Welcome to the course Clear English Pronunciation! 

I'm Andrea Giordano, your English teacher. You've made an amazing choice to join this class. Speaking clearly will open so many doors of opportunity for you.

English learners face two big problems:

  1. Understanding native English speakers
  2. Speaking clearly so people can understand you.
This course helps you solve those two problems. By mastering pronunciation, you will be able to better understand English speakers. You will understand what they are saying and why they are saying it. Plus, people will be able to understand you!

I was in a virtual business meeting the other day where a non-native English speaker was presenting her update about a project. This is a brilliant woman from Asia who is extremely knowledgeable about computers systems. People love reading her emails because she provides important information that everyone needs. People love working with her. However, no one is able to understand her when she speaks. The whole room looked confused while she was speaking in the meeting. It was a difficult situation for everyone. She needs help with pronunciation. She needs to learn to speak clearly so she can communicate her ideas without anyone thinking badly of her.

I understand why her pronunciation wasn’t great. She’s busy building a career, and she lives in Asia where there aren’t a lot of native English speakers. But I promise you, you don’t want to be like this woman. Whether we like it or not, people judge us based on our pronunciation. If they can’t understand you, they won’t be excited about working with you. That’s why mastering clear pronunciation is so important! I will help you be understood so this doesn’t happen to you.

You’ve made a great choice by joining this class. These video lessons cover all 47 sounds in English, and gives you lots of time to practice these sounds. These videos are interactive, which means there are activities where I want you to repeat-after-me. Be ready to practice! Don’t just sit silently and listen to me the whole time. Practice, practice, practice. You’ll learn more and have more fun.

What can you expect to learn from this course? By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Identify all the sounds in English – This includes vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters.
  2. Pronounce every sound properly – I’m so excited about this one. You’re going to have a native English speaker (me!) pronouncing every sound, so you know exactly how you should be saying everything. Plus, I will show you exactly how to move your mouth so you know where your tongue, your lips, and your teeth should be when you pronounce each sound.
You’re going to be so impressed with the progress you make by the end of this course. Before we get started, I want to do a fun activity with you. Don’t skip this step! You must participate!

Here’s the activity:

  1. Open the camera app on your phone.
  2. Press Record
  3. Read these sentences: “A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. I want to catch the fox before he jumps over me!” (Don’t practice. Just pronounce it like you normally would.)
  4. Save the video until the very end of the course. This is so important! You’re going to read this sentence at the end of the course and compare your before/after pronunciation.
Take a minute to record this sentence, and then let’s get started on the first lesson so you can speak English clearly!