American English Pronunciation blog

How to Improve Flat Speech

Many of my accent reduction coaching clients have told me that native speakers often comment that their speech is too “flat”. It’s true. Many non native speakers do sound flat and monotonous. The American listener prefers to hear some vocal variety when others are speaking. So, what can you do to speak with a varied

Medical English Pronunciation

In my accent reduction coaching course I often work with international doctors and other medical personnel. I help them learn and improve many aspects of American English pronunciation, including the following: Syllable stress in words like: antibOtics, radiOLogy and HOspital. Stress in phrasal verbs such as: checkIN, checkOUT and lookOVer. Intonation patterns in statements and

Short Lessons on Sentence Stress

When it comes to spoken English, all words are not equal. What I mean is this: some words are stressed or emphasized. Other words are not. Most English pronunciation textbooks refer to stressed words as content words. Content words are typically key nouns, verbs and adjectives. Unstressed words are referred to as function words. Function

Accent Reduction for Chinese Speakers

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Chinese students seeking to study in the United States often have the money to do so. What they lack are spoken English skills. University bound students need advanced linguistic skills that will enable them to participate in discussions and seminar-type settings. Chinese speakers who want to speak English

Intonation Audio Samples

Probably the most common question that I get from my students and clients concerns how to learn to use American English intonation. Intonation is not easy to learn from a book. You really need to instruction on how to hear it and apply it. There are not always clear cut rules because intonation is related

What happens to the brain when you hear an accent

This article from the journal, Scientific American, describes some current research on how the human brain reacts when it hears a foreign accent. The research may have implications on how accented speech is perceived and judged. Does having an accent that is difficult to understand, reduce one’s credibility in the eyes and ears of native

American English Pronunciation: Words that Begin with Schwa

This week I received many questions about the schwa vowel sound. Let me explain a few things about this KEY English vowel sound. In spoken American English the schwa (see the image above right) is the relaxed vowel sound that is frequently used for vowel sounds in unstressed syllables. The schwa sound is made with

American Accent Training for German Speakers

During the past couple of months I’ve had the opportunity to do American accent training with a couple of German speakers. This has been a real pleasure for me because these clients have been so dedicated and hardworking both inside and outside of our sessions. Typical problems that Germans have when speaking American English include

American English Audio from Voice of America

The Voice of America website has some excellent stories that you can use to listen to American English. I especially like the series titled Words and Their Stories. This series has stories with idioms, phrasal verbs and stories that describe American culture. Keep this in mind though: the narrators who read the audio tend to

Pronunciation of Medical Terms & Expressions

Here is a great audio story from the Voice of America that features some frequently used medical terms and expressions. If you are an international doctor or other medical professional who uses American English in your work, you’ll really enjoy this lesson. Keep in mind that the speaker speaks a bit slower than normal. Medical

← Previous Page