Last week a couple of people asked me if I used the book titled Speak Business English Like an American. I did not have a copy but I decided to buy one.

After looking though it and listening to the CD, here are my pros and cons:
First the Pros

• Excellent real life dialogs
• Authentic integration of American English idioms
• In depth explanations of American English idioms
• Clear and concise recordings in male and female voices
• Additional fill in the blank exercises

Now for the Cons

• The CD is only about one hour long

I’m glad that I bought the book and I know that I’ll get a great deal of use out of it. However, if you want a book focused more on American accent rules and audio, I’d get a copy of this book,
Mastering the American Accent with Audio CDs.

To read related posts on this topic click on the links below. The 0 means closed for comments.

If you are a non-native American English speaker working in the medical field you may want to check out the book Medical English Clear and Simple.

This book has excellent customer reviews. You can click on the link below to see the details about this book that will help you communicate more clearly and efficiently in medical situations.

Here are some of the most popular choices:

1. For people who have never taken an accent reduction or pronunciation class before but read and write English well I recommend the book Mastering the American Accent.

2. For people who have studied pronunciation before and need to focus on intonation I recommend the book American Accent Training.

3. People who like audio courses with very detailed descriptions of American English sounds should take a look at the American English audio course called Best Accent Training.

Click here to read detailed descriptions and reviews of these accent reduction books and audio courses.

Using books and CDs is a very affordable way for you to reduce your accent improve the way you speak American English! If you are serious about improving your accent these resources are well worth the small investment.

Feel free to send me an email to ask more about these books and audio courses. I’d be happy to answer your questions!

Each unit consists of a pronunciation game that is designed to raise students awareness of key English pronunciation features. Concepts include syllable structure, stress patterns and and vowel and consonant sounds.

All of the games are organized into a spiral bound workbook which makes them easy to photocopy.

Also included are teacher resource pages contain background information about each concept. While the phonetic transcriptions are given in British English, all are written using the IPA and can easily be adapted to American English.

Pronunciation teachers will definitely be interested in this one!
Pronunciation Games (Cambridge Copy Collection)

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

Here are my favorite products for students:

1. Mastering the American Accent by Lisa Mosjin

2. Best Accent Training mp3 Audio Course by Charles Becker

American English Pronunciation books for students

Here are my favorite books for teachers:

1. Pronunciation Pairs by Sharon Goldstein & Ann Baker

2. Teaching American English Pronunciation by Susan Ehrlich & Peter Avery

American English pronunciation books for teachers

There are lots of other more expensive products available but these are the resources that I use.

I haven’t used the book in my accent reduction classes but if you are a learner who likes a pronunciation book with lots of dialogs and mouth diagrams you might want to check it out. You can also download the audio files for immediate access.

Pronounce Pro American English Pronunciation Book & CD

Here are a couple of American English pronunciation problems frequently made by speakers of South Asian languages.

Using a /v/ sound instead of a /w/ sound in words such as; we, will, went & wine.

Using a /d/ sound instead of the voiced th sound in words such as; the, there, mother & brother.

American English speakers will probably still understand you if you say these sounds incorrectly. However, since these sounds occur so often saying them correctly will really help neutralize your accent.

Click here to read reviews of a great book that you can use to learn how to pronounce these and other American English vowel and consonant sounds correctly.

My free course is an introduction to some of the most common pronunciation problems people have when they are trying to speak American English and it’s been taken by over 5000 people since I launched it a year ago. My free course is very good….however…

Students who are really motivated should expect to spend a little money on a longer course. One way to do this is to buy an Accent Reduction or American English pronunciation book with CD’s. There are several books with CD’s that are very affordable.

Here are my recommendations:

1. For people who have never taken an accent reduction or pronunciation class before but read and write English well I recommend Mastering the American Accent.

2. For people who have studied pronunciation before I recommend American Accent Training.

3. For people who like to learn using lots of pictures and diagrams I recommend Pronounce Pro or Lose Your Accent in 28 Days.

To find out more I encourage you to click on the link below to read detailed descriptions and customer reviews of all these American English Pronunciation and Accent Reduction books. Using books and CDs might be the most affordable way for you to improve the way you speak American English!

One of my favorite American English pronunciation books for teachers are Teaching American English Pronunciation, by Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich. You can read my review of that book by clicking on the link above.

To read reviews of the most popular American English pronunciation books for students including Mastering the American Accent, please visit my Confident Voice Bookstore.