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Contents
1. Introduction
- Why do People Fail to Speak like Native Speakers
- What is Native English Speaking
- Don't Just Learn Phonics!
- British vs. American vs. Other Accents
- About Me

2. Listening to Yourself Objectively


- Non-Native Speaker vs. Native Speaker Example
- Listening for the Differences

Section 1 Stress in English

3. Word stress
- How to Stress Syllables
- Why Word Stress is Important
- Word Stress Rules you can Follow
- Sometimes the Rules are not that Clear
- Do not think you know it all

4. Normal Sentence Stress


- How to Stress Words in Sentences
- Sentence Stress is Very Important in English
- The Correct Way to Stress in English
Free in this sample
- Time for you to Practise
- Rules for Sentence Stress

5. Stressing particular words for meaning


- Emphatic Stress
- Contrastive Stress
- Examples &Practice
- New information stress

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6. Unstressed Syllables
- Schwa the most common vowel sound
- Unstressed Sounds are Accent Dependent
- Not all Unstressed Syllables are Reduced Sounds
- A Note on Accents

Section 2 Resonance, Pitch and Tone Patterns

7. Intonation
- Whats a Tone Pattern?
- Falling Tone
- Low Rising Tone
- Comparing Rising Tone to Falling Tone
- High Rising Tone
- Flat Tone
- Beyond the Basics

8. Correct Voice Placement Part 1 - Resonance


- An Introduction
- My Path of Discovery
- Head, Nasal and Chest Resonance
- Analyzing Recordings
- Conclusion

9. Correct Voice Placement Part 2 Vocal Fry


- Defining the Correct Placement of the Voice in English
- Introducing Vocal Fry
- Using Vocal Fry to Determine Correct Voice Placement
- Learn Vocal Fry
- When to Use Vocal Fry

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Section 3 Speaking English Fluently

10. Linking in English


- Linking Explained
- Its the Sound thats Important
- Linking Consonant to Vowel
- Linking Vowel to Vowel

11. Connected Speech


- Linking the Same Consonants
- Linking Plosive Consonants
- Linking the Sound R
- More Advanced Topics Sound Disappearance, Sound Change

12. Contractions
- When to Use Contractions
- A List of Common Contractions
- Special Rules to Consider

13. Phrasal Verbs


- Are Phrasal Verbs that Important?
- The Meaning Depends on the Context
- The Grammar of Phrasal Verbs
- How to Learn Phrasal Verbs

Section 4 Other Special Rules

14. Voiced and Voiceless Sounds


- What is a Voiced Consonant?
- What is a Voiceless Consonant?
- How to Pronounce ed
- How to Pronounce Plural S

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15. Pausing
- Pausing Explained through Example
- In-depth Analysis Pausing + Intonation
- How to distinguish a Pause

16. Other rules


- When to say A, When to say An
- How to pronounce the

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Prologue

This E-book was created for those who are serious about improving their English pronunciation,
for those who have spent a lot of time and money looking for ways to master their English
speaking and havent been able to; you have come to the right place.

Phonics is not taught in this book. The ideas in this book go beyond phonics, to talk about areas
of English that few ESL teachers truly understand. You will learn what really makes someone
sound like a native speaker.

Enjoy!

Make sure you read the full chapter


from section 1. It has been provided
for free in this sample.

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Introduction
Why do People Fail to Speak like Natives?

Why is it that people spend 15+ years learning English, even in a country like Hong Kong where
people put such a high emphasis on English education, that they still have a non-native accent?

1. Is it because of your language environment?


2. Is it because you started learning at an older age?
3. Is it because of bad teachers?

Are you someone who finds it difficult to overcome this?


I can tell you that these reasons are all untrue.

There are two main reasons why you arent improving:

1. You dont listen to your self objectively enough


2. Youre missing some crucial information regarding how native speakers really speak!

You need to work on both points to really improve. If you have all of number two but are
terrible at number one, then your progress will be very small. Trust me on this one; you really
need to work on listening to yourself objectively!

What is Native English Speaking?

So what makes a native speaker sound native?

If you want to sound like a native speaker, this is the most important question you could ask!

Is it pronouncing all the letters and syllables correctly?


I think most people think if they master phonics/IPA (how to correctly pronounce sounds like
th, v, ou, etc) that they will be amazing English speakers This is definitely not true.

