FJbVQjX7ijQ.srt

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Hello everyone.
Today I'm going to talk about language 

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learning key number two,
number two,

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which is phonology.
This could be number one,

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but it just so happens that last time I 
talked about a kind of a general study 

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habit consistency,
but as far as practical study and 

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practical skills of the language,
golf phonology could be number one.

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I really think that learning the 
phonology of the language is one of the 

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most important things.
It's the basis of all of your studies 

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and all of you are skills that are to 
come.

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The phonology means the system of sounds
of that language,

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so that includes the pronunciation of 
the consonants and the vowels,

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but also the stress patterns and the 
intonation patterns,

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that kind of thing.
Basically pronunciation,

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you could call it that same kind of 
thing.

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Now it's extremely important to learn 
the final logical system of each 

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language you learned because it's really
what connects you to that language.

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It's the thing that associated with that
language.

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It helps you access your integrated 
skills,

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your are synthesized skills in that 
language.

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So what I mean by that is this,
if you learn a foreign language but you 

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use your native languages pronunciation 
or you've just pronunciation that's 

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quite close to your native languages 
pronunciation,

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then you're never going to fully be able
to access that foreign language or 

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access your skills in that foreign 
language because you'll always retreat 

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into your native language.
That funnel logical system is associated

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with your native language,
so you want to stay away from that.

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You want to stay away from the 
phonological system of your own language

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and as precisely as possible,
learn the phonological system of that 

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foreign language that you are studying.
In the past,

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before I really figured this out,
I basically had a generic foreign 

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language accent.
I would use the same kind of phonology 

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for all the different languages I 
learned.

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It was just like I had a foreign 
language accent that wasn't that 

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precise,
so it kind of work that.

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The problem was there was some crossover
between languages.

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So when I tried to speak one language,
I would sometimes get mixed up and say 

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words from the other language or I would
retreat into it on language that I knew 

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how to speak better because that 
phonology is anchored to the other 

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language,
not only the one I'm learning right now.

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So it's really important that you keep 
those languages you learn as distinct as

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possible in terms of phonology.
So how do you learn the phonology of a 

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new language that you are studying?
Well first you have to perceive the 

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phonology,
perceive the sounds of that language,

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and then second you have to learn how to
produce the sounds through imitation.

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Those are the two things.
So let's focus first on perceiving the 

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sounds.

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You want to pay attention to the sounds 
of the language and the distinctions 

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between all of those sounds.
So every beginner's language program out

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there,
we'll have some kind of introduction to 

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the phonology of the language.
They usually call it the pronunciation 

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section and it will show you all of the 
consonants,

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all of the vowels in that language.
And just go through the pronunciation of

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each one,
maybe just the sound and then an example

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where it,
so you should of course go through that.

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You should repeat after all the sounds,
repeat after those individual words that

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they give as examples.
But then you don't want to just go 

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through the introductory pronunciations 
of that language program.

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That wouldn't be enough.
That's just giving you a quick idea of 

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what sounds exist.
But you want to actually hear them over 

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and over numerous times until you can 
perceive them right then so you can't 

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hear them and know which sound is being 
said.

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So it's good to listen to some examples 
of the language,

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uh,
inaction.

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So you want to hear some radio broadcast
or some TV shows or some interviews or 

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somebodies youtube channel with them 
talking just like I'm talking right now,

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but in the target language that you want
to learn.

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So when you hear those sounds at a 
natural speed,

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then you can start to notice and 
perceive those sounds that are 

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introduced in that language textbook or 
on the language website.

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That's your learning from.
If you don't take this time to listen 

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and become familiar with the sounds of 
that language,

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then what's going to happen is you're 
going to start thinking of that language

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visually.
You're going to start thinking of the 

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language only in terms of the 
orthography in terms of the way it's 

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written,
and you're going to think of those 

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letters that you see the orthography in 
terms of your own native languages,

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phonology.

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So when you imagined the letters in your
head,

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you imagine the word that you are trying
to say,

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you're going to save the sounds as you 
would in your own native language.

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If it was spelled like that.
Here in Japan,

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there's a big problem with this.
Like I have students who learned 

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English,
but they learned it from someone who 

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doesn't really speak English.
They learned it from a Japanese teacher 

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in high school who doesn't really speak 
English.

