Week of February 11

          

Are you a fan of Ohio's cold weather and snow? Have you ever tried skiing or cross-country skiing? Go on an adventure and try something new! 

Brandywine and Boston Mills ski resorts are within 40 minutes of greater Cleveland. 

You can rent cross-country skis at the Cleveland Metroparks.

How about trying tobogganing? 

     

This is also a good time of year to warm up inside at the West Side Market on Lorain Avenue in Ohio City.

Review from last week

WOD: outraged, simplify

POD: to thumb through, to bring home the bacon

We began learning a new grammar topic: subject and object pronouns. You can practice more with both of those below:

1. https://www.englishgrammar.org/subject-object-pronouns-exercise-4/
2. https://www.quia.com/quiz/913832.html?AP_rand=1205088681
3. http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/subjectobjectpronouns2.html

Tricky Consonant Pairs, Part 2

Below you can practice some of the tricky consonant sounds we learned during our pronunciation lesson.

/l/ vs /r/

/l/ vs /r/ minimal pairs

/n/ vs /l/ minimal pairs

Crime

If you missed class last week, this video is a good summary of language we learned (warning: British English).

Crime Vocabulary

Crime Vocabulary 2

Crime Exercise

Week of November 4

November is a time for voting, falling leaves, comfort food, warm clothes, and Thanksgiving. What is November like in your country?

Vocabulary for warm clothes

Holidays in the USA: Reading






Practice your pronunciation of dropping the letter "h" in connected speech. Engvid 

Soon we will begin practicing our irregular past tense verbs. Try this Quizlet to see how much you already know.

Irregular Verb Jeopardy (type your name and choose 1-player game)

Irregular Verbs I

Irregular Verbs II

Irregular Verbs III

Irregular Verbs IV

Practice your reading! 
There are many opinions about getting the flu vaccine (flu shot). Reading an article about a new drug recently approved.

A New Drug is Approved for Flu

Linking Y & W + Vowel Sound

The video below gives very slow examples on how to link /y/ to /w/ + vowel sound.  Warning:  there are long pauses between the examples.

 




American English Pronunciation - Listen & Practice

How to Link Words that Begin with 'H"

         Disappearing /h/

Pronouncing Can vs Can't

TH and SH Pronunciation Practice with Dave Sconda

 

TH pronunciation practice

 

 

SH pronunciation practice

 

English Meeting with Dave Sconda

 

 

Linking Words Together: Consonant + Vowel

In connected speech, words are usually linked together smoothly without a break between them. Level 2 students practiced linking a word that ends in a consonant sound with a word that begins with a vowel sound.

Common Words and Phrases in Connected Speech

Some very common words have weak forms that are normally used in connected speech.  While this is very normal in spoken language, the written form should only be used in very informal language (texting, emailing to a friend, social media, etc.)

There are two videos below:  the first focuses on shoulda, woulda, and coulda.  The second video is called Learn American English with Alligators where the focus is on speech reductions.

Rhythm in American Pronunciation

Below are the two videos we watched in class on learning the rhythm of American pronunciation. The first video is just a quick overview, and the second video goes into more depth.

For homework, please watch the second video and take notes.

More Practice with SCHWA

English Pronunciation Pod has an excellent audio activity reviewing the vowel reduction in unstressed syllables (the schwa sound).  It's about 12 minutes long.

Listening Practice

The website Learn English, Feel Good offers many useful exercises for improving your English skills.  Students often need extra practice with listening skills.  There are 15 exercises with spelling and 20 exercises with English pronunciation practice.

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/listening/index.html

The Schwa

The schwa is the vowel sound in many lightly pronounced unaccented syllables in words of more than one syllable and in some common single syllable words. It is sometimes pronounced "uh". A schwa sound can be represented by any vowel.

For example:

a spelling	again vitamin
e spelling	petition celebrate
i spelling	president experiment
o spelling	occur condition
u spelling	campus support

Additional practice:

Really Learn English