English Professional Communication Boston MA

Speaking and Communication Tips from the English at Work Weblog

Accent and Pronunciation - the sound of "ed"

The past form of regular verbs ends with "ed". From time to time, English language learners have asked me about the correct pronunciation of "ed" at the end of regular verbs. Pronouncing "ed" incorrectly is something that contributes to one's accent. However, with some understanding and practice, this is something one can correct. Though it may not be entirely obvious, there is a way to know how to pronounce "ed" at the end of past tense regular verbs.

If the last sound of a verb is "p, f, k, sh, ch, or s", then "ed" sound like "t". These sounds, "p, f, k, sh, ch, and, s", are called unvoiced sounds. So we can say that we pronounce "ed" as a "t" sound when the last sound of a regular verb is not voiced. These sounds are called "unvoiced", or we say that they are not voiced, because there is no vibration of the vocal cords when we make them. For example, in the words "stopped", "watched", "walked", "faxed", "priced", "finished", "worked", "produced", and "washed", "ed" sounds like "t".

If the last sound of a verb is "t" or "d", then "ed" is pronounced like this "əd". For example, "ed" has this sound in the words "quoted", "decided", "ended", "contrasted", "needed",and "wanted". The remaining sounds in English are voiced, with the exception of "schwa", which is represented by an upside down "ə". These sounds are called voiced because there is a vibration of the vocal cords when we make them. If a verb ends with a voiced sound, then "ed" sounds like "d". For example, in the words "stayed", "emailed", "compared", "cared", "pleased", "discovered", "played", and "considered", "ed" sounds like "d".

So if you know someone at work who needs some help pronouncing "ed", now you can help them.

voiced - Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

unvoiced - Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Syncope Elision

The word "every" is pronounced ev'ry. The second e sound is entirely eliminated. The technical word for this vowel sound elimination is "syncope". This type of syncope, or elision, does not occur with great frequency, but it does occur in some common words. Pronouncing "camera" as "camera" instead of "cam'ra" would be an indication that English is not one's first language. The same thing goes for "chocolate", which is pronounced "choc'lət.

syncope - vowel sound elimination.pdf

Pronunciation tip - added stress

When you speak, consider which words are more important and give them added stress. This helps your audience remain focused on what you are saying, or your presentation. English language speakers are very much in the habit of using emphatic stress, contrastive stress, and new information stress. This keeps listeners focused on the speaker. Added expression is important. It goes hand in hand with the content. Added expression helps you say what you want to say, it gets your point across more effectively, and most important of all, it keeps the listeners interested in you and your message.

Considerations for learning and teaching English vocabulary

Choosing which words to study and learn

Which words should you learn? You hear and read many new words. It’s important to consider what new words, phrases, and expressions are most important to you in order to increase your fluency in the English language. Think about developing your language skills for business, work, and for professional purposes. Business English,our work language,is typically ESL speakers's prime motivation for becoming more fluent in English. Consider how useful a vocabulary item may or may not be to you. If you’re not sure of how to consider this, then ask someone or ask a teacher.

We can think of vocabulary, or vocabulary items, as being either passive or active. Of course, some vocabulary, or vocabulary items, may fall into both categories. Words we consider to be more passive are, of course, more useful for receptive skills. We are more likely to use words we consider to be more active in our speaking. One’s specific purpose for increasing one’s fluency can determine how much effort one should give to incorporating certain words into one’s active vocabulary. [note: Receptive language skills are listening and reading. Productive language skills are speaking and writing]

Using a dictionary

A dictionary can give you information about the following: spelling, meaning, pronunciation, part of speech, inflected forms, grammatical features, collocations, similar or opposite words, and example phrases or sentences. When writing a word in a notebook, one should write the information about a particular word that is most important. This won’t be same for each word, and the information that each person records won’t always be the same.

Studying and learning

Study and learn words in context. The traditional academic approach of memorizing isolated words which are part of vocabulary lists oftentimes does not prove to be beneficial. It’s important to notice how words are used with other words in what we call lexical phrases, fixed expressions, semi-fixed expressions, and collocations. Context is important. Observe words, expressions, lexical phrases, and collocations in online articles, podcasts, magazines, movies, on the radio, or in newspaper articles. Consider how vocabulary items are used, why they are used, where they are used, and when they are used. Register is important as well. Some words may be suited to more casual and informal types of discourse, whereas others may more often occur in more formal and serious types of discourse. Write new words and expressions in a vocabulary notebook, and keep the sources from which you come across new words, phrases, or expressions in order to observe the context in which writers and speakers use them.