Just listen to me in this recording:


Click to play

Example 1 Im going to the supermarket

The foreign accent that you hear is a typical Hong Kong/Asian accent. However, I am using 100%
correct phonics! Do you know what is causing the foreign accent??
In this example, I will use non-standard/incorrect phonics pronunciation:

Example 2 Im gun to the supermarket


If you are having issues with the
sound, make sure you are using
Adobe Reader 11, on a computer.
You can download the latest version
at http://get.adobe.com/reader/

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I purposely pronounced going as gun, keeping everything else as I would normally say it.
However, native speakers will still understand me! AND, I still sound like a native speaker
despite this obvious error! Why is this!?

English Speaking is NOT all about Phonics

You need to learn many different skills to speak with a native accent; its not all about phonics!
Here are some graphs to show you the difference between the two recordings clearer.

The 1st recording looks like this: Im going to the supermarket

Example 1 - Foreign Accent


100%

10% 15%
1% 1% 1%

Phonics Voice Stress Linking Intonation Many Other


(IPA) Placement Patterns Factors

Although I speak with near perfect phonics, the other factors that influence pronunciation are
terrible!

Go to the next page to see an analysis of the 2nd recording.

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The 2nd recording looks like this: Im gun to the supermarket

Example 2 - Native Accent with bad pronunciation

100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

50%

Phonics Voice Stress Linking Intonation Many Other


(IPA) Placement Patterns Factors

Here I am basically speaking how I would normally speak but forcing myself to use incorrect
phonics. So even though the Phonics bar has dropped to 50%, the other factors are still high,
and so I still sound like a native speaker.

What you need to know!

This is what I think a native English accent is made up of:

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You can see that Phonics is the most important part of speaking English; it is the most basic
thing to learn. HOWEVER, almost all ESL students already have a 60%+ understanding of
phonics. Yet, not many students have a good understanding of the other factors. A good ESL
students pronunciation skills usually look something like this:

ESL Student's Understanding of English


Pronunciation Skills
80%

20% 20%
15%
1% 1%

Phonics Voice Stress Linking Phrasal Many


(IPA) Placement Patterns Verbs Other
Factors

If you dont improve the other skills in RED, your accent will never sound native.

This book will give you what you need covering topics such as word stress, sentence stress,
linking, intonation, general pitch, sound production and much more.

ESL\EFL\ESOL classes are not teaching the right stuff! (We will use ESL to mean all 3 for the rest of the book)

Teachers put too much emphasis on teaching phonics (IPA) and the topics that I listed above
are rarely ever taught well.

Native ESL teachers use intonation, sentence stress, linking and other concepts all the time. But
they either dont know that they are using them or they dont understand them well enough
to teach it to their students!

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule states about 80% of the results come from 20% of the work. The other 20% of
the results come from 80% of your effort!

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This can be applied to English pronunciation skills learning. Simply, it is much easier to learn
skills up to 80% mastery than it is to learn up to 100% mastery.

Spend 20% effort -> 80% mastery Spend 80% more effort -> 100% mastery

Would you rather have this?

100% Phonics Mastery

100%

1% 1% 1% 1%

Phonics(IPA) Stress Voice Fluency Other Rules


Patterns Placement Techniques

Or this:

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It is much harder to learn something 100% than it is to learn it 80%. It is better that you spend
the time to improve all important pronunciation skills to 80% than to learn Phonics to 100%!

How Does This Book Work?

Firstly, this is an audio ebook that will let you listen to audio examples as you read so you can
understand much better compared to a normal text book.

Secondly, this book is split into 4 sections. These sections each cover the different and
important areas of English pronunciation besides phonics. You need to understand each area
properly in order to speak English naturally, fluently and natively.

Thirdly, this book also strongly encourages and teaches you how to listen to yourself objectively.
Only when you can hear your own mistakes can you correct them. I have included a full chapter
on this.

What about Different Native Accents?

In English there are many native accents: American, British, Australian, Canadian, South African,
New Zealand, etc. The differences between the accents mainly come from how we pronounce
certain sounds. (Differences in phonics)

Listen to the word Dance:


American: British: Australian: New Zealand:

The difference is in the vowel a.


Americans say the a in dance just like the a in apple.
British people say the a in dance just like the a in ask.

