Thursday, June 22, 2017

American English Pronunciation for Indian IT Professionals: online course

     
     I keep meeting guys like this:  "I had 4 interviews with Google (or other high tech company) and they were about to hire me (because I'm so talented at what i do) but at the last minute they dropped me because of my 'communication skills.'  They couldn't understand my Indian accent."

    See if you can quickly solve these word puzzles.  If not, my course (American English Pronunciation for Indian IT Professionals) will definitely help your pronunciation (and teach you the rules behind these puzzles.)  If you're curious about the answers, find them on Smooth English Facebook page.

1.Gowoutinfindayello wapple. 
2.Wha rin the were ruld aryu struddingoff to?
3.Pudidinthechruckbifor ri leave furreno. 
4.I feeyul thudee really yappreshiyatesme.
5.Iyalways hope tubeyon time tu skoowul.
6.The newatturney at my yoffice has bluewize.
7.Tri yagin nafter riduwit.

     
     After earning a master's degree in teaching ESL with a focus on teaching pronunciation, I taught ESL and accent reduction in Silicon Valley for over a decade.  I have worked with many high tech engineers and managers from India and dedicate this course to them.  Students from different language backgrounds make different types of errors in English. Therefore, I am making separate courses for learners from different language backgrounds.  This will save your time because you won't have to wade through material that is irrelevant to you. 

     There are three types of students who could use this course.  First, students who have already studied with me or in other accent reduction classes can use this course to review.  Second, for new students, the most economical way to reduce your accent is to learn a few sections of this course on your own and then schedule a private lesson to make sure you are producing the sounds correctly.  Third, you can use this course to practice at the same time you are taking private lessons.  Students often think they are producing a sound correctly but almost always need a private lesson to fine-tune their production.

     No one student is likely to make all the errors accounted for in this course.  These errors are gathered from academic articles describing English learner errors  and private data collected from the pre-test recordings of over 50 of my past Indian students.  Their language backgrounds included Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Punjabi, HindiBengali, MarathiMalayalam, and Punjabi.

    This course teaches pronunciation with advanced vocabulary words.  We are not just using standard words like "cat," "dog" or "go to the store."  The sentences for each target sound start with simple, everyday words but then each section ends with IT sentences, which revolve around the topic of information technology, business or computers.  Words you use at work related to software and IT will be used in the course.  This makes it different from other courses, which tend to use very basic, mundane vocabulary.

    The course is interactive.  At any time you can ask me a question, and I'll get back to you.  You won't be on your own.

     This first published course covers vowels.  https://www.udemy.com/american-english-vowels-for-indian-it-professionals/?couponCode=SMOOTHENGLISHWEBSITE This link will allow you to buy the course, which consists of one hour of information-packed video, as well as written summaries and quizzes, for only $45.  Consonants will be in a separate course.      


1 comment:

  1. This article is genuinely resourceful, especially for IT professionals who are looking for online resources to learn and enhance their level of English. Keep up with this admirable information. Continue updating.
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