Speaking skills for meetings - expressing disagreement

It's easy to tell people that you agree with them. However, depending on the circumstance,it may not always be easy to tell people that you disagree. It's especially important in business meetings and workplace meetings for all members of the team to say what they think. This may be easier said than done. While it may be easy to speak up for some people, other people may feel uneasy about speaking up because they are concerned about the possibility of offending someone. ESL speakers who may find it easy to disagree in their first language may find that they don't have the same ease of expression in English. Though it's impossible to know what our training course participants may want to, or need to, disagree with at a meeting, we can help them out by presenting them with ways to begin. I call these ways to begin "sentence starters". These sentence starters provide ESL speakers with a way to express disagreement in a tactful and polite manner.

Here are some sentence starters to help ESL speakers tactfully express disagreement at a business or workplace meeting. These sentence starters are ways to lead into an explanation as to why one disagrees. Now, these could work well for some people in some situations, but, of course, they will not be the right things to say for everyone in all situations. Finding the right way to begin depends on one's reason for expressing disagreement. We learn about the language our course participants use for meetings in order to teach them how to say what they want to say and what they need say. We find out about their language for meetings.

I wouldn't say it's quite like that because ...
I agree with that up to a point, but ...
I understand what you're saying, but ...
I understand what you mean. However ...
I wish I could say I agree, but ...
I would agree with that, but ...
I think we should explore some other options before we ... Has anyone thought of ...
I don't feel that it's right to ... because ...
I feel that it would be ...
I don't feel that it would be in our best interest to ... because ...
I think it might be better to ...
I think it might be better if we ...
Has anyone considered ...
I would like to say I see it that way. It's just that ...
I hate to disagree, but I really believe that ...
I don't want to make any waves here, but ...
I'm not 100% convinced that ...
I'm not convinced that ...
I think that's true up to a point, but ...
Yes, that's true. However, I think ...
It might be better to ... because ...
I feel that it might be better to ...
I think it might be better to ...
If we do ..., then ...

All of us have felt it necessary at one time or another to say something when it may not be convenient to do so. Here area few phrases that might help out in this area.

If I could just say one thing before we continue ...
I hate to interrupt, but ...
Please, excuse me, but If I may, I would like to say that …
May I, please, add something here?
Please, excuse me, but there's something I should say about …

Another consideration: Choosing a few "good words" to get started might not be sufficient. One's tone of voice is important as well. Our tone of voice projects something about our attitude. The quality of one's tone might be affected by one's proficiency in English pronunciation and the sound of one's accent. While tone of voice may not be of concern for everyone, it can be for some people. It's certainly worth giving this some attention while helping our course participants become more confident and competent communicators.

Accent and pronunciation tip for presentations

Quick preparation for presentations

For ESL or EFL speakers who need to quickly prepare for a presentation, I suggest focusing on added stress. Added stress plays an important role in adding clarity to one’s speaking and enhancing one's overall intelligibility. It helps listeners to fully understand and take in the meaning of what one is communicating.

Marking a text for added stress is the starting point when one needs to prepare quickly. While practicing unmarked pronunciation patterns is the logical starting point for intonation practice, marking a text for added stress is more practical if one has a relatively short time to practice preparing for a presentation.

What types of added stress are there?

Emphatic stress – adding volume to key words for emphasis
Contrastive stress – adding volume to contrasting words and ideas
New information stress – adding volume to words or phrases that bring in new ideas or the start of a new segment

Additional types of stress to consider in preparing for a presentation include list stress, choice stress, and focus word, or tonic, stress.

Focusing on added stress is a good way to make the best of practice time before a presentation and to ensure that the student is not overwhelmed by other aspects of English pronunciation and accent that he or she may not have previously spent enough time with. With minimal preparation time, it’s best to take into account other aspects of pronunciation and accent improvement as it is convenient and the need arises. It should not be one’s goal to improve one’s pronunciation and accent in all ways possible just a week or two before giving a presentation.

Register tip for meetings

Here are a few ways to ask for suggestions and opinions at a meeting.

What do you think?
What do you think we should do?
Can you offer any suggestions?
Do you have any ideas?

There could be times that you want to soften a request for a suggestion or an opinion in order to lessen the chances that your listener, or listeners, will feel pressured. One’s tone of voice is important, and equally important is the tone of one’s words. The more words we use, the more polite and careful we tend to sound. However, it’s important to not overdo it. Here are a few ways to soften requests for opinions and suggestions. Notice that a request does not have to be in the form of a question, as a statement can imply that the person speaking is asking a question.

Do you happen to have any ideas?
I was wondering if you had any suggestions.
Would you happen to have any suggestions?
I was wondering what you might think.
I was wondering what you thought about this.
I was wondering if you could offer any suggestions.
Would you happen to have any ideas about what we could do?

These area few sentence starters. You could use them to think of a few more ways to request suggestions and opinions. The example sentences are general. You could think of ways to finish these sentences by thinking of a context, real or invented, in which to use them.

I was wondering … …
Would you happen to … …?
I was wondering if … …
Would you happen to … … ?