Learn about the challenges of pronouncing words correctly in conversations, the importance of repetition and muscle memory, common pitfalls in pronunciation practice, and effective methods for improving pronunciation skills. Discover strategies for practicing and receiving feedback, and how to integrate proper pronunciation into your speech for clear communication.

When you see the word ‘resume’ do you know how to pronounce it if it’s out of context? I guess it’s going to be hard. Because two words (that are pronounced differently) share this spelling! Homographs are words that are written the same but are pronounced differently. And English has lots of them! This is one of the reasons English spelling is so confusing. We see two words that are completely identical, yet are supposed to pronounce their vowels, consonants or even stress differently. In this episode, I’m going to review a bunch of them: tear read live Polish resume use close present record desert produce   Sign up to be notified when registration opens for Accent Makeover: https://theaccentsway.com/join-2/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

Have you ever felt nervous speaking English, especially around native speakers? If the answer is yes, do listen to this episode. In this episode you will learn: 1. How to turn your thoughts around so you can become a confident speaker 2. How to get past the fear of speaking with native speakers 3. Three things you can do to improve your English performance even if you are afraid If you like this episode, I’m sure these are going to help too: Why do I feel like a fraud every time I speak English? | The Impostor Syndrome https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/11/ Become Fluent | The #1 Strategy To Gain Fluency And Confidence In English https://theaccentsway.com/fluency-strategy/ How to stay MOTIVATED when learning ENGLISH | 5 ground rules https://theaccentsway.com/motivation-in-english/   If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

Homophones are words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same. No wonder English is so confusing! When we see the different spelling we assume that it should be pronounced differently, but English is not a phonetic language! So spelling and pronunciation don’t match! In this episode, you’ll learn about some of the most common homophones in English and how to pronounce them. We’ll talk about: 1. flower – flour 2. here – hear 3. sun – son 4. there – their – they’re 5. right – write 6. road – rode 7. hoarse – horse 8. soul – sole 9. war – wore 10. see – sea 11. to – too – two Sign up to be notified when registration opens for Accent Makeover: https://theaccentsway.com/join-2/ Are you a teacher? Learn more about English Teachers Academy and join the WAITLIST: theaccentsway.com/english-teachers-academy-announcement/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

To download the practice sheet click here: https://hadarshemesh.com/the-r-in-english-podcast-freebie/ Many non-native speakers of English struggle with the R in English.  Not only that this sound is challenging to pronounce (put the tongue where?!?) and makes us feel like pirates, but it also keeps changing depending on where it’s positioned. So even though it might be easy to pronounce in some words, it could be impossible to pronounce in other words and that makes us feel like the R is impossible!  To understand the R we need to do three things: Understand how to pronounce it Understand the different types of R sounds and what might be the challenge of each  Practice, practice and then practice some more. In this episode I’m going to walk you through each and every one of those steps, and at the end, even offer you the perfect way to practice with my practice sheet and audio: https://hadarshemesh.com/the-r-in-english-podcast-freebie/ I’m also going to talk about the difference between the American R and the British R! But most importantly I’ll give you tips and hacks on where and how to CHEAT, so you invest less effort, pronounce less R’s and sound BETTER! Whether you’re struggling with pronouncing it or you know how to pronounce it but you don’t use it consistently,  or sometimes you become too self-conscious about it, in this episode you’ll find things you can do that’ll help you use it naturally and easily. For more about the R in English, check out these episodes: The American R: https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/the-american-r/ American Accent in 5 steps: https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/improve-your-accent/   And remember #ClearIsBetterThanAccurate If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

A few months ago I invited you to ask me PERSONAL questions. I didn’t think I’d get many questions but I was surprised to have received dozens of awesome questions, and in this episode, I’m going to answer a bunch of them:) You’ll hear about how I met my husband, my life as a social activist, my biggest failure, my plans for the future, what I do with my hair (not much), if I miss acting and more! It wasn’t easy for me. As an introvert, I don’t like to talk about myself much. Besides, I’m here to share knowledge and help YOU with your English and not to speak about myself. But I decided to do it, because I believe that it’s important for our communication and the connection that we have. In your emails and DMs, you often share your stories (and I’m grateful for every single one you send me) so, it’s only fair that I share mine. I hope that this episode, my most PERSONAL video ever (!), will make us even closer! Let me know in the comments (or in emails) if you feel the same ? Practice with the transcript here: https://hadarshemesh.com/transcript/personal-things-about-hadar/ Want to know more about my English journey? How I lost my accent https://youtu.be/Y5emqoKN92A Why I Quit Acting and Became an Accent Coach: https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/02/ 13 lessons I’ve learned in 10 years of Teaching English: https://youtu.be/QJM2Vrh-MRU Sign up to be notified when registration opens for Accent Makeover: https://theaccentsway.com/join-2/ Are you a teacher? Learn more about English Teachers Academy and join the WAITLIST: theaccentsway.com/english-teachers-academy-announcement/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

