Eric Thal

I recently had a conversation with someone with excellent English-speaking skills. She shared with me that although she knew her pronunciation was very good, it was gaining a deeper understanding of intonation that would complete the final stages of her journey in finding her own true voice. I agreed with her assessment and spoke with […]

Short sentences are an excellent way to get comfortable with intonation. And being very confident with saying short sentences gives you an excellent foundation to build on for understanding phrasing and longer sentences. Grammatically, a complete sentence must have a noun and a verb. This is important to know, and the rules of grammar are

Are “cap,” “cop,” and “cup” all made with different vowel sounds? I have been asked questions about these three vowel sounds many times. In fact, all three vowel sounds are different. Depending on your first language, they may sound very similar to you. Let’s take a look at how each of these sounds are made,

When someone first starts learning to speak a new language, pronunciation is usually the first place to start. This is understandable because pronunciation of the sounds of a language must be close enough to standard pronunciation that any listener can identify the sound. This is also why the rule “speak slowly and clearly” is good

Another way of describing speech that could be called “choppy” would be to say speech that is not smooth, or comes out in pieces, such as one word or even one syllable at a time. If you’ve ever been concerned that this might describe your speech, don’t worry! There is nothing wrong with the way

No, it’s not just you! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this. And I’ve experienced the feeling as well. So don’t worry, you’re not the only one. There’s no quick fix for this, but there are some things we can do to understand why we can’t hear the difference between certain sounds.

I’m certainly not uniquely qualified to answer this question just because I’m in the field of teaching accent reduction. I personally wouldn’t judge anyone who has an accent. On the contrary, I’m amazed and inspired by how much people can do. I’m always impressed when I see the results of someone who has dedicated themselves

Accent reduction work is a targeted approach in the study of a spoken language that focuses on the specific details that may be difficult for second language speakers. It looks at the areas of speech that are most different between native and second-language speakers. The term also refers to the study of spoken language related

This post is taken directly from a 2009 article by Eric Thal: VOWEL NEUTRALIZATION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH INTONATION Vowel neutralization, or reduction, is an important aspect of intonation in American English. The most important words in a sentence are stressed. That is, they are generally spoken on a higher pitch. (Words can also be stressed