Pronunciation

• Pronunciation Lessons
  Based on courses developed by the Center for Language Education of HKUST, these 20 pronunciation lessons explain and demonstrate key features of English pronunciation. There is a focus on pronunciation problems faced by Cantonese speaking learners.
• Pronunciation Advice Sheets
  Here you’ll find advice and information on how to plan for your pronunciation learning and which areas of pronunciation you could focus on. There are a total of 8 Advice Sheets to choose from. Start with P1 to help you decide what else to look at.
• VELA Plan for Pronunciation
  VELA (Virtual English Language Adviser) will help you identify pronunciation areas you could work on; give you suggestions on how to study and which materials you could use, and finally present you with a language learning plan that you can personalise in consultation with an Adviser. Simply go to VELA; log in; click into VELA Pan; select pronunciation at step one and continue through the programme until you finish with a Plan at step 6. Click on Orientation next to the VELA Plan link to find out more before you start and give yourself an hour or so to complete your initial VELA Pronunciation Plan.
• Speech Accent Archive
  Has recordings and transcriptions of a short paragraph of text pronounced by native speakers of 75 different languages. Click on ‘english’ on the side bar menu to listen to 25 Native English Speakers. Click on ‘cantonese’ and or ‘mandarin’ on the side bar menu to listen to Native Chinese Speakers and then compare the differences you hear. This site is very useful for making you aware of the pronunciation differences between Native English speakers and Native Chinese Speakers when they say the same thing in English. Not only do you get to hear the differences but if you can follow IPA, you get to see them too!
• English pronunciation
  Not sure how to pronounce certain sounds? This site introduces you to a number of sounds and fun activities that help you notice how the sounds are made in songs, tongue-twisters and more. The material is based on a Canadian accent and you’ll find lots of practice on individual sounds, minimal pairs and common pronunciation problems (such as the “-ed” endings and linking). If you like this site and want more practice, come to the Language Commons – we have the book and CD Rom waiting for you.
• The International Phonetic Alphabet
  The full pronunciation chart produced by the International Phonetic Association.
• Pronunciation Page
  This website was developed by the Center for Independent Language Learning at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It contains lots of resources for pronunciation learning including: a list of English sounds where you can listen to the sound of the IPA symbols in UK English; a typewriter that lets you write using IPA symbols; a range of games and exercises on particular sounds.