It contains explanations on how to form correct English sounds. The audiobook provides extensive practice with words, sentences, and funny verses. This audiobook is compact and easy to use with its 44 short lessons, each devoted to a single phoneme. By: Olga Smith , and others. After years of teaching intermediate students who never seemed to improve, I decided to find out what the problem was.
Essentially, intermediate students get stuck because learning at this stage is a different type of learning than at the beginner stage. You have mastered the grammar and the basic vocabulary, but most textbooks just carry on like nothing has changed. However, what you need at the intermediate stage is not just more dry grammar and lists of vocabulary.
By: Jenny Smith. Are you looking to improve your English pronunciation or the way that your English sounds to others? No matter what your level of English is - or if you are simply trying to lessen a strong regional accent - this program will help you sound more natural and communicate with greater ease and confidence. By: Living Language. This book is especially written for advanced students of the English language who wish to improve their English fluency to the next level, but seems to have hit a plateau.
Regardless of what actions are taken, progression is slow or limited. This book is essential for you to break through and not only improve your spoken skills, but develop them so well that you can speak like a native English speaker.
Armed with the proven tips, tricks, and techniques in this book, you'll discover that you'll be soaring to an entirely new and exciting level of learning within days. When it comes to learning a new language, studies have actually found that memorizing words doesn't work in the long term. But then, why does the traditional education system still follow this gut-wrenching pattern of memorizing words when it only sets students up for failure?
By: Jason Durham , and others. Do you use your voice for work? Do you want to become a better voiceover actor, singer, or public speaker? This book, written by well-known and respected voice talent Rodney Saulsberry, contains fun and challenging tongue twisters and vocal warm-ups that prepare you to read commercial, promo, narration, trailer, and animation copy with the proper energy and vocal dexterity. Learn how to deal with mouth clicks and sibilance issues, breathe correctly, control plosive words, and master microphone technique.
By: Rodney Saulsberry. Get Rid of Your Accent is a phenomenon. Both native and non-native English actors, lawyers, brokers, businessmen, and diplomats have flourished with our help. This audiobook is a leading accent reduction training manual with practical exercises to master general American accent. It is fun and to the point. The audiobook contains 10 percent of theory and 90 percent of practice. It is a perfect training manual for both personal study and classroom situations. Sure, you can learn English with a language course or a textbook just fine, and climb up the ranks in terms of your grasp of the language By: Lingo Mastery.
English is the third most widely spoken language in the world and it is gaining ground. People in every corner of the globe are enrolling in English schools and online classes. Rhythm and Intonation Classes Using correct pitch and length may be the single most important part of your new accent.
Progress Quizzes Quizzes help you stay on track and know what you need to focus on. Life Enhancement Open up your future to more meaningful interactions, jobs and opportunities. You can meet your coach online each week through our online meeting room or through Skype. Or, if you schedule doesn't permit, you can choose to communicate with your coach through audio and video recordings. Either way, you will still get high quality help as you learn the American Accent.
Please note that there is an extra charge for coaching. Engineers Educators Medical Personnel Businesspeople. What Our Students Are Saying From Japan, currently in the US. From Portugal, currently living in Germany. From India, currently in the US. From the Middle East. The teacher is just great.
The explanations are very simple and understandable. The pronunciation of each sound is so easy to understand and you begin to use it. And because of that, my pronunciation got much, much better.
Many people my friends and family noticed that I was taking this class and a lot of people noticed that my English became much better. Definitely I would advise people who want to improve their English to take this class. After the meeting they asked me what happened with my English over night. They mentioned that the rolled R turned into a better English R.
To be honest, I was impressed by their positive remarks. So Sheri, thank you! Not many ESL teachers or speech pathologists can help you like she does. She has helped me improve my accent and gain self-confidence. I highly recommend her online course if you want to improve your accent. Keep up the good work! Frequently Asked Questions. Where do I go to take this class? Is the course for certain groups, or people who speak certain languages? Is my English good enough to take this course?
