Hi Kim, nice video! You're absolutely right. As non native English speaker, i took a long time to catch English stress and intonation. It's not something that happen overnight. But i still don't understand why many teachers don't feel confident to talk about intonation in classroom. Because Speaking in English without correct intonation can result in misunderstandings or even losing interest about what other person is trying to say. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I think people give up on stress and intonation too soon, which is why I made this video. 😊 I think there are a lot of reasons why people don't focus on intonation in the classroom - curriculum requirements, student expectations, lack of experience with the topic, and interest. When I talked about stress, intonation, and accent in my own classroom, some students didn't think it mattered! However, like you said, if you understand that intonation is important for being understood and keeping someone's interest, you'll be a better communicator and probably have better personal and professional relationships. At least I can keep talking about it in my corner of the internet!
I am from Egypt & yes my native language Arabic is a very slower language & For this reason, English is a very different tone of voice . but yes I can understand and catch intonation in English but my problem is that I do not hear all the talk every time i can't hear to a word or 2 in every sentence very important lesson to me , thank you so much Kim :) Love&peace from Egypt
I'm happy to hear this helped you! Yes, Arabic uses stress and tone very differently than English. Training your ear and mouth to use pitch like we do in English will help you a lot. 😀
I had hard time to work making lots of documents nowadays So most of the time I'd spent with Korean Language. I could learned English only about 10 minutes... everyday... After that Surprisingly I can't hear most of English learning You tube video even you.. Put myself on Environment that Surrounded English is the Matter So that I can practice everyday naturally.
My Portuguese instructor once told me that it's important to keep your listening skills strong. Your speaking skills will come and go depending on how often you use them, but as long as your listening skills are strong, they will come back! I'm glad you realized that you need to surround yourself in English as much as possible. Your listening skills will come back too!
Of course I will give you a thumbs up. In my view you ve been the best person to make me understand the importance of rhythm in my spoken English. It s made a huge difference. Thank you soooooo much.
Hi Kim, thank you for your suggestions. I can hear the stressed words but the real problem is understand in a phrase when a word ends and the next begins. Sometime they seem all pasted together.
The fact that you can hear stressed syllables on stressed words is awesome news! You're right - because of linking and connected speech, we often connect words together. The good news is that the words that are linked are less important (that's why they're reduced). I suggest you try my videos on phrasal verbs: th-cam.com/video/Fw6W4Ywqlq8/w-d-xo.html, contractions: th-cam.com/video/Vvfa15JFMjY/w-d-xo.html, and informal contractions: th-cam.com/video/TpplCqoJuEo/w-d-xo.html for an introduction to how it works. I definitely plan to talk more about linking and connected speech in future videos, so feel free to share any and all questions you have on the topic!
hi there, I love your videos and I always practice. I've a question, The videos on TH-cam are as same as your courses (at website) for example Intonation(250 USD)? thx in advanced.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm happy to hear you're practicing with my videos. The video lessons on TH-cam provide a thorough introduction to stress and intonation so you can decide if you want to work on them. Because courses allow me to provide structure, detailed explanations, lots of examples, practice exercises, and other support, they help you make faster progress than TH-cam videos. You can learn all about the courses here: englishwithkim.com/work-with-me/
2:44 Some native English speakers speak with a monotone or miss tone of voice. Sadly true. :( I am on the autism spectrum and am trying to pay more attention to tone of voice.
You're right, there are many English speakers, both native and non-native, who are interested in working on pitch, intonation, and tone of voice. You may want to check out these three more recent videos on intonation: Pitch and Intonation When Speaking English: th-cam.com/video/iy3L1vzCCkc/w-d-xo.html Change Your Meaning with Your Voice: th-cam.com/video/NzFdvv6hDno/w-d-xo.html Express Yourself Clearly with Intonation:th-cam.com/video/4gqDWuGAxds/w-d-xo.html I also learn a lot about my own pitch and intonation from these videos. We are always learning about communication!
