Colour Vowel Chart In Action

My goal for these next few posts is to communicate some practical and simple things you can do to take charge of your English accent learning.

The last year of posts was pretty theoretical but necessary. But here’s the practical part.

Remember how I would reference the Colour Vowel Chart? Well, we’re actually going to use it and shape our English pronunciation learning by categorizing sounds according to their colour. The reason is we want a way for you to practice.

Sure, I get it. It can be annoying or simplistic or stupid or silly or whatever other reason, but it is necessary.

You don’t expect someone to play hockey who can’t skate or handle a hockey stick. You have to practice those skills first.

You don’t expect someone to drive a road trip 2 hours away in a manual transmission car when they don’t know how to drive stick.

My point being, even if you have spoken English and lived in an English-speaking country for years, it’s important to humble yourself and try this exercise. I’m not trying to belittle your skills or belittle your experience, but communicate a way that I think can help. It just needs your buy-in and commitment.

Okay.

Check out the colour vowel chart template here.

Make a copy on your own Google drive.

This is a challenge to hold yourself accountable — starting now.

• Any time you notice a word you say that is not pronounced the same as a native English speaker. Add it to the list.

• Figure out which vowel is the primary vowel.

• Figure out which vowel colour it corresponds with.

• Then add it to the list.

The idea is you want to generate a list of words to practice, to learn, and to study. These should be words you use regularly, you are motivated to learn to pronounce like a native English speaker, and words that you have the opportunity to use.

It’s less helpful if you are adding words like CACOPHONY, EPHEMERAL, DISCONTENT, or EXUBERANT because, although they may be pronounced differently, they aren’t regular words you would use so you won’t have the ability to practice them frequently in regular conversation.

You must be motivated to learn the words on this list too. So pick words you are interested in practicing, that you use all the time in your meetings, interviews, and chats.

Picture this. (This is how I imagine my clients’ lives are like. Please let me know if I’m way off the mark. 😂)

One of them is Michael.

Let’s pretend you, as a non-native English speaker, are at work and working with your coworker, Michael.

You are chatting with Michael about during a break and he mentions he has twin daughters. When you respond, “You have tweens?”, he comments on how it’s a short-ih sound (IH)

You make a mental note. Jot down the word in your phone and later that night at home, review your word list for the day.

Twins. That’s a ‘silver pin’ word.

Add that word in, under the ‘silver pin’ category

Practice the shit out of that word along with other words.

Practice it by itself. Twins twins twins.

Practice it in a short phrase. Twin girls. Twin girls. Twin girls.

Practice it in a longer sentence. I didn’t know you had twin girls. What are their ages?

Then…game day. You see MIchael again on break next week. Time for action.

“Hey Michael. I didn’t know you had twin girls. What are their ages? I have a 6 year old boy myself!

BAM. Memorable moment. Success story. You took matters into your own hands. Rinse and repeat.

The more success stories you have, the easier it can be to get into the routine of adding to your word list, practicing words, and looking for opportunities to use them in your life.