Category: American English pronunciation

Occasions when I incorporated home language into ESL teaching: I was teaching elementary school children and used English solely in class. My educational assistant spoke Thai, Lao, and English. I often asked her to use Lao if the Laotian kindergarten Read More …

English pronunciation is governed by patterns, not rules. I’ll start with the smallest pieces of sound and work up to larger ones. Vowels and consonants: you can find resources to hear the way they sound and learn symbols to represent Read More …

I taught English as a Second Language to children for many years…decades, in fact. Children’s brains are programmed to learn language. Begin exposing them to a second language as early as possible in childhood, during those years when language learning Read More …

Use your whole body to speak, not just your mouth. Put your reading material on a shelf at eye level so you can read it while you are standing. Pull air into your lungs, and then push it out using Read More …

Connected speech is a skill that is learned once you can pronounce words accurately. It decreases the accuracy of some sounds you make (is he becomes izzee), and moves some final sounds from one word to the next (his pan Read More …

I can try to answer this from an American English perspective. It’s likely that the reasons are the same for British English since they are very similar accents. Below are the phonetic descriptions Merriam-Webster gives for ‘exist’ and ‘maximum’. This Read More …

The problem: People tell me I use too many big words! What can I do to sound better? The answer: Hang around (socialize) with native speakers more—do things with them so you become accustomed to their style of speech. Native Read More …

What is the difference in pronunciation between the ‘th’ sounds, theta and ð, at the end of words? Answered by Peggy Tharpe They are the same sound basically. The only difference is the airiness or soft hissing that comes with Read More …