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Speech Coaching

I give online coaching to help people with pronunciation and accents. My clients include actors and professionals of all kinds, with a wide range of mother tongues.

I also offer online workshops and short courses. Currently these are online, but previous venues have included Argentina, China, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia and the UK.)

I’m Director of UCL’s famous annual Summer Course in English Phonetics, which celebrated its 100th birthday in 2019. In August 2021 we ran VSCEP, our first virtual course, with 100 participants.

I’d be really grateful if you could complete my two listening surveys with British and American speakers (should take no more than two minutes each). Native and non-native listeners are invited. The results will be discussed in a forthcoming post/video. Please share, and THANK YOU!

Why these English phonetic symbols are all WRONG

Weak Forms in Pride & Prejudice

ENGLISH CONTRACTIONS

EJECTIVE CONSONANTS in ENGLISH: Why do English speakers pronounce /k/ like that?

Whether you want to learn a different English accent from your own, or work towards a native command of English – Geoff is brilliant. His knowledge is immense and his lessons are detailed and practical. Geoff is always positive, kind and warm and will make you feel like you can achieve all you’ve set out to do.

Andre Flynnactor (The Musketeers, BBC)

A big thank you for the lessons, which have been amazing. What I’ve valued the most is your incredible knowledge and capacity to teach in such an effective and entertaining way.

Dr Carlos MontoroThe Open University

blog articles

“It is a book I wish I had written myself – but I don’t think I would have been able to make such a good job of it”
– from the Foreword by J.C. Wells

Accent change

Problems

Speech is fast, complex, and largely automatic. We can do it because we spent years ‘wiring’ our mother tongue into our minds and bodies. Other accents and languages don’t have this advantage.
Foreign languages are taught primarily in their written form, and pronunciation teaching is often minimal.
Typically, learners pronounce foreign words with the wired-in habits of the mother tongue.

Challenges

If (like many actors) you enjoy copying accents, you may only need help with accuracy and consistency. But most people find it hard to change habits.
You need to care about distinctions that don’t matter in your mother tongue.
Your articulators may have to go outside their comfort zone. The right sound may feel wrong.
Often it’s the most familiar words that need the most work!

The process

In class, we go through differences between your current habits and your target accent.
We develop your ability to notice your old habits while speaking, inside and outside class.
When possible, you correct the mistakes that you notice, on the spot.
You begin to anticipate and to ‘correct’ issues before they happen.
New habits are established. More

2019 marked the centenary of SCEP. Participants came from around the world to study for two weeks at the ‘home of English Phonetics’, and our Centenary Guest Lecture was given by the great David Crystal. Read about SCEP’s 100 years here.

Live SCEP in London is currently suspended, but in August 2021 we successfully held our first Virtual Summer Course.