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Muna speaks really rather good English, impressive since it is her third language. She herself, however ,would like to feel a bit more confident and expand her vocabulary so that it more accurately meets her needs and aspirations. To this end we have started straight away on a longer magazine article concerning so called 'weak language' and the aim is to add extra phoneme and suprasegmental practice as the need arises. So far we have identified the goat vowel and the 5, nowadays 6, long vowels as needing care, especially the vowel in 'nurse', as also the distinction between the vowels in kit and fleece (typical of an Italian accent). Although Muna's accent is not rhotic, she does need to take care not to flap or till the 'r'. For everyday speech she needs to make greater use of contractions and the ubiquitous schwa and to be careful to divide her speech into little phrases or chunks and stress important words while hurrying more over the less important ones. I really look forward to working with her.

Anna has been in the UK for a while and speaks very fluently but wishes to blend in more, so in the short time at her disposal we worked on vowel sounds, particularly the long vowels and the distinction between the thought, lot and goat vowels. We also tackled the 'th' consonant sound and worked on linking, chunking and stress, using a well known female actor and RP speaker as a voice model. In the three sessions before her new job, Anna improved in leaps and bounds. She has a good ear and is so hard working!

Edita speaks very good English and is easily understood but after many years in the UK - but only as an adult- she would like to reduce her Lithuanian accent. The problem here is that the more fluent one is, the more ingrained the speech sounds become and the harder it can be to change one's habits, necessitating a fair bit of consistent effort on the part of the learner! But we are already seeing results and Edita can switch from being very rhotic and pronouncing every 'r' to being a lot less so, when she remembers! Other sounds we have worked on have been the 'goat' vowel as opposed to the 'lot 'vowel-'lot, goat and thought vowels being often quite hard for students to differentiate- and, above all, the sound, which can be achieved by spreading the tongue and placing it loosely between the teeth, or by pushing it out a little. I look forward to completing the sounds with Edita and tackling sentence stress and British intonation in a range of more interesting articles...

Maddie speaks excellent English but her accent is very rhotic for someone living in England, so we have been working on suppressing the 'r' sound before a consonant or at the end of words, unless followed by a vowel-initial word, in which case we use linking 'r'. We have also concentrated on emphasising the distinction between the cup vowel and the trap vowel - uncle versus ankle- and on placing the tongue between the teeth for the 'th' sound, so that the sound produced isn't mistaken for a dental 'd'. Maddie needs to remember to round her lips more for the whistle vowel as in the word 'four' byt has an excellent ear, so she learns quickly, and her English intonation, chunking and stressing is good. Having used mini passages and doggerel so far, I look forward to tackling longer , more interesting passages with her in the future. A pleasure to work with

Celine is a native speaker of educated Singaporean English, so she is absolutely fluent but her native dialect is syllable timed whereas British English tends to divide utterances into chunks and then stress a couple of important words in each chunk and destress others, so the rhythms of the two accents are different. We have been working on this and also the 'goat' vowel sound and when Celine returns from holiday, I plan to tackle the long vowels of British English- five of them in the past but 6 of them these days. Accents change...!

For an L1 French speaker, Guy has an extremely good English accent. He needs to work on lengthening the 6 long vowels of modern English, his dark 'l' at the end of words and before consonants, and eliminate rhoticity (mute the 'r' sound) in those same positions. Also needs to remember to add a little more stress and colour in order to stop speaking quite so fast!

Junga has a good command of phonemes and her English pronunciation is already clear and easy to understand. With British English being more of a stress timed language than syllable timed, however, it is important for her to practise dividing her utterances up into little phrases or groups of words that go together and to stress the most important words within each group (onset, tonic syllable etc).. For a British accent she also needs to avoid pronouncing the 'r' sound before a consonant or at the end of words, unless followed by a vowel initial word. We will also continue to practise the characteristics of rapid everyday speech, including use of schwa, especially in the little grammar words, linking, contracting, assimilation etc and generally work on bringing stress and colour into her utterances. I look forward very much to working together in the future

Vianney is a delightful person to teach, full of enthusiasm and with a good work ethic. He knows he has a very strong French accent (often much beloved by the British) but he is beginning to get the British sounds and his intonation, already good, is improving rapidly. He has a good ear but because he is already such a fluent speaker he will have to work extra hard to remember to use the new vowel sounds in place of his habitual ones. Meanwhile he should be careful not to speak too fast

Dragana already speaks good English in a pleasant, measured way that is easy to understand but sounds somewhat too rhotic for Standard British English. Besides eliminating 'r' before consonants and at the ends of words, we have been working quite hard on her 'r' sound itself which tends to be too strong and somewhat trilled. We have also practised a number of other phonemes, including the goat, lot and thought vowels, as well as working on chunking and sentence stress. Dragana has been tackling some really quite advanced texts with goodwill and gusto. I am quite impressed!

Lovely fun person to teach, excellent English but her enunciation is not always quite clear enough. Has difficulty with certain sounds eg the trap vowel sounds too much like the cup vowel, and the distinction between the long and short i (sheep versus ship) is blurred. She also needs to reduce her rhoticity and not pronounce the 'r' before consonants or at the ends of words. I look forward to working with her further and on longer texts.

