In today's competitive business world, speaking clearly and confidently is the key to moving forward in your career and to achieving your goals.

If other people have to work extra hard to understand you, they won't trust you as much and they won't respect your position.

That might seem harsh but it's the reality.

Take your spoken English to the next level with personalized, focused coaching sessions

contractions

linking sounds

rhythm

intonation

word and sentence stress

pauses

voice placement

They all affect your ability to sound natural and fluent when you speak English.

Speaking English clearly doesn't just mean mastering pronunciation. It also means understanding how to use your voice effectively so that you sound clear and natural when you speak in English.

In personalized pronunciation and accent reduction sessions, we study these other important features of speech too:

Phonetic Spelling

English isn't phonetic so the spelling of words doesn't always match their pronunciation. This can be a challenge if you are used to a language with phonetic spelling (like Spanish or Korean).

Stress Timed or Syllable Timed?

English is stress timed rather than syllable timed. If you speak a syllable timed language (such as Italian or Portuguese) then it's likely that you've found English rhythm hard to grasp.

Hearing English

If you learned English by reading and writing but you didn't have access to hearing high quality spoken English (which is normal in a lot of education systems), it's possible that your ear isn't trained for English sounds.

Contractions / Linking Sounds

Your early teachers might have taught you that contractions and linking sounds are incorrect and a reflection of poor English (a widespread misconception) whereas in reality, they're natural, normal and perfectly acceptable.

Perhaps you've encountered some of these issues in trying to speak English:

Regardless of your starting point, I firmly believe you can learn to speak English fluently.

Common Problems Speaking English

What's the Process?

Learning to speak English fluently starts with activating your inner confidence and then it involves lots of practice and repetition.

It's essential to take small, slow steps and to accept that the process may take longer than you imagine. This is something that's hard to do by yourself without constant feedback and motivation.

Language learning isn't linear so there may be set backs along the way. It might feel like an impossible task and it might be difficult to keep going. That's why it's important to have focused, personalized instruction from an experienced tutor.

I've taught hundreds of speaking classes and, as an experienced English tutor, I know exactly how to focus on your specific issues.

The first step is to collect samples of your speaking. These samples may come from specific assignments or from what I observe when we chat together. I analyze the samples and note any specific issues that might prevent you being easily understood when you speak English.

Then we tackle the problem areas focusing on the features that really make the difference. These may be topics you've heard of but haven't been taught before such as using schwa sounds, linking sounds and voice placement. These are as important in speaking English clearly as individual pronunciation sounds.

We do lots of different exercises together such as delivery shadowing, and there is always homework to reinforce what we've been practising.

There is a strong connection between musical ability and pronunciation. You have to be able to hear the sounds to produce them.

If you sing or play a musical instrument to a high standard then your ears will be trained to distinguish small differences between sounds. This will help you in learning to speak clearly.

Don't worry if you're not a musician because you can still learn these techniques. But if you are, then you have a head start.

What Happens in Coaching Sessions?

Did you know?

My ultimate goal is to find ways to help you sound natural and fluent when you speak English.

I offer all seriously interested clients a free 30-minute video consultation.  We'll meet in Zoom, chat, and make a plan.

What's Included in Sessions?

A full (60 or 90 minute) interactive Zoom session

Your own session recording for review

Personalized materials and resources

Homework review with extensive feedback

Self-studying guidance

And anything else I can do to support you

All language coaching sessions include:

I know how precious your studying time is so we have a plan for each session and we set goals to measure your progress. We're intense, focused, and we make the most of our time together.

You don't have to completely remove your native accent to be understood.

Everyone speaks English with an accent. I do, and you do too. Also, a person's accent is closely linked to their cultural identity so they may be reluctant to make changes. This is something I always respect when working with clients.

I actually prefer the term accent softening to accent reduction because this reflects our true aim. Early in my accounting career, I worked for an international film company in London where my colleagues spoke English fluently yet many retained traces of their first language accents. It didn't matter at all because they spoke clearly and could be understood perfectly.

So, don't think about removing your accent but think of softening it so you too sound natural and fluent when you speak English, just like my colleagues at the film company.