ESL: Pronunciation

http://grove.ufl.edu/~klilj/pron/ Academic Spoken English © 2000-2003 Kristin Liljegren Maurice

This is a very interesting site for learning pronunciation and American accents and slang. I wasn't sure what to make of it the first time through, but the more I explored, the more I liked it. Especially interesting was: http://www.americanaccent.com/ from the section How to have a standard American accent. A character gives a bodaciously whiz bang job on the whole shebang, yada, yada, yada, and blah, blah, blah. The voice is excellent, but when you hear it, you wonder if we've been teaching the wrong language skills. Check it out.
Accent in Action on the same page gives a radio news broadcast of an interview with Alan Keyes and Sen. John McCain , and also provides the transcript and a phonetic accent.

On the main page, http://grove.ufl.edu/~klilj/pron/, there are some excellent examples of:

Word Stress
Emphasis
Intonation
Phrasal Stress
Reduction
Consonants
Thought Groups (Phrasing)
Linking
Vowels

The female voice is clear and easy to understand, and the accent is universal.

Another link http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/-ed.htm is to an area where they explain the pronunciation of '-ed'. While there is no sound, the information is very useful.

All Things Considered http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2 is the NPR current broadcasts. They speak in slow, well modulated voices and it is a good practice exercise for higher level learners. Since these are current news stories, they can be used to stimulate discussion.

This site is a conglomeration of commercial and academic materials. It is not especially easy to navigate, but there are some real gems in here if you are looking for different ways to help students study English pronunciation.