Accent Reduction for Chinese Speakers | American English Pronunciation Blog

Archive for Accent Reduction for Chinese Speakers

How do Americans say kilometer?

Most American born people say the word kilometer with stress on the second syllable. kilo→meter They use the same syllable stress pattern when they say the following words: thermo→meter para→meter peri→meter baro→meter odo→meter Many of my accent reduction coaching clients, (IT professionals, scientists, MBA students) never learned to use these patterns. Subsequently, they say these

How Do You Pronounce Exactly?

The people who I work with in my accent reduction program often ask me to help them with the pronunciation of the word exactly. ✔ This is a tricky word to pronounce! Do you know why? One reason is because the letter X has 2 different pronunciations. Most people don’t realize that! ☝ Here are

Accent Reduction Practice Technique: Rehearse

☆ Many people ask me for TIPS on how to practice the accent skills they are learning. ☆ One very effective technique is to REHEARSE what you think you might say in a given situation.☝ Let me explain what I mean…. Before going into a situation where you’ll be conversing with native English speakers, predict

American English Intonation Patterns

One key skill that I teach in my accent reduction courses is how to speak using American English intonation. ♬ Intonation is difficult to learn from a book. You really need direct instruction on how to hear American intonation and apply it correctly! While there are rules you can learn about intonation including: Rising/falling intonation⤵

How to make “small talk” in American English

Many of my accent reduction coaching clients ask me to teach them strategies for making “small talk” with ease and fluency. Small talk such as greetings, talking about the weather, sports…these are all critical skills for socializing and getting to know people. I teach my clients these skills using special intonation dialogs. These are fun

How to Stress Syllables in American English (graphic)

Here is a nice graphic that will show you a KEY TIP for speaking American English! Do you know and apply these basic syllable stress rules when you speak English? Read the graphic carefully to see how Americans stress syllables in words when they speak. You simply must apply these rules in order to speak

Accent Reduction & Grammar Issues

Many of my Asian & Latin American accent reduction coaching clients program have trouble hearing & pronouncing the ed sounds that occurs at the end of past tense verbs. When you DON’t pronounce the ed sound, it effects both your grammar & your American accent. If you are working in a professional position, you really don’t

Accent Reduction Tips for Spanish Speakers

Image via Wikipedia One of the most problematic American English vowel sounds for Spanish speakers is the /ı/ sound. I call this sound /ı/ as in Silver. The /ı/ is a relaxed sound. That means that you need to relax your facial muscles in order to say the sound correctly. Spanish speakers often over pronounce

My iPad book for the American Accent

You are probably here on my ConfidentVoice blog because you are one of those motivated people, looking for the very best resources for learning to speak with a clear American accent. ☝ There are tons of websites, books, CD’s and podcasts that you can use to improve the way you speak American English. Some of

Do I need to know the IPA to improve my American English pronunciation?

I receive lots of questions from people about the IPA symbols used for American English vowel and consonant sounds. Here is some basic information. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system that was developed to represent the sounds of spoken languages. The system uses characters from the Latin and Greek alphabets. IPA symbols include