Great news! At the end of August 2015 we will be launching our Free Language Club where you can join us for free online English classes. Find out more by checking out the video below – or click on the link:
EnglishBanana.com’s Free Language Club
Tag Archives: pronunciation
Free MP3 Class to Download! Free Online Speaking Course: Lesson 1.2
This is the latest free English speaking class on EnglishSpeaking.Tips! The text for the lesson is here. Feel free to download and share this MP3, which is in the Public Domain.
Free MP3 Class to Download! Free Online Speaking Course: Lesson 1.1
This is the latest free English speaking class on EnglishSpeaking.Tips! The text for the lesson is here. Feel free to download and share this MP3, which is in the Public Domain:
Free Live English Class on EnglishSpeaking.Tips: Tuesday 13th January 2015 at 8pm CET!
You are welcome to join us for the start of a new online speaking course on EnglishSpeaking.Tips. It starts tomorrow at 8pm CET. Hope to see you there! For more information, please click below:
Why does Taylor Swift sing “got a lonely Starbucks lover” in her No.1 song “Blank Space”?
Like for many listeners, there was one line that jumped out at me as seeming odd when I first heard the song Blank Space by Taylor Swift – and when I heard it again, and again, and again on the radio. The line occurs in the chorus:
Got a lonely Starbucks lover…
I assumed it was meant as a pop culture reference, or could even be part of a product placement deal with said coffee chain. It seemed odd and jarring in the song, but I processed it and continued about my business.
Imagine my intense surprise when, thanks to reading about the song online (e.g. here), I was informed that this wasn’t a coffee-based refrain at all, but that the actual line that Taylor sings is:
Got a long list of ex-lovers…
I decided to investigate the lyric further, because now I could hear both versions, where before it had only been the Starbucks one. It seemed to me that the sound spine could be causing the confusion. The sound spine is the sequence of stressed vowel sounds in a sentence. We rely on it when listening to English to be able to process what is said without catching every syllable and sound in a sentence. For example, in this sentence:
I went for a walk in the park.
The stressed syllables are:
I went for a walk in the park
and the stressed vowel sounds in these words are:
e or ar
which is the sound spine. (You can find out more about the sound spine and connected speech in my free book Talk a Lot Foundation Course.)
Without e, or, ar in this sentence, we might have problems understanding it. If you pronounced it with different stressed vowel sounds, e.g. o, er, ee, it would sound like this:
I want for a work in the peek.
which of course is nonsense!
So what about this line from the massive number one-selling hit single “Blank Space”? Here is what the sound spine should be (with British English pronunciation):
Got a long list of ex–lovers.
o o i e u
and here is the sound spine that we actually hear:
Got a long list of ex-lovers.
ar ar ii ar u
Part of this is to do with Taylor’s Southern accent. “Got” becomes “Gart” and “long” becomes “larn”. However, the main problem is that the lyrics do not scan properly. The rhythm demands a stressed beat on “of”, which is a function word, and not usually stressed. With Taylor’s accent pronouncing o as ar, combined with moving forward the st of “list” (using the connected speech technique of FCL – forward consonant linking), we somehow get the word “star” as a stressed content word. Taylor also changes the “ng” sound in “long” to n, which gives us: “larn lii” instead of “long li” (with those crisp British English vowel sounds) – which is very close to “lonely”. Because our brain does not get the correct vowel sounds to be able to process the actual lyrics, it gives us the nearest matches: “lonely” and “Starbucks”. It is as if our brain hears “Star” as the stressed syllable of a two-syllable word and speedily searches for a relevant match. Faced with this difficult task (starfish… starving… star-crossed…?), the brain lands on the familiar word “Starbucks”. We accept it because surely this is a topic that Taylor Swift could be singing about – a romantic liaison in a US-owned coffee shop. It doesn’t fit with the next line, but never mind. We are too busy thinking about the lonely Starbucks lover to hear the next line. We also hear the ks of “ex” and this matches the end of “Starbucks” perfectly.
So, the entire line as Taylor sings it can be written in Clear Alphabet (a new phonemic alphabet – more here) like this:
Gar d Larn Lii Star ve Kslu vz
We hear the final word “lovers” correctly because the stressed vowel sound u is sounded out clearly.
How could the line be easier to catch? If Taylor had squashed the “of” instead of stressing it, maybe by pausing on the word “list”, before jumping over “of” to the double stress of “ex-lo”. The two double stresses “long list” and “”ex-lo”, separated by the unstressed beat “of” (with a schwa sound instead of ar) might have sounded OK:
Got a long list, of ex–lovers…
But it might have been better to rewrite the line to fit the rhythm. Hmm. I don’t know – what about:
Got a lonely Starbucks lover…
It could even have been part of a tie-in promo with the coffee empire!
Does it matter? Only if clear communication matters.
Is it important in the grand scheme of things. Not really, but when I hear this song on the radio maybe 10 times per day, and I have to stop to think about the lyrics each time I hear the chorus (my ears are telling me “Starbucks” while my mind is telling me “No, no… it should be ‘long list of ex-‘…” which doesn’t fit) – it becomes a little annoying. However, I still love the album 1989.
The lesson for English students is: the clearer your sound spine, the more effective your communication.
