When I am coaching an ESL business executive in presentation training and accent reduction at one of my offices in New York City or New Jersey, I often ask them to look at these two words:

Pete and Pet

How many vowel letters are there? There is one letter, the letter “e” (repeated three times). How many vowel sounds are there? There are two. What does this say about the English language ? Namely, that it’s not phonetic ; one symbol can have many sounds . Yet most English or accent reduction students are still vainly trying to learn the language by looking at the words and then pronouncing them phonetically , according to how they think each letter sounds . But as we’ve seen, one symbol can have multiple sounds . What to do?

Listen. We live in a culture that prioritizes viewing (the internet, our phones, iPad’s, etc.) and the art of listening is getting lost. But we have to hear the specific sounds of American English before we can pronounce them. It’s important to recognize that there are 44 sounds in well spoken English (not 26). Familiarize yourself with these sounds, and listen for them in your friend’s speech. Hire a coach (like yours truly) to help you drill the sounds of American English and make them habitual. Weave these changes into your conversational speech and your presentations. By prioritizing listening , you can dramatically improve the way you speak.