What is pronunciation coaching?
By pronunciation coaching, I mean that I work together with you to help improve your pronunciation – demonstrating and explaining sounds, giving feedback on your performance, guiding and planning your practice, anticipating difficulties and supporting you as you learn.
In contrast, many providers of pronunciation courses (such as accent reduction, accent softening, elocution, etc.) only offer lessons about English pronunciation, and then leave you to do the practice and change your pronunciation on your own.
How long will it take to improve my pronunciation?
You’ll start to improve from the first session. I’ll explain your problems to you and we’ll get to work on them straight away.
It takes regular practice to change pronunciation habits. You should think of your practice ten weeks at a time. After each ten-week period, you’ll make substantial progress. You’ll probably find that you’ll have reached your goals at the end of about 30 weeks, depending on your goals and individual ability.
Why three times a week?
I’ve experimented with all kinds of schedules over the years and found that it’s inefficient to have only one or two sessions per week because the time between sessions is too long. Progress is lost and needs to be recovered in the next session.
Three sessions per week spread out evenly (Mon/Wed/Fri or Tue/Thur/Sat) allows for consistent improvement from session to session. If you’re very keen to improve your pronunciation as quickly as possible, then six sessions per week will give the fastest results.
Do I need to learn phonetics?
No. I use my knowledge of phonetics to understand your problems and guide your learning, but it isn’t necessary for you to learn phonetic theory. Of course, if you’re a teacher, student of linguistics or phonetic enthusiast, I can use phonetic terminology and symbols, and explain things phonetically as we work on your pronunciation.
What English level do I need?
You don’t have to have advanced level English, but you should be able to understand and communicate with me during our sessions.
How do I pay?
Please pay weekly after your sessions using the payment page.
What is your cancellations policy?
Please give 24 hours’ notice of a cancellation, otherwise the session must be paid for.
If you have any other questions, just contact me!
