Overview of services available

Professional understanding of pronunciation difficulties. Systematic diagnosis & treatment of problem areas. Instruction tailored to individual needs. Courses for small groups, intensive workshops or individual tuition available.

What aspect of English pronunciation is most important to you will depend greatly on your personal and professional uses of the language, as well as your first language and its points of similarity and difference from English.

Common problems include the inability to hear and make the differences between the individual sounds of English which distinguish one word from another, but depending on your first language just as important may be the need to speak with appropriate intonation so that what you say fits in meaningfully with the changing context of the conversation.

Dependent on what we agree is most important to you, we will decide how much weight to give to topics such as:

lively & expressive speech and the use of prominent words and intonation to make the meaning clear in the context;
how to use your voice to signal the structure of your speech or presentation - "vocal paragraphing";
showing awareness of your audience or those you are talking with in your speech;
features of fluent speech - missing sounds, changed sounds, and sounds which shouldn't be there!
word stress;
using the International Phonetic Alphabet to show pronunciation;
using a pronunciation dictionary;
clear enunciation of the English sound system and participants' particular problems;
sound discrimination and successful comprehension of others' accents;
using the regularities and vaguaries of English spelling to your advantage.

Throughout a period of instruction there will be ample opportunity to practice and receive feedback on your pronunciation and presentation skills through a series of "practice clinics" in which you will give short presentations on a variety of topics and in a variety of styles and receive my comments and guidance.

By the end of the instruction you should, in careful speech, be able to avoid confusing sounds which make important differences between words, learn how the spelling can help us with the pronunciation of many words, look up any word of the English language in a pronunciation dictionary so no new word will ever cause you a problem again, and learn how to speak expressively, varying your intonation to make sense according to the context. Computer displays and analysis may be used to teach and practice these skills.

Contact me on 07816 155472 to arrange your instruction in Phonetics.