Hi friends! Enjoy my recap of this week's email briefing. Find out whether intrinsic or extrinsic motivation matters and whether feedback from teachers or peers makes a difference to English pronunciation learning The definition of the word - relevant What I think about patience and language learning What homophones are and what they mean for pronu…

Happy Halloween Everyone! Just a review of my Oct 30th newsletter. In this episode, I talk about a few interesting things Reviewing some interesting quotes and words How immersing yourself in culture can help your vocabulary What sounds non-native English speakers should be focusing on How Halloween mentality may be helpful in your everyday life Th…

Hi friends! Enjoy my recap of this week's email briefing. Find out why native English speakers suck at communicating. What codify means and why it's in U.S. politics Why what matters on the inside and what you think matters more than what others think What I think is a winning combination from Say It: English pronunciation app by Oxford Publishing …

Hi friends! Every week, I generate a quick brief about 5 interests for the week relating to accent modification and English learning. If you have a few minutes on your commute to work or lunch break and want to consume some interesting content in the world of English learning, enjoy! This episode is going to a plug for my newsletter and a recap in …

Your speaking pace is an important key component of engaged, entertaining communication. Mastering your speaking pace and knowing when to slow down versus speed up is important in ultimately communicating your message clearly. I've said it before but it's not what you say, but how you say it that is important. Practicing this skill is helpful to co…

Let me know if you're interested in having your English pronunciation analyzed by a SLP. Hit me up through the voice messages on anchor.fm!

Loudness, Pitch and Length are the trifecta of engaging speech. Mastering each of these suprasegmental aspects of English communication presents a speaker with the capability to communicate nuance and command attention. Without it, you may be understood in content but the delivery may be lackluster, monotonous and ultimately fall on deaf ears. Thes…

Stumbled upon 31 Commonly Mispronounced Words and figured it would be helpful to hear a native English speaker struggle, think and learn pronunciations of words. A key insight is that native English speakers aren't crippled by the incongruencies between a word's pronunciation and its spelling. Non-native English speakers focus very heavily on this …

Ever wonder how native English speakers pick up new words? How do they break down and pronounce a new word that they just learned. I try to break down - in real time - what I pay attention to and how I use pitch to accurately learn new words. Check out https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/ for all the words from today's episode. omphaloskep…

In this episode, I ruminate over a recent journal article read about Pakistani-English and the frustrations associated with English language learning centers in Pakistan. Many of the raised concerns are factors that are not even directly related to the techniques or processes in teaching English, but based on the socio-cultural standing of the lear…

In this episode, I share multiple snippets of audio recordings practicing and growing my Australian accent skills. Although I still have a long way to go, you can hear the change in mouth shape as I jump from Australian English and my regular accent and the impact it has on my sounds. I decided to document my practice to hopefully inspire you to ma…

Developing an accent is a lot of tedious work. It's not easy and it's not always a steady climb or improvement. Using the tools available to keep notes, follow-up and get exposure to native speaker samples is an invaluable tool to hone your skill. Furthermore, accents are much more than simply the sound differences. There are vocabulary differences…

While prepping for a client session focused on the Canadian R sound, I figured I might as well document my prep and explain several ways to achieve the R sound. Canadian English has a rhotic R which is present in all locations. What that means is that any time you see the letter R, we pronounce it. Furthermore, in Canadian English, the sound is mad…

Australian English accent - Part 3. Go back and listen to the previous episodes for a basic explanation of the premise. This time, I predict what an Australian English speaker will say and then hear it back for immediate feedback, imitating parts of it, highlighting what is salient to me as a speech language pathologist. I know my Australian Englis…

Australian English accent - Part 2. Go back and listen to the previous episode for a basic explanation of the premise. Join me on my car drive to work. I listen to an Australian English accent and provide commentary on what I notice, trying my best to imitate parts of it, highlighting what is salient to me as a speech language pathologist. I know m…

Trying something new this time. Join me on my car drive from work. I listen to an Australian English accent and provide commentary on what I notice, trying my best to imitate parts of it, highlighting what is salient to me as a speech language pathologist. Yes, I know my Australian English accent sucks but maybe that'll help give you the confidence…

Answering some frequently asked questions about accents, expectations and why foreign accents exist in the first place. They are fairly simple answers but may not be expected or common if you haven't done much research into what an accent really is. About the Show: AccentOutLoud is your weekly source for English communication, insights, experimenta…

I finally got around to watching Get Out (2017) 2 years later!! Loved it and of course, found some interesting communication and accent nuances that developed the character feel. It was critical to distinguish the two characters within the single actor and the language aspect helped make that distinction much clearer. About the Show: AccentOutLoud …

Non-native English speakers teach English across the globe to other non-native English speakers. And there's nothing wrong with that. The question I have is whether there are additional criteria or training to target native English speech production. Without a model to appropriately imitate or follow, learning a native English accent can be a chall…

Hi Everyone! Not a full episode but I was just too excited to share that I bought some lighting equipment towards the equipment for youtube content. Hopefully that's another way I can share and explain mouth movements in speech to better show the theoretical knowledge I have. It's a far away goal to make some sort of educational youtube channel to …

Without a doubt, sentence stress is a crucial skill in the English language. However, it is not something that is emphasized in English learning classes. Native English speakers use it as a fundamental tool to guide communication and although non-native English speakers hear it, without the explicit intention of practicing and honing this skill, th…

SMART Goals are not a new concept and have been implemented in many different fields within the medical rehabilitation body of work as well as in business and professional endeavors. By applying SMART goals to systematically target and audit your English language learning goals, you can build momentum and success into your English pronunciation lea…

Having stumbled upon this gem by G. Nolst Trenite, "The Chaos" reveals the inconsistent, ambiguous and challenging skill that is speaking English. Tune in as I blunder my way through the poem and follow along with the poem in front of you to see the spelling as well. p.s. yes, I now know I pronounce corps. incorrectly. As a Canadian with minimal ex…

Sharing my thoughts on how to approach accent modification and what are two ways to approach the issue. by better having an understanding of how to approach accent modification as a whole, you can better understand the impact of approaching accent modification in one way or another. The traditional method builds a foundational understanding of soun…

Without an understanding of the big picture and how to view accent learning, learning an accent or even evaluating your own accent can be difficulty, at best. There are fundamental building blocks and prerequisites to understand how speech production and sound work before you can learn a new way of speaking. Many times, clients approach learning an…

Before we can talk about English pronunciation, we need to better describe sounds and systematically categorize them based on criteria. Otherwise, it becomes an impossible he heard vs. she heard subjective debate. Having a better appreciation of what is involved in sound production (using the learned mouth anatomy from the last episode), better fac…

In this episode, I talk about the basic anatomy involved in making sound. Although the content is not specific to accent learning or English learning, it is an important fundamental aspect to learning any sound production in order to better understand WHAT is moving when you change sounds. If you don't have control of WHAT is moving, then issues re…

Many times, clients will have a vague idea of what they want and what they expect from accent consultation services. They want to get better but better is such a vague concept and very subjective. There are 3 concepts that need to be discussed to better qualify and compartmentalize peoples' wants and desires: 1) Accentedness 2) Speech Intelligibili…

Restarting this aspect of my life/career. I have a clearer idea of what I want to do with this outlet and I plan on making this a a recurring weekly podcast. Today I'm recapping who I am, my aspirations for this podcast and getting the sense of what I want this to be. About the Show: AccentOutLoud is your weekly source for English communication, in…