How to Improve Your Spoken English and Lose Your NonNative English Speaker Accent

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them maybe first

question this week comes from Satish

Gunnison hi Satish Satish says hi Alicia

how are you what is the difference

between I have got two and I got two it

depends on the situation and it depends

on the type of English the speaker is

using by that I mean American English or

British English I have got two is more

commonly used in British English than in

American English it’s used to explain

our responsibilities like I have got to

go to work or I have got to go to the

bank he has got to finish his reports

today when we reduce I have got 2 or

just have got 2 it sounds like I’ve got

to I’ve got to American English speakers

tend to reduce the sound even more in

fast speech so it sounds like I gotta I

gotta as in I gotta go to work or I

gotta do some laundry so this does sound

a lot like I got to but it actually does

not mean I got to it still refers to

that I have got to do something we use I

got to when we’re talking about

something special or we’re talking about

a privilege or an exciting opportunity

we were able to participate in so we use

I got to before a verb to show our

appreciation to show our gratitude for

the opportunity for example I got to

ride in a helicopter today I got to stay

at a fancy hotel last night

so I got to can sound a lot like I gotta

but the to actually have different

meanings we don’t use I gotta to talk

about something we feel appreciative for

we use I gotta to express a

responsibility in a casual way so try to

keep this in mind

I gotta and I got to have different

functions I hope this helps you

understand the differences between have

got two and got two thanks very much for

the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from a fifi hi fifi

a fifi says what do these phrases mean

take for granted and grant a wish okay

to take something for granted means to

expect something but that thing is

something that’s special or it’s like a

privilege it’s something that we should

not expect so to take something or to

take someone for granted is a negative

thing

some examples my boss took me for

granted when I quit my job nobody could

do all my work

don’t let your boyfriend take you for

granted you’re a great person and very

supportive so to grant a wish means to

make a wish come true

to fulfill someone’s wish to fulfill

something that someone wants so an

example would be like the genie granted

wishes for Aladdin in the popular

adventure story or my company granted my

wish and bought me a new computer so to

take for granted refers to expecting

something that you should not expect

something special or a special privilege

to grant a wish refers to having a wish

fulfilled something that you wanted like

a special dream or desire came true so I

hope that this helps you understand the

differences and the meanings of these

expressions thanks very much for the

question ok let’s move on to your next

question next question this week comes

from IU high/low Ayub oh you’ve says hi

Alicia

my name is Ayub I’m from Algeria and I’m

learning English but my problem is

translation what do I do to learn and

speak correctly

I don’t translate so sometimes they make

mistakes in my reading and writing okay

first I think it’s a good thing that you

don’t translate because if you try to

translate from your language your native

language directly in

to English it can cause you to create

some unnatural sentence patterns so I

think that’s great it’s fine not to try

to translate everything directly second

it’s okay to make mistakes making

mistakes is part of the learning process

but for a few tips maybe to help you as

you try to move forward and to help you

as you don’t use translation techniques

I would suggest focusing in on like one

point at a time like one small topic or

one small grammar point so for example

if you use our videos you might start

with like a grammar video for example

like the simple past tense video you

watch the simple past tense video and

you learn some patterns that use the

simple past tense then you write those

by hand you say those sentences out loud

so you can get comfortable with the

sample sentences that are in that video

then after you’re comfortable you take

the same verb from the video and try

making a new sentence with some

different details so for example in that

video my example sentence my first

example sentence was he brought a towel

and sunglasses to the beach so we can

focus in on the verb brought there the

past tense of bring and make new

sentences with new details that keep the

verb so for example we brought food and

drinks to the park or she brought coffee

to the office so you can focus on the

sentence pattern you know and just

change the details so that’s one way to

kind of expand more personally to on the

things you’re learning I think you could

do the same thing with some vocabulary

videos like our top words videos for

example if you choose the video that’s

about like American foods you could try

using the vocabulary from that to create

new sentences you could even combine it

with your past tense video studies so

for example the word chocolate-chip

cookies is one of the vocabulary words

in the American foods top words video

you could say we

chocolate-chip cookies to the park for

example so in that way you’re using a

grammar pattern that you already know

from one video and you’re combining it

with vocabulary that you’re learning

from another video so in this way you

can kind of begin putting together key

words and key phrases as you learn them

but again I think it might be a good

idea to try to focus in on just one

point at a time to learn it comfortably

and then expand finally then the last

and arguably most important point here

is to remember to practice speaking out

loud so don’t just write sentences down

or type sentences on your computer make

sure to practice speaking the sentences

and make sure to ask questions to

practice saying questions as well so I

hope that this helps you thanks very

much for this question and good luck

with your continued studies okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from an Abdul Rahman

