Five audio CDs and one guide book. Focussing on the core English pronunciation problems, 'Accent America! Essentials' addresses the needs of non-native speakers who desire to express themselves more clearly and confidently. The practice exercises on the audio CDs along with explanations and illustrations in the guide book will help develop the fundamental features of an American accent. The book is for those who can speak and understand English but wish to reduce their native accent to build self-confidence and thus better their careers.
Directed to speakers of English as a second language, a multi-media guide to pronouncing American English uses a "pure-sound" approach to speaking to help imitate the fluid ways of American speech.
Mastering the American Accent is an easy-to-follow approach for reducing the accent of non-native speakers of English. Well-sequenced lessons in the book correspond over eight hours of audio files covering the entire text. The audio program provides clear models (both male and female) to help coach a standard American accent. The program is designed to help users speak Standard American English with clarity, confidence, and accuracy. The many exercises in the book concentrate on topics such as vowel sounds, problematic consonants such as V, W, TH, the American R and T and others. Correct lip and tongue positions for all sounds are discussed in detail. Beyond the production of sounds, the program provides detailed instruction in prosodic elements such as syllable stress, emphasis, intonation, linking words for smoother speech flow, common word contractions, and much more. Additional topics that often confuse ESL students are also discussed and explained. They include distinguishing between casual and formal speech, homophones (e.g., they're and there), recognizing words with silent letters (e.g., comb, receipt), and avoiding embarrassing pronunciation mistakes, such as mixing up "pull" and "pool." Students are familiarized with many irregular English spelling rules and exceptions, and are shown how such irregularities can contribute to pronunciation errors. A native language guide references problematic accent issues for 13 different language backgrounds. Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.
Intended to help develop communication skills for professional advancement and social situations. It is recommended that students use the book in the initial stages of learning. Then practice again and again relying primarily on the sound discs.
Directed to speakers of English as a second language, a multi-media guide to pronouncing American English covers grammar, vocabulary, pronunication, reading, writing, and listening comprehension.
This second edition provides extensive activities to help college-bound students develop clear speech and appropriate intonation. -- Vowels, consonants, stress, and intonation -- Recognition and production activities -- Paired communicative practice -- Sounds in isolation, sentences, dialogues, and rhymes
This is a comprehensive workbook for actors, covering the key characteristics and profiles of a wide range of African accents of English. Its unique approach not only addresses the methods and processes by which to go about learning an accent, but also looks in detail at each example. This lets the reader plot their own route through the learning process and tailor not only their working methods but also their own personal idiolect. Full breakdowns of each accent cover: an introduction giving a brief history of the accent, its ethnic background, and its language of origin preparatory warm-up exercises specific to each accent a directory of research materials including documentaries, plays, films and online resources key characteristics such as melody, stress, pace and pitch descriptions of physical articulation in the tongue, lips, jaw, palate and pharynx practice sentences, phoneme tables and worksheets for solo study. African Accents is accompanied by a website at www.routledge.com/cw/mcguire with an extensive online database of audio samples for each accent. The book and audio resources guide actors to develop their own authentic accents, rather than simply to mimic native speakers. This process allows the actor to personalize an accent, and to integrate it into the creation of character rather than to play the accent on top of character.
Speaking American shows what the English language looked like from various points on the American continent at crucial points in its linguistic history.
Reduce your accent when pronouncing English, with the expertise from an acclaimed specialist in the area Developed by acclaimed speech consultant and accent specialist Susan Cameron, Perfecting Your English Pronunciation features her successful method, which focuses on the anatomical placement of sound and on the musculature used in articulation. Where other accent reduction/English pronunciation products rely on solely mimicking of audio sounds, this work focuses visually, audibly, and narratively on the physical ability to speak English, noting that many sounds of English may be difficult for you because some tongue positions used in English may not be used in your native language. The 45-minute DVD introduces you to mouth and jaw exercises to prepare you for English, then demonstrates mouth formations and tongue placement using other nonnative speakers like you. You will see and hear how English sounds--enabling you to become more and more comfortable conversing with native English speakers as you go through the program.