Listen to the word Teacher:


American: British: Australian: New Zealand:

Here, the difference is in the er sound. This is an unstressed syllable. Americans speak it with
more of an r sound while British speakers speak it with more of an a sound. (This is
discussed further in the chapter Unstressed Syllables)

There are differences between accents, however, growing up in a western country I can tell you
that it doesnt matter a great deal what accent you have as long as you sound native! We can
understand the most common native English accents easily, and are very accepting of different
countries native accents when we encounter them. In fact, having a unique native accent often
is the starting point of an interesting conversation and can help you feel comfortable when
meeting new friends for the first time.

So I strongly suggest focusing on learning the techniques of sounding like a native speaker
before you go further in trying to master a particular accent.

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About Me

Im a Chinese Australian who speaks native English and Mandarin. Ive got a bachelors degree
from the University of Melbourne, a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate
and Im currently an English teacher in China and have been for the past 2 years.

During my experience in China I met so many Chinese people who are passionate about learning
English, but have found it very difficult to correct foreign English accent. I asked myself the
question, what makes a native English speaker sound native? I was determined to find an
answer to this question and help ESL students break through this difficult problem.

I did research and tested ideas while I taught students, I compared how I spoke native Mandarin
to how I spoke native English, I even used my experience as a singer to better understand the
voice and distinguish the differences between how people with different native languages
produce sound when they speak. I slowly created a list of important factors that foreign learners
must know about English pronunciation. Some of the things I have written in this book cannot
be found anywhere else in the world.

Bringing it all together, Ive created a package that will help you breakthrough the difficulties of
learning to speak English and take you closer to speaking like a native speaker!

Perhaps you still have some concerns

It is difficult learning to speak good English. But its not because your age or because you are not
in an English speaking country that your pronunciation isnt better. Its because you just havent
learnt the correct and most important techniques!

Heres some further explanation:

1. Do I need to be in a native English speaking environment?


Being in an English speaking environment only increases your exposure to English; it
doesnt guarantee your English any significant improvement. Alex (the editor) and I have
seen Chinese people who have never been outside China speak extremely good English,
far better than many of those who went abroad even at the early age of 12.

2. Does Age Matter?


From my own experience, I began learning Cantonese at the age of 21. I wasnt sure if
age affected your ability to learn languages at that time, so I tried my best to learn the
language anyway. It turns out that after 6 months, I developed a near native Hong Kong
accent because I began learning using Jyut Pin, a Cantonese phonetic system. Since then
I have found several other people who have had success learning languages at rapid
speeds even past the age of 40.

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Section 1: Using Stress in English

What you will learn:

Learn the #1 reason why you have trouble understanding native


speakers, and how you can improve quickly!

Learn how speaking words clearly can actually give you a bad
accent and prevent you from speaking fluently!

Learn the importance of Schwa the most common sound in


English, and most people are using it wrong!

Learn how stressing different words can totally change the meaning
of sentences, are you misunderstanding native speakers?

Learn which words you must speak clearly, and which words you
must speak unclearly to have a native accent!

Learn about the Rhythm of English, speaking English is like music!

And much more

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In section 1 we discuss the concept of stress in English. You may already understand
things like stressing syllables in words and stressing words in sentences at a basic level
from ESL classes. However, in this section we will go beyond that.

In this section, I will show you the most important elements of how native speakers
stress. There are some elements about stress that if you understand them, you sound
like a native. If you dont, well, you dont sound native. You may not know it, but stress
could be the biggest cause of your foreign accent!

Lets begin this first exciting section.

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Sentence Stress in English
Now that you understand stressing syllables in words, we will focus this chapter on discussing
stressing words within sentences. Its a really powerful and exciting chapter! After reading and
practicing the contents of this chapter, you will probably be able to listen to and speak English
more clearly and quickly!

How to Stress Words in Sentences

Sentence stress refers to stressing particular words within the sentence. Similarly to stressing
syllables within words, stressed words are:

- l-o-n-g-e-r
- LOUDER
- higher in pitch
- spoken more clearly
- uses larger facial movements

Sentence Stress is Very Important in English

Read aloud by yourself, and then listen to the following sentences:

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Did you notice anything odd?


The second sentence is 10 words longer and 10 syllables longer than the first sentence.
More than 50% longer, but they took about the same amount of time to say! How can that
be!??
In many languages, for example, Chinese, each word, each syllable is given equal importance.
This is not the case in English!

English is a stress-timed language; stressed words are given more time while other words are
given less! They are also said more clearly while unstressed words are slurred (passed over
lightly). This actually has a hugely significant effect on how we pronounce words when we speak,
read on to find out how Time for a Breakthrough!

