Understanding Different English Accents

It is great that English is spoken by so many people around the world, but this can make it very difficult to understand, because there are such a range of different accents.

In today's activity we use a website called The Speech Accent Archive to listen to different accents and compare them.

Task:

• Your first activity is to listen to this audio file and try to write down what you hear. This speaker is from the UK and has an accent from around Oxfordshire.
• Once you have listened a number of times and written down the complete text you can check here to see if it is correct. You will see both the written text and phonetic transcription.
• Now you can listen to the same text again spoken by a variety of other nationalities. Listen to each one and try to decide what nationality they are:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Now click the links below to check your answers.

1. Check you answer
2. Check your answer
3. Check your answer
4. Check your answer
5. Check your answer

Now if you go to the link to the Atlas, you can try to find the same recording of an English speaker from your country. Atlas link


Just click on the atlas to go to the continent you come from, then click on the flag which is closest to you.

You can then listen to the speaker from your country and compare the accent to one of the other countries. You might want to see if you can hear important differences between the accent from your country and the accent of a country you want to visit. You can compare the phonemic script too and try to spot the differences. here's the script of a man from the UK.


I hope you find this activity useful. Be sure to listen to some of the other accents too and try to record your own accent and listen to the differences. You don't have to change your accent, but being aware of differences can help you to understand more.

• Here you can find more pronunciation activities.

Related links for teachers:

• Pronunciation goes 2.0
• Phonology can be fun and free
• Transcribed Videos for EFL ESL
• Karaoke with a Social Network
• Another Great New Karaoke Site
• Great New Karaoke Site
• Sending Bubble Joy to your EFL / ESL Students
• 12 Second Video Clips for EFL ESL
• Great Video Commenting Tool
• Video conferencing for EFL
• Send Free Video Messages

Best

Nik Peachey