For most people learning English and people who actually learned it they still have an accent unless you’ve been to an English speaking country when you’re under 15 also I can hear perfectly the rises and falls stressed and unstressed words
That's awesome that you can hear stress clearly! You're right - accents are completely normal for people learning English. Personally, I don't think accent elimination is what matters. I still have an accent when I speak Spanish. Instead, I emphasize using stress and intonation to communicate clearly. Most people I've worked with feel better about how they sound when they get rhythm and melody right. This video is for people who struggle to hear them - it's all about "tuning" your ear to the right station! 😉
I understand. I feel like it all comes down to finding a balance. You can understand and accept that you may never completely eliminate your accent (and you don't have to), while also putting in the effort to communicate clearly and sound more natural. Most of the people I've worked with feel better when they sound 25% better... and that helps them feel more confident about continuing the work!
Many actors learn an American accent, so I know that it's possible. I know there are TH-cam channels focused on learning different accents, specifically for actors, so I encourage you to check out their suggestions, too!
Good evening Kim. I am still around rsrsrs. I found quite interesting what someone said about intonation while speaking English and I figured it would be a good idea to share it with you, so what are your thoughts over the following : " English Native speakers may often tell people who are learning English to slow down and to speak clearly. This is meant with the best of intentions, but it is exactly the opposite of what a student really needs to do. If you speak fairly quickly and with strong intonation, you will be understood more easily. ". thanks
Thanks for sharing this with me! I completely agree with this perspective because I understand what the person is trying to say. (This is a great idea for another video - keep these insights coming!) The problem is that many non-native English speakers over-articulate each and every syllable. So their speech sounds very stilted or staccato. That's what this quote is referring to. If you use clear, strong stress on the right syllables of the right words, and shorten or rush through the rest of your syllables, people will absolutely understand you and you will sound more like a native speaker. That's basically what all of my videos are about. Referring back to the topic of this video, one of the reasons I suggest speeding up videos to hear stress and intonation is that many people speak with a "teacher voice" that is unnaturally slow. Because they're drawing out their syllables to make it easier for beginning learners to understand, it's really hard to hear the pitch changes in these videos. But if you speed them up, you can detect them. Same thing for people who have less pitch variation when they speak. The reason many people comment that I speak "fast" is because they aren't listening for my stressed syllables - they're listening for ALL sounds. When I'm recording videos, I have very clear stress, to the point that a native speaker might find it annoying. Haha! It's all about tuning your ear to the right station!
@@Englishwithkim yes. I ve noticed that you have emphasized your intonation and it makes all the difference. Pls keep speaking fast because your classes are not for beginners.
I would like to see text like this... I bought a phone I bought a cell phone I bought a beautiful cell phone yesterday I bought a beautiful cell phone yesterday I bought a beautiful cell phone at the mall Thank you anyway, you do a great job!
Hey Kim you have some of the best content on youtube. The only thing I have a problem with Is allowing it to work for me. I have a few questions to ask. 1) How can I actually use Audacity from my android phone to visualize the pitches and falls, syllable lengths, and volume? 2)Does intonation improves reading comprehension? And 3) Can intonation improve english grammar? Your reply would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Cedric! Here are my answers to your questions: 1) As far as I know, Audacity is a computer-based app, so you would have to use your laptop or desktop to use the program. You can upload a media file and look at the rises and falls that appear as you listen to the file. 2) Intonation is part of spoken communication, and it provides additional information about the words people are using. If you're reading a text, this information would likely be available by contextual clues and descriptions (for example, "He angrily responded to the question.") However, intonation will definitely help you with reading aloud, especially the more grammatical uses such as statements and questions, lists and series, and so on. 3) As I mentioned, intonation is about spoken communication, and grammar is part of spoken communication. Intonation signals whether a sentence is a statement or a question, what type of question it is, etc. Miscommunication can happen if you use falling intonation for a yes/no question, or rising intonation for a statement, for example. There are other uses of intonation that relate to grammar, such as saying lists or series, or separating ideas into thought groups (which I'll be discussing in my next video). Stress is also part of clearly communicating different parts of speech, or emphasizing the right word in a verb phrase. As I like to say, it's all connected - focusing on one aspect of the English language can help you with another.
