These are my top tips, based on my experience, on how you can improve your English pronunciation.
Decide which flavour of English you want to concentrate on
The three big ones are American English, British English and Australian English when it comes to pronunciation. Most people will want to learn American English as it is the most widely used, and frankly, for business use, that’s the best one to learn. In the future, we might need to learn Mandarin, but for now, the US is the world leader in business and innovation. So go with American English pronunciation unless you have some specific reason to learn one of the other two. A typical reason might be acting in a movie where your character is supposed to have a British English accent.
Methodologies. Books, Courses, One-to-One Training?
There are several resources available to you for helping you improve your English pronunciation. An important factor is your budget. There is no doubt in my mind that the most effective strategy is to go for personal one-to-one training, which can be done online using Skype. It is unfortunately also the most expensive option. Refer to the recommended tutors list below.
Recommended Books & Audio CDs
- American Accent Training – Ann Cook
- Tree or Three? Student’s Book and Audio CD: An Elementary Pronunciation Course – Ann Baker (British accent)
- Ship or Sheep? Book and Audio CD Pack: An Intermediate Pronunciation Course – Ann Baker (British accent)
- English Pronunciation in Use – Mark Hancock
Recommended Online Video Courses
Recommended Tutors for Private Lessons
- Geoff Lindsey (30-minute sessions via Skype)
- Tom Kelley (1-hour lessons via Skype)
- Pronunciation Pro (several packages to choose from)
- Susan Ryan
Matthew Zammit says
April 17, 2018 at 11:04 amDid you go through through any of the mentioned books/resources/trainers which you’d recommend more than the rest?
Accent training is one of my goals for 2018, so interested in knowing what your experience has been 👍🏻
Luis Zarza says
April 17, 2018 at 11:11 amYeah, I had exactly the same question as Matthew Zammit. Did you tried yourself the trainers and resources? 😉
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Jean says
April 17, 2018 at 11:45 amHi Matt, Luis,
Definitely the best way to rapidly improve your pronunciation is to have Skype lessons. I ended up doing my lessons with Geoff Lindsey, and highly recommend him. Both my wife and sister did or are currently doing lessons with him and they found it very useful too.
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Luis Zarza says
April 17, 2018 at 1:24 pmTwo more questions if you don’t mind Jean,
1. What comment plugin do you use on this site?
It is outstanding that WordPress by default do not send an email notification to the user once he has got a reply to his comment.
2. What plugin do you use to link Facebook comments directly to your blog?
Thanks bro!
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Jean says
April 17, 2018 at 3:45 pmSure Luis,
1. I have Jetpack and Postmatic activated.
2. SNAP Auto Poster.