Format

15 hours - usually over 6 weeks. Sometimes available as an intensive.

£785 for all three stages if booked and paid for together. A saving of £100.

£540 for Stages 1 and 2 if booked and paid for together. A saving of £50.

(courses need to be completed within one year)

This is our Foundation course and gives you everything you need to make a rapid improvement in the clarity and accuracy of your speech.

To change your pronunciation of the sounds that make up English, you need to change the movements of your speech muscles. This course focuses on the complete re-training of your speech muscles to cover the particular movements required by RP English. At present your speech muscles will make only the movements for your original accent.

We fast track this muscle change by focusing on the five main movement areas required, and the major speech sounds made by each, ensuring you can flow easily from sound to sound. This gives you rapid progress, accurate pronunciation and fluid natural speech. Read more...

Your coach will guide you to understand how your speech muscles currently move, and how that differs from the RP English accent.

Speech training skills and exercises taken from centuries of British film and theatre actor training, will help you gain control of these muscles to easily produce the movements required for the new accent.

You will be introduced to the Phonetic Alphabet (a system that allows you to analyse sounds and be more accurate) and you will master some of the most crucial speech sounds that are currently causing you problems.

You will be given a precise breakdown of your current accent, some target sounds to practice, and a schedule of practice to help you adopt these new, accurate habits over the coming weeks.

This course is designed to make the biggest possible impact on the clarity of your speech and the strength of your accent in just 6 weeks.

Your lips, jaw, face and tongue will all be fitter, stronger and more flexible. Your speech will be clearer, and English speech sounds will already be easier to make and more accurate. You will be able to hear and identify the sounds of English more easily. You will have been introduced to the phonetic system of English (IPA) and have mastered the 12 basic vowels (diphthongs come in Stage 2) and the most important consonants (the rest are covered in Stage 2).

You need to be a fluent, non-native speaker of English (ie with an accent strongly influenced by another language).

You need to be fully at ease with 'what' you saying, so you can focus on changing 'how' you are saying it.

Format

15 hours - usually over 6 weeks. Sometimes available as an intensive.

£540 for Stages 2 and 3 if bought together after completing Stage 1. A saving of £50.

(courses need to be completed within one year)

Having mastered the five major muscle groups making up RP speech in Stage 1, this next course allows you to further focus on accuracy in the individual speech sounds of RP. This includes the exact length of vowels, accuracy with word endings, confusing pairs of sounds (we will correct confusions such as walk and work and bays and base).

With 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowels sounds - all of which can change depending on their location - accuracy is a hugely important element of improving your accent, both for clarity and to sound more English.

We will build on the muscle training you have already studied until you can accurately and easily form and distinguish all 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds of RP English (focusing on those that will make the biggest difference to your accent).

But we will also study where the sounds are made, as English spelling can be so confusing.

You will easily absorb the full Phonetic Alphabet (symbols that represent sounds not letters) to help you identify how every word in English is correctly pronounced.

You will have a full, detailed and personalised 'target list' of sounds to practice and introduce to your speech. And total clarity about how to change them. You will be well on the way to building new habits with these sounds.

You will also understand the phonetic alphabet (IPA) for RP English. This will allow you to look words up in dictionaries and immediately know how they are pronounced.

You need to have taken Stage 1.

Alternatively, you may have taken another of Speak Easily's accent reduction 8 week or intensive courses.

NB: We may occasionally accept people who have studied elsewhere, but we may need you to take a 'assessment' 1-2-1 session to ensure you have the necessary understanding.

Format

15 hours - usually over 6 weeks. Sometimes available as an intensive.

All 1-2-1 tuition is £70 per hour for our course students. A massive saving of £10 an hour.

Discounts are also available for group bookings and referrals.

Stress and intonation create the 'music' of an accent, but are also how we highlight and emphasise our meaning.

Lack of skill in this area is the main reason for weak public speaking by non-native speakers. And one of the main reasons people don't understand what you are saying. We aim to make you a master of English intonation.

Using exercises, games, fine English poetry and prose, and 'mimicry', you will master the stress and intonation system of English. This includes:

• syllable stress
• weak and strong forms of function words
• word group stress (numbers, names, noun/verb phrases)
• sentence stress (the strong/weak rhythm of English)
• key word stress (emphasise your exact meaning)
• intonation patterns (how to be polite, demanding, ask questions, show doubt etc.)
• linking (linking everything together smoothly)

At the end of this course, you will be able to make a speech, or hold a conversation that draws your listeners' attention to your meaning and conveys your exact thoughts.

You will be able to use stress and intonation just as a very good native speaker would. People no longer ask you to repeat yourself - your meaning is crystal clear.

You need to have taken Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Alternatively, you may have taken another of Speak Easily's accent reduction 8 week or intensive courses.

NB: We may occasionally accept people who have studied elsewhere, but we may need you to take a 'assessment' 1-2-1 session to ensure you have the necessary understanding.