Pronounce correctly

By M. A. Islam, US
17 May 2005, 18:00 PM
I read the letter by C. W. Ruhi with interest. Pronouncing English correctly is a challenge for most of the Bangladeshis and we should not be blamed for this. This is a kind of naturally acquired handicap for all of us. How an English word is pronounced has very little to do with how it is spelled. Then there is the added difficulty of speaking in American, British or Australian way.

But we should and must try to improve our verbal English, especially those who are communicating verbally. These days there are excellent conversation dictionaries on CD. With any computer, the skill

of pronouncing English correctly can be acquired without much pain. Please make use of the technology if you are not already doing so. By the way, please do not make illegal copies of the CD. That should not be the way to start something, which would benefit you throughout your whole life.

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We can say we know English when we have good command in four skills of learning the language like listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among the four skills, listening is the most difficult one as we don't know the correct pronunciation. It creates a lot of problems while communicating with the foreigners or listening to English TV programmes. So, to solve the problem teachers should be aware of their pronunciation as we learn better by hearing from them.

Tarique Islam Agrabad, Chittagong