Testimonials

Positive feedback, from former students who feel they are finally able to emerge from the deep pronunciation rut they have been stuck in for years, is particularly rewarding.
Some comments from former students’ feedback questionnaires and letters:

“The program was overall very good! The course was always well prepared. It’s a pity I have to go back to Switzerland.”

A German speaking, Swiss manager of a pharmaceutical company

“After my return to my home country( the Czech Republic), we agreed to continue with the lessons on Skype. I was really grateful for the opportunity.
I have studied English at University in Prague and now I teach English. I find my lessons with Prof. Perczuk very useful for my work. She has helped me to improve my foreign accent significantly. She listens to my free speech and detects pronunciation problems. She keeps giving me tips how to avoid making mistakes, teaches me how to pronounce the tricky sounds, words and how to speak fluently by using weak and strong forms and linking. She keeps extending my vocabulary by making me express my opinion on various controversial topics. She keeps giving me a number of idioms and collocations.

My English has improved dramatically since I started working on it with Yvonne.

A Czech speaking, English teacher on SKYPE classes

Pronunciation Tip of the Month

Happy 2023! I know you’ve probably made and broken a whole lot of new year resolutions! Here’s your chance to keep an important one: to make some real improvement in your pronunciation.

Here’s an exercise you might enjoy, that will make you more aware of English rhythm and intonation and will help you make your speech sound more animated, natural and native-like.

First go to your TV and turn on a news or current affairs program where the speaker is facing you on the screen. Turn down the volume and watch the speaker nodding their head and raising their eyebrows regularly throughout the program. Every time they lift their heads or raise their eyebrows, their voices are doing a little jump up in pitch. Now turn the volume on and watch how the voice and the body tend to move together.

It’s this up and down of the voice (intonation) that shows an English speaker’s involvement in what they are saying. If your voice stays flat and unvaried, English listeners will think you are less interested and less interesting than you really are.

To improve your intonation range:
– Record a few minutes of a TV program.
– Download audio and a transcript of the program (most ABC and BBC programs have audio and transcripts available online).
– Listen carefully to the short recording several times and draw little arrows where you think the voice is rising.
– Now try to make your own recording using the marked transcript as a guide.
– Finally compare your best effort and the original recording to see how close you can get.

Good luck till next month!