ESL Teaching/Learning Resources

Pronunciation

Tongue Twisters

 

ELSA <https://www.elsaspeak.com/en/inf>  -- English Language Speaking Assistant; free and for-pay versions; neutral American accent; training on 21 pronunciation skills & syllable stress (not on connected speech); see review of ELSA SPEAK

Phonetic Chart Poster (Consonants & Vowels <http://www.cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/pdf/poster.pdf>

EngFluent <https://engfluent.com/english-pronunciation-exercises/> -- English pronunciation exercises, with videos and discrimination exercises; Chapter 1: The Main Sounds of English; Chapter 2: Stress and Intonation; Chapter 3: Word Connections; Chapter 4: Reduced Sounds; Chapter 5: Common Pronunciation Mistakes

ESL Pronunciation Lessons on YouTube (American English) -- examples: TH pronunciation English Meeting ESL Lesson -- articulation, examples, words and sentences with sound highlighted; Past Tense Regular Verbs -- explanations, examples; Word Stress -- counting syllables, phonetic transcription, spelling, exercises, examples in native speaker speech; Intonation -- meaning in communication, falling intonation patterns, examples, illustration; Accent Reduction: Final sounds -- voiceless, voiced sounds, word pairs, strategies for pronunciation

Sounds American Channel <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-MSYk9R94F3TMuKAnQ7dDg> -- includes Interactive Vowel Sounds Chart (12), Pronunciation of Consonants (7); Contrasting Sounds: Pronunciation Exercises (several vowels, /l/ vs. /r/ and /n/ vs. /ng/)

Pronunciation <http://eslgold.com/pronunciation/#> -- ESL gold's site with Diagnostic Exercises, Sounds and Distinctions, Textbook Recommendations, Pronunciation Links, Learning Strategies

Pronunciation <http://www.talkenglish.com/ExtraLessons/Pronunciation.aspx> consonant and vowel sound practice from TalkEnglish.com.

SpeechActive.com <https://www.speechactive.com/blog/> -- videos with examples of pronunciation of vowels/consonants, stress, intonation, with a possibility to record one's pronunciation and playing it back, though without feedback; link to recording site for vowels and consonants;

Rachel's English (intonation) <http://rachelsenglish.com/video-categories/#intonation> -- videos to practice sounds, stress and rhythm (intonation, linking)

Phonetics Focus and Flashcard Maker <http://www.cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/> -- all phonemes with phonetic script and sounds, flashcards, Entry/Exit Tests, Phonemic Chart, Phon' Chart & Poster, Phonemic Reader, Phon' Flashcards, Record & Practice, Phon' Chart Quiz, Phonemic Hangman, Phonetic Pelmanism, Which Phoneme?; includes phonemic search, phonemic flip, games--Phonemic Link, Phonemic Maze, Shoot-a-Symbol, Half 'n' Half, Odd Phon' Out, by Cambridge English Online

speechinaction <http://www.speechinaction.com/> -- by Richard Cauldwell, an online resource that focuses on authentic speech samples

The Sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet <http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm> -- with audio (.mp3) of minimal pairs, some for both American and British English

BBC Learning English--Pronunciation Tips: The Sounds of English <http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/pron/chart/index.shtml> -- includes phonemic chart with audio, minimal pairs (audio), and downloadable consonants/vowels sheets and exercise

English Pronunciation <http://international.okanagan.bc.ca/pronunciation/> -- Site created by the Okanagan University College of International Education; includes articulation videos (front & side view), instructions, repetitions, minimal pairs, dictations, tongue twisters, and recordings for consonants and vowels

SIL IPA Fonts (Doulos) <http://software.sil.org/doulos/ -- Click to download the fonts.

Phonetic characters to compose words and paste to other documents <http://www.e-lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/type.html> -- created by Pete MacKichan

EnglishClub.net Pronunciation (British English)
    Word-Stress
    Sentence Stress
    How to Pronounce "-ed"
    Pronunciation Workshop

Worldwide Accents of English <http://www.gazzaro.it/accents/files/accents2.html> -- sound clips; site includes a commentary on RP, GenAm, Scottish, USA Southern Mountains, Texan, Russian, Black African, Asian Indian, Nigerian (by Gabriele Azzaro)

IDEA (International Dialects of English Archive) <http://www.dialectsarchive.com/> -- English language dialects as heard around the world, including English spoken in the accents of other languages; searchable, with a global map

Linguistic Geography of the Mainland United States <http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/AmDialMap.html> -- map and major characteristics of the various regional dialects, ©1999 C. Salvucci

Forvo <www.forvo.com> -- a shared site for pronunciation of words from many languages; pronunciation by native and non-native speakers; various accents

commercial pronunciation software/apps:

Pronunciation Power <http://eenglish.com/> -- practice for 52 sounds at two levels (1, 2) with side/front view, speech analysis, sound discrimination, stress exercises, sentences practicing intonation/rhythm/pronunciation

English Accent Coach <http://www.englishaccentcoach.com/> -- allows you to learn English vowels and consonants using an interactive game approach

Tongue Twisters

The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary <http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict> -- The Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary is a machine-readable pronunciation dictionary for North American English that contains over 125,000 words and their transcriptions.

Vowels and Diphthongs of American and British English <http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/newstart.html> -- (Uses AIF files and RealAudio) A sleek chart of English and British vowels and diphthongs.  Click ona  phonetic symbol to access and AIF audio file of the phoneme.  An efficient reference chart and a helpful way of looking at the elusive American central vowel before /r/.

Fonetiks <http://www.fonetiks.org/> -- "The online resource for pronunciation and language study."

BetterAccent <http://betteraccent.com> -- Personal Interactive Pronunciation Coach Speak clearly, effectively and be easily understood!, Practice your American English Pronunciation!, Focus on intonation, stress and rhythm!, See and hear your pronunciation!, Identify, understand and correct your pronunciation errors!, Use the power of breakthrough speech analysis technology!

Pizzaz!...Tongue Twisters, by Leslie Opp-Beckman - Create, illustrate and manipulate tongue twisters. Includes links to the main tongue twister databases.  Several stimulating activities to bring tongue twisters into the classroom.

English Pronunciation Test - And internet incarnation of the 'English is tough stuff' poem familiar to many teachers of English pronunciation.  The unidentified author promises, "Once you've learned to correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world."

The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary - (Transcriptions; for developers) The Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary is a machine-readable pronunciation dictionary for North American English that contains over 100,000 words and their transcriptions.  This format is particularly useful for speech recognition and synthesis.  Because IPA is not the standard here, this site is really for the serious developer.

American Accent Training (http://americanaccent.com/) -- includes interesting links to information about 
          Intonation (speech music), Liaisons (word connection), Pronunciation the sounds of American English