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I’ve been studying English for years, but …

This is the most common complaint of the migrants and overseas university students Dr Yvonne Perczuk has taught over the past 25 years. Their vocabulary range is often good and their grammar is often technically excellent. Their problem is poor pronunciation…
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Written by Dr Yvonne Perczuk

Yvonne Perczuk has been a specialist in the design and delivery of university level courses, in English pronunciation and communication, since 1993. Her courses and training videos are used widely at all levels at the University of New South Wales Institute of Languages (UNSWIL); • she has designed university level pronunciation courses at all levels, as well as specialist courses geared to the particular needs of business professionals; • has designed and directed teacher-training videos on pronunciation techniques.

View all posts by: Dr Yvonne Perczuk

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Pronunciation Tip of the Month

Happy 2023! I know you’ve probably made and broken a whole lot of new year resolutions! Here’s your chance to keep an important one: to make some real improvement in your pronunciation.

Here’s an exercise you might enjoy, that will make you more aware of English rhythm and intonation and will help you make your speech sound more animated, natural and native-like.

First go to your TV and turn on a news or current affairs program where the speaker is facing you on the screen. Turn down the volume and watch the speaker nodding their head and raising their eyebrows regularly throughout the program. Every time they lift their heads or raise their eyebrows, their voices are doing a little jump up in pitch. Now turn the volume on and watch how the voice and the body tend to move together.

It’s this up and down of the voice (intonation) that shows an English speaker’s involvement in what they are saying. If your voice stays flat and unvaried, English listeners will think you are less interested and less interesting than you really are.

To improve your intonation range:
– Record a few minutes of a TV program.
– Download audio and a transcript of the program (most ABC and BBC programs have audio and transcripts available online).
– Listen carefully to the short recording several times and draw little arrows where you think the voice is rising.
– Now try to make your own recording using the marked transcript as a guide.
– Finally compare your best effort and the original recording to see how close you can get.

Good luck till next month!