@@Englishwithkim Thats great! I will be getting a laptop soon to figure out your rhythm of speech. As far as the intonation pitches goes are there only two in total, falling and rising? Because I also read that theres more...like wavering, non final, high fall, low fall, fall rise, midlevel rise, low rise, high rise etc so I felt conflicted on how many there are. And how do I reduce all of the function words also known as reductions? What are all the types of sentences for intonation? For example, yes/no questions, statements, etc are there more?
The reason we focus so much attention on falling and rising intonation is that you have to start somewhere when explaining the concepts. Falling (which is actually a rise/fall) and rising intonation help us with normal statements, information questions, and yes/no questions. The other important pattern to start working on is the mid-level rise, which I call holding intonation. This is key for thought groups, lists and series, tag questions, and more. The rest of the patterns tend to communicate additional information such as emotions and attitudes. Have you seen my other videos on intonation? That's a great place to start: th-cam.com/play/PL81YJkck6j1skLXWgFLopLhs2yrqECzou.html I created an in-depth course on intonation where I explain how we use intonation for clear communication in much more detail: intonationclinic.com Otherwise, you can check out this Facebook Live video from a few years ago where I talk about intonation and communication: th-cam.com/video/FcSml_0AP9s/w-d-xo.html
As for reductions, it's much more important to start with correctly stressing words first. The reductions should happen naturally if you're emphasizing the right syllables. This does take practice, but it's probably my top tip to help you communicate more clearly. Watch this video on contrast for more ideas on how to emphasize key syllables, while focusing attention away from reduced ones: th-cam.com/video/zuQuwgeKxZ8/w-d-xo.html
Speaking of reduced ones. Ive also learned in order to get that rhythm in english is by stressing content words and reducing function words. As for reducing function words, can I do that with 5 types of connected speech i.e intrusion, elison, assimilation, geminations, and catenation also known as linking. Will learning about connected speech in conjunction with stressing the content words help me improve reading comprehension since they both in conjunction help me build rhythm in my speech as if they were music?
Have you seen my video on how to understand fast native speakers? You can watch it here: th-cam.com/video/IXGNpQItv0Q/w-d-xo.html I also want to make another video on this topic since I get a lot of questions on this topic. What do you find particularly challenging? Speaking speed, connected speech, regional accents, vocabulary, shorter phrases and questions? When I know what you find hard, I can better answer the question.
This is an interesting topic for a future video. What do you find especially challenging about understanding conference calls? Is it the people talking at the same time, not being able to hear which words are most important, or the speed at which people are talking? The more specific you can be about what is challenging for you, the better I will be able to help.
Thank you so much from Bolivia. You helped me a lot.
Hi Kim, nice video!
You're absolutely right. As non native English speaker, i took a long time to catch English stress and intonation. It's not something that happen overnight.
But i still don't understand why many teachers don't feel confident to talk about intonation in classroom. Because Speaking in English without correct intonation can result in misunderstandings or even losing interest about what other person is trying to say.
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I think people give up on stress and intonation too soon, which is why I made this video. 😊 I think there are a lot of reasons why people don't focus on intonation in the classroom - curriculum requirements, student expectations, lack of experience with the topic, and interest. When I talked about stress, intonation, and accent in my own classroom, some students didn't think it mattered! However, like you said, if you understand that intonation is important for being understood and keeping someone's interest, you'll be a better communicator and probably have better personal and professional relationships. At least I can keep talking about it in my corner of the internet!
I am from Egypt & yes my native language Arabic is a very slower language & For this reason, English is a very different tone of voice . but yes I can understand and catch intonation in English but my problem is that I do not hear all the talk every time i can't hear to a word or 2 in every sentence
very important lesson to me , thank you so much Kim :) Love&peace from Egypt
I'm happy to hear this helped you! Yes, Arabic uses stress and tone very differently than English. Training your ear and mouth to use pitch like we do in English will help you a lot. 😀
I wish , thank you
It's 12:08am in Vietnam. But i still stay to watch your video. Thanks for your help to my English become more better and better .
