N°13
Editeur responsable:
Jean-Luc Godard,
55, Tonnelet, B-4900 Spa

2004/2005
www.dialogue.com

info@dialogue.com

American English tends to have fewer regional differences. The main distinctive accents are those of New York and the Southern states, but the rest of the US speaks pretty much with the same accent. However, there are other accents such as Australian, Canadian, South African and Irish English, which are all rather different from British or American accents.

This huge variety and lack of a standard accent can be a frightening prospect for a foreign learner of English. Fortunately, however, there are only few ‘difficult’ accents, which even other native speakers find hard to understand! For the rest, what is important for foreign learners is to become familiar with the specific rhythm of English, which, regardless of the accent it is spoken with, remains quite different from other languages.

Helping you to become familiar with the distinctive English rhythm is an integral part of a DialoguE-AngloScene course. Once you understand how the sound system works and your ears are opened to English frequencies, learning and speaking the language becomes much easier, and you leave our programme with the most important tool at your disposal to continue learning on your own: a well-tuned ear!

Once you have a well-tuned ear, you will be able to memorize words with your ears rather than your eyes, which is very important in English. You must remember that English spelling is so irregular that you can never be certain about the pronunciation of a word from its spelling.