class='av_iconlist_title iconlist_title  av_inherit_color '  itemprop=\"headline\"   style='color:#240f6e; '>You might be too hung up on sounding perfect.<\/h4><\/header><div class='iconlist_content  '  itemprop=\"text\"  ><\/div><\/div><footer class=\"entry-footer\"><\/footer><\/article><div class='iconlist-timeline'><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div><br \/>\nThis might sound like it\u2019s contradicting the entire premise of this article, but it\u2019s really not. One big thing to\u00a0remember is that <em>correct<\/em> pronunciation and <em>accent-free<\/em> pronunciation are not necessarily the same thing.<br \/>\nIt might take you\u00a0your whole life to lose most of your accent, and you <em>still<\/em> might not sound quite like a native speaker. Some people repatriate to another country and still speak with a recognizable twang\u00a0decades\u00a0later, but they\u2019re still considered completely fluent.<br \/>\nRemember \u2014 you don\u2019t need to pass\u00a0as a native speaker to have\u00a0accurate pronunciation, or to be easily understood in another language. Getting too hung up on your accent can actually\u00a0impede your progress.<br \/>\n<div  class='avia-icon-list-container   avia-builder-el-3  el_after_av_iconlist  el_before_av_promobox '><ul class='avia-icon-list avia-icon-list-left av-iconlist-big avia_animate_when_almost_visible avia-iconlist-animate'>\n<li><div  style='color:#005de8; ' class='iconlist_icon  avia-font-entypo-fontello'><span class='iconlist-char ' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue812' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'><\/span><\/div><article class=\"article-icon-entry av-iconlist-empty\"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='iconlist_content_wrap'><header class=\"entry-content-header\"><h4 class='av_iconlist_title iconlist_title  av_inherit_color '  itemprop=\"headline\"   style='color:#240f6e; '>You need more exposure.<\/h4><\/header><div class='iconlist_content  '  itemprop=\"text\"  ><\/div><\/div><footer class=\"entry-footer\"><\/footer><\/article><div class='iconlist-timeline'><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div><\/p>\n<div class=\"bodyCopy contentItem__content--1dqBd bodyCopy__content--3sM1D typography__bodyText--8_alT\">\nLanguage learners frequently forget that the streets are the best classroom.<br \/>\nGoing through language lessons\u00a0is important, but exposure to the language as it\u2019s spoken in real life is what\u2019s going to\u00a0help you sound natural when you speak. That\u2019s part of the reason Babbel\u2019s lessons incorporate pronunciation guides by native speakers, as well as speech recognition technology.<br \/>\nLuckily, there&#8217;s no shortage of\u00a0ways to immerse yourself beyond your language-learning app. Listen to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.babbel.com\/en\/magazine\/10-artists-who-perform-in-other-languages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">music<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.babbel.com\/en\/magazine\/french-podcasts-for-every-language-level\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">foreign-language podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.babbel.com\/en\/magazine\/8-must-see-foreign-films-of-the-21st-century\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">watch movies<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 with or without subtitles. Find YouTube videos in your target language, or\u00a0(best of all) travel to a country where your language is spoken natively.<br \/>\nThe more sounds you absorb, the more you\u2019ll start to naturally pick up on the shades and subtleties among them.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"callToAction__wrapper--1gOv2\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"callToAction__wrapper--1gOv2\">\n\t<div   class='av_promobox  avia-button-yes   avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_iconlist  avia-builder-el-last '>\t\t<div class='avia-promocontent'><p>\nWant to sound like a native?<\/p>\n<\/div><div  class='avia-button-wrap avia-button-right ' ><a href='http:\/\/www.tkqlhce.com\/click-8836852-12862570' class='avia-button  avia-color-theme-color   avia-icon_select-no avia-size-large avia-position-right ' target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class='avia_iconbox_title' >Practice Your Pronunciation<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know it&#8211;conjugating verbs is hard. So is memorizing new vocab. But nothing\u00a0trips up new language learners quite like pronunciation. You\u2019ll probably learn to read and write in your target language perfectly\u00a0way before you can pass as a native speaker, since nailing your accent is usually the final hurdle to becoming perfectly fluent. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[413],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20776"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35505,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20776\/revisions\/35505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}