Keyboard Fundamentals Familiarize yourself with the keyboard. While most keyboards have a fairly standard set-up, some may have different features, layouts, and shortcuts. Once you understand what all of the keys do, try to create a visual layout of the keyboard in your mind that you can call upon when you’re typing.Many keyboards are equipped… Continue reading How to Improve Typing Speed?
Author: Anuja Thomas
Three Domains of Learning – Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor
There are three main domains of learning and all teachers should know about them and use them to construct lessons. These domains of learning are the cognitive (thinking), the affective (social/emotional/feeling), and the psychomotor (physical/kinesthetic) domain, and each one of these has a taxonomy associated with it. Taxonomy is simply a word for a classification.… Continue reading Three Domains of Learning – Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor
Putting on an American Accent – Part 8 (Final)
Be Aware of Differences Between American and British English With British and American English, the differences between accents can be seen in specific letters being pronounced differently, like sh becoming sk or a change in the syllable that gets stressed. But there are also words that are just pronounced differently. Of all the words that… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 8 (Final)
Putting on an American Accent – Part 7
Learn Which Words to Use to Sound Natural When speaking English (or any other language), you want to use the right words not to be misunderstood or to say anything rude or embarrassing. Even though we are not talking about pronunciation here, using the wrong word when you are speaking can make you sound less… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 7
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Putting on an American Accent – Part 6
Practice Connected Speech With the American accent, native speakers don’t pause between every word much because they use a lot of connected speech. These are the two most common ways it can happen: CatenationWhen a word ends in a consonant and the next word starts with a vowel, they’re pronounced without a gap between them.… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 6
Putting on an American Accent – Part 5
Be Careful of the Sound /j/ The sound /j/ can also give you information about a person’s accent. This is the j, ge or dge sound that you can hear in American English words like “jump”, “gentle” and “judge.” (You can hear it twice in “judge”!) Many American speakers don’t pronounce this sound after the… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 5
Putting on an American Accent – Part 4
Do not Forget the Schwa Sound /ə/ If I had to pinpoint one sound that will massively help you develop an American accent, it would have to be the schwa sound. It is found in nearly every word! When you listen to advanced learners who speak American English fluently but who do not exactly sound… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 4
Putting on an American Accent – Part 3
Learn to Pronounce Your Ts and Ds Right The Letter ‘T’ The letter ‘T’ is another example of a letter that will tell you if a person is from the States right away. The first thing you have to remember about the letter ‘T’ is that, in the American accent, it sounds like something between… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 3
Putting on an American Accent – Part 2 – Learn to Pronounce the Letter ‘R’
As we saw in Part 1, the General American accent is rhotic, meaning the letter r is always pronounced. To understand the American ‘R’, try paying attention to these words on videos/movies: cardboard car enforce better paper The r sound in American English does not use a “trill” like some other languages such as Spanish.… Continue reading Putting on an American Accent – Part 2 – Learn to Pronounce the Letter ‘R’