Hey everyone, it’s Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love teaching the pronunciation of single words.

Now, there are several reasons for that, and I will tell you what they are today, because it goes way beyond being able to pronounce a single word. But I’m also inviting you to a How to Pronounce Marathon, that is absolutely free. And it’s going to be on my Instagram account. So wait until the end to find out how you can participate in the How to Pronounce Marathon, and maybe win a one-on-one coaching session with me. But first, let’s talk about the pronunciation of single words.

First of all, the reason why I love teaching pronunciation is because beyond the fact that you will sound more clear, I feel that pronunciation helps boost your confidence because you’re aware of your pronunciation and you’re able to change that in case you’re not understood. It helps you get stuck a lot less. Cause we tend to not use the words that we’re unsure of, and then that reduces the number of words we use. Which anyway might be challenging when you speak a second language. And also, when you learn the right pronunciation of words, you tend to pronounce the word with less effort. And that creates more ease and effortlessness when you speak.

So, these are some of the reasons why I love pronunciation, and I think it’s so incredibly important for your fluency and confidence in English. But usually, when we think of pronunciation, we think of learning the sounds and then, you know, understanding how we put all the sounds that we learn into words, phrases, and sentences. Now, that’s absolutely true, and I teach that as well. In fact, in my programs, this is how we do it. We first learn the sounds and then we learn how to put it all together.

However, there is a shortcut for some people to boost their pronunciation, and it doesn’t go through the actual sounds. And that is learning the pronunciation of tricky words and going deep into hearing all the sounds in words that you use frequently. The reason why learning the pronunciation of single words is so useful is because it teaches your ear to notice things that you usually don’t notice; to confront you with how you perceive the word and how the word actually sounds.

And usually, how you perceive the word has to do with the spelling of the word or the way you were taught this word. And sometimes it’s not aligned with how you should be pronouncing the word. And when you go deep into the pronunciation of a single word, then all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, I’ve never noticed that!” And when you notice it once and twice and three times, you start noticing it more. So basically, you’re training your brain to listen carefully to sounds, and not just words, to stop taking for granted the pronunciation of words. So that’s another advantage why learning the pronunciation of single words is so incredibly useful in boosting your overall pronunciation.

Also, it teaches you to control the sounds in your mouth. A lot of times when we learn pronunciation, there is a gap between how we know the word should sound and what actually comes out of our mouth. So, it’s a really great opportunity to practice in a very limited context, right, just one word. The ability of translating what you hear to what you say, and being able to control your tongue and your lips and your jaw, so that what comes out is aligned with what you hear, and how you know it should sound.

So, all of these reasons are why I love teaching the pronunciation of single words. And in fact, a lot of my students have said that learning the pronunciation of single words has helped them significantly and they’ve become a lot more aware and were able to pronounce sounds that were not possible for them before, even without going into learning of specific sounds in-depth.

Now, again, don’t get me wrong. I do think that learning the specific sounds, the individual sounds, is a must if you want to overall boost your pronunciation, fluency, and confidence in English. But learning words is a fun way to do that. And also, when you learn the pronunciation of single words, they become more available. You remember that, “Oh, there’s this word that I know, but I never use.” And it helps you shift that word from being in your passive vocabulary to your active vocabulary.

Because when you learn the pronunciation of a new word, you have to repeat it several times until, you know, you feel confident using it. And when you do that, the word becomes more available and you’re more likely to use it. So ultimately, it helps your fluency as well.

So, this is why I wanted to invite you to a How to Pronounce Marathon on my Instagram account. Basically, what I’m going to do there, is I’m going to share with you 3 different words every single day, and invite you to practice with me. And if you are really courageous, to post a video of yourself in your stories where you use that word. So that is going to help you, first of all, build confidence, practice this word, and also use it in context so you also boost your vocabulary.

But of course, you don’t have to post every day to get the benefits of this Marathon. You can simply just follow the videos and practice with the videos that I share daily. And you can find all of this great content on my Instagram account. And the handle is @hadar.accentsway. So make sure you follow me there so you don’t miss out on all the how-to-pronounce videos. Now, if you’re watching this after the Marathon, then don’t worry. Everything’s going to stay in my account. So, you can find it easily if you just scroll down my feed.

Now, one more thing I want you to remember. The idea of learning how to pronounce the single word is, like I said, to help you improve your listening skills, to help you improve how you control your articulation organs. And it’s not a must if you don’t get it 100% right. Okay? It is not a must. Nothing’s going to happen. It’s okay if you’re able to do it in practice, but you’re unable yet to do it when you speak or in a conversation. It’s a natural part of the process. The more you practice it, the easier it’s going to be for you to retrieve that word and to use it accurately, or like you have practiced it. OK?

But when I teach, I go deep into the specific sounds just to help you hear it better and to learn how to use your articulation organs. So, try to do it just like how I teach it in the video, but then don’t be so hard on yourself if it doesn’t come out right when you’re in a free conversation. Like I said, it’s absolutely natural.

So, if you want to participate and improve your pronunciation, as well as improve your vocabulary, I’m inviting you also to join, to learn the word, to use that in video, to post it to your stories. I will respond to some of the videos, I will give you feedback to some of them. And also, one of the participants in the Marathon can win a one-on-one coaching session with me live on Instagram. So that’s going to be really, really, really exciting. I can’t wait to get to work with one of you.

All right. And just so you know, I haven’t recorded all the videos for the How to Pronounce Marathon, so I’m inviting you to post your requests in the comments below.

Thank you so much. I can’t wait to get started. And I will see you in the Marathon.