Hi everyone!
For those of you who have participated in my popular monthly Pronunciation Weekend Seminars, you may remember me having spoken about one of my favourite poems for learning and practising English pronunciation. For those of you who have not participated in any of my pronunciation seminars, you will still find this post very interesting, especially if you would like to find out about a fun new way to improve your pronunciation skills.

So, which poem do I normally speak about in my pronunciation weekend seminars? ‘The Chaos’ – not only does the name of the poem perfectly describe how crazy the English language is, but the poem itself is so cleverly written that it too illustrates how ‘chaotic’ the sounds, language, spelling and structure of the English language are, and how difficult English is to learn.

Want to know what I am talking about? Below is a link to the poem – have a read and let me know what you think!

‘The Chaos’ – by Gerard Nolst Trenite (this link has the full poem as well as the poem in phonetic script for British English and for American English)

Difficult? Well, to make things a little easier, you may wish to watch the following youtube video of the poem being read out loud – you can read along and copy what you hear:

I promise that one day (when I find some spare time!) I will make a video of myself reading this poem and that I will post it to help you all develop a lovely Australian accent

Did you know that ‘The Chaos’ was written by the Dutch writer Gerard Nolst Trenite and that it has over 800 examples of the irregular spelling and pronunciation of the English language? If you would like a little more background about the poem, it’s author, and some deeper analysis, then you may enjoy reading this interesting introduction by The English Spelling Society. After the introduction you will find a full version of the poem at the top of the page.

So, how can ‘The Chaos’ help you? You could listen to the above youtube videos and try copying the pronunciation that you hear. You could also use the poem to help you develop your spelling skills, or you could learn some new vocabulary. There are many options – at the very least, you could listen and laugh about how crazy the English language is!

Thanks for reading today’s blog post and for giving me the chance to share ‘The Chaos’ – I hope that you have enjoyed it.
:) Nicole

© Nicole Sammer, Sydney English Teacher, 2015.

[/vc_column]

Tweet