After teaching English to ESL learners for many years we've developed a bit of wisdom around this subject. Why are some people that study English for many years not great at speaking English? For us, we know pronunciation is the key. You could say this is our strong point, this is what sets us apart from the English Teachers. Because we don't "Teach English"; we coach in effective English communication.
We've taught many Chinese students that ace their written and reading English tests, however, when it comes to pronunciation, (listening and speaking) this is severely lacking in the students that come to us. Passing IELTS to start a new life in another country requires effective communication. If your pronunciation is not great, you won't have effective communication. Which, is a pity because pronunciation is the really fun bit. Speaking (pronunciation) is where all your hard work pays off. You get to see your hard work of studying in action, when others understand what you're saying and effective communication occurs. Effective communication is like a symphony of music and dance; when it all comes together it's not only beautiful to watch, the end results can be just as beautiful. Where as, if the communication is not effective, the communication can be a train wreck in slow motion that's painful to watch, and sometimes the effects of that ineffective communication can stay with you for years, and in the case of some celebrities and politicians, can be a career, life, or soul destroying moment in your life. Pronunciation is the key. Let's first look at what causes this incorrect pronunciation, what causes this to happen in the first place? We've got what we believe is a simple answer for this based on anecdotal case studies we've done with our Chinese students that are great at reading and writing. When the Chinese students first start out learning English at school, they're often left in a classroom and told to read a book in English, and then write about what they have read in English. Sounds like a great way to start to learn English right? Not so fast young grasshopper.
All of the Chinese students we've taught in the past have read lots of books, and have generally written about those books they've read in their younger years. We've found it very challenging to get them out of the pronunciation they have for a lot of words. Why is it hard for these students to pronounce words correctly when their English on paper is excellent? The Answer: Because they've read these word over and over, probably hundreds, if not thousands of times, and they've mispronounced it every single time in their heads while reading. They've read these words and cemented the words in their minds every timed. As skilled ESL coaches we've had to help the student to unlearn their way, and learn the correct way. If you think this is easy, we can tell you with first hand knowledge and experience it's not at all easy. Tongue position, lips positioning, ait over the tongue, air through the teeth, Some students have been reading English since they were four years old, and now their coming to us to fix their pronunciation issues some 20 years later. 20 years of mispronouncing a word is going to take something special.
Luck for us we have that "special" ingredient. It's called "Patience".
If you'd like to have a chat with us about your goals, your ambitions, and how we can help, we'll listen. If we can get a student out of China and into Canada to do his masters, and another student out of Indonesia, and into Italy to do her masters, plus a Turkish PhD professor confidently speaking in English at a conference in Poland, we can ensure your dreams and aspirations come true as well.
We know that learning English is not the end goal. We know learning English is just a stepping stone for you to accomplish bigger and better things in your life, and we want to be part of that journey.
There is one tool we know that can help you with pronunciation and that's a program called YouGlish. Best of all it's free.
Put in your word, select US, UK, or Australia, and the program will find the words on YouTube and run a pile of the words you have selected. Give it a try,
When you're feeling confident, get in touch with us. We'll help you become a proficient pronunciator. That's authentically us. Try writing that using AI.
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