How long does it take to finish this class? Can I get personal help in this class? Can I see a sample of the classes? Just click on the button below to take a tour and get the samples. You'll be Shocked at the Depth of this Program. Over 50 Hours of Training! Just Stay for as Long or as Short as You Need. Noun Adjective 1. It's a nail. It's short. It's a cake. It's chocolate. It's a tub.
It's hot. It's a drive. It's a door. It's in back. There are four. It's a spot. You will be using these examples throughout this series of exercises. An adjective and a noun combination is called a descriptive phrase, and in the absence of contrast or other secondary changes, the stress will always fall naturally on the noun. In the absence of a noun, you will stress the adjective, but as soon as a noun appears on the scene, it takes immediate precedence—and should be stressed. Adjective Noun and Adjective 1.
It's a short nail. It's a chocolate cake. It's good. It's a good plan. It's guarded. It's a guarded gate. It's wide. It's a wide river. There're four. There're four cards. It was small. It was a small spot. It's the best.
It's the best book. Use the same words from Ex. Adjective Noun Adverb Adjective 1. It's really short. It's dark chocolate. It's a hot bath. It's too hot. It's a hard drive. It's extremely hard. It's the back door.
It's far back. There are four cards. There are only four. It's a small spot. It's laughably small. It's a good book. It's amazingly good.
Stress the second word of each phrase. She lays three eggs. Soon, there are three baby birds. Two of the birds are very beautiful. One of them is quite ugly.
The beautiful ducklings make fun of their ugly brother. The poo r thing is very unhappy. As the three birds grow older, the ugly duckling begins to change. His gray feathers turn snowy white.
His gangly neck becomes beautifully smooth. In early spring, the ugly duckling is swimming in a small pond in the backyard of the old farm.
He sees his shimmering reflection in the clear water. What a great surprise. He is no longer an ugly duckling. He has grown into a lovely swan. I heard that the last four letters were dubba-you, ex, why, zee. I thought that dubbayou was a long, strange name for a letter, but I didn't question it any more than I did aitch. It was just a name. Many years later, it struck me that it was a double U. Of course, a W is really UU. I had such a funny feeling, though, when I realized that something I had taken for granted for so many years had a background meaning that I had completely overlooked.
When two individual words go through the cultural process of becoming a set phrase, the original sense of each word is more or less forgotten and the new meaning completely takes over. When we hear the word painkiller, we think anesthetic. If, however, someone says painkiller, it brings up the strength and almost unrelated meaning of kill. When you have a two-word phrase, you have to either stress on the first word, or on 25 the second word.
If you stress both or neither, it's not clear what you are trying to say. Stress on the first word is more noticeable and one of the most important concepts of intonation that you are going to study. At first glance, it doesn't seem significant, but the more you look at this concept, the more you are going to realize that it reflects how we Americans think, what concepts we have adopted as our own, and what things we consider important.
Set phrases are our "cultural icons," or word images; they are indicators of a determined use that we have internalized. These set phrases, with stress on the first word, have been taken into everyday English from descriptive phrases, with stress on the second word. As soon as a descriptive phrase becomes a set phrase, the emphasis shifts from the second word to the first. The original sense of each word is more or less forgotten and the new meaning takes over.
Set phrases indicate that we have internalized this phrase as an image, that we all agree on a concrete idea that this phrase represents. A hundred years or so ago, when Levi Strauss first came out with his denim pants, they were described as blue jeans.
Now that we all agree on the image, however, they are blue jeans. A more recent example would be the descriptive phrase, He 's a real party animal.
This slang expression refers to someone who has a great time at a party. When it first became popular, the people using it needed to explain with their intonation that he was an animal at a party.
As time passed, the expression became cliche and we changed the intonation to He's a real party animal because "everyone knew" what it meant. Cliches are hard to recognize in a new language because what may be an old and tired expression to a native speaker may be fresh and exciting to a newcomer.
