Resources

Perhaps you find a particular sequence of sounds difficult. Use these apps to find words with that particular sound or letter sequence to practice

• The Free Dictionary: Search for words that start, contain, or end with particular sounds or letter sequences

• Rhyme Zone: Find words that rhyme and therefore have the same vowels as words you know

• ChatGPT: Ask the AI to give you lists of words containing particular letters, phonemes, or allophones

Perhaps you are not sure if this word is pronounced the way you think it is. Use these apps to double check!

• Wiktionary/WordReference: dictionaries that show you the IPA transcription

• Youglish (iOS, Android, Desktop): Search for a word or phrase, find a YouTube video with a native speaker saying it.

Get material to read and take notes on your texts so you know which sound goes where. By reading out loud you don’t need to think about what you say, just how you say it.

• Engoo Daily News: an English Clearly Readerlearning site that provides articles of different reading levels with discussion questions and explanation of new vocabulary

• Clearly Reader: chrome plugin that strips aways the ads and distractions and downloads the article

• VoiceTube: This app transcribes YouTube into lines of texts that you can easily click and playback to hear over and over so you can do shadowing practice more easily

Sounds change depending on the sounds next to it. That’s something you’ll need to work on if you want to get a native accent. Use these apps to annotate your texts so you can remind yourself which sounds go where.

• ToPhonetics: enter a text and get the transcription

• Markup tool: Mark up texts for accent modification work

• Notability / Goodnotes

Whereas reading out loud is easy since you can see the text and notes you’ve taken, speaking without visual guidance is harder, but closer to real life. Use these apps to help you think of materials while you practice talking to yourself (monologuing). When you’re comfortable with this, then you can try the hardest practice: talking with real people in real time!

• Random Question Generator: Click a button, get a question. Then talk out loud while answering the question and focusing on your pronunciation

• Padlet (iOS, Android, Desktop): With Padlet, you can easily record audio, or video of yourself to check your progress.

• Engoo Daily News: an English learning site that provides articles of different reading levels with discussion questions and explanation of new vocabulary