On my last blog post, I discussed my practice on consonants. This time, I will focus my practice on vowels of Received Pronunciation accent. The same as with consonants, I feel like my vowels are still not really accurate. Therefore, I tried to practice again. I still used the same website that I used to practice my consonants, that is, BBC Learning English. I also practiced by imitating the words from the videos until I was sure that I imitate them accurately (at least based on my listening).
My first attention was on the low back vowel as in the words job, north, and dog. I learned from the video in the above website and also the video that I embedded on my fourth week blog post that in order to produce this vowel sound in RP accent, the lips are rounded which is different from NAE accent in which the lip is not rounded but the jaw is dropped. Also, I focused my practice on the vowels that are lengthened due to the non-rhotic /r/ sound in RP. If the vowels are preceding /r/, the vowels become longer since the /r/ is dropped such as in the words nurse, work, there, and superb.
Here is my recording after practicing several times:
For the next practice, I will focus on suprasegmental features of the Received Pronunciation accent.
So far, I have trained myself to speak with the Received Pronunciation accent for more than 9 weeks, but I still feel that my accent is not close enough to this British accent. Thus, I decided to go back and repeat practicing again focusing on the segmental features, especially on the consonants for this blog post. I found the best website to practice with since it has a pronunciation part with videos covering both the consonants and also the vowels. However, for this time I will only focus my practice on consonants. I will practice more on the vowel afterward.
I decided to practice my consonants again after I listened again all my recordings from week one to week 9, and I realized that along the way as my focus shifted to the suprasegmental features, my control over the segmental features was loosened. BBC Learning English is the webpage that I used to practice my consonants again. I watched the video and repeat after it when prompted. I did it several times for each consonant to make sure that I produced similar sounds.
As I read through my notes on week three, I did some more practices on certain consonants that are the salient features of British accent. I worked on my non-rhotic /r/ for I tend to pronounce my /r/. I also worked on dental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/ especially the /θ/ in the word North which I do not know why I almost always pronounced it as a glottal stop. I also worked on the plosives in the voiceless stops/p/, /t/, /k/ tried to make sure that I always pronounce them correctly and clearly. Glottal stops were also one of main focuses during my practice since I sometimes forgot to produce these sounds instead of/t/ and /k/. I also practiced pronouncing the velarized/ɫ/ at the end of a syllable in the words sentimental, feel, and beautiful.
Here is my recording after practicing for several times:
When I listened to this video again, I can hear that I put to much effort in pronouncing some of the consonants because I wanted to pronounce them correctly, so that they do not feel so natural. For example, when I am pronouncing the word north, I can hear that it took me longer to pronounce the final syllable /θ/ because I wanted to make sure that I pronounced it correctly. Through more practice on these consonants, however, I am sure that they will come more naturally. For the next blog post, I will focus on the vowel.