Constantine is a very engaging student to work with and has an extraordinarily keen ear for sounds. His command of English is extremely good but his very fluency works a little against him in that he needs to practise very hard to alter certain sounds he is used to producing. The trap vowel, for instance, needs spread lips and a slight raising of the tongue . We are working toward getting his delivery a tad clearer and very slightly cutting speed, in oder for him to remember any changes. But yes, he is really good!

Where to start? Miki's English fluency and vowel sounds are really impressive. We are concentrating for the moment on chunking and intonation and the general music of English - as well as a bit of potted grammar! I look forward to reading some newspaper articles and/or literary texts together

One of the really lovely things about Veronica is her enthusiasm: living at opposite sides of the world, as we do, she is getting up at crack of dawn for the lessons and seems so interested in everything she learns! And her accent is really very good indeed. We have been looking at chunking the stream of speech and putting in the nuclear stresses, and shall be consolidating certain sounds such as the thought vowel (the 'or' sound) and the pronunciation of 'tl' together, so that the air flows laterally out over the tongue - little tweaks like that , and then hopefully read some interesting texts and chat together to put everything we learn into context. I look forward to continuing...

It was really nice meeting Stanislav and working on little tweaks to make his excellent command of English sound a little more British. He should watch out for v versus w, tongue position for the 'th' sound and be careful -for standard English as opposed to American -not to pronounce the 'r' sound at the end of words or before a consonant. His consonants are good but careful not to devoice them -at the ends of words especially. Going forward, we will work on the characteristics of rapid everyday speech, included linking, and will concentrate, too, on word stress, as well as phrasing (or chunking) and sentence stress. I look forward to working with Stanislav

Merel speaks excellent English but standard British English is not rhotic like general American, so we are working on suppressing the 'r' sound at the end of words or before a consonant. Other phonemes also need working on, notably the 'th' sound, 'f' versus 'v' , thought and nurse vowels etc. We also worked on phrasing - dividing one's speech up into little chunks with appropriately stressed content words- and on use of schwa. As Merel is a very fluent speaker she will need to work hard to change ingrained habits but she has a very good ear. Once the basics have been mastered , we will move on to texts and articles, reading them out loud and expanding her vocabulary and mastery of syntax. I very much enjoyed working with her.

Lora already has a very good command of English and is something of a perfectionist. However, the paradox with English is that in order to sound more 'English', one needs at times to sound less careful and distinct. It is important to destress and increase one's tempo with certain little word clusters and function words in order to throw more important words into relief - and that means making extensive use of the schwa sound, linking, contracting etc and also chunking and emphasising. Pronouncing the phonemes of English correctly is really important , but equally important is their delivery and remembering that the dictionary citation forms of words vary somewhat according to context. I look forward to working on the latter perhaps.

Stefania is a very fluent speaker of English with little in her accent that betrays her Italian origins! However for the neutral accent that she is looking to achieve she needs to work quite hard on certain vowel sounds, notably the short i or kit vowel (live not leave). A lot of her English is learned by ear but she can still be misled by the infamous English spelling! So far we have looked at monophthongs, linking, use of schwa etc and I look forward to further sessions with such a quick learner.

Rajnish is a fluent English speaker - and his good intonation helps him be understood, despite the fact that a number of his phonemes need careful adjustment. So far we have briefly touched on aspirated p, th, r, v and w, s and sh, dark l, d and t. I look forward to practising these and other sounds with him and to helping him with the characteristics of rapid, everyday speech: linking, elision (libry instead of library), use of weak forms and schwa. Lots to study - chunking, word stress etc-but Rajnish has an excellent ear!

Coming from Singapore, Ziting's speaks excellent English, as it is indeed her first language, but as she is working now in the UK, there are several adjustments to be made to sound more British, particularly dropping the /r/sound before consonants and at the end of words (unless followed by a word beginning with a vowel). Other sounds to concentrate on are the th sound and vowel sounds ei, ai and e. We will also work on chunking/phrasing and sentence stress and intonation, as well as the pervasive use of the schwa (uh) sound and linking in rapid everyday speech. Ziting appears to have an extremely good ear, which should make it much easier for her to modify her accent where helpful for British English speakers

Having started as a child and having spent time in the States, Franklin is an excellent English speaker. As he now lives in London, however, we are seeking to change his accent to non-rhotic, omitting the 'r' sound before consonants and at the end of words unless followed by a word starting with a vowel. We are also working on use of schwa in function words, linking, contracting and other features of rapid everyday speech, together with chunking and sentence stress and intonation. His pronunciation of individual phonemes is highly accurate but he does need to make the long vowels long and to distinguish a little more clearly between the long and short i. He has an excellent ear.

We have only had one lesson so far but Chiaki speaks English with remarkable fluency, especially since her native language is so very different. Having lived several years in the UK, her intonation is good. We will work on it further, using texts, dialogues and general conversation, paying especial attention to linking words together and other features of rapid speech. Initially, however, there needs to be some quite concentrated attention paid to phonemes, the goat vowel, for instance, and the fact that Standard British English is non - rhotic !

