A Cool Tool for Speaking Fluent English: Relaxation

In this lesson, you will discover the importance of being relaxed to speak American English. You've learned to use the muscles of the vocal tract that your native tongue uses.  You  may be interested to know that American English has it's own set of muscles that you may not be accustomed to using. Getting ready to speak English and make changes requires a relaxed vocal tract. You'll also learn relaxation exercises in this lesson.

Finding the Rate of Speech that is Unique to You

Most non-native English speakers take on the same rate of speech they used in their native language.  But since an foreign accent exists, a fast rate plus the pronunciation issues that often occur, often leave the listener struggling to understand.  Slowing your rate of speech is one way to overcome intelligibility issues.

How to Make Pausing Work for You

In this lesson, you will learn to use appropriate pausing in spontaneous conversation.  Pausing in conversation is a natural way to take breaths while speaking and to add meaning to your message. 

Putting Stress on Syllables is Tricky Business

American English puts stress on syllables in words and words in sentences (next lesson).  Without syllable stress, the words you are saying will sound very different to your listeners ears.  Learning to master American English stress is important if you want to be understandable. It is even more important than consonant pronunciation.  Improving this area will also help you sound more friendly and approachable, too, because in order to stress syllables, you elevate your pitch.  This gives your vocal sound more variation. 

Mastering the Art of Stress in Sentences

Similar to last lesson, American English stresses entire words in sentences to mark their importance but also to make speech interesting.  Stressing words in sentences conveys what's important about what you are saying.  Some words are more important.  You will learn to make these words important the same way that you learned to stress syllables.

Amazing Solutions for Intonation

In this lesson, you are going to learn some high level skills about adding intonation (vocal variety) to you speech.  Most likely, you did not learn this information when you learned English.  A common reaction to someone who is monotone or flat when they speak is that they sound business-like, authoritative, or unfriendly.  They aren't as approachable either.  These characteristics may be exactly how you would like to be perceived at times.  But on the other hand, they may work against you if you want to sound warm and approachable.  Being aware of how you want to come across is important because you can manipulate the way you are perceived by adapting this area of speech--your tone.

Your Must Know Guide for Linking Words

Linking is a very high level skill that if you have aspirations to eliminate your accent, this lesson and the next one are important to master.  But, be warned, it is a difficult task!  Very subtle differences will need to be learned.  Even if you don't incorporate this skill at this time, having the knowledge and awareness will help you later on.  The reason this skill is difficult is because linking happens on almost every word.  American English is a one continuous sentence that is connected smoothly between words.  We link words together to make them easier to produce.  Always taking breaths or pausing in-between sentences but the words themselves are connected to give the sound of music (especially if you are adding intonation.

More Secrets to Successful Linking

There's a lot to know when it comes to linking.  You'll be using the last lesson's video to understand this lesson. 

Time Tested Tips for Improving Intelligibility

The final way to link words together is in this lesson.  You will learn how we insert a /w/ or a /y/ sound to make smooth transitions between words. Please refer to the video as you did the last lesson.

Quick Tips on Deletions to Use Now!

You will learn how we shorten words sometimes to create smoother transitions between words and make conversation flow more smoothly.

The Complete Guide for Putting Endings on Words

In this lesson, you will learn when to use voiced and unvoiced consonants to pronounce word endings (plural words and past tense endings).  

The Last Word on Fluency–Putting It All Together

You have learned a lot of information in the last 11 lessons.  Now it is time to put it all together so that you sound fluent and natural.