The Confident Voice Foundation

Learning to use syllable stress correctly can really help you improve your spoken English. Here in the United States we listen for syllable stress, so the way you emphasize your syllables will make a big difference when you communicate with Americans.

However, syllable stress is just one part of the pronunciation puzzle. In order to truly learn to speak English like an American you also need to learn how to pronounce vowel and consonant sounds correctly. Plus you need to learn how Americans use sentence level intonation, linking and word reductions when they speak.

When you can put all these pieces together: syllable stress, vowel and consonant sounds, sentence level intonation, linking and word reductions, you will have an American English accent. This will make it much easier and enjoyable for you to communicate in social, business and academic situations. A whole new world will open up as you discover new opportunities and relationships that were not available to you before.

Take a look at how these pieces fit together to form the Confident Voice pyramid:

 Click here to view the diagram 

Improving your spoken English sounds like a lot of work but you can do it if you follow a comprehensive program of study.

In the next few lessons, I will be teaching you how to pronounce consonants correctly. I will follow those lessons by vowel sounds in spoken English, sentence level intonation, and word linking and word reductions.

Remember: Keep up to date on all of the lessons in this course to build a solid foundation for learning to speak American English confidently.

Mini Lesson: Job Interview

Dialog #1 - Scheduling an Appointment

Most of you take these courses in order to prepare for employment. In response to your needs this week’s mini-lesson is a job interview dialog.

In this dialog you will practice scheduling a job interview with the person in Human Resources department. The two pronunciation features I have highlighted are:

1. syllable stress, and
2. syllable stress in numbers.

Dialog:

Human Resources: I read your REsume and it looks GOOD. When can you come in for an INterview?

 

Applicant: I can meet on TUESday in the MORNing.

 

Human Resources: Can you meet at TEN?

 

Applicant: That would be FINE. Can you tell me your ADdress?

 

Human Resources: Yes, our ADdress is 3330 HARvard Street.

 

Applicant: I’m sorry, is that thirtythreeTHIrdy, or thirtythreethirTEEN?

 

Human Resources: It’s thirtythreeTHIrdy.

 

Applicant: Great, I’ll see you on TUESday at TEN at thirtythreeTHIRdy HARvard Street.

Play and listen to the audio version below:

Featured Learning Resource: Elllo.org

Elllo.org is the English Language Listening Lab Online. This site has over 1000  listening activities you can use to listen to American English and other English accents. Most of the activities include great images and interactive quizzes.   This link will take you directly to a job related listening activity in which Tim (an American) and Jeff (a Canadian) talk about job likes and dislikes. Their speech is very relaxed and informal. (You may have to open the audio in a new browser tab or window).   Click on the image to go to the site now.

Insight: Homonyms - Detect Word Meaning Through Listening

Homonyms are groups of two or three words that have the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. There are many homonyms in English and you can only understand the meaning of the word by listening to the context of the sentence.

Our homonyms for this week are:

a. principal: first or highest in rank or importance
b. principle: an accepted rule of action or conduct

Listening Activity:

Listen as I say each sentence and choose the correct word from the pair of homonyms above. Remember that homonyms sound the same so you can only understand the meaning of the word from the context of the sentence.

Click Play to listen now:

Sentences:

1. One of the company principles in that you must be on time for work.
2. My principal reason for wanting the job is the high pay.

(Answers: b, a)

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