Fiona a is h £t Jo Tomlinson

Listen and com plete the sentences 1 -3 with words from the recording. They are a ll w eak
iu 
form s.
CD2
1 
Many__________d ia le cts__________ w o rld __________ gradually dying out.
2
recommend w ays__________ which I __________ im prove__________
listening skills?
3
researching m inority languages__________ essay__________ I went
_________ British lib ra ry __________ find out more information.
CD2
2 
In English it can be difficult to understand natural speech because the words sound as if
25 
they are connected.
Listen to the sentence below. Does it sound m ore n atu ral the first tim e you h ear it or the
second tim e?
Learning a language isn't easy.
When a word ends in a consonant sound (e.g. d, k, t, z ) and the next begins w ith a vowel
sound (a, e, /', o, u), English speakers usually connect the words.
T h e re ^a re lo ts ^ o f^ u n c o m m o n languages^Jn^E urope.
Now listen to the sentences 1 - 2 and m ark (^_J w here the words are connected.
26
CD2 
1 
There are many South American Indian languages, none of which are related to Spanish.
2 
Studying accents is a good way to understand if a language is changing or not.
Another feature of connected speech in English is when one word ends in the same
consonant that the next word begins with. The first consonant disappears.
Catalan i
$
spokei/i nowadays by many of the young generation.
O
 
Now listen to the sentences 1 -2 and m ark w here the sounds disappear.
27
CD2 
1 
I stopped taking Greek lessons soon after I left school.
2 
How w ill local languages stay in use if fewer people learn them?