The important thing is to talk about things that you are interested in and to have fun expressing your ideas in english.

Tip 1
Do not confuse pronunciation of words with their spelling! For example, “threw” and “through”, although spelled differently, are pronounced the same. Also, identical letters or letter clusters in words do not always produce the same sound. For example, the “ough” in “though” and “through” represents a different sound in each word. Learn to practise what you hear, not what you see.

Tip 2
Imagine a sound in your mind before you say it. Try to visualize the positioning of your mouth and face. Think about how you are going to make the sound.

Tip 3

The English language has many different dialects, and words can be pronounced differently. It is important, however, that you pronounce words clearly to ensure effective communication.

There are three levels of English pronunciation:

Level 1: People often don’t understand what you want to say. You use the wrong sounds in English words.
Level 2: People understand what you want to say, but it is unpleasant to listen to you.
Level 3: People understand you, and your English is pleasant to listen to.

Level 3 will be called good pronunciation. Notice that good pronunciation is not “perfect American or British accent”. You don’t have to sound like the Queen of England or the President of the United States of America.

Why not? Because there are many regional kinds of English. In England, people from Newcastle speak English differently from people in London. In America, people from New York City, California, and Texas each have their own pronunciation. So it is no problem if you have your own accent.

But your accent must be close to the standards (American and British English). What does it mean? Turn on your TV and watch channels like CNN International, NBC, EuroNews, BBC, or Sky News. You will hear many different people (news anchors, reporters, etc.) from Germany, France, and other non-English-speaking countries. They all have good accents — easy to understand and pleasant.

The rule is: If you are close to the standard, you can always communicate, and your English will be pleasant. If you are far from the standard, sometimes you won’t communicate successfully.

Everybody wants to be able to speak English like a native speaker, but English pronunciation is always a big problem to ESL learners.

Bad English pronunciation may confuse people even if you used advanced English grammar. We can use simple words and simple grammar structures that make people understand you but we cannot use “simple pronunciation”.

On the other hand, good English pronunciation will make people understand you easily and be willing to listen to you!

You will say that we learn English just for communication, although we speak English with a strong accent, native speakers can understand us, that’s enough. But you know it is not pleased to listen to the bad pronunciation!

Also,one will change the channel when a journalist covers a person who speaks English without good pronunciation, because that make him/her feel uncomfortable although he/her can’t pronounce English fluently as well.

So, how to speak English clearly and confidently? There are three ways: practice, practice and practice! First practice speaking each word clearly then practice speaking each sentence clearly.

The result IS your clear and standard pronunciation will give you more confidence to ensure more friendly communication.:)

Well, there´s an option: Starting a “Small Talk”.

A small talk doesnt necessarily mean that we have to tell our entire history of problems to the other person, it is more about a friendly conversation with no real purpose. It means talking about things that arent very important. We use it when we are not interested in expressing opinions, convincing people, arguing, defending our viewpoints or engaging in serious conversations.

We have only a month to learn two programs, Intermediate 7 and 8.
Our goals: learning new vocabulary and grammar, speaking fluently, of course improving our listening skills and reading too.