ESL Pronunciation Work Page
Created originally to accompany Academic Spoken English pronunciation classwork - Learn english language fast!

English language is used throughout the world, whether you are immigrating to an english speaking country, want to conduct business with english speakers or just want to learn this foreign language just for fun this site is for you. With these links you can listen to native english speakers, some with different American accents and dialects, and hear examples of the topics we have been studying in our classes.   Take your time with these lessons, learning a new language is not easy, but with exercises shown on this page you will master the english language in no time. While online guides are great way to get started, best way to learn a new language is to attend ESL (english as a second language) classes in a local school. This option is often less convenient than studying online, but by having a trained language specialist work with you on your pronunciation skills you will learn the english language in no time. Classes like these are usually cheap and often free, to get more information about where to sign up visit your local community college or your local immigration organization. Learn English in England  Lingua School an accredited language school or even better, learn a language in the land of its origin. Joining Summer Camps in Lyon is a great way to learn english first hand. Could Learning English Change Someone's Life?

I encourage you to complete the activities available to check your understanding of the material as well.

Listening
Listening Activities - K. Trickel
Interesting listening passages and activities for self-checking comprehension.

    Assignment:  what syllables and words do you hear reduced?  What happens to the other words/syllables around the reduced words/syllables?

Holly's ESL Listening Practice Page
Click on a listening passage in the left-hand frame.  Mardi Gras is an especially good sound clip with different accents.

    Assignment:  Listen for word stress and intonation. What intonation patterns do you hear?  When?  Are content words stressed?  Are there any other words that the speaker emphasizes?  Why?

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
I suggest you work on the difficult and/or very difficult passages and activities.  Make sure you  look all the way down the page.  There are various topics and activities.  Some accents  here are from the northern states.

All Things Considered - NPR
These are interviews or stories that have been on National Public Radio.  (In Gainesville, 89.1)

Interactive Listening Comprehension Practice
Several radio shows linked with comprehension activities.

Dave Sperling -- The power of the internet in ESL teaching
An actual presentation from the webauthor of the popular site, Dave's ESL Cafe.  California accent.  Listen especially to emphasis and pausing.

Poetry Readings
If you want something a little different.  Listen for word stress, thought groups, and intonation.  Sometimes you may even get to hear some alliteration (same sounds repeated for an interesting poetic effect).

National Public Radio Programs
There are a variety of different kinds of programs here: news, commentary, true stories, etc.  Listen to their speech.

English Channel
Listening and information about telephoning and presentations.  British and American accents.  The listening section about complaints on the telephone is quite useful for hearing emphasis.

English Listening Lounge

Regional Accents -- A set of interesting listening links compiled by R. Williams.

 Practicing
Using these links you can hear specific sounds and can practice duplicating them.  Remember that you can also use the TEAM software (Arthur H. Schwartz, Cleveland State University) to get visual feedback.

Listening and Speaking - R. Williams
ESL Multimedia Language Learning.  A great number of links -- some are his, others are part of a good collection.  There is more here than listening and speaking too.

Holly's ESL Listening Comprehension Page
This page also has word stress and taped interviews with activities.

The Sound of English

Pronunciation for Korean Students
Not only for Koreans!!

English Pronunciation

Consonants

ELF Free Activities
Different listening and pronunciation activities such as a "mouth workout".  The idioms page is good as well.

Accent Listening Gallery -- A guide to regional accents with descriptions, listening passages and quizzes.
 

 More Information
How to have a standard American Accent  -- A. Cook
She has great reminders of what makes an accent American.  Look down the homepage for topic page links.

Speaking Tips for Presentations
by H.P. Boas

Stressing words and sentences (from English club)

How to pronounce "-ed" (English club)

Heteronyms
Words that are spelled the same but have different meanings when pronounced differently.  Note:  the pronunciation is marked here with approximations of sounds, not with the phonetic alphabet.

Listening and Pronunciation Links (from Sounds of English)
 

Software out there
The "Jarmon Lab" 
Free downloads!
PC: download "Sound Forge" Demo from www.sonicfoundry.com Click on "Trials and Demos." Scroll to "Demos"; click on Sound Forge.
Mac: download Sound Studio from http://download.cnet.com; search for "Sound Studio". 
Both: download PureVoice software from www.eudora.com/purevoice; click on the "Download QualComm PureVoice Now" button near the bottom of the page.

Pronunciation Power 1 and 2  from English Computerized Learning, Inc.  They previously had a CD-Rom called Speech Solutions that I recommended, and this seems to have been expanded into their current software.  It looks like #2 would be appropriate for ASE students.

Speech Works from Trinity Software