Thanks for staying up to watch my video! 🙌 I'm happy to hear my videos are helping you improve your English.
I had hard time to work making lots of documents nowadays So most of the time I'd spent with Korean Language. I could learned English only about 10 minutes... everyday... After that Surprisingly I can't hear most of English learning You tube video even you.. Put myself on Environment that Surrounded English is the Matter So that I can practice everyday naturally.
My Portuguese instructor once told me that it's important to keep your listening skills strong. Your speaking skills will come and go depending on how often you use them, but as long as your listening skills are strong, they will come back! I'm glad you realized that you need to surround yourself in English as much as possible. Your listening skills will come back too!
English with Kim Thanks! I felt encouraged by your comment. I mean it.
I truly learned some valuable lessons from you in just less than 30 minutes. Keep up the good work Keem.
Hi Kim how are you doing my dear teacher as always a great video you're amazing thanks a lot and have a nice day
You're just wow . Thanks for helping us 🥰
You're most welcome!
Of course I will give you a thumbs up. In my view you ve been the best person to make me understand the importance of rhythm in my spoken English. It s made a huge difference.
Thank you soooooo much.
I'm so happy to hear that improving your rhythm has made a huge difference in how you sound. Keep me posted on your progress! 😊
Hi I'm from Iraq thank you so much for this useful video .
Thank you for the technique and brilliant idea Teacher Kim. God bless you.
Glad it was helpful!
You are great. Thanks a lot
Great video. Thanks.
You're welcome!
Hi Kim, thank you for your suggestions. I can hear the stressed words but the real problem is understand in a phrase when a word ends and the next begins. Sometime they seem all pasted together.
The fact that you can hear stressed syllables on stressed words is awesome news! You're right - because of linking and connected speech, we often connect words together. The good news is that the words that are linked are less important (that's why they're reduced). I suggest you try my videos on phrasal verbs: th-cam.com/video/Fw6W4Ywqlq8/w-d-xo.html, contractions: th-cam.com/video/Vvfa15JFMjY/w-d-xo.html, and informal contractions: th-cam.com/video/TpplCqoJuEo/w-d-xo.html for an introduction to how it works. I definitely plan to talk more about linking and connected speech in future videos, so feel free to share any and all questions you have on the topic!
@@Englishwithkim Thank you very much! Ciao!
@@Englishwithkim Thank you very much! I appreciate it a lot!
I just found awesome channel 😊
Nyc video Maam
Hi Kim. Great video.
Great Kim, thanks ❤
hi there, I love your videos and I always practice. I've a question, The videos on TH-cam are as same as your courses (at website) for example Intonation(250 USD)? thx in advanced.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm happy to hear you're practicing with my videos. The video lessons on TH-cam provide a thorough introduction to stress and intonation so you can decide if you want to work on them. Because courses allow me to provide structure, detailed explanations, lots of examples, practice exercises, and other support, they help you make faster progress than TH-cam videos. You can learn all about the courses here: englishwithkim.com/work-with-me/
Excellent video, hoy are an excellent teacher
Thank you for the kind words - I'm happy that this helped you!
Hoy?
The word is “you.”
“You are an excellent teacher.”
Who is the excellent English teacher now?!
@@seanmatthewking Yes, I did not notice that my phone changed the word 😊
And the excellent teacher still the same I was refering to. 🤣🤣🤣🤗
hello Kim. I m glad to join your channel. thanks for all your efforts
Nice to meet you - I'm glad my videos are helping you!
2:44 Some native English speakers speak with a monotone or miss tone of voice. Sadly true. :( I am on the autism spectrum and am trying to pay more attention to tone of voice.
You're right, there are many English speakers, both native and non-native, who are interested in working on pitch, intonation, and tone of voice. You may want to check out these three more recent videos on intonation:
Pitch and Intonation When Speaking English: th-cam.com/video/iy3L1vzCCkc/w-d-xo.html
Change Your Meaning with Your Voice: th-cam.com/video/NzFdvv6hDno/w-d-xo.html
Express Yourself Clearly with Intonation:th-cam.com/video/4gqDWuGAxds/w-d-xo.html
I also learn a lot about my own pitch and intonation from these videos. We are always learning about communication!
