Pronunciation (speaking) is the most difficult. I'm writing this, but if I spoke this, what happens? There are many pronunciations that don't exist in Japanese and my speech gets slow as I have to care about it. I believe the theory that if you can't pronounce it, you can't catch it correctly either.

Habits are strange beasts, Arielle. I've worked all my life in the automobile manufacturing industry, where all we ever use is the verb form. Normally I don't use the noun form because people here won't get it as a rule. I say <em>vegetables</em> instead. It just so happens that in this case I didn't say that, probably because the other person was a native speaker :)

@Som Thank you for your reply! That is great you are able to be understood!

That's the nice thing about context, if it was just one sound/word that was mispronounced most people will still be able to understand what you are saying because of the context. Thanks for sharing your experience, I enjoyed reading about it!

@Benny Yes, Compton PESL takes a more informal way of teaching proper prosodic features (intonation, stress, rhythm, loudness, rate, projection). As a Speech-Language Pathologist graduate student and C-PESL certified instructor I can tell you that MODELING correct pronunciation and prosodic features and having the client IMITATE these productions is a great and effective way for learners to practice these correct productions. From having a native model, imitating the native model, and doing this consistently through repetition will train the client's speech habits to sound like a native English speaker. This is a gradual process but with hard work and repetition, you WILL improve. (just like playing sports or learning an instrument, if you practice you will improve).

All in all, Compton's focus is pronunciation- in words, sentences, phrases, and then in conversation with the goal of transferring correct pronunciation into your every day life situations.

Prosodic features is intertwined with the course but not the main focus. The client will mostly learn prosodic features through imitating the teacher (a native English speaker) and the teacher will provide feedback on how to sound more natural. The teacher may give some instruction on intonation but it will not take up the bulk of the course. The client will also learn strategies such as Voice Projection for more confident- sounding speech.

Interesting that you should ask. It happens very rarely with me and never in my local context. Usually it doesn't happen even when speaking with native speakers, except that there was one such rare occasion recently. I intended to say the noun form of the word <em>produce</em> (as in proH-dyus) but instead I said the verb form (pro-dyOOs). The other person was momentarily confused though he got it from the context almost immediately.