Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
2202208
English Conversation and Discussion
Daily
Improvement Exercises
Here are daily
improvement exercises designed to help you build those facial and throat
muscles for clearer and more fluent speech, and to help you build
exposure to and familiarity with listening to a wide range of material
in English.
Instructions
- First, do the
"pretest" that follows. This will be a record of your initial skills.
- Every day, do
at least one hour each of the speaking and listening exercise. You can
break up your quota into shorter periods but no less than 30 minutes
per continuous session to enjoy the benefits.
- We will check
every month to evaluate our progress.
Pretest
Part 1: Speaking
Component
- Choose a day.
Before you say anything on that day, find a quiet place and record
yourself speaking the following text:
One hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four Limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alverzo’s tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient, sacred crypts of Egypt
Nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic, old men on roller skates with
a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth
Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who haul
stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery, all
at the same time.
- E-mail the recorded file to me so we can discuss
in a workshop what you want to focus on, and design practice exercises
that suit you.
Part 2: Listening
Component
- Transcribe
David Gandy's response in his Q and A at the Oxford Union from 55:04 to 55:24.
See if you can figure out every single word he is saying there.
- E-mail your transcript of those twenty seconds
to me.
Speaking
Exercises
- There are two
components to the speaking exercise: the exercise + the read aloud.
- Each day,
include both the exercise and the read aloud components in your hour
(or more; the more the better, of course) routine.
- Speak
continuously for at least 30 minutes at a stretch.
- Explore and
choose your speaking text from the options listed below as well as
from the reading links on our detailed schedule page. (I'll add more
occasionally. If you discover anything noteworthy, please let me
know!)
Speaking
Component 1: Exercises, Warm-Up
- "Lips,
Teeth, Tongue"
The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue.
The tip of the tongue on top of the teeth
- "Grip Top Sock," The Young Adult's Guide to
Public Speaking (25 seconds; cf. "Grip Top Sock"; keep in mind that clarity is
more important than speed; the more you practice, the quicker you
will be able to read it any way)
Give me the gift of a grip-top sock,
A clip drape shipshape tip-top sock—
Not your spinslick slapstick slipshod stock,
But a plastic, elastic grip-top sock.
None of your fantastic slack swap slop
From a slapdash flash cash haberdash shop;
Not a knickknack knitlock knock-kneed knickerbocker sock
With a mock-shot blob-mottled trick-ticker top clock;
Not a rucked up, puckered up, flop top sock,
Nor a super-sheer seersucker rucksack sock;
Not a spot-speckled frog-freckled cheap sheik’s sock
Off a hodgepodge moss-blotched scotch-botched block;
Nothing slipshod, drip drop, flip flop, or glip glop;
Tip me to a tip-top grip-top sock.
- "Announcer's
Test" (See Jerry
Lewis say it or hear it sung.)
One hen.
Two ducks.
Three squawking geese
Four Limerick oysters.
Five corpulent porpoises.
Six pairs of Don Alverzo's tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt
Nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic old men on roller skates with
a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth
Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who haul
stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery all at
the same time.
- "Articulation Exercises," University of Iowa
(2012)
Speaking
Component 2: Read Aloud
- Dr. Seuss, One Fish,
Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960)
- Shel Silverstein, Runny
Babbit: The Billy Sook (2005)
- Isaac Asimov, "The Segregationist" (1937)
- David Wallace-Wells, "The Uninhabitable Earth" (2017)
- John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me (1961)
- Ted Chiang, "Story of Your Life" (1998)
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
(1818)
Listening Practice
- Each day, listen to a total of at least one hour of English from one
of these sources or from the media links on our detailed schedule page.
- If needed, you can break this down to at least 30 minutes per
continuous listening.
- Choices (Many of these have mobile apps and podcast versions and
transcripts.)
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Last updated August 14, 2019