Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet? Do you speak American English with a foreign accent? Many highly educated people read and write English perfectly. However, when they speak they have an accent that causes communication problems.
There are a number of factors that contribute to accented speech and this week I [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Teaching American English Pronunciation’
Why You Have an Accent When You Speak American English, Part 1
American English Pronunciation Books for Students & Teachers
In my work as an American English pronunciation and accent reduction teacher I buy and test many of the books, CDs software and audio courses that are available for students and teachers to use.
Here are my favorite products for students:
1. Mastering the American Accent by Lisa Mosjin
2. Best Accent Training mp3 Audio Course by Charles [...]
History of English Timeline
It’s good to keep in mind that the English language is continually changing. Even though grammar rules don’t change any more, English vocabulary and pronunciation are always evolving with the culture.
Here is a link to an easy to read history of the English language.
Those of you who are really interested in the History of English [...]
Babies & Language Learning
Psychologists at Bristol University have found that the developing brain undergoes a period of “programming” in infancy. This programming sets the stage for a life long ability to recognize sounds.
Babies who hear only English are left unable to distinguish between subtly different sounds used in other languages. Babies exposed to multiple languages during their first [...]
English Pronunciation Lessons for Teachers
This PDF document from Pearson Longman Publishers outlines the pronunciation concepts that teachers need to address when teaching English pronunciation classes.
Some of these key features include:
working on individual sounds or phonemes
word stress (also called syllable stress)
sentence stress & intonation
teaching students to use phonemic scripts
using minimal pair exercises
Click here to access the PDF on Teaching Pronunciation
A Great Book for Teaching American English Pronunciation
I know that many of my readers are people who teach American English Pronunciation. For my fellow teachers I want to you to know that I recently published a book review of an excellent book called Teaching American English Pronunciation, an easy to read primer on how to teach American English pronunciation.
One of the most [...]
Use Songs to Improve Your American English Pronunciation
I just found a new website called EFL.NET. The site has a great feature that allows you to practice your American English by listening to American songs as you read a transcript with the words.
To listen to the songs choose: ComAudio and then choose Songs from the drop down menu. The songs are sung by [...]
Teaching English Pronunciation to Teachers
The English Language Training Institute (ELTI) in Calcutta is working to correct the English pronunciation of 60 schoolteachers in their two-day workshops.
One of the teachers had it right when he said: “We are habituated to speak in a certain way. We have to first unlearn what we know and then relearn the words afresh again.”
The [...]
