Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[flyintosky]

In the country which the people don't use English as the official language, How do we learn American's pronunciation when we speak English?

[jerseyjoe]

Hello Flyintosky, you must listen and practice by immitating. I have some decent programs on my website which are not expensive. Take a look and see what you think.
_________________
YOU CAN learn English
Joseph Darby
http://thelanguagestore.webs.com
http://learningenglishnow.yolasite.com

[Lorikeet]

I also have something on my website, http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/activity/listening/listeningexp.html . I never finished it, but there are a few things there about American English fast speech.

[OC Tutor]

[Stephanie S]

A friend of mine started a company called accentschool.com, which offers tutoring in American English accent pronunciation. I think it's really good.

[RedRose]

It's easy, you just keep watching American movies, TV, talk shows...then you talk to any American you encounter....you are gonna make it, believe me

[Corey]

Don't forget though, pronunciation (or accent) is only one part of being able to communicate.
_________________
Niagara Summer Programs

[longshikong]

As a teacher, I suggest the following:

a) if your reading comprehension is much, much better than your listening comprehension, I recommend Clear Speech: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English Here in China, students recognize contractions (I'm, it'll, they'd,..) in print but aren't used to hearing or using them.

b) Follow RedRose's advice; watch videos that interest you. When played on a computer, you can change the playback speed using software such as the free downloadable VLC Media Player. You can also find subtitles for many popular TV series and movies online. Don't worry if you don't hear every word--native speakers use far more guessing than actual listening in noisy places or when someone isn't speaking clearly. That will come with experience.

c) Record your voice and compare it to a native speaker's. Make a note of what sounds you still need to work on, or that cause confusion for native speakers you communicate with (ask them!) For many, the short 'i' is a problem: it/eat, ship/sheep.

RedRose: nice to see you back! I enjoyed reading your positive comments! I even tried contacting tcxch because I thought what he wrote about learning English in China: My English Learning Philoshophy could help many of my students (I wanted a Chinese translation).

Actually, now that I live in China's Hunan province, I face the same problem--the dialect makes it harder for me to understand others and some people here don't even understand my standard Mandarin pronunciation.

[PeterAlex]

To improve your pronunciation of American English, let's begin with vowel sounds.

Directions:

Listen to the audio while reading each word.
Read each word out loud with the audio.
Read the words without the audio.

Click here to begin the pronunciation program.