Video Lesson – How to reduce vowels

Here is a new video that I just posted on YouTube. It will teach you the very important rule vowel reduction. English vowels can be pronounced differently, depending on whether they are stressed or reduced.

Some books I recommend for advanced speakers of English

My accent reduction students usually have an advanced knowledge of English, but they still occassionally make mistakes with English grammar or vocabulary usage. Here are some books that I recommend that they purchase to perfect their skills. I have also included the...

More advice for reducing your accent

1. Slow down your speech. Actually, you can speak as quickly as you wish, as long as you are pronouncing every sound of every word and you are following the rules of good stress and melody. You will notice that newscasters often speak quickly but clearly. If you...

American Accent Course for Japanese Speakers

The new DVD course is available. It helps Japanese speakers of English speak more clearly and learn to fix all of the most common pronunciation mistakes. Learn to correctly pronounce the difficult American consonant sounds. Fix the most common mistakes. Purchase the...

Good Online Dictionary for Pronuncation

I recommend this dictionary for looking up the pronunciation of words: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/. I like the fact that it has two different accent options – one American Accent and one British. The vowels and consonants are mostly pretty authentic to an...

Don’t Give Up!

How is this about accent reduction? Well, I believe that any time we have a goal, sometimes we will feel like giving up. I try to encourage all of my students to keep trying, to follow their dreams. It brings me much joy to see them succeed. Some are Hollywood actors...