{"id":1096,"date":"2015-01-12T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T17:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2018-08-30T23:58:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T06:58:25","slug":"tongue-and-mouth-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/tongue-and-mouth-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Tongue (and Mouth) Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all make the sounds in our native language without thinking. This is why it can be very hard to learn the pronunciation of new sounds in a second language. To learn new sounds more easily, you have to be consciously aware of your tongue.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1097 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img1.png\" alt=\"t(am)a_img1\" width=\"620\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img1.png 732w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img1-300x82.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>Image from Peanuts by Charles Schulz<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>As Linus can tell you, being aware of your tongue is not natural. It can seem weird to actually think about different ways your tongue can move. But think you must. With any luck, you won\u2019t panic like Linus did. In fact, with a little tongue awareness may actually make you calmer. You can gain a lot of confidence by learning the basic mouth movements for English sounds.<\/p>\n<p>Some mouth movements are easier than others. To teach the \u201cv\u201d sound, I show my students the simple action of putting their upper front teeth against their lips. From there, I have them breathe out with their voice, keeping their teeth against their lips. Most students can do these two steps correctly on the first try.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1098 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img2.png\" alt=\"t(am)a_img2\" width=\"146\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other sounds are not-so-easy. The \u201cr\u201d sound in North American English is challenging for many students. Many languages don\u2019t have an \u201cr\u201d sound like the one in English. In languages that do have \u201cr,\u201d the non-English \u201cr\u201d is more similar to \u201cl.\u201d While \u201cr\u201d and \u201cl\u201d can have similar sounds, the tongue movements for these sounds in English are quite different. Observe:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1099 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img13.png\" alt=\"t(am)a_img13\" width=\"500\" height=\"318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img13.png 500w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2014\/12\/tama_img13-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>Image by raineArt<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Unfamiliar vowels can be hard too. Vowel mouth movements involve little direct contact between the tongue, lips, or teeth. These subtle movements do not always have a distinct \u201cfeel\u201d in the mouth. Additionally, the sound of English vowels differs depending on the accent of the speaker. The Rachel\u2019s English Youtube channel has a great video on American and British vowel mouth movements here:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LIZ78RwhSPc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Study Resources:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Paul Noll\u2019s web page, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paulnoll.com\/Books\/Clear-Speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">American \u201cClear Speech\u201d Sounds<\/a>. This excellent site has simple diagrams of mouth movements for all of the sounds in English. The page also includes some exercises to practice similar sounds, such as \u201cf\u201d and \u201cp.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Rachel\u2019s English. Both the website and the Youtube channel have clear instructions on mouth positions for English pronunciation. These instructions include helpful <a href=\"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/mouth-position-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">photographs<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLB043E64B8BE05FB7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">multiple videos<\/a> about mouth movements.<\/li>\n<li>The University of Iowa\u2019s Sounds of Speech App. This smart phone app provides animated images of mouth movements for different English sounds. This service has helped my students a lot. Go to Youtube for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=16b2M-YwgKs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sample of this app\u2019s animations<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Judy Gilbert\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s\/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=Clear+Speech+Judy+gilbert&amp;rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AClear+Speech+Judy+gilbert\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Clear Speech<\/em><\/a> book series. This is another resource I\u2019ve often used with my students. These books include listening CDs, diagrams of mouth movements, and easy-to-understand tutorials\/activities. They are great for classroom learning tutoring sessions, and self-study.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all make the sounds in our native language without thinking. This is why it can be very hard to learn the pronunciation of new sounds in a second language. To learn new sounds more easily, you have to be consciously aware of your tongue. Image from Peanuts by Charles Schulz As Linus can tell [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13618],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tongue (and Mouth) Awareness - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/tongue-and-mouth-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tongue (and Mouth) Awareness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We all make the sounds in our native language without thinking. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}