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The Correct Way to Stress in English

Most sentences have two types of words:

Content words - these are the key words of a sentence because they carry the meaning.
Structure words - these words are not as important. They are usually small, simple words
that make the sentence grammatically correct and give the sentence its correct structure.

If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand
the sentence.

If you remove the content words, you will definitely not understand the sentence, because
the sentence cannot have any meaning.

Imagine that you receive this message:

Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE

This sentence is not complete. It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence. But you probably
understand it. These 4 words communicate very well. Somebody wants you to sell their car for
them because they have gone to France. We can add a few words:

Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE

The new words do not really add any more information. But they make the message more
correct grammatically. We can add even more words to make one complete,
grammatically correct sentence. But the content/information is basically the same:

Content Words

Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE.

Structure Words

You probably figured it out already, in our sentence, the 4 content words (sell, car, gone, France)
are stressed. So the content words are said more clearly and are given more time. It gives
listeners time to catch the important information!

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The Rhythm of English

Remember when I said that unstressed syllables are slurred? Well because the structure words
dont actually carry that much meaning in them, native speakers really do speak them a lot
quicker than content words. In fact, the speed that they speak each structure word can also vary;
this is dependent on the structure of the sentence!

In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3 syllables between CAR
and GONE. You would expect the 3 syllables to take longer to say, right? But no!

The time between each stressed word is the same.

That is to say, the time (t) between SELL and CAR and between CAR and GONE is the same.
We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say "my" more slowly, and
"because I've" more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the
rhythm of the key content words stays the same.

syllables

2 1 3 1 Listen to how I say it:

Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE.

beat beat beat beat


t1 t1 t1 t1

This is why native speakers can speak so quickly and still understand each other! Because they
are listening for the content words that are spoken slower! As an ESL student, sometimes
you neednt understand all the words that are being said, but just the content words. When
you start to apply this, hopefully you will begin understanding more of what you are hearing
and have more confidence to respond strongly!

As you can see there is a strong emphasis in English to speak the important meaning carrying
words clearly, and to finish the sentence quickly by gliding over the relatively unimportant
words. Native speakers all use stress-time when they speak, so in reality, if you dont your
speaking can sound labored and irritating to a native listener! Better start practicing!

Another point to note is when the unstressed words are slurred, the sound becomes shortened
and unclear (schwa). The chapter on Unstressed Syllables focusses on how native speakers
speak these unstressed words.

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Time for You to Practice!

Keeping the beat

To practice, I want you to keep the beat with your hand tapping on a table. The beat occurs on
the content words, Sell, Car, Gone, France, so your hand should land on the table when you
begin to say those words. All the structure words must be spoken in the gap between each tap.

syllables

2 1 3 1

Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE.

beat beat beat beat


t1 t1 t1 t1

Listen to the recording:

When we speak it is not this time strict, but it definitely needs to have a general beat.

Try using Schwa to Speak Faster

You may have the most difficulty with because Ive because it has the most syllables. You
must speak the 3 syllables in the same time as you speak the 1 syllable word my. The thing to
note is that the syllables in because Ive are not pronounced clearly anymore. They become
schwa (explained thoroughly in the chapter Unstressed Syllables).

Spoken clearly because Ive Schwa because Ive

In the schwa recording, you can hear that the sound Ive sounds more like uh v. Native
speakers change the sound here because the sound Ive takes too much time to make with the
mouth. Apply this new idea and try again.

Practice with Slower Recordings

Some students who tried to keep the beat and speak the sentence for the first time found it
difficult to speak within the stress-time. Its important to keep practicing and to learn the
feeling of speaking English like a native. The more you practice, the more you will get used
to it and hopefully it will gradually become natural.

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Remember, you dont have to speak at any particular speed, but the speed that you
speak certain words relative to others is important.
Here are some recordings for you to practice with:

Normal with speaker: Normal without speaker:

Slower with speaker: Slower without speaker

*Different native speakers may say these parts differently. This is because schwa differs
depending on what native accent a speaker is using. Again, this will be discussed in a later
chapter.