Taking small actions every day leads to great results. Author Darren Hardy calls it “The Compound Effect”, and it holds for a lot of things in life. In this episode, I’ll discuss how I’ve realized it’s deeply relevant to English learning and speaking. I experienced it in acting school, in the accent training courses I took, and in the past decade in teaching and building my business. I see it in my students as well, as they put in the work day in day out, not seeing immediate results but then reach a breakthrough and impact other people around them. 06:42 – Defining the Compound Effect 09:02 – How daily practice changed my accent in acting school 13:05 – How weekly uploads led to a successful business 17:00 – Insisting on speaking English is making a difference 25:55 – Breaking it down is building you up 30:45 – The Ripple Effect, and how it has manifested in my life 33:12 – The outcomes of OUR actions 37:15 – The Compound Effect in English: What YOU can do After listening to this episode, let me know in the comments on my website if you’ve experienced the Compound Effect in your life, but more importantly – what you’re going to do to build up your English until the end of the month! Yes. Break it down and build yourself up! Tune in to Brooke Castillo’s episode on the Compound Effect on The Life Coach School: https://thelifecoachschool.com/podcast/236/ Get the audio book with Audible’s Free Trial: http://www.audibletrial.com/accentsway Get a physical book https://amzn.to/2K6af3t You might find these videos interesting as well: What is the Compound Effect? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krweO8-CtMk The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO6XEMMFNOc Sign up to be notified when registration opens for New Sound: https://hadarshemesh.com/join/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

Download the English contractions practice sheet and the audio: https://hadarshemesh.com/contractions-freebie/ Contractions are words and phrases that are shortened by dropping sounds (in writing and in speaking). Contractions are all the you’d, she’ll, we’re, isn’t etc. These contractions allow us to signal our listeners what is more important and what is less, and that makes our communication in English clearer. For non-native speakers these contractions might be a bit confusing. Have you ever thought to yourself, “these short words are not clear enough when they come out of MY mouth”? Do you find yourself separating them because of that? Many learners of English as a second language feel like that but actually, the truth is you can use these contractions, and sound clearer! In this episode, I’ll tell you how to use contractions in speaking and how to pronounce the most common contractions in English. If you like this episode you might want to watch these videos as well: How to speak English faster (the qualities of GOOD fast vs BAD fast) Connected speech in English American INTONATION – What They don’t Teach You in School + American Intonation podcast episode 12 If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

In this podcast episode I elaborate on how to practice it effectively and integrate it into your day-to-day speech. Because forming a sentence is not enough. And making the right sounds isn’t enough. It’s the intonation that determines the meaning of the sentence: is it a question or a statement? Is it a joke and you’re just being sarcastic? This is also where culture and your inner feelings are thrown into the mix. Intonation conveys ALL of that. To do that you need to know how to practice! This is why I also share my most effective practice techniques that I’ve used myself and with my students, that are going to help you improve your intonation and deliver your message in a clear way. If you haven’t listened to my previous episode about American intonation, don’t miss out on it: https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/12/ How not to be monotone when speaking English: https://theaccentsway.com/intonation-pitch/ And make sure to watch my speech analysis videos that touch right at the heart of American intonation. Martin Sinek’s intonation, connected speech and phrasing: https://theaccentsway.com/speech-sinek/ Breaking down Bill Murray’s Scrooged: https://theaccentsway.com/american-intonation-practice-pdf/ Reese Whitherspoon is all about rhythm: https://theaccentsway.com/rhythm/ Are you a teacher? Learn more about English Teachers Academy and join the WAITLIST: theaccentsway.com/english-teachers-academy-announcement/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.

Why is it SO HARD to understand native speakers? And what do you HAVE to know to improve your spoken English and get your point across clearly and confidently? In this episode, you will learn the 3 fundamentals of American intonation: melody, rhythm, and stress. You’ll learn how to use melody and rhythm to stress words, you’ll learn the difference between content words and function words, why we need to stress content words and how we reduce function words. This episode will also help you understand native speakers better, as we’ll talk about common reductions and shortcuts (remember that English sounds different than how it’s written). If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course. You can also download an interactive list of  50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words.