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I was going through some of my advanced students' homework recently. And honestly, I was blown away by how well these students can write. |
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I remember one piece in particular. I read it twice, and I sat there genuinely shocked. There was no way English wasn't this person's first language. |
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The vocabulary was rich and the grammar perfect. I went through it with a fine-tooth comb, looking for something, anything: a missed comma, a clunky phrase. Nothing. It was flawless. And to top it off, it obviously hadn't been written by AI. It was beautifully human. |
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So naturally, I got curious. I went and found their speaking homework. |
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I pressed play, expecting to be just as impressed. And I was! It had the same richness and range as their writing, but I had to listen carefully. Really carefully. |
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I could tell that pronunciation hadn't been a focus for them. When I reached out, they confirmed it. Their priority had always been passing exams and reaching higher levels of English. Pronunciation always felt like something to deal with later.
The fact that they had submitted speaking homework meant they had finally decided to do something about it.
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But this is something I see (or hear, rather) all the time. |
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Students climb to incredibly high levels in English. They use English at work and with friends, and they write essays that could pass for a native speaker's. But pronunciation always seems to get left for "later". |
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The problem is that "later" never comes. |
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One of my other students put it perfectly. She said, |
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"I never had any structure or knowledge about pronunciation. I just practised with other non-native speakers, and we never fixed each other's mistakes." |
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That's the trap so many learners fall into, and it happens at every level. |
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You end up in this cycle where nobody tells you that you're pronouncing something wrong, so it never gets corrected. You just keep going, assuming that your pronunciation is improving alongside the rest of your English, when actually you're just reinforcing bad habits.
And the thing is, most students have no idea because you can't fix what you don't know is wrong.
Tomorrow, I'll show you exactly what these hidden mistakes might look like, so you can start spotting them in your own speaking.
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P.S. Want to practise speaking English without pressure and get instant feedback? Try Langua, the world's most advanced AI for language learning. Save 20% on the Unlimited Annual Plan with the code ENGLISH20. |
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