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Posts under ‘Teaching American English Pronunciation’

My Articles on American English Pronunciation & Accent Reduction

Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet? If you are one of my readers who likes lots of information I write many articles on American English pronunciation and accent reduction. You can click on the logo here to see and read these articles. ENJOY!

Improve Your English Pronunciation with Popular Songs

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 [...]

Reduced Speech in American Spoken English

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 [...]

American English Spelling (and pronunciation)

One reason that non-native English speakers have trouble speaking English correctly is because of the variety of ways that words are spelled.
What I mean is, many letters or letter combinations have more than one sound. This can be confusing for non-native speakers who learned English using a written text.
There are many groups of people who [...]

Teaching Pronunciation: Free Downloadable Books

Are you a pronunciation teacher?
Cambridge English Language Teaching offers some FREE downloadable books for teaching English pronunciation and listening skills.
One of these free books is Judy Gilbert’s book: Teaching Pronunciation: Using the Prosody Pyramid. This is a great resource for teachers of American English pronunciation because it explains the importance of teaching students how to use [...]

Pronunciation Games for Teachers

Are you looking for ways to make your pronunciation teaching more interactive? Pronunciation Games is a resource and activity book that instructors can use to teach and practice English pronunciation concepts in their classrooms.
Each unit consists of a pronunciation game that is designed to raise students awareness of key English pronunciation features. Concepts include syllable [...]

Learn American English Pronunciation with Songs

One fun and effective way to learn the rhythm of spoken English is to sing songs. In my pronunciation classes last year I used this website called KaraokeParty to teach American English songs to the students and they found that this was very helpful way to practice phrasing, linking and vowel lengthening.
To find the free [...]

Accent Reduction Step #1: Noticing American English Sounds & Patterns

Good listening skills are one of the first steps to changing your accent! One key step in improving your accent is learning to notice American English speech sounds and patterns.
For example: I typically find that my accent reduction students are not aware of the schwa vowel sound. This is the reduced vowel sound found [...]

Reduced & Connected Speech in American English

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 [...]

How to Teach American English Pronunciation

I know that many people who read my blog are teachers who are looking for quality lessons and techniques they can use to teach American English pronunciation to their students. I am currently working on a resource page for you and it will be available soon.
In the meantime, teachers who are serious about teaching American [...]