'An English Accent' for East Asian Speakers.

Learn how to speak English with clear pronunciation and a neutral accent
- 8 week evening course, 19:00 - 21:00, one day/week.
- Designed specifically to improve speakers of East Asian languages' accents and pronunciation.
- Expert teachers, BA, MA, IPA Certified with vast experience.
- Student - focused method has helped thousands of people.
- £200 including materials (£12.50/hour).

'ʻVery good teaching, method and materials - there is a lot of interaction between the teacher and students..' KEVIN, China 2010
'I feel I can produce consonants more clearly and my intonation is better.' Zijun, China 2010
'I have improved signi!cantly. The major change is that I can now correct myself..' YANAI, Japan 2009

Group Size: Maximum 7 students

Requirements: High level of spoken English

Fees: 8 week/16 hour course £200 Including Materials.

Course also available as a flexible 10 class one to one for £450

Mother Tongues: Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Lao, or Burmese

Location: Pronunciation Studio London, 1 Euston Rd, NW1 2SA

Teachers:
Lis Carter (BA Fre | IPA Cert)
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn (Phd | Pphil | BA)

Brochure: Click here to download the course brochure (pdf).

Next Course Dates:
1. Fridays 18:30 - 20:30 | June 15th - Aug 3rd | Places Available
2. Thursdays 19:00 - 21:00 | July 12th - Aug 30th | Places Available
3. Fridays 18:30 - 20:30 | Aug 10th - Sept 28th | Places Available
New course begins every 4-6 weeks - contact us for later dates.

Course Objectives (Full program below):

  1. Practice and learn all vowel and consonant sounds of a neutral English accent.
  2. Learn to use IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
  3. Recognise and produce the three English intonation patterns.
  4. Apply British speech structures (weak forms, joining, stress patterns).
  5. Overall improvement in listening and speaking accuracy, control over accent.


course teachers


course brochure (pdf)


  
Session Content (Click to learn more) Detailed description  
1

- Introduction
- East Asian Errors.
- Sounds of English.
- Structure of Speech.
- Intonation

In this first class, we will learn about common errors caused by East Asian mother tongues. Every vowel and consonant sound will be pronounced and we will introduce structures such as schwa, rhythm and intonation. We will discuss the course goals, method and hand out the course book and audio.

 
2

- Long Vowel Sounds
- Silent < r >
- ə vs ɪ
- Weak/Strong

In class 2, we begin with the course structure:
SOUNDS - long vowel (beat, boot, burt, bought, bart). We will learn the mouth positions and possible spellings of these unusual sounds.
RULE - silent <r> we will learn when the English <r> is silent - you can see from the spelling of the word.
SOUND COMPARISON - ə vs ɪ - these two sounds are highly confusing to the non-native speaker - any vowel spelling (a, e, i, o, u) can produce both of these vowel sounds. We will learn the difference and where to say them.
STRUCTURE - strong/weak Spoken English is made of strong and weak forms - by placing the correct level of stress on each word, we can make our speech clear and smooth.

  
3

- Fricative Consonant Sounds
- < s > endings
- Long Open Vowel Comparison.
- Question Tags

SOUNDS - Fricative Consonants (fine, think, sit, shake, height, vine, those,
zoo, pleasure) We will learn the mouth positions, voicing, IPA and spellings for the 9 fricative sounds, which are made by squeezing air through a gap.
RULE - <s> endings we will learn the three different pronunciations of <s>: waits, plays, buses and the spelling rule that shows you which pronunciation to use.
SOUND COMPARISON - Long Open- here we will compare the bird, bored, barred vowel sounds which employ an open jaw position. These often cause confusion for East Asian speakers, we will compare them using vowel grids and mouth exercises.
STRUCTURE - Question Tags - British English uses question tags extensively both in statements and in questions. The intonation tells the listener how to react - rising often means a real question, falling often means a statement. For example, 'He's French, isn't he?'.

