Tutoring on Pronunciation

Our experienced, trained pronunciation peer tutors will work with you one-on-one to help you speak clearly and be understood by others. Scroll down to learn more and see how to schedule an appointment. All tutoring appointments are currently online over Zoom. Your tutor will email you a link before your scheduled session.

We use My WC Online to schedule tutoring appointments. The first time you visit this site, you will be asked to register for MyWCOnline, a third-party platform to which we subscribe. This platform is widely used by writing tutoring services across the U.S. and can be trusted to keep your data secure. 

Click here to make a pronunciation tutoring appointment.

During a pronunciation tutoring session, our tutors may help you with:

• identifying your pronunciation areas of difficulty and what is affecting your overall intelligibility
• practicing specific areas of pronunciation (sounds, intonation, fluency, word stress, linking, field terminology)
• determining your pronunciation goals and making a plan for individualized practice
• locating resources that help support your pronunciation needs

Learn more about the tutors in their bios, here.

For Your First Session

You will need to make a diagnostic speech recording with your laptop or phone and email this to your tutor. The diagnostic speech recording should be about 2-3 minutes of natural, extemporaneous speech. For a more accurate analysis, avoid reading or practicing first.

You can choose one from the following list for your speech recording: 

• Adventure | What is something fun or exciting you did recently? Perhaps a road trip, some travel, or just a local adventure to a museum or restaurant. Tell about that experience in detail.
• Miscommunication | Talk about a miscommunication experience you have had. What happened? Who was this with? Where?  How did you respond?
• Hobbies | Describe your hobbies and tell the stories of how you first became interested in them. 
• Your Field | Describe how you first became interested in your field. When did you first become interested? Who or what influenced your decision to study this area?

For Returning Students

You can continue working with pronunciation tutors to support your specific academic needs.  Come prepared with a topic (see below for suggestions) or bring other practice material such as a TED Talk to shadow. If you're not sure what to bring, our tutors can work with you to find the best resources.

Possible topics include: practice a mock job interview, deliver an oral presentation, defend a thesis, summarize a lab report, give a job talk, pitch your academic and professional interests, discuss your research, give a poster presentation, meet with advisors and faculty, etc.

Within these contexts, you can focus on areas of pronunciation difficulty determined by you and the tutor during the initial appointment.

• All appointments are for 45-minute sessions.
• Appointments may be made up to 1 week before the scheduled session. 
• Clients are limited to 2 appointments per week.
• Clients may cancel appointments up to 2 hours before their scheduled appointment time.
• Occasionally a tutor may have to cancel a session. In this event, a tutor will make their best effort to reschedule for a time that fits both of your schedules.
• A client will be marked as a "no-show" if he/she did not arrive for the appointment in the first 10 minutes of a 45-minute session. 
• After 3 no-shows, a client will be blocked from making more appointments and any scheduled appointments will be canceled. To be reinstated, a client can contact Melissa Myers (mm177).