English speech communication and American Slang:  Greetings and Verbs

American English has its own casual variety of the English language and vocabulary.  Historically, it has been influenced by sports, the cowboys, the building of the railroad, the card game of poker, African-American culture, immigrants, native and so forth.

Here are some words which are common American slang  words that are acceptable in any conversation.

Greetings for “How are you?”:  “How’s it going? ,” “What’s new?”

Leavetaking and Goodbye:  See you.  See you later.  Or on the phone, “Talk to you later.”

I’m leaving:  “I’m heading out now.”

Instead of “very, very,” you can use “totally.”

“The show was totally awesome.”

American Slang Verbs

ace : to finish something successfully and easily

Jenny aced her science test!

check-out: to look at, examine, watch

We’re going to check out that new grocery store after work.

grab a bite to eat: to get something to eat, perhaps at a restaurant.

I am very, very hungry. Let’s grab a bite to eat at a restaurant nearby.

lift: to steal

While Bill was on the bus, someone lifted her wallet.

Take off: to leave

Janette took off before the meeting was announced

Next time, I’ll share some of the most popular slang nouns and adjectives.

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

 

• The journey theme: “Are you from here or did you move here? When? Why?”
• The recent past: “What have you been working on lately?”
• The situation you are engaged in now: “How do you know the host?  What did you think of that presentation?”

Accent Reduction: Best Strategies for HOW To Learn Accurate, Clear English Speaking

Before we get to the best strategies for HOW to learn accurate, clear English speaking, let’s ask the important WHY question.  So why do you need to know how to learn the skills  for reducing your accent and making your English easy to understand?

The answer comes from research on academic learning. Teaching students good learning strategies enables them to know how to acquire new knowledge, which leads to  better learning outcomes, writes lead author Helen Askell-Williams of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.  Studies bear this out.  Askell-Williams cites an example of a recent finding by PISA,  the Programme for International Student Assessment, which administers academic proficiency tests to students around the globe. “Students who use appropriate strategies to remember what they learn, such as underlining important parts of the texts or discussing what they read with other people, perform at least 73 points higher in the PISA assessment – that is one full proficiency level or nearly two full school years – than students who use these strategies the least,” the PISA report reads.  (See Annie-Murphy Paul’s summary in Smart Learning Strategies, in her “The Brilliant Report” of Oct. 7, 2013.)

You need to know how to learn to speak clear English,  so the learning is efficient AND long lasting.  These are strategies that work:

• It takes 70 days of practice every day to change your habits from accented English to clear easy to understand English.  That is 10 weeks of learning.
• Do  a full diagnostic assessment to know what you already know, such as  accurate speech sounds, and to know what your errors are.  That way you can focus on what you need to change.  That’s efficient learning!
• Do daily practice of a minimum 5 days a week, at least 30 minutes of English speaking exercises
• Take every opportunity  in daily life to practice the tactics for clear English pronunciation and other intelligibility skills.  This way you learn to adjust your mouth movements and loudness of your voice to the circumstances.  And you learn to think and talk clearly at the same time.
• Use clear talking visual learning and visual models (for example, video lessons using a human teacher)  in addition to voice only recorded lessons to give you the biggest gain.
• Get periodic checks to be sure you are using your speech muscles in exactly the right way.  For most people, once or twice in a week feedback during coaching works perfectly.
• Get specific training advice on exactly what to do with your speech muscles.  Remember, it is not practice makes perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect.

Remember the 1000 and 10,000 practices you need to make clear accurate English a habit.

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.