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They just taught it from the textbook.
They'd teach them English in the 

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Japanese phonological system,
so they can't even perceive the native 

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English sounds often.
For example,

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if they read the word,
uh,

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ice hockey,
they'll read it as a sewer hook.

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Gay,
or if they see the word birthday cake 

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written in English,
they will read it out loud as Butsu day 

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cake because they are processing the 
language through their own phonological 

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system.

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Even if I say it,
if I say birthday cake,

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he'll look at me like,
what?

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But if I say boss today,
KCI,

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they'll understand because they're not 
perceiving the English sounds.

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They're not perceiving sounds of the 
word in the English phonological system.

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They're only perceiving it if I say it 
in their phonological system.

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So that's the problem we want to avoid.
So the first thing that you have to do 

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is to learn to perceive the sounds 
before you produce them.

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The second thing you have to do is to 
learn to produce those sounds through 

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imitation.
So how can you do that?

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Well,
the most basic thing you can do is to 

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get a teacher or a tutor or someone who 
will work with you together closely and 

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monitor you and give you feedback about 
your pronunciation,

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to help you to make sure that you are 
saying the sounds as precisely as 

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possible so that you are off to a good 
start right from the beginning.

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And then you don't ingrain any bad 
habits of using your own native 

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languages phonology.
So having a teacher or a tutor is the 

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best way because they can give you that 
feedback.

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They can perceive distinctions in the 
sounds that you can't perceive yet.

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So it's good to have someone,
they're giving you feedback and helping 

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you along.
But some of you like to study alone.

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You don't like to work with the teacher 
right away if you're working alone,

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if you're studying by yourself with the 
textbook or with some websites,

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you can do it.
I used to do that until the past couple 

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of years and I was always fairly good 
with that because I'm quite an 

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independent learner.
But it means that you will have to 

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really monitor yourself and monitor your
own pronunciation and try to 

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continuously refine it.
But you can use language cds like the 

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CDs that come with your textbook and use
that to chorus or listen and repeat 

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after the CD you like.

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You can play a a sentence and then pause
it and repeat after it and try to 

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pronounce it as closely as possible to 
the CD.

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You can do that with a lot of youtube 
clips to like watch some,

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some youtube channels or some interviews
or TV shows and play short bits and 

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pause and then repeat after it.
And then when you get a bit better you 

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can start to shadow videos or shadow 
audio cds and that kind of thing.

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So shadowing means that you try to 
repeat after it as they're speaking in 

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real time,
so you kind of speak right after them 

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and try to follow them.
It's easy to get lost doing that,

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but that's fine.
You just want to be able to shadow as 

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much as you can and get.
The basic point is to continuously 

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listen and produce the sounds.
At the same time,

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but it's often the case that people will
do a kind of hybrid of listen and repeat

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and shadowing.

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Like they'll shadow as much as they can,
but when they get lost,

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they'll pause the button then and try to
finish repeating and then they'll 

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unpause the button and try to continue.
So that's,

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that's fine.
You just want to continuously hear 

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native speakers and imitate them and try
to produce the same sounds that they are

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making as precisely as you can.
So you just need to monitor yourself 

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quite a bit if you're doing this through
self study,

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but it can work.
Also,

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don't forget the stress patterns and 
intonation patterns because even though 

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those usually aren't the introductory 
sounds that you are tight in your 

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language program,
those carry a lot of meaning and they 

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also can mean the difference between one
word and another word,

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especially the stress patterns.
The stress panners can create 

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distinctions and meanings.
So don't forget about those.

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Try to imitate those.

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Those ones are not really conscious.
I mean the,

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it's difficult to consciously refine 
them,

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but you just want to just pay attention 
to the overall patterns of intonation.

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Repeat what you hear,
and subconsciously you're going to 

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internalize those patterns without 
really thinking about it as long as you 

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are intentionally imitating native 
speakers or fluid near native speakers.

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So that is language learning.
Key number two,

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it is phonology.
Make sure you get the basics at the 

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phonology down quite well at the 
beginning before you start getting into 

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learning all the grammar and um,
doing a lot of conversation.

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Get the phonology down from day one.
It's very important.

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It is the key to accessing that language
and not crossing wires with different 

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languages and not retreating into your 
native language.

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So learn the phonology and that will 
help you a ton.

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All right,
this is Paul signing off and have a good

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thanks.
[inaudible].