Thank you so much, Kim. This is really useful, informative and amazing. I wonder if you have a group on the facebook to practice speaking !!
It is a good vedio
I appreciate that!
Great video
so usefull
Glad it was helpful!
For most people learning English and people who actually learned it they still have an accent unless you’ve been to an English speaking country when you’re under 15 also I can hear perfectly the rises and falls stressed and unstressed words
That's awesome that you can hear stress clearly! You're right - accents are completely normal for people learning English. Personally, I don't think accent elimination is what matters. I still have an accent when I speak Spanish. Instead, I emphasize using stress and intonation to communicate clearly. Most people I've worked with feel better about how they sound when they get rhythm and melody right. This video is for people who struggle to hear them - it's all about "tuning" your ear to the right station! 😉
English with Kim but accent does matter to me tho
I understand. I feel like it all comes down to finding a balance. You can understand and accept that you may never completely eliminate your accent (and you don't have to), while also putting in the effort to communicate clearly and sound more natural. Most of the people I've worked with feel better when they sound 25% better... and that helps them feel more confident about continuing the work!
English with Kim what do I do when I just can’t accept the fact that I have an accent Bc I wanna eliminate it completely (I want to be an actress)
Many actors learn an American accent, so I know that it's possible. I know there are TH-cam channels focused on learning different accents, specifically for actors, so I encourage you to check out their suggestions, too!
Good evening Kim. I am still around rsrsrs.
I found quite interesting what someone said about intonation while speaking English and I figured it would be a good idea to share it with you, so what are your thoughts over the following : " English Native speakers may often tell people who are learning English to slow down and to speak clearly. This is meant with the best of intentions, but it is exactly the opposite of what a student really needs to do. If you speak fairly quickly and with strong intonation, you will be understood more easily. ". thanks
Thanks for sharing this with me! I completely agree with this perspective because I understand what the person is trying to say. (This is a great idea for another video - keep these insights coming!) The problem is that many non-native English speakers over-articulate each and every syllable. So their speech sounds very stilted or staccato. That's what this quote is referring to. If you use clear, strong stress on the right syllables of the right words, and shorten or rush through the rest of your syllables, people will absolutely understand you and you will sound more like a native speaker. That's basically what all of my videos are about.
Referring back to the topic of this video, one of the reasons I suggest speeding up videos to hear stress and intonation is that many people speak with a "teacher voice" that is unnaturally slow. Because they're drawing out their syllables to make it easier for beginning learners to understand, it's really hard to hear the pitch changes in these videos. But if you speed them up, you can detect them. Same thing for people who have less pitch variation when they speak.
The reason many people comment that I speak "fast" is because they aren't listening for my stressed syllables - they're listening for ALL sounds. When I'm recording videos, I have very clear stress, to the point that a native speaker might find it annoying. Haha! It's all about tuning your ear to the right station!
@@Englishwithkim yes. I ve noticed that you have emphasized your intonation and it makes all the difference. Pls keep speaking fast because your classes are not for beginners.
I would like to see text like this...
I bought a phone
I bought a cell phone
I bought a beautiful cell phone
yesterday I bought a beautiful cell phone
yesterday I bought a beautiful cell phone at the mall
Thank you anyway, you do a great job!
