Try some of these websites for more pronunciation practice!
- The Sounds of English [excellent resource]
- Minimal Pairs Practice [good audio; now has YouTube videos!]
- Phonetics: The sounds of English [videos showing how to pronounce American English sounds: technical, but you might enjoy it]
- (NEW!) How-J-Say: a free online talking dictionary [just found this: British English, but a wonderful resource!]
And some listening practice — listen and repeat?
- Voice of America Special English [the news, but much S..L..O..W..E..R than usual. Good for practicing pronunciation, at least!]
- Aryln Freed’s Listening Resources [many, many good links to audio and video here]
The newest versions of Adobe’s Acrobat and (free) Acrobat Reader software can “read aloud” a PDF file. The intonation is a bit robotic, but overall, the pronunciation is good and the rhythm is surprisingly fluent. To try it, make sure you have the latest version of Reader, open a PDF, select VIEW –> READ ALOUD –> ACTIVATE READ ALOUD, and then either click in the document, or selection VIEW –> READ ALOUD –> READ THIS PAGE.
Word 2008 can save Word documents as PDF files, or you can use http://www.acrobat.com or other free online services.
Do you have a favorite site for practicing pronunciation? Leave a comment and share it with us all!
