American English Pronunciation Blog » Learn American Accent

Get an Accent Assessment and a Free Summer Bonus

susan — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:27:47 +0000

Do you wonder why your American colleagues and friends don’t always understand you when you speak English? Are you frustrated that people continually ask you to slow down or repeat what you said?

It’s time to stop struggling! Find out why your American English pronunciation is causing you problems by getting a personalized accent assessment.

Here are three reasons you should get an Accent Assessment:

You will learn WHY American English speakers don’t understand you.
You will be learn specific techniques you can use to address your pronunciation problems.
You will receive lessons & resources you can use to study and improve your pronunciation.

Sign up for an Accent Assessment during the month of July and I will give you access to my Accent Reduction Essentials Video Course for FREE.

Click on the link above to sign up or find out more.

Improve Your English Pronunciation with Popular Songs

susan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:53:38 +0000

Using songs is an effective and fun way to improve your spoken English. This is a fun and energizing way to improve both listening and pronunciation.

One thing that I like to do in my American English pronunciation classes is sing popular songs with the students. This helps them with English rhythm, linking and intonation.

Carolyn Graham’s Jazz Chants®: Student Book is an excellent way to improve pronunciation.

Click here to see one of the websites I use for using songs to teach English pronunciation.

Reduced Speech in American Spoken English

susan — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:26 +0000

I get a lot of questions from people about the reduced speech forms that they hear when they listen to American English conversations. Examples include: gonna, wanna and hafta.

Here is a link to Nina Weinstein’s Voice of America episode on reduced speech. Nina is the author of the book Whaddaya Say. You can see the book by clicking on the link below.
Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech, Second Edition

Pronunciation of the Vowel Combination ou

susan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:00:45 +0000

Continuing on my theme of American English vowels I’m going to write briefly on the pronunciation of the vowel combination ou.

This vowel combination can be pronounced 3 ways in American English. Here are some examples.

ou can be pronounced like /oʊ/

shoulder
soul
though
doughnut
although

ou can be pronounced like schwa /ə/

cousin
enough
country
tough
couple

ou can be pronounced like /aʊ/

loud
sound
south
found
house

If you want to learn more about how to articulate American English vowel sounds you might want to check out Mastering the American Accent with Audio CDs

This excellent book uses illustrated text with an audio CD to show you where to put your mouth, tongue and lips to form each sound.

English Audio Lesson: Reduced Speech

susan — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:06:03 +0000

Several of my students tell me that they have trouble understanding the spoken English of native speakers. This is not at all unusual.

One reason that native English speakers are difficult to understand is because they often use reduced speech. When native speakers use reduced speech the words seem to run together and this can make it very difficult to understand what they are saying.

Click on the link below to hear a list of phrases that American English speakers commonly reduce in everyday speech. You do not necessarily have to pronounce these reduced phrases, however it is critical that you are aware of them because native speakers use them all the time!

AMERICAN ENGLISH AUDIO REDUCED SPEECH

The very best book for learning to use reduced speech is Nina Weinstein’s Whaddaya Say? Take a look at this great book & CD.

American English Pronunciation Problems for Speakers of Haitian Creole

susan — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:40:15 +0000

Haitian Creole speakers and French speakers have some of the same problems with spoken English.

One of these is the tendency to delete the /h/ sound at the beginning of words. Word initial /h/ is almost always pronounced in American English. That means that the /h/ must be articulated clearly in words such as: hat, here, hot, host, half, hair, hungry & husband. Exceptions to this rule include the words honest, honor and herb.

Speakers of Haitian Creole also have a tendency to pronounce words with the lax vowel sound /I/ using the tense vowel sound /iy/. That means that the word sit sounds like seat, the word live sounds like leave and the word chip sounds like cheap.

Linking within Words for Smoother Speech

susan — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:00:15 +0000

If you are an advanced student of American English pronunciation you have probably learned about linking (or liaisons). Linking refers to the connections between words. Ann Cook, author of American Accent Training, says that these connections “allow us to speak in sound groups” instead of word by word.

Spoken English has linking between words and also within words.

Word internal linking occurs when there are 2 vowel sounds inside a word. When this happens native English speakers will insert a /y/ or /w/ glide to connect the sounds.

The /y/ insertion is very common. This is sometimes referred to as the invisible /y/. Here are a few examples:

reunion sounds like reyunion
client sounds like cliyent
diet sounds like diyet

You will also hear a /w/ insertion is some words:
cooperate sounds like cowoperate
graduate sounds like graduwate
coersion sounds like cowersion

Click on the LINKING category to your right to learn more about the importance of linking in American English!

American English Pronunciation: How to Make the /n/ & /l/ Sounds

susan — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:00:26 +0000

Chinese speakers from some dialects tend to confuse word medial and word final /l/ & /n/ sounds when they are speaking English. This causes communication problems and contributes to your accent.

The /n/ & /l/ sounds are articulated in almost the same manner as the tongue touches behind the tooth ridge. The tongue is a bit flatter for the /n/ sound.

However, the /n/ sound is a nasal so you need to force the air through your nose to make this sound. The /l/ sound is a liquid so the air flows along side your tongue and out of your mouth.

Here are a few words with the /n/ & /l/ sounds that may be problematic:
financial, intellectual, international & analysis.

One book that you can use to help you learn these sounds is Ann Cook’s American Accent Training. Ann explains many problems encountered by Chinese speakers in this book and CD set.
American Accent Training (Book and Audio CD, 2nd Edition)

Reduced & Connected Speech in American English

susan — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:40:57 +0000

This week several of my students asked me if reduced speech was only appropriate in informal situations. I don’t believe that it is.

Whenever people speak, they have a tendency to save energy by connecting sounds together. This connected or reduced speech is not necessarily sloppy or informal, it’s the way most Americans speak English in everyday situations.

Reduced or connected speech may include:

contractions
linking sounds together
sound assimilation
epenthesis or addtion of certain sounds
deletion of certain sounds

There are rules and patterns you can learn that will help you understand and use American English reduced speech forms.

For students of English who want to learn more about reduced and connected speech I suggest Nina Weinstein’s Whaddaya Say?
Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech, Second Edition

Teachers of American English pronunciation can learn all of the technical details of assimilation, epenthesis and deletion by reading Celcia-Murcia and Brinton’s classic book, Teaching Pronunciation.
Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

Arizona to remove teachers with heavy accents

susan — Sat, 01 May 2010 10:39:20 +0000

News sources in the US have been filled with this story about the fate of teachers in the state of Arizona who speak English with heavy accents.

Many of Arizona’s teachers are native Spanish speakers who tend to mispronounce the voiced and voiceless th sounds, the /v/ sound and leave off word endings such as ed and s.

Officials say that pronunciation errors such as these make it difficult for students to understand. Teachers with heavy accents who can’t change may lose their jobs.

Here is a version of the story from the Washington Post.
Arizona teachers and accents.