Natural Speech
Natural Speech, Pronunciation and Listening
The Natural Speech, Pronunciation and Listening Course offered at CILS is designed to increase fluency, natural pronunciation, and listening comprehension as well as familiarity with common speech used in everyday life and in practical situations. We have gotten mail from many students at other language schools who have said, “I can understand almost everything in the classroom; but when I go abroad, I can’t understand anything. Why?”
This is why. At many schools, instructors use very artificial language. Frequently, simple, slow speech, and uncommon, book-style language is used. Many teachers often teach things they have never actually encountered in conversation! Recently, a few schools have attempted to introduce more natural speech; but these are usually small-phrase introductions which are offered few and far-between. Further compounding the problem, pronunciation correction is often avoided!
Poor listening comprehension leads to poor pronunciation; poor pronunciation can in turn lead to poor listening comprehension. This creates a vicious cycle of unnatural speech and low comprehension that eventually becomes an ingrained, systemic problem. That systemic problem is a primary reason for why new learners of language are often unable to communicate with native speakers.
Practical language ability means understanding what is naturally and commonly spoken by native speakers. At CILS, we offer a full course designed to teach language which is regularly encountered in native conversation for a wide variety of situations. Natural speech, pronunciation and listening comprehension are all inextricably bound ideas which are essential to improving language skill.
The Natural Speech, Pronunciation and Listening Course Includes:
- The differences between native speech and learner speech
- The differences between written and spoken language
- Targeted pronunciation counseling
- Re-Introduction of New Sounds
- Intonation and Rhythm
- Stress and Enunciation
- Idioms & Colloquialisms
- Common Slang
- Common Expressions and Sayings
- Connotations of Speech
Please contact us if you’d like more information about our courses. We’re looking forward to helping you achieve your goals. Remember, while you study language, we study you. If you’d like to know more about our teaching styles, please look at How We Teach.
Other CILS Courses:
- Universal Communication
- JLPT, TOEIC, TOEFL, EIKEN/STEP
- Business Language & Culture
- Writing, Reading, Grammar & Punctuation
- Instructional English for Teachers and Trainers
- The CILS Multimedia Center
- Chicago KIDS!!!
