Posts Tagged ‘online english training’
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
At L2 Accent Reduction Centre we offer many different accent reduction courses, including online and one-on-one training to help you speak Proper English Pronunciations.
Here’s a short story about Proper English Pronunciation:
The way Canadians pronounce their diphthongs (double vowels), especially in the word “about” has been the butt of many American jokes. We are often fabled to pronounce the word as aboot or aboat. The particularly humorous phrase “oat and aboat in a boat” is frequently attributed to our quirky Canadian accents. On the northern side of the 49th Parallel, most Canadians are clueless as to why Americans continue to relentlessly poke fun at them while repeating the word “about” in a preposterous accent. Most Canadians will agree that they do not say the word ‘out’ as oot or oat. Here, at L2 Accent Reduction Centre, clients frequently ask our specialists about the difference between words such as ‘rider’ and ‘writer’. Often, the environment in which they learned English did not distinguish between the vowels in these words, and it often comes as a surprise when Canadians have trouble understanding their speech because of the lack of vowel distinctions.
Canadian Pop Culture
However, the truth is that Canadians do pronounce their vowels differently from Americans and what results from this difference is the perception of the Canadian accent that has served as a common stereotype the world over. That being said, what Canadians are not doing is saying ‘about’ as aboat or ‘house’ as hoose. In the linguistic phenomenon called Canadian Raising, vowel combinations such as the /ay/ sound in the word ‘five’ and the /aw/ sound in the word ‘crowd’ are raised to the higher vowel combinations /Ãy/ and /Ãw/ respectively before a voiceless consonant, such as /t/, /s/, f/, etc. This results in a vowel differentiation between the words ‘writer’ and ‘rider’ or ‘house’ (verb) and ‘house’ (noun). Americans may perceive this vowel difference to be more exaggerated than it truly is and hear the high vowels /o/ or /u/ when Canadians are engaging in their characteristic vowel raising. Of course, there are other aspects that distinguish Canadian English from General American English, but Canadian Raising is perhaps the most salient and well-known characteristic of Canadian speech. As always, it is important to remember that, just like everywhere else, it’s unwise to generalize and Canadian accents can vary widely from coast to coast.
At L2 Accent Reduction Centre we offer many different accent reduction courses, including online and one-on-one training to help you speak Proper English Pronunciations.
Tags: accent reduction courses, accent reduction training, American accent, Canadian Accent, foreign accents, Jeff Madigan, mispronouncing, online english training, pronucation, pronunciation, pronunciation training
Posted in Accent Reduction For Businesses, Accent Reduction Techniques, Jeff Madigan, Language and Culture, online learning | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
It’s the 21st century, and everybody is addicted to the computer. We’ve become so reliable to the internet that we do everything on there, from shopping, to entertainment, and even learning. Learning something online has become very popular these years, and everyone is trying to make the most of it.
First, it is important to choose what exactly you want to learn at the moment, and be specific. There is no point in learning something you will never use. If you are an English teacher, you would most likely never have the urge to learn how to put together a car. On the other hand, if you are someone who would like to learn English online, you would have to be more specific. You can choose how to read English, write English, or speak English. You may want to master all of these within a few years, but when it comes to learning something new, starting one step at a time is a good idea.
Next, you want to take advantage. Think about it, the internet contains millions of information about billions of things. What is the point if you do not use as many of those sources related to your topic as possible? Let’s go back to the person who is learning English online. The internet would be a great source of practice. On the web, you can find many English-related quizzes and games to play in order to improve your grammar and vocabulary. In addition, there are many videos and articles you can take a look at to advance in your studies.
Hopefully this has helped to change your view on online learning, and provided you with a clearer path on experiencing success when learning online.
accent reduction techniques - accent reduction tools
Tags: accents, British English, Canada, Canadian Accent, career, English, English as a Second Language, english training course, ESL, foreign accents, online english training, online learning
Posted in Human Resources, Language and Culture, online learning | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 5th, 2011
Are Skype lessons a good way to take an online course? It seems that almost everyone is offering English training via Skype, but are there really that many takers? One of the biggest problems with a Skype lesson is the value that you get for the cost. I mean, if you hired a professional accent reduction trainer to help you, you would be paying for the time that person spent with you. On Skype, that isn’t the case. The time you pay for that person is impacted by poor connections and sound quality, the limitations of the screen, and the fact that the experience can be less personal than meeting in the flesh. Still, in most cases, the time you spend with an online teacher is the same, and sometimes more that the cost of learning from a teacher in a traditional classroom setting. This is what truly limits learning by Skype. Why pay for a Skype instructor if a live instructor is more cost effective?
The L2 Accent Reduction Centre provides a cost-effective solution. They have created an online training course that provides you with the most value for your money and a hand on approach to accent reduction training. You get all the video instruction you need from prerecorded video that you can watch as often as you like and according to your own schedule. As well, you can practice as much as you like and all your recordings are uploaded for your professional accent reduction instructor to mark. Your instructor will provide you with all the feedback you will need to successfully complete your training course.
Tags: accent reduction, accent reduction burnaby, accent reduction burnaby bc, Accent Reduction Canada, accent reduction center, accent reduction centre, accent reduction centre vancouver, accent reduction classes, accent reduction classes vancouver, accent reduction course, accent reduction course vancouver, accent reduction courses, accent reduction courses vancouver, online accent reduction, online english pronunciation, online english training
Posted in online learning | Comments Off
Friday, August 5th, 2011
As access to the internet becomes easier, and as technology becomes more user-friendly, the number of virtual classrooms has been growing exponentially. With so many choices available, how can you make sure you are getting a good value?
The first thing you should consider is how automated your online accent reduction course is. If you do not have any contact with a real person, then there is a strong chance you have wasted your money. There are hundreds of free English training sites that allow you to listen to conversational English, or guide you through the correct pronunciation of words. It doesn’t make sense to pay for a download when similar material is available for free.
And what about all those online accent reduction training programs that encourage you to listen and imitate? If no one is listening to you, then how do you know you are pronouncing English sounds correctly? People who say that they never underestimate the ability of a student to correctly identify the errors in their own recordings are making excuses to overlook the pointlessness of such products. If having a real trained online accent reduction professional provide feedback on the sounds that you make were not necessary, then accent reduction would not be a necessary skill since everyone would have mastered those skills in the 1970’s and 1980’s with cassette recorders by listening and correcting themselves.
The online training in accent reduction at the L2 Accent Reduction Centre is unique because you are having your results verified by a trained professional.
Tags: accent reduction, accent reduction courses, accent reduction training, Canadian Accent, online accent reduction, online english pronunciation, online english training, phonetic symbols pronunciation, pronunciation classes, pronunciation help, pronunciation software, pronunciation training, pronunciations english, reduce accent, reduce accent online, reducing accent, speech classes vancouver, speech coach, speech coach vancouver, speech improvement, speech therapist vancouver, speech therapy vancouver, training communication, vancouver accent, vancouver accent reduction, vancouver pronunciation
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