  
4

- Short Vowel Sounds
- Joining 1
- ɪ vs i: (ship vs sheep)
- Sentence Stress

 SOUNDS - Short vowels (bit, put, bet, but, bat, pot) We will learn the mouth positions and possible spellings for the 6 short vowels of English. Most Latin languages only use 5 positions for vowels and they do not tend to be neutral, so we will study the positions and spellings of these vowels.
RULE - Joining 1 (Consonants) we will learn how to join consonant + consonant, and consonant + vowel. This often changes the syllable boundaries in English and can be very unnatural to non-natives.
SOUND COMPARISON - ɪ vs i:, today we will learn all the differences between the famous ship/sheep pair of vowels. We will look at mouth position, length and spelling, and practice extensively.
STRUCTURE - Sentence stress - English uses 5 levels of stress in speech, here we will learn to recognise them, and practice making smooth weak forms combined with strong and prominent words.		  
5

- Approximant Consonant Sounds
- Silent < h >
- Diphthong vs Monophthong
- Question Tags

SOUNDS - Approximant Consonant Sounds (ray, well, yes, like, fall) Approximants are vowel-like consonants, the British /r/ and dark /l/ need particular attention for Eastern European speakers.
RULE - silent <h>There are some words that always contain a silent <h>, 'honour' and 'honest' for example. Function words such as 'he', 'have', 'her' etc. often but not always use silent <h>, we will learn the rule.
SOUND COMPARISON -Dipnthong vs Monothong - We will study minimal pairs of diphthong and monophthong vowels in preparation for our detailed study of diphthongs next class. Particular focus on e vs eɪ
STRUCTURE - Question Tags - British English uses question tags extensively both in statements and in questions. The intonation tells the listener how to react - rising often means a real question, falling often means a statement. For example, 'He's French, isn't he?'.

  
6

- Diphthong Vowel Sounds
- Joining 2 (Vowel + Vowel)
- r vs l vs w
- Prominence

SOUNDS - Diphthong Vowel Sounds (beer, bare, bay, boy, buy, bounce,bone) A neutral English accent contains 9 diphthongs, these are double vowels so the mouth moves during the production.
RULE - Joining 2, Vowel + Vowel In spoken English where one vowel sound is followed by another, we normally join these with an approximant consonant sound, for example 'go_away' would join with a /w/ sound.
SOUND COMPARISON - r vs l vs w- these sounds cause confusion for East Asian speakers, so we will compare their mouth positions and production.
STRUCTURE - Prominence - The melody of English is based around selecting prominent words, and adding stress through pitch, volume and length. We will learn to choose the words and to use authentic stress.

  
7

- Plosive Consonant Sounds
- < ed > endings
- /t/ vs glottal stop
- Question Intonation

 SOUNDS - Plosive consonants (park, time, came, buy, date, guy, football) are made by completely blocking the flow of air as it leaves the mouth. We will learn the 7 English plosives including the famous glottal stop.
RULE - <ed> endings we will learn the three different pronunciations of <ed>: parked, stayed, wanted and the spelling rule that shows you which pronunciation to use.
SOUND COMPARISON - t vs glottal stop, British English is famous for its glottal stops. Most natives do not say the 't' in football or Gatwick, instead using a glottal stop. Click here to hear an introduction by David Bauckham.
STRUCTURE - Question Intonation - We will study where to place stress in a question, and when to use falling or rising intonation.		  
8

- Nasal Consonant Sounds
- Affricate Consonant Sounds
- Contractions
- Long vs Short Vowels (11 Positions)
- Fall-rise Intonation

SOUNDS - Nasal Consonant Sounds (may, no, wing) Nasal sounds are made partially through the nose, the ng nasal can be unnatural to Eastern European speakers.
SOUNDS - Affricate Consonant Sounds (chart, judge) Affricates are a combination of a plosive directly followed by a fricative.
RULE - Contractions Several contractions are possible in spoken English, some of which are difficult to pronounce, such as 'aren't', 'weren't', 'can't', 'won't', 'wouldn't've' etc.
SOUND COMPARISON -Long vs Short- so far on the course we have seen 11 mouth positions for English vowels. Here we will revise and practice these and study them in terms of their possible lengths.
STRUCTURE - Fall-rise Intonation - British English speakers use the fall-rise pattern to great effect to show that there is an implied meaning in their words. In this way, you can say 'I liked it', but mean 'I didn't like it'.

  
COURSE BOOKING FORM

To reserve your place, a deposit of £50 is required. The remainder of the fee of £150 is payable at or before your first class.

If you have any questions before enrolling, please contact us first. You will receive confirmation of your booking within 24 hours of your payment (Mon-Fri).

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