Introduction
Would you would like to improve the way you speak English?
Do you need help with a British or an American accent? Want to improve your pronunciation or elocution for an interview, presentation or everyday speech? We have training material perfect for your needs.
Our bespoke tutorials can help you improve consonant and vowel sounds, articulation and clarity, and vocal quality and resonance.
The Consonants
These are the basic sounds and I always address the consonants first. The first step is to establish which of the consonants you are forming correctly and which ones you are not. So download the Assessment Chart One here for free. Work your way through the consonants and identify any that you form incorrectly. The consonants are exactly the same in a British accent or an American accent. If we take the word ‘book’ the buh sound at the beginning and the kuh at the end of the word are the consonants. The consonants are common to English spoken in any accent. Once you have identified which of the sounds are incorrect you can make a list of words containing these sounds and run through them regularly - for absolutely free. The way I prefer is for you to download Assessment One without the sound track to start so that you aren’t influenced by the professionals and then download the same Assessment with the sound track afterwards. This might sound a bit strange but I even try not to speak to Jessie and Patricia when they record their US recordings so that they aren’t influenced by my British accent.
Articulation and Clarity
This is where we take the consonants and use them to separate words in everyday English speech so that your speech flows nicely.
For the assessment of your articulation, download Assessment Two Chart here for free and this has example of all consonants built into sentences. You can choose UK British Oxford, US West Coast UCLA or US East Coast Harvard accents for the assessments.
The Vowel Sounds
This is where things are very different between British and US accents. Let’s look again at the word ‘book’. We have defined the buh and kuh as the consonants but the oo part in the middle is the vowel sound. If you would like to assess your vowel sounds then download Assessment Three here.
Vocal Quality and Resonance
I am listening to the actual quality of the voice itself. This area is much harder to address without professional help but a point worth making is that I very rarely hear anyone say they actually like the sound of their own speaking voice.
For the Vowel Sounds into sentences and Vocal Quality and Resonance then download Assessment Four here.
I had problems with each one of the four areas and I am confident that if you use the free charts I have created for you they will help you with The Consonants.
For your Articulation and Clarity if you copy the pace and pronunciation in Assessment Two this will also help you in your everyday speech.
Where would you like to go from here?
You could use the free charts and do the ground work yourself or you can look at us preparing a Personal Development Plan for you. For your Starter Plan you will need to answer a few simple questions about your background and what you would like to achieve and I will compile a few Tutorials especially for you.
If you would prefer you can book to have a speech and voice expert run the analysis with you over the telephone, FaceTime, Zoom or Skype. Have a look at Personal Development Plans.