Interesting suggestion. Try this video to practice stress in sentences from real life: th-cam.com/video/s4OTHrz9zFM/w-d-xo.html
Hey Kim you have some of the best content on youtube. The only thing I have a problem with Is allowing it to work for me. I have a few questions to ask. 1) How can I actually use Audacity from my android phone to visualize the pitches and falls, syllable lengths, and volume? 2)Does intonation improves reading comprehension? And 3) Can intonation improve english grammar? Your reply would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Cedric! Here are my answers to your questions: 1) As far as I know, Audacity is a computer-based app, so you would have to use your laptop or desktop to use the program. You can upload a media file and look at the rises and falls that appear as you listen to the file. 2) Intonation is part of spoken communication, and it provides additional information about the words people are using. If you're reading a text, this information would likely be available by contextual clues and descriptions (for example, "He angrily responded to the question.") However, intonation will definitely help you with reading aloud, especially the more grammatical uses such as statements and questions, lists and series, and so on. 3) As I mentioned, intonation is about spoken communication, and grammar is part of spoken communication. Intonation signals whether a sentence is a statement or a question, what type of question it is, etc. Miscommunication can happen if you use falling intonation for a yes/no question, or rising intonation for a statement, for example. There are other uses of intonation that relate to grammar, such as saying lists or series, or separating ideas into thought groups (which I'll be discussing in my next video). Stress is also part of clearly communicating different parts of speech, or emphasizing the right word in a verb phrase. As I like to say, it's all connected - focusing on one aspect of the English language can help you with another.
@@Englishwithkim Thats great! I will be getting a laptop soon to figure out your rhythm of speech. As far as the intonation pitches goes are there only two in total, falling and rising? Because I also read that theres more...like wavering, non final, high fall, low fall, fall rise, midlevel rise, low rise, high rise etc so I felt conflicted on how many there are. And how do I reduce all of the function words also known as reductions? What are all the types of sentences for intonation? For example, yes/no questions, statements, etc are there more?
The reason we focus so much attention on falling and rising intonation is that you have to start somewhere when explaining the concepts. Falling (which is actually a rise/fall) and rising intonation help us with normal statements, information questions, and yes/no questions. The other important pattern to start working on is the mid-level rise, which I call holding intonation. This is key for thought groups, lists and series, tag questions, and more. The rest of the patterns tend to communicate additional information such as emotions and attitudes. Have you seen my other videos on intonation? That's a great place to start: th-cam.com/play/PL81YJkck6j1skLXWgFLopLhs2yrqECzou.html
I created an in-depth course on intonation where I explain how we use intonation for clear communication in much more detail: intonationclinic.com Otherwise, you can check out this Facebook Live video from a few years ago where I talk about intonation and communication: th-cam.com/video/FcSml_0AP9s/w-d-xo.html
As for reductions, it's much more important to start with correctly stressing words first. The reductions should happen naturally if you're emphasizing the right syllables. This does take practice, but it's probably my top tip to help you communicate more clearly. Watch this video on contrast for more ideas on how to emphasize key syllables, while focusing attention away from reduced ones: th-cam.com/video/zuQuwgeKxZ8/w-d-xo.html
Speaking of reduced ones. Ive also learned in order to get that rhythm in english is by stressing content words and reducing function words. As for reducing function words, can I do that with 5 types of connected speech i.e intrusion, elison, assimilation, geminations, and catenation also known as linking. Will learning about connected speech in conjunction with stressing the content words help me improve reading comprehension since they both in conjunction help me build rhythm in my speech as if they were music?
Thanks for sharing this great content ! You have one more sub now, a braziian one !! Are u speech phatologist ?
No, I'm not. My approach comes from 10 years of teaching non-native English speakers.
“Pathologist”
😀
🤪
🤘
i can understand you nicely but on call i m not able to understand native speaker nicely what to do can u help me please .
Have you seen my video on how to understand fast native speakers? You can watch it here: th-cam.com/video/IXGNpQItv0Q/w-d-xo.html I also want to make another video on this topic since I get a lot of questions on this topic. What do you find particularly challenging? Speaking speed, connected speech, regional accents, vocabulary, shorter phrases and questions? When I know what you find hard, I can better answer the question.
I could understand you speaking but my unfortunate Iam not able to understand my office conference call ....could you please help us
This is an interesting topic for a future video. What do you find especially challenging about understanding conference calls? Is it the people talking at the same time, not being able to hear which words are most important, or the speed at which people are talking? The more specific you can be about what is challenging for you, the better I will be able to help.
Thank you so much from Bolivia. You helped me a lot.
You're most welcome! I'm glad these videos are helping you.