IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION SO OTHERS CAN UNDERSTAND YOU BETTER

Do you have good mastery of English, but still have difficulty being understood?
Do you feel your pronunciation is limiting employment opportunities or hampering social situations?
Do you have difficulty understanding and being understood on the telephone?

If so, you can benefit from a class in pronunciation. Our nine-week courses address production of consonant and vowel sounds especially difficult for non-native speakers of American English, as well as rhythm, stress, intonation and reduced sounds.

In addition to the text, practice materials will be developed from each student's personal speaking situations. Pronunciation emphasis includes:

VOWEL AND CONSONANT PRODUCTION:

Sound discrimination, production of the sound in isolation, words, phrases, sentences, readings, dialogues, and conversation. Common problems include such words as light/right, beat/bit, shop/chop as well as pronunciation of final consonants.

RHYTHM:

Americans run some words together rapidly while holding onto other sounds for a long time to produce rhythm patterns which seem strange to some language groups.

STRESS:

Photograph/photography, record/record, and many other confusing words will be practiced. Stress patterns will be explained that will help you predict which syllable to stress in unfamiliar words.

INTONATION:

I like that. I like that. I like that. All have different meanings.

REDUCED SOUNDS AND BLENDING:

Americans often tie words together and drop some sounds in a predictable manner, but this can be very confusing for non-native speakers. Choral chants and practice with real dialogues will help students become more comfortable with these patterns.

See Schedule & Pricing for info on when Pronunciation classes are offered. Classes are scheduled in nine week sessions, but students should be aware that any significant improvement in automatic speech generally takes 6-12 months and we ask that students commit to at least three 9-week sessions to begin this program. Students who do not continue for at least 6 months usually lose whatever gains they have made because they do not stay with it long enough to get the new patterns into their AUTOMATIC speech.

Private pronunciation instruction is also available. Private classes are especially recommended for more advanced speakers. The cost for private instruction is $50 per hour.