Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet? 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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘speak american english’
Improve Your English Pronunciation with Popular Songs
Make Your American English Sound More Natural
In spoken English consonant and vowel sounds change depending on their location in a word or phrase. Learning some of the rules or patterns for these types of sound changes can make your pronunciation sound more natural.
Here is one pattern. When a /d/ sound is followed by a /y/ sound the result is a /dʒ/ [...]
American English Pronunciation-The Past Tense “ed”
Many people don’t realize that the past tense “ed” has three different sounds in spoken American English. These sounds are /d/ as in the word loved, /ed/ as in the word wanted, and /t/ as in the word stopped.
Correct pronunciation of these grammatical endings is extremely important if you want to improve your American English pronunciation. [...]
American English Pronunciation-The Sounds of R & L
Many non-native English speakers have problems pronouncing the consonants R and L. Since R and L are found at the beginning and end of many American English words it is important to pronounce these sounds correctly.
Here are a few tips you can use to make these sounds.
Making the /r/ sound
To make the /r/ [...]
American English Pronunciation-How to Pronounce S & Z
The sounds of the letters S & Z are often confusing for students of American English pronunciation. Here are a few tips for pronouncing these sounds correctly.
Tongue position
The /s/ and /z/ sounds are made with the same tongue position. The tip of the tongue is behind your upper gum ridge. The tongue is pointed and [...]
American English Pronunciation-The Sounds of S
In the previous post I wrote about the three sounds of the past tense “ed” in spoken American English. Like the past tense “ed”, the plural and possessive “s” also has three different sounds.
These sounds are
/ez/ as in the word churches
/s/ as in the word cats
/z/ as in the word loves
In order to [...]
Learn Medical English-Listening & Speaking Activities
Project Care is a website for high-intermediate to advanced English language learners who want to learn medical English. The site provides lessons that help English learners improve their communication with medical personnel and patients.
The website provides audio and video for listening practice, vocabulary development and more.
I have recommended this resource to several of my colleagues who teach [...]
Accent Reduction Strategy-Learn to Use Syllable Stress
In order to improve your American English pronunciation you must learn English syllable stress correctly. That’s because Americans listen for syllable stress patterns in order to identify words.
Here is a common syllable stress pattern:
In English words with two or more syllables, one syllable always receives strong stress or emphasis. Here is a common [...]
Vowel Sounds in American English
Many people have emailed me during the past two weeks asking for websites that have American English vowel sounds with audio. I found this site, developed by Dr. Emily Chen, that has sound files for both vowel and consonant minimal pair exercises. It’s quite good because it contrasts all the difficult vowel and consonant sounds. [...]
