Minor English: Pronunciation and Presentation - Period 2 Social Sciences & Humanities Program Fall 2022 Semester - Amsterdam

In the pronunciation module, we will set goals for the English accent that you wish to develop, both professionally and at a personal level. We will analyse the 10 most common difficulties in English pronunciation and the effects that these difficulties may (inadvertently) have on the intelligibility and credibility of your accent. We will also take account of features that seem part of your identity. You will do exercises, practise ear-training and be given tools that help you analyse English pronunciation features. You will work on features in your own pronunciation accordingly.

As far as the presentation component is concerned, we will focus on those aspects of speech (based a.o. on corpus linguistic research) that help you catch your listener's attention. Many of these aspects come naturally in everyday speech, but seem to be forgotten during more strenuous activities, such as speaking and presenting. This course will make you more aware of those prosodic features (intonation, voice quality) and conversational patterns (questions, pauses, repetition) of speech that you can use to get your message across.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.