I’ve been listening to student talks in my classes over the past few weeks and guys – a lot of you need to improve your pronunciation. The good thing for you is that speaking English is not like writing English! When people are listening to you they are a lot more forgiving than when they are reading. By that I mean that you can get away with a lot more mistakes when you are talking than when you are writing. There’s a great variation in the way people speak – a lot more than in the way people write. The most important thing is that we can understand what you are saying easily without too much effort. Nobody expects students from other countries to sound like a native speaker when they talk English, but they do expect to be able to understand what you say. Great ideas and content are often lost through poor production of English sounds, intonation and rhythm. In my next post I am going to say a few things about using the free software Audacity to improve your pronunciation because it’s an excellent way to listen to your own voice. But that’s for next time. Today’s link is to the BBC’s Pronunciation activities where you can start thinking about your pronunciation. Listen to the introductory video and do the accompanying exercises. Don’t lose out on marks for your content because of poor pronunciation!