group & individual courses covering the sounds and intonation of GB English pronunciation in London and online:
Summer intensive courses now booking – full details and dates.
Sound Production
English contains 19 vowel sounds and 26 consonant sounds. The key is firstly to know how to produce every sound using the articulators (lips, tongue, mouth) and voice. Secondly to know how to select every sound, as English spelling is not always kind to us.
Connected Speech
To speak really confidently you need to join sounds smoothly. This involves learning which sounds are weak, which sounds disappear and which sounds change together. Speaking more slowly is one solution, but to speak with true fluency, joining must be mastered.
Intonation
English has three intonation patterns; falling, rising and fall-rising which are used with stress patterns to give emotion and meaning to speech. A few simple techniques can totally change the way your English sounds and the way you understand native speakers.
Intro Class
Try our method and materials 121 with one of our teachers – 60 minute class in London or online.
What are the benefits?
Studying pronunciation offers more than simply being able to make sounds correctly. In fact, the first improvement students of English pronunciation notice is improved listening skills – you can spot details you’d never noticed and then your own mistakes.
With practice comes more control and accuracy in sound production and the resultant boost in confidence. Joining sounds is a big area in spoken English, but now you know the rules – when and when not to use an /r/, what happens to /t/, which sounds can disappear – it’s no longer confusing, actually it’s developing your fluency.
When you start to master intonation – an English pitch, rhythm and stress, you know you can command the language. The best part is the constant improvement now you know the rules, sounds and structures, you can also distinguish English accents and even modify your own – if that’s what you aim to do.
“It has been just amazing how in a few weeks I could sound with more clarity and finesse. Highly recommended to all of those who want to get their command of the English language to another dimension.”
Javier Fernandez-Pena (Spanish Buzz in Toy Story 3).
“I cannot put it down into words how significantly my accent has improved. I can now conduct meetings over the phone without having to be interrupted with ‘pardon’.”
Josh, Ghana
View more testimonials from students at Pronunciation Studio.
Learning doesn’t begin or end with a course – we release new articles with audio every month.
We’ve helped over 15,000 learners from over 80 countries since we began in 2008.
Pronunciation Studio teachers are dedicated IPA certified speech specialists and every member of our team has at least five years’ classroom experience. Our approach is student focussed and practical, based in the rudiments of second language acquisition that builds a learner’s knowledge step by step to fluency. Find out more about our teachers here.
