Two Tricks for Learning to Speak
American English for FREE...

By Eugene O'Reilly

Eugene O'Reilly, MA, CCC-SLP, is a Speech Therapist, Accent Specialist and Voice Coach Director of Contemporary Speech and Voice Services who is listed in the Speech category.

There is an old saying in America which goes, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." With that said, I want to suggest a couple of free learning techniques for people from other countries who are striving to speak American English better. The only real expenditure is time and focused effort. It's all paid back when the goal is reached.

The Public Library has all the materials any person could want to learn almost anything they would want to learn. A librarian can help you to find books and books on CD at your level of reading. Using a voice recorder of some kind, play the book on CD while reading one or two sentences. Stop the CD and imitate what you heard with the recorder running. Playback the recording and compare your speaking to the speech of the person reading the book.

Many people from overseas have told me that they think they will be able to learn English from watching movies in English.

I have watched movies in numerous languages and I can't say that I am able to speak any of them as a result. Don't just watch the movie but imitate what is being said. You can do it the same way as the books on CD. Read the captions of the movie in English. Most captions are on the screen before the actor speaks.

While using a voice recorder, quickly pause the DVD and read the captions of the movie then let the actor speak. Once again compare your speaking to the pronunciation of the actor in the movie.

Of course, a speech and voice teacher can help you "fast track" your way to better speaking. Let me know if I can be of assistance!