8 Secrets to English Success

Course details

My specialty is teaching English learners to understand native speaker English. I've done formal university research on natural spoken English, and I've also written many listening books, including my bestselling real English book, "Whaddaya Say" (Pearson Education, 45 printings).

"8 Secrets to English Success" Beginning Level is Step 1 in my popular listening-to-real-English program at companies such as Toyota Motor Sales. To succeed at English-speaking companies and universities, you need real world English. This course teaches you the pronunciation changes that happen when native English speakers talk at a natural speed. Each lesson has exercises with different native English speakers so you can practice hearing and understanding real people in real English conversations.

Today, we need to talk to and understand people from all over the world. What if we can talk to them, but we don't understand what they say to us? Can we have a conversation? No. Listening and conversation are like a coin, with listening on one side, and conversation on the other. When you improve listening, you potentially improve conversation, too, because you experience English more accurately.

Most English learners say that native speakers talk too fast. This is true in any language.

Here's where the real problem starts. When native speakers talk at a natural speed, the pronunciation of some words changes. Also, the sounds in the sentence or phrase can blend from one word to the next. You'll begin to learn these spoken English "rules" here in my listening program, just as you've learned grammar rules.

You'll also get practice sounding more like a native speaker. I'll give you a very important secret in the last lesson that will make your English sound more natural instantly.

My students consistently get high scores on the listening sections of tests like the TOEFL and the TOEIC.

"8 Secrets to English Success" INTERMEDIATE LEVEL is coming in January, 2015!