I teach accent reduction / English pronunciation. I have a degree BSc in Speech and Language Therapy.

As an accent tutor, I help adults communicate more clearly, confidently and effectively in English. My work is not about trying to make someone “lose” their accent or sound like someone else. Your accent is part of who you are, and there is nothing wrong with having one. Instead, I help clients develop greater control over how they speak, so they can choose how they want to communicate in different situations. For some people, that might mean being easier to understand in meetings. For others, it could mean feeling more confident when speaking on the telephone, presenting to colleagues, interviewing for a new role or communicating with clients and customers. Sometimes it is simply about no longer having to repeat yourself. I teach pronunciation in a practical, personalised way. We look at the specific sounds, speech patterns and habits that may be affecting intelligibility, rather than working through a generic list of pronunciation rules. This might include individual sounds such as vowels and consonants, as well as connected speech, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm and intonation. We may also work on things like endings of words, consonant clusters, syllable stress or sounds that are particularly challenging because they do not exist in a client’s first language. But pronunciation is only one part of effective communication. A major part of my teaching is helping clients understand what happens to their speech when they are communicating spontaneously. It is very common for someone to sound fantastic while practising a word or sentence in a lesson, but then find that the technique disappears completely when they are in a fast-paced meeting or speaking under pressure. That is where generalisation becomes important. I help clients gradually move from controlled practice into more realistic communication. We might practise a particular sound, then words, phrases and sentences, before using it in conversation, role play or a situation that is relevant to their everyday life. The aim is to make the new skill increasingly automatic, rather than something they have to consciously think about every time they speak. We also work on strategies that make communication easier. This can include using pauses effectively, emphasising key words, slowing down when necessary, managing longer sentences and using intonation to make meaning clearer.