Lesson summary
Video transcript
In this video, I am going to teach you a simple trick that you can use to improve your English pronunciation. The best things about this trick are that you don’t need a speaking partner to help you and you just need to spend 10 minutes every day.
So what is this secret method? Well it’s called the LAR method and I’m going to teach you this method today. I’m going to show you how to use it with three different examples so we can practise together. The LAR method is a simple three step method which you can use to train yourself to speak English like a native speaker. I have used this method myself when learning languages and many of my students have used it and have had great results.
So if you do what I tell you in this video, I guarantee that you will improve your English pronunciation. So if you’re ready, let’s get it!
The LAR Method
Alright let’s talk about the L. The L stands for ‘Listen’. That’s right. The first step of this method is just to listen. Listen to what, Shane? That’s a good question.
There are four rules for the listen section of this method. Rule number one. Listen to native speakers. If you want to see how native English speakers really use English, then you have to listen to native English speakers who are talking to each other, who are not talking slowly and who are not using easy words.
Rule number two. Listen to audio that has a transcript or watch something that has subtitles. This is especially important if you can’t hear every word or you don’t understand what the speakers are saying.
Rule number three. When you’re listening, you must be able to pause what you’re listening to and you must be able to rewind what you’re listening to. And you must be able to rewind what you’re listening to.
Rule number four. Don’t just listen once. Listen many times. Okay so they are the four rules of listening so now let’s listen to our first clip. This clip is taken from an interview of a man who became a professional sports player.
But what are you doing now? But what are you doing now? But what are you doing now? Let’s listen one more time. But what are you doing now? Congratulations! You have completed step one of the LAR method. Now let’s move onto step number two.
Alright, we have finished listening so now it’s time for the fun part. Step two of this method is ‘Analyze’. Analyze means to study something so in this step I want you to study what you hear.
Listen for the sounds. There are 44 sounds in English. What sounds does the speaker use?
Listen for connected speech. Do some sounds come together? Do some sounds disappear?
Listen for rhythm. Does the speaker speak quickly or does he speak slowly?
Listen for pitch. Does the speaker’s pitch go up or does it go down?
Look at the situation. Is it a formal situation? Is it an informal situation? Who are the people? How do they know each other? Where are they? What are they doing?
So now let’s watch our first clip again and really analyze it.
But what are you doing now? But what are you doing now? Let’s listen one more time. But what are you doing now? One more time but let’s listen in slow motion. But what are you doing now?
So if you really study this clip, you should be able to see a few things. Number one. The speaker does not say ‘what are you’. He joins those three words together and he says ‘wodduhyou’. Wodduhyou. This is called connected speech where we join sounds or words together and it just sounds like one sound.
The second thing you should notice is that the speaker’s intonation rises and then falls. He doesn’t say ‘What are you doing’. What are you doing? No. He says ‘Wodduhyou doing?’ Wodduhyou doing? The intonation goes up and then it comes down. Wodduhyou doing?
So that was a really quick analysis in step two of the LAR method. Now let’s look at the final step. Step number three.
We have listened and we have analyzed. Now it’s time for the best part. Step number three. The R stands for ‘Repeat’. When I say ‘repeat’, I mean repeat what you heard the speaker saying.
When you repeat, I want you to try to sound exactly like the speaker. Forget your own accent. Forget the sounds of your language. Try to copy exactly what you hear. Now let’s listen to our first clip again and repeat what we hear.
But what are you doing now? But what are you doing now? What are you doing now? What are you doing now? Let’s listen one more time. But what are you doing now? What are you doing now? What are you doing now?
So before we look at our other examples for today, let’s have a quick review. The LAR method has three steps. Step number one. Listen to native speakers. Step number two. Analyze what you hear. Step number three. Repeat and try to sound exactly like the speaker.
Do this for 10 minutes every day and your pronunciation will get better and better and soon you will start to sound like a native English speaker.
Alright, now let’s look at two more examples. The first example is taken from a TEDx talk. The speaker is talking about something called ego. The first step is listen so let’s listen.
What’s his name? What’s his name? Let’s listen one more time. What’s his name?
Step two is analyze. So let’s study the clip and see how the speaker says that phrase. Before we watch it again, did you notice that the speaker didn’t say certain sounds? Let’s watch again.
What’s his name? What’s his name? One more time but in slow motion. What’s his name?
Okay so the first thing I notice is that the speaker does not say ‘what is’. He joins those two words together and says ‘what’s’. ‘What’s’ is a contraction for ‘what is’.
The second thing you should notice is that the speaker doesn’t even say the /h/ sound from the word ‘his’. He says ‘What’sizname?’ He joins the ‘what’s’ and the ‘his’ together but he doesn’t say that /h/ sound. What’sizname? What’sizname? What’s his name?
Step three is repeat so let’s listen again and repeat what the speaker said. What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name? What’s his name?
The last example for today was taken from a presentation that a man gave at Google. His presentation was about the difference between men and women in business. Step one is listen so let’s listen.
You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. Let’s listen one more time. You don’t even know what I do.
Step two is analyze so let’s listen to the speaker again and see how he says what he says. Before we watch again, did you notice that the speaker didn’t say a very important sound? Let’s watch.
You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. Let’s listen one more time but in slow motion. You don’t even know what I do.
There are a few important things that you should’ve noticed. The first one is that the speaker doesn’t the /t/ sound in the word ‘don’t’. He just says ‘don’. Don. Don.
The second thing you should notice is that the speaker joins the ‘don’ and the ‘even’ together. He says ‘doneven’. Doneven. Doneven.
The third thing you should observe is that the speaker doesn’t say ‘what’. He doesn’t say that final /t/ sound. It’s like he changes the /t/ sound to a /d/ sound but he doesn’t let the air come out at the end of the word. He says ‘wodido’. Wodido. He doesn’t say ‘what I do’. No. He says ‘wodido’. Wodido. Let’s watch again.
You don’t even know what I do. Now it’s time to repeat so let’s watch again and repeat what he says. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do. You don’t even know what I do.
Conclusion
That is the LAR method. I hope you enjoyed the video today and I hope you learned something. Comment down below and tell me if you like this kind of video where I look at native speakers and I really analyze it, I really study them so I can help you guys speak more like native speakers. Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next lesson.
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