Free Pronunciation Lessons

From 2008 to 2011, Paul created hundreds of video lessons and audioblogs for GlobalEnglish and English Café, formerly part of Pearson English. GlobalEnglish (now part of Learnship) is a worldwide technology company that helps clients realize the potential of diversity in the workforce and improve lives of global workers through the learning and application of Business English.

These Pronunciation with Paul and Communication with Paul tutorials, a small sampling of which are presented to you free here, feature instructional and entertaining guides to everything related to English pronunciation and prosody, from the schwa sound to the use of rhoticity. Though some lessons are geared more toward ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, all English speakers should gain some knowledge of the language from these tutorials. Paul’s entire library of video and audio lessons is available to corporate members of GlobalEnglish. Whenever you need more than the highly specialized training in British English or American English pronunciation for which Paul is celebrated, he is proud to recommend GlobalEnglish to his clients.

To view the videos, click the link and open the video with the program of your choice (for example, Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, or QuickTime). You might be prompted to download the file, which you are free to do as long as you do not share this copyrighted material with others. Please allow 10-20 seconds for the video lessons to load.

To listen to the audio clips, scroll down to the audio section (below the videos) and click the link of your choice, which will take you to a separate page where you will be able to play the audio file and also read the accompanying text. All content is copyright Paul Meier and GlobalEnglish and may not be reproduced, re-posted, or otherwise quoted at length (other than under fair use) without written permission from both Paul Meier and GlobalEnglish. For additional coaching from Paul, see Skype/Phone Coaching and Accent Reduction.

 

VIDEO LESSONS

 

Mairzy Doats and Dozy Doats: connecting words fluidly as you speak
Runtime: 9:13
Note: The additional blog and quiz Paul refers to are available only to Learnship/Global English subscribers.

The Cool Bull and the Silly Sheep: two “relaxed” sounds unique to English
Runtime: 6:25
Note: The quiz Paul refers to is available only to Learnship/Global English subscribers.

Trippingly on the Tongue: the rhythm of the English language
Runtime: 12:25

Rhoticity: how to treat the letter /r/
Runtime: 7:40

Rhoticity Part 2: how to treat the letter /r/ (continued)
Runtime: 10:54

Rhoticity Part 3: how to treat the letter /r/ (continued)
Runtime: 12:47

Rhoticity Part 4: how to treat the letter /r/ (continued)
Runtime: 8:27

The Tower of Babel: the splitting of languages
Runtime: 10:14

The Laughing Cat: the /a/ vowel
Runtime: 7:12

The Funny Monkey’s Double Lunch: the /u/, /o/, /ou/, and /oo/ sounds
Runtime: 7:58

Waterfalls: the /a/, /au/, /ou/, /aw/, and /oa/ sounds
Runtime: 8:05

Rory and Laura Rock and Roll: /r/, the most difficult consonant
Runtime: 5:00

This Moose Knows His Nose: the letter /s/
Runtime: 14:40
Note: The subsequent blog and quiz Paul refers to are available only to Learnship/Global English subscribers.

The Lonely Goat Goes Home: the GOAT lexical set
Runtime: 9:51
Note: The URL Paul refers to has been updated to this. And the second stage of this lesson that Paul mentions is available only to Learnship/Global English subscribers.

Viewing Wavy Whales: the letters /w/ and /v/
Runtime: 8:01

The Anaconda, the Rhinoceros, and the Hippopotamus: the schwa sound
Runtime: 11:25

The Singing King: the /ng/ sound
Runtime: 11:00

Sit Tight, Tom!: the treatment of adjacent consonants
Runtime: 13:14

Jeetyet? Skweet!: laziness and dropped consonants in spoken English
Runtime: 13:32

The Voice of Authority: how to command a room and captivate an audience during a business meeting
Runtime: 11:33

The Eyes Have It: developing good eye contact
Runtime: 16:32

 

 

AUDIO LESSONS

 

An Accent-Reduction Case Study (Hindi)
Runtime: 6:32

An Accent-Reduction Case Study (Arabic)
Runtime: 5:19

Bridging Cultural Divides Through Dialect Coaching for Theatre and Film
Runtime: 5:48

The Values of a Dialect
Runtime: 3:34

Vehicular Dialect
Runtime: 5:09

Vowels vs. Consonants
Runtime: 3:51

Those Pesky “TH” sounds
Runtime: 3:36

That Crazy English “R”
Runtime: 3:48

Unvoiced Plosives
Runtime: 3:56

A Global English Dialect?
Runtime: 4:57

The Peculiarity of English Spelling
Runtime: 4:48

The “L” and “R” Railroad Blues
Runtime: 2:05

The Ubiquitous Schwa
Runtime: 4:32

Voice, Power, and Persuasion
Runtime: 4:00

“Look, Luke! A Sheep Ship!”: An Examination of Difficult Vowels
Runtime: 3:14

Political Rhetoric and Eloquence: A Reflection Upon the First Inaugural Address of President Obama
Runtime: 3:37

Hearing the Boundaries Between Words
Runtime: 4:12

Terribly Tricky Tongue Twisters
Runtime: 3:16