One way to look at English from the inside out, rather than always looking from the outside in, is to get a feel for what Americans have already accepted and internalized. This starts out as a purely language phenomenon, but you will notice that as you progress and undergo the relentless cultural indoctrination of standard intonation patterns, you will find yourself expressing yourself with the language cues and signals that will mark you as an insider—not an outsider.
When the interpreter was translating for the former Russian President Gorbachev about his trip to San Francisco in , his pronunciation was good, but he placed himself on the outside by repeatedly saying, cable car. The phrase cable car is an image, an established entity, and it was very noticeable to hear it stressed on the second word as a mere description. An important point that I would like to make is that the "rules" you are given here are not meant to be memorized.
This discussion is only an introduction to give you a starting point in understanding this phenomenon and in recognizing what to listen for. Read it over; think about it; then listen, try it out, listen some more, and try it out again. As you become familiar with intonation, you will become more comfortable with American norms, thus the cultural orientation, or even cultural indoctrination, aspect of the following examples.
Note When you get the impression that a two-word description could be hyphenated or even made into one word, it is a signal that it could be a set phrase—for example, flash light, flash-light, flashlight.
Also, stress the first word with Street Main Street and nationalities of food and people Mexican food, Chinese girls. Set Phrase 1. It's a finger. It's a fingernail. It's a pan. It's a pancake. It's a hot tub. Jacuzzi 4. It's hard. It's a bone. It's the backbone. It's a card. It's a trick. It's a card trick. It's a light. It's a spotlight. It's a book. It's a phone. It's a phone book. Pause the CD and write your own noun and set phrase sentences, carrying over the same nouns you used in Exercise Remember, when you use a noun, include the article a, an, the ; when you use an adjective, you don't need an article.
Stress the first word of each phrase. The little match girl was out in a snowstorm. Her feet were like ice cubes and her fingertips had frostbite. She hadn't sold any matches since daybreak, and she had a stomachache from the hunger pangs, but her stepmother would beat her with a broomstick if she came home with an empty coin purse.
Looking into the bright living rooms, she saw Christmas trees and warm fireplaces. Out on the snowbank, she lit match and saw the image of a grand dinner table of food before her.
As the matchstick burned, the illusion slowly faded. She lit another one and saw a room full of happy family members. On the last match, her grandmother came down and carried her home. In the morning, the passersby saw the little match girl. She had frozen during the nighttime, but she had a smile on her face. In the following exercise, we will contrast the two.
Descriptive Phrase Set Phrase 1. It's a long drive. It's a spot light. It's a phone book Pause the CD and rewrite your descriptive phrases Ex. Xerox Corporation nationalities of food Chinese food nationalities of people French guy descriptive phrases new information Second Word road designations Fifth Avenue modified adjectives really big place names and parks New York, Central Park institutions, or Inc. Oakland Museum, Xerox Inc.
It would be nice if there were a simple rule that said that all the words using nationalities are stressed on the first word. There isn't, of course. Take this preliminary quiz to see if you need to do this exercise. For simplicity's sake, we will stick with one nationality—American. American food 4. Words like guy, man, kid, lady, people are de facto pronouns in an anthropocentric language. A strong noun, on the other hand, would be stressed— They flew an American flag.
This is why you have the pattern change in Exercise 4e, Jim killed a man; but 4b, He killed a snake. You are describing the restaurant, We went to a good restaurant yesterday or We went to an American restaurant yesterday. I never ate American food when I lived in Japan. Let's have Chinese food for dinner. The stress is on the subject being taught, not the nationality of the teacher: a French teacher, a Spanish teacher, a history teacher.
An English teacher An English book An English test English food An English restaurant For example, an English teacher teaches English, but an English teacher is from England; French class is where you study French, but French class is Gallic style and sophistication; an orange tree grows oranges, but an orange tree is any kind of tree that has been painted orange.
