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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Practice practice practice

I have recently completed 8 sessions with an academic at Sydney University. His English is naturally already at a high level. However, there had been a couple of complaints that students found him difficult to understand. We worked on his specific errors and a lot of voice production as his speech was 'flat' with little moth movement. In the process we also worked on discourse markers, questioning and pausing.
This particular client improved greatly - why - because he practised regularly. A good pronunciation course will put you on the right track but practising, recording, listening and rerecording is the only way to improve.
If you or your company invests in pronunciation training make it worthwhile by practising 5-10 minutes every night for the duration of the course. it will make a HUGE difference.