We’ll use part of the text from the story how the Pharisee Saul became the Apostle Paul, a follower of the Lord, for our speaking exercise. This is the fourth part of Advanced  Lesson 3, or you can do it as an individual speaking exercise.

Instructions:

1. First, listen to the recording one time without speaking.
2. Play it again, but this time, pause it after a few words, and repeat them. Listen to a few more words, then pause again and repeat the words you heard.
3. Continue like this until you have repeated the entire recording.

Try to imitate the speaker’s intonation, the rhythm of her speech, and the stresses she puts on words and syllables. Imitate the pronunciation as well as you can.

Don’t worry if you can’t speak with an accent that is identical to the speaker! That’s the great thing about English – it is spoken by many people around the world with many different accents. The important thing is that you speak so people can understand you. That has more to do with your intonation and the stress you put on words than because you can’t pronounce consonants like a native speaker would, for example.

Notice the word “foreigner,” with “ei” pronounced as a schwa, or “uh” sound. “Foreigner” also has a silent “g.” Also notice the “eo” in “people” that has the long “e” sound. It will take time to learn all the ways different English sounds are spelled, and it really does require learning the words one by one and hearing them pronounced for you. Here we go! Do your best.