Pronunciation Course for French Speakers

Free 21-Day English Pronunciation Course for French Speakers

Introduction

Is French 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 French Speakers is to improve intelligibility and raise awareness of common pronunciation challenges faced by people who speak French as their first language.

Again, the goal is to improve intelligibility and raise awareness of French 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 French 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 French 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 French 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 French 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, French, Talking About Graduation Ceremonies

This English language learner does NOT need to work on her pronunciation through this 21-day course. You probably noticed the French accent on the word committee in the beginning. However, this issue hardly ever came up again. She needs some help with syllable stress, stressing the wrong syllable in words like disagree, decision, and speakers. Besides some minor issues with stress, her pronunciation is intelligible.

02, Female, French, Talking About Museum Artifacts

This student might want to work on her pronunciation, depending on her goals. Her speech was mostly intelligible, but her accent was strong on multisyllabic words like inevitable, duration, and temperature. Therefore, activities like syllable stress and reduced sounds in the 21-day pronunciation course would benefit this student.

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 French Speakers

The Speaker English collection of sound practice includes 18 consonant sounds, 20 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), ʊɘ

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 French speakers find challenging. This represents a large sample size that will target current weaknesses and improve your overall intelligibility.

Consonants:

• r
• h
• j
• dʒ

Vowels:

• a: (ar)
• i: (ee)
• ɔɪ (oi)
• ɪ (i)

Consonant Clusters:

• sh (ʃ)
• th (ð, voiced)
• th (θ, unvoiced)
• ch (tʃ)

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

Additional Resources for French 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 French 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), ʊɘ

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, French speakers should emphasize how to differentiate between vowel sounds and identify correct syllable stress in multisyllabic words. Many students who speak French as their first language struggle to distinguish between the many vowel sounds in English. They also tend to stress the wrong syllable in longer words pronounced differently in French but originate from the same Latin or Greek root.

When compiling a list of sounds that French speakers often struggle to pronounce, I found far more vowels than consonants. For example, a common mistake is failing to differentiate between ship (ɪ) and sheep (i:). Focus on practicing minimal pairs between various vowel sounds to help you improve.

Both French and English include thousands of words with roots in Latin and Greek. Since these languages come from the same family tree, many words exist in both. However, the pronunciation, particularly the syllable stress of the words, is different in each language. One activity to help you work on this issue is to guess the syllable stress in longer words, which you can do in the 21-day pronunciation course.

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