Pronunciation Course for Arabic Speakers

Free 21-Day English Pronunciation Course for Arabic Speakers

Introduction

Is Arabic your first language?

Do you believe people sometimes have trouble understanding your English?

Improve your English pronunciation in 21 days with this free course. The goal of the 21-Day English Pronunciation Course for Arabic Speakers is to improve intelligibility and raise awareness of common pronunciation challenges faced by people who speak Arabic as their first language.

Again, the goal is to improve intelligibility and raise awareness of Arabic speakers' common pronunciation challenges.

Why did I say the goal twice?

Because this is not intended to be a magic cure for all your speaking problems, instead, expect significant improvement in your English-speaking intelligibility. In other words, by the end of this course, people will be able to understand you better when you speak English.

Over the next 21 days, we will target twelve specific sounds (four consonants, four vowels, and four consonant clusters) that often give Arabic speakers trouble. When you practice each sound, you will complete five different activities:

• Minimal Pairs
• Vowels
• Syllable Stress
• Reduced Sounds
• Tongue Twisters

The sounds of English do not exist in a vacuum, so we practice these sounds on the word level and sentence level. These activities will improve your understanding of American English stress patterns, reduced sounds, and speech music.

There are a multitude of Arabic dialects with distinct features. This 21-day course is a general guideline, so feel free to tweak the recommended daily practice based on your needs.

If you would like more ideas on how to work on your pronunciation outside of this program, you can jump to the section Additional Resources for Arabic Speakers.

Do You Need This 21-Day Pronunciation Course?

Many English language learners believe pronunciation is their biggest weakness.

A student recently confessed, “If I improve my pronunciation, my English will be perfect.”

She was wrong.

The fact is you might NOT need to work directly on your pronunciation.

Listen to these three speaking samples from Arabic speakers preparing for the TOEFL iBT. The original questions can be found on TST Prep’s official website.

Read the summary below each response and compare your pronunciation.

01, Female, Arabic, Talking About Culture Shock

She needs to work on her pronunciation. Words like shock, marriage, and culture are hard to understand. There are other weaknesses, but this 21-Day pronunciation course is a good fit for her.

02, Female, Arabic, Reporting on Aggression

Pronunciation is NOT a weakness for her. The words and phrases she used were easy to understand. She had some issues with spoken grammar, but it did not lead to miscommunication. This 21-day pronunciation course is NOT a good fit for her.

03, Male, Arabic, Preserving Artifacts

He has some issues with pronunciation, particularly syllable stress on words with more than two syllables, like museums, Fahrenheit, and archaeological. However, he displayed an extensive vocabulary and could easily string together complex phrases. Depending on his goals, this 21-day pronunciation course might be a good fit for him.

If you want feedback and pronunciation advice from an experienced teacher, send an email to Josh at [email protected].

The 21-Day Pronunciation Course for Arabic Speakers

The Speaker English collection of sound practice includes 18 consonant sounds, 19 vowel sounds, and 25 consonant clusters. These are the sounds of American English.

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, v, l, r, z, s, h, dʒ (dg), m, n, w, j (y), f

Vowels: æ (a), eɪ (A), e(ɛ), i: (ee), ɪ (i), aɪ (ai), ɒ (o), ɘʊ (O), ʌ (u), Ʊ (oo), u: (oo), aʊ (ow), ɔɪ (oi), ɪə (eer), ə (“uh”/schwa), ɜ: (er), ɔ: (aw/or), a: (ar), eə (air)

Consonant Clusters: zh (ʒ), ng (ŋ), sh (ʃ), ch (tʃ), th (ð, voiced), th (θ, unvoiced), bl, br, st, sw, cl, cr, dr, fr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, tr, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp

Each day, you will complete various activities on four different sounds.

Even though there may be other sounds you struggle to pronounce well, we have selected 12 sounds most Arabic speakers find challenging. This represents a large sample size that will target current weaknesses and improve your overall intelligibility.

Consonants:

• p
• v
• ng
• th voiced
  
  

Vowels:

• i: (ee)
• ɪ (i)
• ɔ: (aw/or)
• ɜ: (er)
  
  

Consonant Clusters:

• sh
• ch
• bl
• pr

Follow the links below and complete the given assignments. Set aside approximately 30 minutes each day to complete all activities.

Additional Resources for Arabic Speakers

It is important to note that this 21-day pronunciation course is not a one-size-fits-all solution. I encourage you to tweak this plan based on personal preference.

Regarding particular sounds, I have highlighted sounds often identified as troublesome for Arabic speakers.

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, v, l, r, z, s, h, dʒ (dg), m, n, w, j (y), f

Vowels: æ (a), eɪ (A), e(ɛ), i: (ee), ɪ (i), aɪ (ai), ɒ (o), ɘʊ (O), ʌ (u), Ʊ (oo), u: (oo), aʊ (ow), ɔɪ (oi), ɪə (eer), ə (“uh”/schwa), ɜ: (er), ɔ: (aw/or), a: (ar), eə (air)

Consonant Clusters: zh (ʒ), ng (ŋ), sh (ʃ), ch (tʃ), th (ð, voiced), th (θ, unvoiced), bl, br, st, sw, cl, cr, dr, fr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, tr, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp

If you went through the pronunciation course, you know there are five activities to complete each day:

• Minimal Pairs
• Vowels
• Syllable Stress
• Reduced Sounds
• Tongue Twisters

While these activities are helpful, Arabic speakers should emphasize syllable stress and reduced sounds. Many students who speak Arabic as their first language need help with stressing the correct syllable and linking words together.

Word stress is also an area of your speech that could use some work. Unfortunately, we do not include any daily activities about word stress, but you might find this site helpful.

Rising and falling intonation is also an aspect of prosody that Arabic speakers must practice. As a general rule of thumb, commas in the middle of a sentence often indicate a rising intonation, while the sound directly before a period requires downward intonation. This advice is a general rule and often broken. Check out this podcast episode from Hadar Shemesh for some ideas on how to practice intonation.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or feedback below. I’m always learning :)