Thanks Dr. Li's invitation, I joined a project called "pronunciation tutoring project" which you will have one on one tutor correcting your pronunciation. There will have four meetings. The first one is pre-test. You will read a paragraph once and the tutor will make a recommendation plan of your pronunciation. The second and the third class are the main classes that adjusting your pronunciation. The fourth class is post-test and you will read the same paragraph of the first time to see whether you make a progress or not. 

Although I'm an English Teacher, my pronunciation is not that articulate as the native speakers. Through a few lessons, I feel more confident on my English speaking ability. Thanks my totur "Luke" who is a nice and warm teacher. Thank you. 

 recommendations for Tzuchun

1. / k / & / d / 

/ k /  ： LIN produces the consonant fine but struggles with producing clusters where the / k / is the initial sound of the cluster. Most prominent times this is apparent is in the clusters: / ks / /k ʃ  / and /  kt / . This is the most notable problem consonant for me. 

/ d / : / d / isn't present in Mandarin, so it's understandable why it is causing issues. While I don't believe it on its own is as big ( or as consistent) if an issue as the k-clusters, I feel tackling it will help in rectifying recommendation. 

2. Dropped Suffixes " ed " and " s " and final alveolar stops / t / and / d / 

- the biggest issue with pronuciation is the dropped endings. This can even at times result in grammatical error to the listener. ( can / can't)  

3. Linking. Particularly with consonants

What is LINKING ? 

Linking is the merging of multiple words together until they sound as if they are only one word. Linking is an advanced topic for non-native speakers, but learning to correctly link words can result in significantly more fluid and fluent sounding English speech.

 https://pronuncian.com/introduction-to-linking

 Lesson plan 

   the clusters: / ks / /k ʃ  / and /  kt /

 Materials:

2 lists of the words in the instructions below

a hard candy for rocognizing the tongue position

 cluster 

1. - read the following read sets og words to the students. Have them real all six back and mark problems

akt

akts

actually 

fact

facts

factually 

accent

secceed 

succession 

2. - read each set and have the students read them back. coaching as necessary 

task 

skip

bask

backed 

tacked 

caked 

section

inflection

infection 

3. give the student a small piece of hard candy. Instruct them to put on the middle of their tongue. Slowly drill the problem cluster, while trying to keep the candy from moving. The candy should make them conscious of their tongue's movement and help stop them from inseting vowel. ( [ə] ) 

4. Have them re read section 2 with the instructor 

5. Chew up the candy and re read the section 1 

6. next read the following sentences: 

 " In the last section, we went over the first section of the text. It expressed ideas about accents and how to succeed at pronuncing English." 

  lesson plan : the ending sound - / d /

 materials: 

reading list 

minimal pair list 

minimal pair cards 

 This is simple exercise with a focus on final consonants. To warm up and practice for the next session and also test a theory concering nasals

"mark v when you hear d sound"

1. give the student a paper with 1 15 numbered blanks 

2. read the list to the student naturally and without any emphasis

(when you read, the student should mark the blank in which they hear /d/ instead of /t/ 

3. correct as needed

4. drill pairs with the student allowing them to place a hand on your throat to feel the voiced / voiceless distinction if necessary

5. use hte minimal pair cards 

- lay them out on the table and shuffle them

- teacher says a words and students searches for the word

- vice -versa 

   Dropped Suffixes " ed " and " s " and final alveolar stops / t / and / d /  (grammatical ) 

 " ed "

 Rule 1:  If the verb base ends in a voiceless sound, then the –ed ending sounds like “t”.  The “t” is blended together with the previous consonant and not pronounced as an extra syllable. 

 A voiceless sound is like a whisper.  Your vocal chords don’t vibrate. "p, f, k, s, sh, ch, th"

 ed ending sounds like “t”

worked

dropped

finished

divorced

stopped

laughed

coughed

watched

 Rule 2:  If the verb base ends in a voiced sound, then the –ed ending sounds like “d”. The “d” is blended together with the previous consonant and not pronounced as an extra syllable.

  A voiced sound means that your vocal chords vibrate. "b, v, g, z, j, th, l, m, n, r"

  ed ending sounds like “d”

moved

returned

stayed

studied

married

widowed

raised

engaged

traveled

  Rule 3:  If the verb base ends in a “t” or “d” sound already, then the –ed ending sounds like “id” or “ud”.  It is pronounced as an extra syllable.

 ed ending sounds like “ed”

started

graduated

visited

separated

dated

attended

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32SurxnE4s

 " s "  "es"

 Rule 1:  If the noun / verb base ends in a voiceless sound, then ending sounds like “s”.  A voiceless sound is like a whisper.  Your vocal chords don’t vibrate. "p, f, k, s, sh, ch, th"

 s ending sounds like “s”

• Seat → seats → seat/s/

• Rope → ropes → rope/s/

• Back → backs → back/s/

 Rule 2:  If the noun / verb base ends in a voiced sound, then  ending sounds like “z”.   A voiced sound means that your vocal chords vibrate. "b, v, g, z, j, th, l, m, n, r"

 s ending sounds like “z”

• Seed → seeds → seed/z/

• Robe → robes → robe/z/

• Bag → bags → bag/z/

• See → sees → see/z/

  Rule 3:  If the / noun verb base ends in a “SH,” “CH,” “S,” “Z,” and “GE,”, “DGE”, then the ending sounds like “ez”.  It is pronounced as an extra syllable.

 es ending sounds like “ez”

• Dish → dishes → dish/ez/

• Catch → catches → catch/ez/

• Kiss → kisses → kiss/ez/

• Mix → mixes → mix/ez/

• Prize → prizes → prize/ez/

• Edge → edges → edge/ez/

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWNW3-4Wpao

  Linking. Particularly with consonants

 Blending sounds: Blending is smoothly transitioning from the pronunciation of one sound into the next sound. 

 Coarticulation: overlapping sounds : Coarticulation occurs when adjacent sounds overlap one another, causing a change in one or both sounds' pronunciation. Two examples of coarticulation include nasal aspiration and lateral aspiration.

  Assimilation: changing sounds:   Instead of "sharing" part of a sound, the merged sounds are pronounced as an entirely different sound.

 Intrusion: Adding sounds :  Intrusion is placing an additional sound between other sounds.

  Elision: Omitting sounds : Elision occurs when a sound is removed from a word

 Geminates: Double sounds : Geminates occur when one word ends with and the next word begins with the same consonant sound. 

 https://pronuncian.com/introduction-to-linking

  How to Link Words Speak English Fluently

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-ItqgzEhQ

want to - wanna 

going to - gonna 

Connected Speech, Linking Words

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl2vNJ4h9g4

stop it - stopit

i need it - i needit 

play a song - pla ya song 

best time - bestime 

You need to stop it right now