Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 143rd episode.

Last week, I had an opportunity to present on the topic of pronunciation at a teacher's conference. One of the

issues I stressed to teachers is to not encourage students to over-pronounce or exaggerate sounds.

Since so many teachers approached me after the sessions to talk more on this topic, I thought

I'd dedicate a podcast to it.

By exaggerating, I mean practicing saying a sound by moving the mouth and vocal tract more

than it would move in natural speech, or by stressing a syllable with more emphasis than

is necessary.

Learning how to exaggerate has no purpose, since that isn't the skill actually used when speaking.

I'm going to include some limited international phonetic alphabet symbols in the transcripts for this show.

To read this show's transcripts, go to www.pronuncian.com slash podcast and click Episode 143.

Here are some examples of how students are taught to overproduce sounds.

First, spreading the lips for the long e. The long e sounds like ee and is the vowel sound in the word

keep. Because the jaw is mostly closed for this sound, the lips

automatically form a smaller slit for the air to pass through. The lips go

where they do because the jaw is where it is. The problem with teaching

students to actively spread the lips for the long e is that then it seems like the difference between that sound and the short eye is the position of the lips.

The short eye sounds like i and is the vowel sound in the word sit.

In fact, the difference is a slightly lowered tongue position, along

with the short eye having slightly less duration. I can create both the long e and the short

eye with essentially the same lip position, so I don't need to exaggerate the shape of the lips.

...