Take an in-depth test

The test takes about 1 hour to complete, and will determine the most appropriate goals for you. You do not need a certain level of English to be able to take this test; I adjust it to your abilities. The purpose of the assessment is to:

1. Perform an in-depth analysis of your pronunciation of all the individual speech sounds in the English language, in all word positions
2. Analyze your pronunciation of different common sound patterns, including
   • Consonant Blend patterns, such as /kst/
   • Spelling patterns, such as when to pronounce /d/ as /t/ in past-tense “-ed” words
   • Linking patterns in connected speech (American pronunciation shortcuts in natural conversation/fast speech that are different from how the word is pronounced slowly or by itself), such as using a glottal stop instead of a /t/ sound in the word “button” and not pronouncing the first “t” in “internet” or the second “t” in “twenty”
3. Assesses your speech rate (speed), rhythm (syllable stress), and intonation (rise and fall of vocal pitch)
4. Obtain a spontaneous speech sample to find which errors are affecting you most at the conversation level

It includes:

1. An interview, to discuss your concerns and personal goals
2. Recording a 1-2 minute audio of you talking or reading a paragraph aloud, to compare how you sound before and after working with me
3. Reading sentences aloud
4. Answering a few questions about what you hear

Review your test results

After completing the test, I’ll provide you with a written report and review your results with you, including:

1. Your overall score rating, estimating what percentage of your speech listeners likely to understand
2. Individual sound errors;  Which of the 11 vowels and 25 consonants you’re pronouncing differently than native speakers and a list of individual sounds that you can improve on (such as “th” or “r”)
3. Sound pattern errors; A list of any consonant blend, spelling, and linking patterns that you can improve on
4.  Accuracy ratings (0% to 100%) for each of your errors based on how often you got that sound incorrect
5. Which word position (beginning, middle, or end) you need to focus on for each error
6. What sounds you’re substituting for the correct sounds
7. An example word for each of your errors, showing the word you intended to say versus the word an English listener would be likely to hear

Develop personalized goals

We’ll use your test results to develop the most appropriate goals for you. 

Individual sound and sound pattern goals:

• All goals are functional, progressive, and measurable.
• You’ll have short term and long term goals for each of your mispronounced sounds/patterns. 
• We’ll work at the correct skill level for you (0 – 10) on each of your sounds and progressively work our way up to the highest level, which is mastery of that sound at the conversation level (no wasting time on tasks that are too easy or hard for you).
• Level 10 is the highest skill level; it’s time to throw a party if you’ve mastered this! This is the ‘natural conversation’ level, so by now you’re able to have a 5-10 minute impromptu conversation about anything and use your previously incorrect speech sound correctly without having to think about it
• Most people end up having around 20 to 30 goals

Unique word mispronunciations goals:

• These are words that are mispronounced not because of an inability to say a certain sound or pattern, but because they’re simply a new vocabulary word, or they don’t follow typical English pronunciation rules.
• I’ll make a list of these for you and help you master their pronunciations. 
• If any of these are due to an unfamiliar spelling pattern, I’ll find other words with that same spelling and get you comfortable saying them all correctly.

All goals are arranged in order of priority, as determined by:

• How common that sound is in spoken English
• How many word positions you’re incorrectly pronouncing that sound
• How easy it is for you to make progress on that sound’s pronunciation
• How much that sound affects your intelligibility (how likely that sound is to make you hard to understand)

Begin your custom-tailored, 1-on-1 lessons

It’s time to start your journey of sounding more like a native!

1. I usually start off with a brief overview of how speech sounds are made in order to increase your awareness and help you progress more rapidly.
2. Then we will pick a few of your most important goals to focus on first.  We’ll practice tasks that you can’t do on your own yet, but that you can easily do with my help and support, so that you experience success immediately and make steady progress until you master that sound at the conversation level.
3.  During our lessons I can record any vocabulary or grammar errors that you make so that we can review them and you can study them either with me or on your own, if desired.

Materials:

As one of my students said, I “find the best learning method and materials that work for you personally”!  I have a variety of materials to offer and am very resourceful and creative; if at any time I feel that something different would work better for you or be more effective at helping you progress, I create it for you.  My materials are fun and stimulating and include but are not limited to:

• Videos
• Pictures
• Word lists (these are super helpful with functional words that you already use daily and don’t realize you’re mispronouncing)
• Music
• Songs
• Visual charts demonstrating the similarities and differences among the speech sounds and between your native language and English
• Audio clips and transcripts of your speech so we can go back over and highlight sounds for you to improve on
• Screen-sharing of online activities
• Personalized audios for you to listen to for homework
• Role-play
• And anything that motivates you personally!  For example, one of my students chose some fun sounds (‘noisy buzzer’, ‘skill level-up’) for me to use as nonverbal feedback on their pronunciations. I have also been known to have some hilariously bad singing contests with some of my students.