hello Abdul

I’m doula says hi Alicia here are my

questions how can I eliminate my native

accent when I speak English people guess

my country after I say a few sentences

and - I have two kids aged nine and four

is it advisable to start them with your

class for speaking practice Thanks

regarding your first question one

getting rid of an accent takes practice

for sure and keep in mind that probably

most non-native speakers of English do

speak with a bit of an accent and it’s

not a communication problem in most

cases also if it is a communication

problem you just ask for confirmation

actually even native speakers don’t

speak clearly sometimes - so I wouldn’t

worry so much about completely removing

your accent but if you do want to

practice pronunciation a bit I would say

if you’re studying alone - try listening

to yourself first and compare in your

voice to a native speakers voice so that

you can identify the parts in your

speech that are different from that of a

native speakers so one thing that I

think could be helpful if you’re

studying alone

as I said and you don’t have a teacher

to correct you is to record your own

voice and listen to yourself saying

something that you can replay in media

so for example if you choose like an

English topics video from this channel

and you listen to me or Michael or Davie

you can hear us saying something listen

to that just one sentence or two

sentences is okay then record yourself

and try to say it exactly the way you

heard it then listen to your recording

and compare it to the original recording

and see what’s different is there a

vowel sound that you’re not pronouncing

the same way as the native speaker is

there a consonant sound that’s difficult

to hear is it the connection of words so

when you can find the places that are

different in your speech that are like

different from the way the native

speaker says them then you can focus in

on those sounds and work on improving

those sounds first over time you’ll

gradually gained more and more practice

with making these specific sounds and to

work on those specific sounds you can

try searching for some videos we have a

few pronunciation related videos on our

channel but you can look for some

information about how to more clearly

pronounce vowel and consonant sounds

online so I hope that that helps you

regarding your second question about

using our lessons for your kids I would

say that it might be a little bit

challenging for very young kids because

the content the lessons that we make on

this channel are kind of intended for

people who have studied some English

before in their home countries or

they’re at a bit of an intermediate

level so I think lessons like maybe the

whiteboard videos or these videos would

be very difficult for young kids to

understand but I think because they have

a parent who is learning English as well

you could choose some of the phrase

based top words videos so when I say

phrase based I mean the kids have the

opportunity to learn like a full

question or a full pattern and you can

help them to fill in the blank so I

would say you can choose phrase videos

and practice together with your kids or

you can choose videos that have like a

lot of

information like maybe food-related

vocabulary videos those might be good as

well too so I think that if you can

practice with your kids and use videos

like those it could be a fun way to

begin using English around your house

so thanks very much for the questions I

really hope that that helps you okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Reuben hello Reuben

Reuben says what is the usage and

meaning of I am supposed to do something

and I am NOT supposed to do something

please explain okay so I am supposed to

do something refers to an expected

behavior so that means it’s something

that like your friend your family member

your coworker your boss expects you to

do it’s an expected behavior so examples

I’m supposed to call my parents every

Sunday we’re supposed to finish work at

8:00 so the idea was supposed to is that

if that behavior does not happen someone

might be upset someone might be angry so

supposed to reflects an expectation some

we’re not supposed to is used to refer

to a behavior someone expects us not to

do we should not do that behavior

someone expects I will not do that

behavior if I do that behavior I will be

in trouble

so again this is from someone outside me

my family member my co-worker my boss

they expect me not to do something for

example I’m not supposed to stay out

late he’s not supposed to eat junk food

so in situations like the second example

there it’s kind of because like that

activity or that behavior could be

harmful somehow so in some supposed to

is for behaviors we expect not supposed

to is for behaviors that we do not

expect and are probably not good ideas

to do so I hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question okay

that is everything that I have for you

guys for this week thank you as always

for sending your questions remember you

can send them to me at English class

101.com slash ask - Alicia of course

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alisha and I will

see you again next week bye bye want to

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