We have only had one lesson but I have established that Cyril speaks excellent English with just a few pronunciation errors that are quite customary for someone with French as their first language. Cyril's accent is not strong and therefore needs tweaking rather than changing.... We shall first pay careful attention to all the phonemes, particularly the 'p' and 'th' sounds, the trap vowel, the cup vowel and the kit/fleece contrast, and then go on to increasing his use of schwa and practising locating the stress in thought units on a sentence by sentence basis. Intonation will be dealt with as we go along but on the whole that is already very good. I look forward to working further with this student.

Claire is a fluent English speaker and should make good progress accent wise because she is willing to spend time between lessons revising what we have covered. Time and again I have found this makes all the difference. There are a few phonemes that need a little more work, including the lot and thought vowels, but in the main we should concentrate on chunking and word stress and such features of rapid speech as linking and a wider use of schwa. A great pleasure to teach.

Being Australian, Katherine speaks perfect English but what she was seeking is to also acquire a British standard or RP accent. This she was already well on the way to doing, it's just a question of practising and being constantly mindful of, for example, her ei and ai diphthongs when speaking, avoiding any twang in her voice and letting her British English statements fall in pitch. She appears to have a very good ear for accent and would, I feel, be advised to acquire RP or SSB as a further accent rather than to change her original one...

Boris already speaks excellent English and has a very good ear. A few phonemes need a little bit of working on, principally the trap vowel /æ/ and consonant clusters, and he needs to consolidate certain features of fast connected speech, including linking, but the main focus of our lessons should be on chunking, sentence stress, pitch and tempo changes and the general melody of English. Boris is understandably in a hurry to improve these so that his English blends in more with that of native speakers but this will also require listening to and shadowing the speech of others on a regular basis : listen to short podcasts and audio files on repeat and then try and speaking out loud along with the speaker.

Ahmed has an excellent ear and is a highly fluent English speaker. One or two phonemes, mainly the thought vowel, could be worked on and lengthened a little and he could do with some sentence stress and general intonation practice in order to sound smoother and a little more dynamic - pitch and tempo changes in online lectures. Very quick mind.

Well Kathryn is already a native speaker of two versions of English and has an excellent ear, so all she needed was to perfect an already very convincing RP accent. So that her speech - and her reading- flows more smoothly, she should try and increase her use of contractions, use of linking (consonant to vowel between words - bu tit) and use of schwa in function words and unstressed syllables. Was a pleasure to teach

Monika had problems with certain vowel sounds, notably nurse and goat and trap and thought but was actually an extremely fluent speaker with good reading skills. This time she was primarily seeking help with the pronunciation of certain specialised words but if she decides to work on her intonation and sentence stress I would be happy to help.

Annapaola has a good ear and is highly motivated but rather lacks confidence. She has a little trouble with certain phonemes, mainly the nurse vowel and the trap vowel, and with distinguishing between the short kit and long sheep vowels, but really her English is very fluent. Once she escapes the tyranny of the written word and becomes comfortable with phonetic spelling, she will find it much easier to pronounce certain words. What she does also need is more help with sentence stress and intonation.

Ksenia has an excellent command of English. We have worked on certain sounds that she has a little trouble with for example the goat vowel but really she mainly only needs help with sentence stress (chunking and placing the nuclear stress on the final new content word) and with intonation, in order to have a very good English sounding accent indeed

Very fluent already but good do with some help with suprasegmentals

Should be a lot more confident in her English which is really very fluent. Her Japanese accent is not too strong, so people should not have any particular difficulty understanding her. But this student could do with a lot of speaking practice and discussions to build up confidence. Also, to minimise the Japanese accent, she needs to practice phoneme production, especially the vowel sounds and the alveolar consonants. Her intonation is good.

Robin's daughter already has a native command of English but speaks with a slightly non standard British accent. For RP which is non rhotic she needs to avoid making the 'r' sound before consonants and at the end of words, and to link words that end in a consonant to any following words that begin with a vowel. She also needs to make her sounds as in 'ship' a little shorter and sharper and produce a bit more stress on key words. Function words such as some, of, for, and and to need weakening and she should contract and destress some words or syllables a little more. She is concentrated, enthusiastic and appreciative, so it was a delightful first lesson

Marjorie speaks excellent English with a slight London accent but she does have trouble with certain vowel sounds and consonants needs to learn to link words together. She is really enthusiastic, though, and should do well.

Peter is a native speaker. His pronunciation is excellent. If he wishes to speak with a more classical RP accent I would recommend consulting an actor's voice coach. Very nice student.

Very fluent speaker, joy to teach, tends to get a little too discouraged when phonemes corrected but as she is very fluent and therefore used to pronouncing in a certain way, it will take a bit of time - patience and practice!

Very fluent, needs help with certain phonemes eg mouth and price vowel and with sentence stress

Excellent, highly motivated, good phoneme production but with occasional lapses when speaking fast

Very fluent, certain vowel sounds need working on and speed of utterance needs reducing a little for greater clarity

Lovely hard working and appreciative. Needed help with prosody and certain vowel sounds