美语发音EE和I

Session Eight1. American English Vowels2. Vowel EE3. Vowel IHi, and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation W orkshops---Eighth Training Session. Today, we will begin to work on Vowel Sounds. I know that vowel sounds are often difficult for non-native speakers. One reason is that there are five vowel letters in English: A E I O and U. But there are around 15 vowel sounds and some vowels have as many as 10 different spellings. So that’s why it is so difficult. When some one learns English as a second language what they often do is substitute vowel sounds from their first language into their newly learned English. And when these vowel sounds are spoken incorrectly, it may often cause you to be misunderstood. That’s why I need next few sessions. I’ll be teaching you the correct way to pronounce American English Vowels.Now, vowel sounds are made by slightly changing the Size, Shape and the Tension of the muscles in your mouth, your tongue and your lips. A small change can produce an entirely different sound. Instead of giving you diagrams of tongue placement---how round your lips should be or how far you should open your mouth. I believe the best way to learn American vowels is by Ear Training. Ear Training is learning vowel sounds just by listening and then reproducing them on your own.To help teach you the American vowel sounds, I’ll separate them to two groups: front vowels and back vowels. When your tongue rises up in the front, it’s a front vowel. When your tongue rises up in the back, it’s a back vowel. Let’s start by going over the basic front and back vowel sounds. My goal right now is to just have you hear the sounds. Y ou do not need to memorize this.First, front vowels. Listen carefully. Don’t repeat. Just listen. Thesesounds move from what I call high to low. Here we go.EEIAEEHANotice with each of these vowels. My jaw is opening a little bit more and more. Let’s do it again. Listen carefully. EE, i (which is a difficult one for many people) i, AE, EH, A. Now, this time I’d like you to repeat. EE, i, AE, EH, A. EE, i, AE, EH, A. Now, I put them in word forms to make it a little bit easier. Repeat after me.EE as in Heati as in HitAE as in HateEH as in Het (which is a nonsense word)And A as in HatHeat, Hit, Hate, Het, Hat, Heat, Hit, Hate, Het, Hat.Ok. Now let’s do back vowels. Again, vowel sounds move from high to low. Here we go.OOUhOhAwAhAgain. and notice how my jaw is opening on each one and also notice how my lips are coming forward all the way on the OO sound. Y ou see? That OO. OO, Uh, Oh, Aw, Ah. Ok now repeat with me. OO, Uh, Oh, Aw, Ah, OO, Uh, Oh, Aw, Ah. Let’ s put these sounds into word forms.OO as in BootUh as in BookOh as in BoatAw as in BoughtAh as in Bot (which is a nonsense word)Boot, Book, Boat, Bought, Bot. Again . Boot, Book, Boat, Bought, Bot. Boo_, Boo_, Boa_, Bough_, Bo_.Very good. Now, let’s go back a little bit to front vowels. I’d like to address the EE sound in the word Heat and the i sound as in the word Hit. Most of the foreign speakers that I work with make many errors with these two sounds. And many times they’re switched when the word should have an EE. It’s pronounced as an i. When it should have an i. It’s pronounced as an EE. Think of the sound EE as in Heat as being high up and i as in Hit. It’s being a little bit lower. One hint that I would give you is when you’ re practising raise your eyebrows with EE words, like this Heat, and then lower your eyebrows and don’ t smile so much with i words, like H it, Heat, Hit, like that. I put together some paired words with these two sounds. Listen, compare the vowel sounds and then repeat them back. Here we go.Heat – HitKeen – KinDeal – DillSeek – SickSeen – SinReap – RipTeal – TillBean –Been (Bean is high. I ate a bean. Been is low. I have been here.)Let’s talk about these last two words. Bean and Been. Most of the time in English when a word is spelled with double E, i t’s pronounced as EE like in the word FEED or SEEN or TEEN with the double E. However, in English, here is an exception. The word BEAN spelled B-E-A-N, whichyou eat is pronounced with the high EE sound, BEAN. However, this word B-E-E-N, spelled with the double E is pronounced with the low i sound. BEEN, like in the word Hit. Ok. Even th ough it’s spelled with the double E, it’s pronounced with the vowel sound i. So for example, this sentence reads I’ve been buying beans. Ok? W e’ll be going over more of these this moment. But first, let’s look at some words with the EE sounds, remember smi le and think high.SeeMeEachEvenKeyGreenTreeVeryHappySoftlyMaryBusyFinallyCountryNow, these sentences.Speeding on the FreewayHappily eating cheeseHe and SheSkiing very RapidlyVery good. Ok, now let’s try this paragraph.She sees a monkey eating honey.W e see a pony stealing money.Who can he see?It must be me!Very good, Ok now let’s work on the i vowel sound. The same sound as in the word Hit. Hit. Repeat after me.BitBillLiftFizzKitchenBuildBiggerChimpFifthListenBusinessFistDisplayFilmingLiveFishDiscussFigFiftyBeenOk, now let’s go over these practice sentences which have both the EE sound and the i sound. Listen and repeat these sentences after me. I’ll be putting my hand up high for every EE sound and lower it for every i sound. EE, i, like that. And also all the words with EE sounds areunderlined. Here we go.The beans have been cooking since six o’clock.Sit in that seat by the window.W e ate our meal, by the mill.The seal will live in the ocean.Tim’s team grinned after seeing the green field.Pip and Pete shipped the sheep cheaply.Those bins are for Bill’s beans.Does Jim still steal Jill’s jeans?The girls put concrete on Jill’s sneakers.Pick cherries at their peak or you will eat the pits.Very good. Now I know these vowels can be very tricky. It’s probably a good idea to review this video a few times. Some of you may have noticed that you’ve been mispronouncing many words incorrectly using wrong vowel sounds. For example, earlier we spoke about the pronunciation of the words Heat and Hit and how the sounds are often switched. So if you say “He hit the baseball and felt the heat.” I want you to realize that that’s not right. What’s correct is He hit the baseball and felt the heat.Ok, so keep on practicing. Believe me you’ll eventually get very good a t this. Thanks for watching. I’m Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation W orkshop and I’ll see you at our next session.。