Importance of Pronunciation

                  It would be possible to understand what a person wants to say by asking him/her questions if he commits grammatical mistakes or chooses the wrong vocabulary. But it becomes almost impossible if he/she uses wrong pronunciation.

                That is why; pronunciation becomes significant everywhere- in everyday communication, in jobs and in business. Additionally, when there is a question of an international examination or communication, correct pronunciation has no alternative.

            For non-native speakers, improving pronunciation is a matter of practice.It may be by listening to the BBC radio, self-practice, speaking to a tutor or speaking to a native speaker if possible.

               As discussed earlier,there are some important aspects of pronunciation which are as follows.

1. Word Stress

2. Sentence Stress

3. Intonation

4. Fluency

5. Coherence

6. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

1. Word Stress

English words are not pronounced in a plain tone. Some parts of the words are stressed.Sometimes, there are primary and secondary stresses in the same word. In the following examples, the capital letters show the stress.

about  - aBout

beautiful  - Beautiful

controversial – ControVERsial ( Here, C has secondary stress and main stress is on V) etc.

Any good dictionary shows the stress marks for a word. 

2. Sentence Stress

            This is a peculiarity of English language. While speaking, only  important words are stressed.

For example,

1.I am going MY HOME.

2.The CAT is sitting under a TREE.

3.I want to IMPROVE my PRONUNCIATION.

4. There is a LAPTOP, a DICTIONARY, a NOTEBOOK, PENCILS and a BOOK on the TABLE.

          This gives rise to some more points of  which the first one is strong and weak forms.

          For example, in the following  sentences the words in bold italics are not stressed or sometimes they are not even heard clearly.

1.       There is a cat in the garden sitting under a tree which is near the gate.

( The s cat n the garden sitting under a tree which s near the gate.)

2.       I can do it without hesitation.

( I cn do it without hesitation.)

3.       What do you do?

( What d you do?)

Of course, it is the choice of the speaker which words are to be stressed.

Secondly, the stress on the word underlines what meaning one wants to convey.

For example,

This is the man who stole my purse.

When different words are stressed, the preference of importance changes.

This is the man who stole my purse.

This is the man who stole my purse.

This is the man who stole my purse.

This is the man who stole my purse.

This is the man who stole my purse.

3.Intonation

There is variation of pitch and tone to express feelings and functions. The tone shows the speaker’s state of mind, intention or attitude. It is the melody or rhythm of speech.

 The tones are

1. The falling tone-

                It is used for ‘wh’ questions, to give complete information, to order, when the speaker expects agreement with him and in exclamations.

  e.g. It is Sunday today.

        Bring me a cup of tea.

2. The rising tone

                It is used to ask ‘yes’, ‘no’ questions, for encouraging statements, when the speaker does not expect agreement with him, for ‘wh’ questions to show interest etc.

e.g. It is hot today, isn’t it?

        Yes, it is.        (Agree)

3. The falling-rising tone

                It is used for adding some qualifying information or for correction.

4. Combination of the above

The other factor,s that is, fluency, coherence and accuracy are self-explanatory.

                    In conclusion, these are the minimum requirements for a good pronunciation. But practice, interaction and study are the only ways to master it.