Pronunciation

Improving your English pronunciation

First of all, don't worry about not having a native-English accent. It's important to be able to speak clearly, so that people can understand you. However, it's almost impossible to sound exactly like a native English speaker if you are learning English as an adult in a non-English speaking country.

1. Listen to spoken English as often as possible.

2. Learn the phonetic alphabet.

3. Don't forget to learn the word stress of a new word.

4. Work out which sounds cause you most problems in English. For example final -ED

5. Be aware of intonation and sentence stress.

6. Imitate the rhythm and intonation of the language you are studying.

7. Compare your pronunciation to the model or models on tape.