FREE Elementary English Class! Fun with Vocabulary #1 – Shopping
This is a recording from a free live teacher training session on YouTube last night: Teaching Spelling and Sounds to ESL Students
You are welcome to join me for my next free live lesson on YouTube!
Click here to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECj82eoY_ZU
Download Free English Pronunciation Course! Talk a Lot Foundation Course
Teacher Training with Russian Teachers in Poland!
We were lucky enough to host a fantastic group of teachers from Saratov University recently at our school – Study English in Ostroda. They joined us for five nights for one of our language holidays.
The visit was a great success with all of the teachers saying that they enjoyed it and learned many new techniques that they could take back to their university – and private – students in Russia.
The group leader Tatiana M. commented:
“The course provided the opportunity for the students to be active and creative at the classes, work together with other students and speak English while performing the tasks. The course integrated all of the aspects of language learning (speaking, reading, pronunciation, grammar, writing and listening) and actively involved students into the learning process. The organisation of the course (flexible schedule, the timing, course materials and accommodation) were arranged and provided on a high level. New things I learned:
- organising the learning process without a textbook
- a new approach to teaching phonetics
- reiterating the most important language points at every lesson
- a captivating and enjoyable way of working with newspaper articles”
Here is a picture of the group hard at work:
…and at play, enjoying a barbecue with some of our local students:
We even got an article in the local paper!
If you would like to join us for a language holiday – to improve your English language skills, or to brush up on your teaching practice – you are more than welcome to join us! Please click here to find out more about our offer.
FREE English Vocabulary and Pronunciation Workout! (Video of online lesson)
This is a recording of a free class I taught on WizIQ.com on 28.02.13: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1140564-free-english-vocabulary-and-pronunciation-workout You can download the free material that we used here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/127589616/Auto-Mode-3-Example
Auto Mode 3 – Practise vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation skills together!
NEW! FREE Material: Stress > Reduce > Merge – Learn how to Pronounce English like a Native Speaker
Please Join My Next Free Class: Practise Connected Speech in English – Final Consonant Linking
About the Class
We’re going to spend a whole lesson looking at final consonant linking in cv connections in English speech. For example, in the sentence “I like English” there is one example of final consonant linking: “like English” becomes Lai King glish
If you are interested in this kind of thing, you will be sure to enjoy this lesson! Make sure you have your microphone plugged in, so that you can speak during the class.
This class will be relaxed and fun, so please come and join us if you would like to improve your speaking and listening skills in a friendly class.
See you there! 😉
How to Pronounce: “I like ice cream” (Stress & Connected Speech Mini-Lesson)
A New Series of Self-Study Worksheets – Stress, Reduce, Merge
Introducing new material from English Banana.com that will give you some practice in using connected speech and stress in English. You can download the free .pdf worksheet pack here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/105327558/A-New-Series-of-Self-Study-Worksheets-Stress-Reduce-Merge
Any feedback would be most welcome! Thanks. 😉
Get Instant Feedback on your English Pronunciation!
Now you can practise your English pronunciation skills and get instant feedback with our really useful new widget:
http://www.englishbanana.com/pronunciation-practice-talk-a-lot-elementary-book-1.html
FREE DOWNLOAD! Clear Alphabet Dictionary – Read and Write English as it Sounds!
NEW FREE DOWNLOAD! Translate 40 Famous People From the NEA (English Phonetic Alphabet)
Using the Phonetic Alphabet in an English Class #3 (Notes – 07.08.12)
Free Talk a Lot Elementary Course Now on YouTube!
Here is the first class from a short Talk a Lot Elementary Spoken English course that I taught online recently. The topic in this recording is “Town” and we’re working from Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1. You can find the links for the other four classes in the course below!
Many thanks to Ma3ali English for organising the course and uploading the recordings.
Class 2: Food and Drink
Planning an English Class without a Course Book to Hold your Hand
Silent b – Phonics – lamb, limb, climb
Ah – silent letters. They’re so quiet that we can’t even hear them! They’re so quiet that we could question whether we need them in the spelling at all… but that’s another post!
Adrian Underhill on Successful Pronunciation 1
Extend Your Vocabulary Easily with Membean.com!
We’ve recently been trying out a brand new web service which aims to help you to extend your vocabulary. Membean is a really fun way to “lock in” new words – through a variety of methods.
We asked Membean Founder and CEO Ragav Satish to explain more about the goals of this valuable site:
“Membean is a unique web-based vocabulary learning environment that has its roots in research on human memory and learning. At Membean vocabulary comes to life through engaging video, rich imagery, interactive visualizations, quirky memory devices and unforgettable passages. Once a word is learned it must be maintained in the memory. This is where Membean’s unique Adaptive Reinforcement Engine comes in. Based on your interaction with the tool, it knows when to show you a new word, what questions to ask you and when you need to re-learn a word.” It really is fantastic! Here is an example of a word definition page, for the word “panache”:
The other great thing about Membean is that it really motivates you to learn – plus it is totally addictive! You can sign up for a free membership today, and find out what we mean!
New Free Printable English Lesson to Download Now!
Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 2 – Unit 2.2: English is a Big Boiling Pot of Delicious Steaming-Hot Word Stew!
English Banana.com ESL Blog 