Check these out
HEY YO HI HOW DO YOU DO WHATCHYAALRIGHT GUDDAY HOWSITPLEASED TAE MEET YE
Part of developing skills in listening requires getting used to the vast array of English accents that exist. The ELC provides this practice for students as our teachers come from all over the world. Some come from countries where English is the native language and others have learnt English and now of course teach it. This gives them the advantage of knowing what it is like to be a language learner of English.
A student may encounter a teacher from
America / Canada / Poland / Russia / Sweden / New Zealand / Australia / India / Pakistan / Singapore / Malaysia / the UK / Ireland and of course Hong Kong and China.
Here are some links to look at if you are interested in accents or in learning how to develop a particular English accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJyTA4VlZus
The Speech Accent Archive
http://accent.gmu.edu/index.php
This archive includes a large collection of speech samples from both native and non-native English speakers from around the world.
All of the speakers read the same short paragraph written in English. It uses common English words, but contains a variety of difficult English sounds and sound sequences which cover all of the sounds of English. You can also see the transcript of the speaker written phonemically and search for a speaker by clicking on different parts of a world map – why not check it out? Below is the paragraph which the speakers are reading.
"Please call 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 a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."
Do you hear any similarities or differences between their pronunciation and yours? How do you think their first language impacts their spoken English?
*image used in this article from CCO public domain by Ryan McGuire
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