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Accent or no accent?

What does “correct pronunciation” mean? This and many other questions were in the focus of the course “My Fair Accent,” which took place at the Academic Writing Center.

Many learners of English would like to have correct pronunciation. However, what does “correct” mean? Does it mean having no accent at all?  Do all pronunciation inaccuracies impede communication? And should we aspire to speak like native speakers?

These and many other questions were in the focus of the course “My Fair Accent,” which took place from March 14 until April 4 at the Academic Writing Center. This new program was created especially for the AWC by Tatiana Skopintseva, an expert in English phonetics. Participants learnt about the most significant differences between the English and Russian phonetic systems. Tatiana shared pronunciation secrets that can help make our speech clear and comprehensible. There was a lot of practice, and the outcome for every participant was a set of individual recommendations for improving pronunciation.

Would you like to work on your fair accent? Follow our news and join the course next time!

“Tatiana is just marvelous! She was making us feel involved and motivated. Thanks to AWC for finding such a professional instructor!”

“Thank you so much! It was very interesting to deal with my own pronunciation mistakes and to practice pronouncing individual sounds in words.”

“It turned out that the course helped to pay attention to pronunciation in general (even for my Russian). I am very much looking forward to continuing to improve my pronunciation. I am very pleased to have taken this course.”  

We would like to thank Tatiana and all the participants for the friendly atmosphere! You can see all the photos from the course here.