Rules for Sentence Stress

The basic rules of sentence stress are:

1. content words are stressed


2. structure words are unstressed
3. the time between stressed words is always the same

The following tables can help you decide which words are content words and which words are
structure words:

Content words - stressed

Words carrying the meaning Example

main verbs SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY

nouns CAR, MUSIC, MARY

adjectives RED, BIG, INTERESTING

adverbs QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER

negative auxiliaries DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T

Structure words - unstressed

Words for correct grammar Example

pronouns he, we, they

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prepositions on, at, into

articles a, an, the

auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must

*Negative auxiliaries provide new content because they are unexpected

Test Yourself!

Here are some sentences for you to see how much you have learnt! Try to guess which words
are stressed in the following sentences, and then listen to the recordings to check the answer:

1. I went to the shop to buy some bread.

2. He is so clever that he never has to study for exams.

3. Jason loves Caroline for her beauty alone.

Tonic Stress

Finally you should understand that in English, there is generally a stressed word that is more
stressed than the other words. We call this Tonic Stress and it usually happens on the
content word at the end of the sentence.
Consider:
I'm going.
I'm going to London.
I'm going to London for a holiday.

In the following chapter you will be learning when the tonic stress (most stress) is placed on
other words in the sentence, it can even be placed on structure words! Dont worry though,
its not too difficult!

Thank you for downloading the sample!


This is our amazing new audio ebook and we are committed that all the ESL
learners in the world that want to improve their pronunciation can get a copy.

If you have any questions or requests for a lower price, please email us:
info@secretsofspeakingnativeenglish.com

Keep Reading to Learn about Section 2, 3 and 4


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Section 2: Pitch, Resonance and Tone

What you will learn:

Learn the #1 cause of Asian foreign accents and how to correct it!
(Voice Placement)

Learn Vocal Fry, and why all native speakers use it when they
speak.

Learn how to correctly place your voice when speaking English to


speak like a native speaker.

Learn how to use tone patterns In what situation you should use
which tone pattern?

You will learn about falling tones, low rising tones, high rising tones
and flat tones.

Learn how tone patterns can change the meaning of sentences, are
you misunderstanding native speakers?

Learn how emotions can influence tone patterns, can you


understand what someone is feeling through their tone of voice?

And much more!

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English speakers have a particular way of using their voice. When speaking English, if
you dont produce your sound the same way you will have a foreign accent!

This is a revolutionary section. The concepts in this chapter you wont find anywhere
else in the world. That is because the techniques were discovered from my own unique
experiences. I combined my understanding of native English and native Chinese with my
experience as a singer to discover that English speakers have a special way of using their
voice.

You will learn what resonance region, pitch, tone patterns native speakers use when
they speak. You will also be introduced to Vocal Fry, a special sound that almost all
native speakers use when they speak. Asian students, in this section you will discover
the #1 cause of your foreign accent!

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Section 3: Speaking English Fluently

What you will learn:

Learn the most important techniques that native speakers use to


speak quickly and fluently!

Discover the special rules of linking that native speakers use, but
most teachers dont know about!

Find out about the proper way to link Plosive Consonants, when
you do this wrong it sounds so bad!

Understand the importance of Phrasal Verbs - why native


speakers use them all the time, and that you must use them too!

Learn that you must always use contractions when you speak, and
if you do not, you sound awkward!

And much more

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This section will teach you the tricks to speak English quickly and fluently.

We have already discussed some concepts such as stress-time (in section 1) that will
help you to do this. However, this section will introduce more techniques such as linking
and the natural ways that native speakers shorten words, in order to speak fluently.

These techniques make it easier for our tongues to pronounce the sounds. Without
understanding the concepts in this chapter, it would be impossible for you to speak as
quickly and fluently as a native speaker.

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Section 4: Other Special English Rules

What you will learn:

Learn special rules that influence how we speak and pronounce


words.

Understand that native speakers sometimes use pauses when they


speak, and how these pauses can change the meaning of sentences.

Learn how to hear pauses more clearly to improve your listening.

Learn about Voiced and Voiceless consonants and how they can
change the way we pronounce different syllables.

Discover the different ways of pronouncing -ed, plural s, and


the correct way to pronounce them in different situations.

Understand when to use a and when to use an, its more


difficult that you think!

Find out how you should pronounce the in different situations.

And much more

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The first 3 sections have given you the foundation for speaking like a native speaker.
Each section is crucial.

This final section will complete your learning. You will learn some special rules that
change how you must pronounce certain words. To sound like a native speaker you
should get these right. You will also be introduced to pausing and how this concept
can change the meaning of a sentence.

Lets begin the final section.

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