Webinar: SoundAdvice - Improve your Accent by Avoiding the Main Pitfalls of English Pronunciation

Webinar: SoundAdvice – Improve your Accent by Avoiding the Main Pitfalls of English Pronunciation

For the learner, English pronunciation holds a few well-known challenges – and some lesser known ones, too. In international communication, being able to avoid most of those pitfalls means that your accent will come across as natural, effortless and easy to understand. And while there is no need to sound precisely like a native speaker, not having to struggle with your pronunciation will enhance your spoken fluency and will help to put your listener at ease.

Target Group

All WU employees are welcome. You should consider joining this course…

• if you are aware that your English accent could do with a bit of practice,
• if you are quite happy with your accent but have become a bit 'rusty', or
• if you have always enjoyed working on your accent and would like to polish it even further.

Goals

This workshop aims at:

• being able to avoid the main pronunciation pitfalls when talking in English
• developing an accent that sounds natural and effortless
• shifting the focus of your listeners on what you say rather than what it sounds like.

Content

• creating an awareness of the main 'articulation traps' in English
• working on your own pronunciation profile
• guided individual pronunciation practice

Methods

This format consists of:

• a kick-off webinar with a little theory, introduction to the online tool SoundAdvice, some individual practice and first one-to-one feedback
• followed by a five-week self-study period of online practice, in which you will work with SoundAdvice according to your own pace and schedule
• one interim and one final individual 15-minute online feedback session with your trainer.

Location, Date and Time

Kick-off webinar: Friday, 7 May 2021, 10.00 am - 4.00 pm followed by a five-week self-study period of online practice

Interim individual 15-minute feedback session online: Friday, 28 May 2021, between 10.00 am and 1.30 pm

Final individual 15-minute feedback session online: Friday, 11 June 2021, between 10.00 am and 1.30 pm

You will be able to book your preferred slots for the individual feedback sessions during the kick-off webinar.

The kick-off webinar as well as the individual feedback sessions will be held online via Zoom. All participants will receive the access link with our reminder e-mail one week before the workshop. For information on using Zoom click here.

Fees and Registration

This workshop is open to a limited number of participants. The registration deadline is 23 April 2021.

Please note that you should notify us before the registration deadline if you are unable to attend the workshop. Otherwise the full fee will be charged. Please let the Personnel Development and Planning Office know if you will not be attending. There are often waiting lists for the workshops, and this will give one of your colleagues the chance to attend. In addition, if we can fill the vacancy with someone from the waiting list, no cancellation charges will apply for you.

To sign up for this workshop, please click "Register" at the bottom of this page. By registration for this workshop, you accept our terms and conditions “Workshop and Event Registration Information Sheet”. Further information on the collection of personal data can be found in the “Data Protection Statement” on our homepage.

For any further information please contact Nina Rath (Nina.Rath@wu.ac.at, Ext. 6173).

The course fee is €30.

Dr. Gunter Lorenz   Dr Gunter Lorenz has been teaching at university level for over 25 years and currently works as Director of the Language Centre at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He holds a PhD in Applied English Linguistics and has a track record in foreign language theory, media-based language teaching and new forms of learning. Dr Lorenz has worked as a language teacher and teaching consultant for several universities, including Cambridge (UK) and WU Wien (since 2013). He is the editor and co-author of SoundAdvice, an online course of English pronunciation.