Should I do an English pronunciation course or an accent reduction course?
You have reached a point in your learning of English that you can say almost everything you want to but you have hit a wall. You can’t improve further. There is still a big gap between where you are and where you want to be. This is very frustrating, and sometimes humiliating. You want to speak faster, sound more impressive, influence people, not be judged for your accent, feel confident and move forward in your career. Ok so is it pronunciation or accent reduction?
Here is my definition of the difference between pronunciation and accent reduction. Pronunciation is about making the correct sounds in isolation, or in words in isolation. So can you say /t/ /l/ /m/? Can you say ‘this’? This is pronunciation. Pronunciation courses will take you through the phonetic chart (see post about why i don’t use the phonetic chart). They will show you how to clearly and perfectly make sounds.
But communication is not making sounds. Communication is making phrases.
Accent reduction is about making your phrases sound natural, effortless and as if you were born speaking English. This is very different from pronunciation courses because this is about learning how to speak imperfectly. How to blend sounds together effortlessly. So the correct pronunciation of the individual sounds and words ‘I’ ‘Like’ ‘this’ is very different from the natural way to say ‘I like this’.
Here is the main point:
You do not speak in perfect little sounds. You speak in effortless, natural phrases. So if you want to sound good. I mean sound really good. I mean sound like you were born speaking this language. I mean so you sound like you speak better that 99.9% of learners. Then you want accent reduction. That’s why I only teach accent reduction. I want you to be better than 99.9% of learners.