Language Lunch: Soundin´ ´nglish: Techniques to Improve Speech Fluency

Now in its fifth year, the Language Lunch series is a fun and time-saving opportunity to improve your English-language competence over lunch! In the winter semester, the series continues with the following three workshops:

• How to Write Effective Emails
• Soundin’ ‘nglish: Techniques to Improve Speech Fluency
• English? Which English? Whose English?

These workshops are part of the “Language Lunch” series and can be booked individually. Please note that even if you would like to attend all three, you must still book them separately. If you want to sign up for "Soundin’ ‘Inglish: techniques to improve speech fluency” please click "Register" at the bottom of this page. If you want to sign up for the other ones, please click on the respective workshop title above.

Content

Dramatic, posh, soothing: all words that have been used to describe the English language, perhaps relating in particular to the unique vowel sounds and stress patterns of the British English accent. But aside from just putting on an accent, what else might we try in order to “sound English”? In this workshop, we will explore a range of different features of spoken English and practice using them within a relaxed and fun setting. In particular, our focus here is on how sounds are connected within a sentence. Without clear-cut borders between words, there are different strategies we can use to make our English speech sound as fluent as possible. In particular, we will discuss:

• Word-endings: droppin’ sounds and letters
• Linking sounds: introducing additional sounds both within and between words to help us move from one word to the next
• Syllable deletion: removing the unstressed sound completely

Did you participate in our 2022 summer semester Language Lunch: Sounding English: Stress, Fillers, and Interjections? If so, this lunch can be seen as the perfect follow-on where we will explore other aspects of sounding English. If not, that’s fine too – everyone is welcome!

• Word-endings: droppin’ sounds and letters
• Linking sounds: introducing additional sounds both within and between words to help us move from one word to the next
• Syllable deletion: removing the unstressed sound completely