To have your intonation tested, call Afterwards, check Answer Key, beginning on page The White House Fifth Avenue I scream. Main Street Watergate 9.
United States New York Long Beach Central Park IBM MIT USA ASAP Pause the CD and underline or highlight the stressed word. He's a nice guy. He's an American guy from San Francisco. The cheerleader needs a rubber band to hold her ponytail.
The executive assistant needs a paper clip for the final report. The law student took an English test in a foreign country. The policeman saw a red car on the freeway in Los Angeles. My old dog has long ears and a flea problem. The new teacher broke his coffee cup on the first day.
His best friend has a broken cup in his other office. Let's play football on the weekend in New York. Where are my new shoes? Where are my tennis shoes? I have a headache from the heat wave in South Carolina. The newlyweds took a long walk in Long Beach. The little dog was sitting on the sidewalk. The famous athlete changed clothes in the locker room. The art exhibit was held in an empty room. There was a class reunion at the high school. The headlines indicated a new policy.
We got on line and went to americanaccent dot com. The stock options were listed in the company directory. All the second-graders were out on the playground. Notice if they are a description, a set phrase or contrast. For the next level of this topic, go to page There is a little girl. Her name is Goldilocks. She is in a sunny forest. She sees a small house. She goes inside. In the large room, there are three chairs. Goldilocks sits on the biggest chair, but it is too high.
She sits on the middle-sized one, but it is too low. She sits on the small chair and it is just right. On the table, there are three bowls. There is hot porridge in the bowls. She tries the first one, but it is too hot; the second one is too cold, and the third one is just right, so she eats it all. After that, she goes upstairs. She looks around. There are three beds, so she sits down. The biggest bed is too hard. The middle- sized bed is too soft.
The little one is just right, so she lies down. Soon, she falls asleep. In the meantime, the family of three bears comes home — the Papa bear, the Mama bear, and the Baby bear.
They look around. They say, "Who's been sitting in our chairs and eating our porridge? They say, "Who's been sleeping in our beds? She is very scared. She runs away. Goldilocks never comes back. Note Up to this point, we have gone into great detail on the intonation patterns of nouns.
We shall now examine the intonation patterns of verbs. But Were Afraid to Use English is a chronological language. We just love to know when something happened, and this is indicated by the range and depth of our verb tenses. I had already seen it by the time she brought it in. As you probably learned in your grammar studies, "the past perfect is an action in the past that occurred before a separate action in the past.
Not all languages do this. For example, Japanese is fairly casual about when things happened, but being a hierarchical language, it is very important to know what relationship the two people involved had. A high-level person with a low-level one, two peers, a man and a woman, all these things show up in Japanese grammar. Grammatically speaking, English is democratic. The confusing part is that in English the verb tenses are very important, but instead of putting them up on the peaks of a sentence, we throw them all deep down in the valleys!
Therefore, two sentences with strong intonation—such as, "Dogs eat bones" and "The dogs'll've eaten the bones" sound amazingly similar. Because it takes the same amount of time to say both sentences since they have the same number of stresses. The three original words and the rhythm stay the same in these sentences, but the meaning changes as you add more stressed words.
Articles and verb tense changes are usually not stressed. When you do the exercise the first time, go through stressing only the nouns Dogs eat bones. Practice this until you are quite comfortable with the intonation. The pronunciation and word connections are on the right, and the full verb tenses are on the far left.
The dogs eat the bones. The dogs ate the bones. The dogs're eating the bones. The dogs'll eat the bones if The dogs'd eat the bones if The dogs'd've eaten the bones if.. The dogs that've eaten the bones are.. The dogs've eaten the bones. The dogs'd eaten the bones. The dogs'll've eaten the bones. The dogs ought to eat the bones. The dogs should eat the bones.
The dogs shouldn't eat the bones. The dogs should've eaten the bones. Feel free to leave one :. You will be redirected in 3 seconds. You are leaving x to a website that is not affiliated with us in any way.
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