The Center for Confident American English Communication

This morning one of my accent reduction coaching clients said to me; “Susan, the reason the American accent is so difficult for me, is because so many of the letters have more than one sound!” And you know, he’s right. The fact that our 26 letters make 44 different sounds creates plenty of problems for

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In my accent reduction coaching program I often find that my Chinese clients from Hong Kong and mainland China often confuse the /n/ & /l/ sounds when they are speaking English. If you do this, it can really create confusion for your American listeners! ☹ Problem words include: financial initial development intelligent economical If you

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If you are a student of the American accent, you understand that long clear vowel sounds are critical for clear pronunciation. ✔ Stressing the correct vowel sound in a word is one of the KEYS to speaking American English with the right rhythm and pace. ♪ That’s why I always make sure that my accent

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Many of the people who I work with in my accent reduction coaching program learned to speak English word by word. I’ve found this to be particularly true for Chinese and Japanese speakers. North Americans don’t speak word by word though…they speak is phrases or “chunks of speech”.✔ One of my Japanese clients recently told me that

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

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Here are a list of words with /n/ & /l/ that are often difficult for Chinese (Cantonese) speakers to pronounce. involve lesson influential control conclusion personal Remember that /n/ is a nasal sound. The /l/ is a liquid sound. You can see the articulation of both sounds here- University of Iowa Phonetics To read related

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Over the years, I’ve taught  American English pronunciation to many Chinese & Brazilian Portuguese speakers. One mispronunciation that speakers from both of these languages often make is dropping word final sounds. I’ve also found that when Brazilian & Chinese speakers do say word final consonant sounds, they say them so softly (without voicing) that American English

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Even if you pronounce all of your American English vowel and consonant sounds clearly, you will have a difficult time communicating with native English speakers effectively if you don’t use the correct intonation patterns. Your speech patterns may sound rather neutral (or even sarcastic) to American listeners. This can contribute to misunderstandings! Most Chinese, Filipino,

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Spoken American English has two TH sounds. One sound is voiced and one is voiceless. The voiceless TH sound is found in the middle of these common words. Something Everything Anything Nothing Birthday Faithful Wealthy Healthy Methods Many non native speakers pronounce the TH as a /t/. This creates an accent and sounds kind of

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This week one of my accent reduction clients asked me to explain the difference between the vowel sounds in the words want & won’t. Here is my answer: The ‘a’ in want has an /ɑ/ sound. This is the same vowel sound in the word father. The ‘o’ in the won’t has an /ow/ sound.

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