VOCABULARY - PRONUNCIATION - LISTENING
English Treasure Videos
All English Treasure videos are designed using well-researched educational techniques to help you learn new vocabulary, learn pronunciation, and practice listening.
First, each video presents 20 vocabulary words. Some you may already know. Each word is pronounced very slowly so you can hear the sounds that make up the word. Each word is also translated into Vietnamese and paired with a picture, so you can be confident that you understand what it means.
Then a paragraph is read slowly that includes all the new words, so you can hear how they are used and what they sound like in a sentence.
This stage is the scaffolding stage, when you are given all the support you need to understand what you are reading and hearing.
The vocabulary words are read again clearly and slowly. Each word is paired with a picture so you can associate the word with the idea that it represents, to help you learn to think in English.
Then the paragraph is read again slowly, so you can practice listening to the words and recognising them when used in a sentence.
This is the stretching stage, when you are stretched to remember what the English words mean based on their sound and the ideas that they represent, rather than the Vietnamese words that you already know.
The vocabulary words are read once more, this time at a natural speed. The words are paired with pictures so you can match the sound that you hear with the idea in your mind - thinking in English rather than thinking in Vietnamese and translating.
Finally, the paragraph is read a third time, but at a native-speaker's normal speed. This is to help you to practice listening to how English is naturally spoken and to learn to identify the words that you have learned.
This is the soaring stage, when you prove to yourself that you understand what you have learned and can use it - when you discover that you can fly.
Scaffolding
Stretching
Soaring
Accents
Just like in Vietnamese, English speakers have many different accents. English Treasure teaches a standard British accent, like you would hear from a BBC newsreader. English Treasure also teaches British spelling and pronunciation, just as it is taught in the textbooks used in Vietnam's schools.
Some people want to learn to speak with an American accent because they would like to study or work in America or with American people. If you can perfect an American accent, this can be good, but getting any accent perfect is very hard. Most people who did not grow up in America or study there when young will always sound 'foreign' to Americans.
Most Americans are very accepting of foreigners, but not all. You may worry that Americans will think less of you because you do not sound like them. This is a valid concern, but there is one foreign accent that Americans love more than their own: British.
Historically, Britain was America's 'mother country'. And Hollywood movies have always used British actors to portray characters who are intelligent, refined, and dignified. More importantly, you don't have to speak with a perfect British accent for an American to think you are British. If you are going to sound like a foreigner anyway, it is better to sound like an intelligent, refined, and dignified foreigner!
Just look at the pictures to the left. Every one is a British actor speaking in a British accent and chosen for the role because they look and sound dignified and intelligent. As if that weren't enough, British accents are considered 'sexy' by many Americans. That may not be important to you, but it is certainly not a bad thing!
Professor X and Magneto from 'X-Men'
Odin from 'Thor: Ragnarok'
Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast'
James Bond from 'Skyfall'
