THE ART OF SPEAKING AMERICAN ENGLISH

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Authors: Stephen Stratton

The Art of Speaking American English
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-5086-3320-4

CONTENTS

PART I THE BASICS

THE GRAMMAR TRAP

THE SQUARE PRINCIPLE: LONG VOWELS / SHORT CONSONANTS

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ECONOMY OF BREATHING, CORRECT INTONATION, AND PERFECT PRONUNCIATION

LINKING WORDS

THE PENCIL TECHNIQUE

WHY READIING NOVELS CAN MAKE YOU YOUR BEST TEACHER

THE LAYERING EFFECT

THE SANDWICH PRINCIPLE (ARTICLES the, an, a)

COUNTING WORDS

BREAKING THE HABIT OF REPEATING DIALOGUE VERBATIM

SIMPLE STEPS TO IMPROVING YOUR PRONUNCIATION

Part II COMMONLY MISUSED WORDS

EXPRESSING LOCATION USING PREPOSITIONS in, on, at

I Basics

II Contrasting Prepositions in And on

III
Contrasting
Prepositions on And at

IV Basic Contrast Of Prepositions in And
at

V Detailed Contrast Of Prepositions in And at

VI Combination Patterns Of in And at

Important Points To Remember

make; have; tell

beginning/early; middle/mid; end/late

ago; in; after that/later/following;
before that
/preceding

that
And
it

so
And
that

is/are; was/were

can, be able to, be capable of

come/come back; get/be; go/go back

will (eat, help, etc.)
And
present progressive -ing(eating, helping, etc.)

want, would like, hope, wish, if only

rent, borrow, check out

by myself; on my own, myself

while
And
during

because
And
in that

recently
And
lately

go home, go back home, go uptown, go downtown, come here, go there, go over there

even if / even then ; even when ; even though / even so

PREFACE

It is well within your grasp to speak English fluently and with confidence, just what you have always dreamed of. It all begins with simple techniques that are, unfortunately, seldom explored in the classroom setting. You have no doubt wondered in frustration why children master conversational English as easily as clowns do summersaults, while adults often wade on through the linguistic swamp of classic textbook instruction that invariably fails to help them make use of even the simplest of phrases, particularly on the spur of the moment. It is not uncommon, for instance, to hear that ordering fast food in English requires a monumental effort on the part of the most dedicated student, which is often characterized by embarrassingly pointing to rather than saying what the order is. Far more daunting is the prospect of discussing one’s profession or career in English to any reasonable depth, equally the objective of educators, scientists, medical doctors, business people, attorneys and the enthusiastic job hunter fresh out of college. Born of Stephen Stratton’s more than twenty five years of teaching Japanese students of English in the United States and Japan, his unique creative approach to education, and significant contributions to science research through translation, proofreading, and revision of science papers for publication in internationally recognized science journals, you will find in the pages of this timely handbook meticulously explained but easily applied methods of language acquisition that will put you on the path to mastering the art of speaking American English.

Part I The Basics

The Grammar Trap

To begin with, I would like to dispense with the notion that one dialect or accent of English is in any way more attractive than another outside personal preference. The objective of this book is to familiarize you, the earnest reader, with American English without making any such comparison.

Moving on, when it comes to learning a new language much can be said for having a working understanding of rudimentary grammar. However, as the old maxim goes,
‘You can have too much of a good thing’
. In the same way, the following perfectly illustrates why strictly adhering to textbook instruction can actually hamper the student’s progress.

A.
Is that Ken and Hana over there? Yes, it’s them
.

B.
Is that Ken and Hana over there? Yes, it’s
they
.

B
is grammatically correct, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the general population in the U.S. who would say
they
instead of
them
in this case. You might wonder why intelligent people would make such a mistake. The answer is not a simple one, however much your current English teacher might tell you it is. “Poor English” is most often the
whole explanation, given in sincerity. Far closer to the truth, society as a ultimately decides over time which lines can be crossed in deviating from established rules of grammar. You could say there are no concrete rules. Let us begin our learning journey with an opened mind, tossing the years of strict guidelines hamstringing that marvelously designed depository of learning, the brain.

The Square Principle: Long Vowels, Short Consonants

A comparison is made here between the English and Japanese language to show a general pattern of pronunciation in conversational English.

Unlike the Japanese language where all sounds or syllables are essentially voiced in the same length, ka ki ku ke ko and so on, to be clearly understood in English vowels
a e i o u
must be stretched or sustained longer than all consonants,
b c d f g
and so forth. Furthermore, all vowels require a uniformed length just as the shorter consonants do. In some cases, vowels may be entirely omitted for ease of pronunciation, as in the following sentence.

I term this the
Square Principal
. The four sides of a square must be equal in length, and if not, it cannot be considered a square. Similarly, all voiced vowels must have the same length. Otherwise, the word being used is no longer an English word in so far as your listeners cannot understand what is being said. Try saying the following word as you normally would.

Refrigerator

Say the word again, taking care to stretch all the vowels.