Pronunciation ChallengeHow to prepare for the next global recession | The Economist

You guys need the script?

Thank you guys for all your support and comments! If you run into any difficulties listening to the file or with pronunciation, please do let me know.

Here is my rough script for your reference:

Hello, everyone! Welcome to today’s pronunciation challenge or rather Vocabulary Challenge! My name is Eric from Eric’s English Lounge, and I have been a curriculum writer, and teacher for 15 years. I just got back from studying/teaching at USC and before I head back to school for more pain, I’ll be your new host on VT!

Today, we’re going to try something a little different. In addition to teaching pronunciation, I also want to focus on expanding your vocabulary and knowledge.

So let’s warm up first! So today’s topic is “How to Prepare for the Next Global Recession”

OK, so what English words come to your mind when you hear global recession?

So before you begin reading or listening to a new topic, take a moment to read or listen to the title. This will help you tap into your prior knowledge and connect it with new information on the topic.

So, let’s jump into our sentence of the day:

In 2008 and 2009, the dominoes were really set up for quite a nasty
financial and economic crisis.

A little bit faster this time.

In 2008 and 2009, the dominoes were really set up for quite a nasty financial and economic crisis.

Now I want to focus on pronunciation, and I want to focus on word stress in particular. If you just read the sentence in a monotonic/flat way, then it is very difficult for listeners to pick up the key points. You might read like this:

However, if you read with stress on the keywords you want listeners to hear, it will be easier for them. In this case, the stress is on set up and nasty. This is critical when you are communicating and taking tests such as the TOEFL and IELTS, which place great emphasis on word stress and not so much on accent as long as your words are intelligible.

One more thing, some of you might wonder how to read the dates:

2009: twenty oh nine (British and American) or two thousand and nine (British)/two thousand nine (American)

So, like I mentioned earlier, I have been a teacher for many years, and I specialize in teaching international university students and consulting organizations like ETS and the British Council and even government policymakers. I feel that most international students here have good pronunciation and can repeat sentences well, but the biggest problem is that they simply do not know what to say in academic and professional contexts, and I do not mean daily life conversations, which consist of short phrases that rely on the situation (how’s it going, I’m good, check this out).

I mean using language as a way to acquire knowledge at a higher level and to communicate complex thoughts, to use language for more than social purposes. If you would like to learn more about vocabulary, expand your knowledge, and develop critical thinking at the same time, check out a critical vocab course I am opening up with VT. We will have one free class so sign up for that no matter what.

Ok, let’s go over some new words:

1. the economy
the relationship between production, trade and the supply of money in a particular country or region

Are businesses doing well?
Do people have jobs?

the world economy
the economy is in a recession

2. economic

connected with the trade, industry and development of wealth of a country, an area or a society

economic growth
economic policy

3. economics
the study of how a society organizes its money, trade and industry

study economics
economics is a difficult subject

4. monetary
relating to money, especially all the money in a particular country
monetary policy
lowers interest rates
increases interest rates

5. fiscal
connected with government or public money, especially taxes
fiscal policy
taxes

In closing, try the sentence out with stress and you can even try stressing different words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs) to see how it affects your sentence. OK, that’s it for today, I will see you next week!

Eric

day 448

73

In 2008 and 2009, the dominoes were really set up for quite a nasty financial and economic crisis.