ESL: Newsletter: Accent Reduction

http://www.free-english.com/Newsletters/ESLNewsletters.aspx ESL PROSystems newsletter

Many students come to us asking for pronunciation help to reduce accents. They complain of not being understood over the phone, or of constantly hearing 'please repeat' over and over again. ESL ProSystems sends a monthly newsletter and has some excellent ideas for students to work on reducing their accents. I especially liked the idea of buying books on tape, and listening and reading at the same time. Also, we have audio recorders in the AELC to let students read text and then play back to the AELC instructors to critique with them. I've also suggested going to malls and listening to conversations at the stores. Websites such as 'Movie Trailers' (see the post, January 27th 2005 http://www.english-trailers.com ) are also good to hear conversations in a normal tone and cadence.