STUDENTS

TINA WHALEN WELCOMES YOU! You have come to the gateway of your future with ESL pronunciation assistance. It takes thousands of repetitions and many years of work to speak like a native. In the ESL classroom, the teacher has many students and cannot help each one personally to repeat words that need to be practiced over and over again. The teacher would not be able to teach anything else, because constant pronunciation exercises would not permit it.

Repeating words constantly is also something that neither the teacher nor the student enjoys for long periods, furthermore, EACH student needs to PRACTICE and correct different sounds, depending on the difficulty each one experiences. Pronunciation is PERSONAL and INDIVIDUAL, not collective. Teaching the same sound to the whole class is like giving everyone the same medicine. Ideally, pronunciation teaching should be done ONE on ONE, however, in class this is not practical and often not possible.

What can students and teachers do?

It is now possible to continuously PRACTICE all the ‘official’ ESL language sounds on line through esl-linkscanada.com. It’s fun to LOG-IN and REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT , as loud as you wish, since no one will hear your mistakes when you are alone. You don’t need to be embarrassed and you won’t tire your teacher. You can PRACTICE in your own time for pennies a day.

Don’t get discouraged! As you know, no matter what language a child is born into, he or she does not begin to speak immediately, not until he can mimic the sounds he hears from his parents and until the MUSCLES of his tongue and mouth are ready and strong enough to position themselves perfectly. The task takes a child at least 5 or 6 years (and beyond). Even children, who are fast learners anywhere in the world, usually take more than 6 years to sound like their native parents, and then, they may still lisp or leave out sounds, or they pronounce imperfectly for a little while longer.

How long will it take you to learn to pronounce English well? It will take much PRACTICE and as long as you need to mimic the sounds correctly and train the MUSCLES of your tongue to adjust to the correct positions. The pronunciation lab will help you TRAIN YOUR TONGUE MUSCLES by EFFECTIVE REPETITION . IT WILL BE THE BEST INVESTMENT YOU EVER MADE!

Tina Whalen-E.S.L., O.T.C., B.A., M.A.