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2. Decide what accent you'd want to have (American, British or neutral).

• There are many different kinds of English accents. The two most common are British and American. There are many different accents even within British or American pronunciation, bumost learning materials will help you learn either a standard British accent or a standard

 American accent.

•  American pronunciation and British pronunciation are completely different. The consonant

sounds are the same (except for the letter ‘t’ and an ‘r’ after a vowel), but the vowel sounds are very different. The British accent has more vowel sounds, and some vowel letters are pronounc

differently.

3. Have a background on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a collection of symbols that represent the differensounds of a language. When you know the all the sounds of English and the symbols thatrepresent those sounds, you will be able to pronounce any word in English. 

•  American Pronunciation: 

▪ http://www.learnersdictionary.com/help/faq_pron_ipa.htm

▪

http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm▪ http://www.rachelsenglish.com/sounds

• British Pronunciation:

▪ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/

▪ http://www.stuff.co.uk/calcul_nd.htm

4. Find a way to check and know the correct pronunciation of the words you encounter.

• The longer you say a word incorrectly, the harder it becomes to learn to say it correctly. You’vedeveloped a bad habit, and it takes a long time to break a bad habit! This is why it is so importato learn the IPA and use dictionaries specifically for English learners.

For example, let’s say you see a new word when you’re reading a book: permeate. How do you

pronounce this word? Simple. Check the dictionary. Online dictionaries provide you not only  with the IPA of the word, but also an audio file on how it is said. Some of these onlinedictionaries are:

▪ http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/

▪ http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/

5. Watch English movies and speech videos and listen to dialogues.

•  American Accent:

▪ http://www.youtube.com/TeacherMelanie

▪ http://www.youtube.com/JenniferESL#g/c/81BCA0A2CB139CB7▪ http://www.youtube.com/AccurateEnglish

▪ http://www.youtube.com/RachelsEnglish

▪ http://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleLearning

▪ http://www.youtube.com/evaeaston

• British Accent:

▪ http://www.youtube.com/thephonevoice

▪ http://www.youtube.com/user/VirtuAule01/

6. Mimic what you hear.

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clusters, plurals, contractions, past tense verbs, etc. This is a great book forteachers to use as a classroom textbook as there are a lot of exercises teachers wfind useful in the classroom. It is better for teachers than for students, as the 2included CDs don’t say all the words and exercises. This book also helps to learnthe IPA as it uses the IPA symbols to help explain American Englishpronunciation. 

10. Let a speech teacher (professionally trained) evaluate you.

•  When your pronunciation is evaluated by a teacher, he/she can tell you exactly what you are doing

right and what you are doing wrong. He/She can tell you exactly what sounds you need to work onto sound more like a native speaker.

 For teachers who need to be more confident and passionate about teaching:

(a) PREPARE. The best way to improve one's confidence in teaching is to prepare and to know the lesson well enough to be able to teach it to others.

(b) DON'T DOUBT YOURSELF. If you have studied and prepared for your class, there is no reason for you to doubt yourself.

(c) APPEAR CONFIDENT.1. Don't slouch.2. Stand up as tall as you can.

3. Put your shoulder blades down and back as far as possible.4. Pick your chin up and look straight ahead.5. Do exercises that would improve your posture.Don't slouch.6. Stand up as tall as you can.7. Put your shoulder blades down and back as far as possible.8. Pick your chin up and look straight ahead.9. Do exercises that would improve your posture.

(d) DON'T TALK TOO FAST. Instead, enunciate the words that you say in order for your student tounderstand you better.

(e) SMILE. Smiling helps the body calm down and would really help you look confident, depending on ho well you do it. Smile as if you're smiling to a friend and not as if you're having an I.D. pictorial.

 Among all of these, passion is the most difficult to attain because it must come from within ourselves. It surely

isn't easy to like something that stresses you; however, if you take yourself out of the picture and focus on your studenthelping them and touching their lives, then, you would feel a deeper connection with teaching and a higher sense of achievement that is so much more than what you're earning.

3. DO.“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neithe

 working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 

4. EVALUATE YOURSELF.Make a checklist of the things that every teacher needs to accomplish for every class and assess yourself with ahonesty by the end of your class on how you handled your student. You can also make use of self-evaluationsheets for teachers that can be found on the internet:

• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/teacher-development-tools/create-development-portfolio/self-evaluation 

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 pull pool

 pulled pooled

wood wooed

would wooed

should shoed

could cooed

full fool

soot suit

hood who'd

look Luke

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ship sheep

fit feet

 bit beat

sit seat

knit neat

rich reach

 pit Pete

gin Jean

chip cheap

six seeks

list least

hill he'll

filled field

mill meal

ill eel

is ease

itch each

 pitch peach

liver leaver