My name is Chris (Christine) Mandell, and I have been tutoring ESL students privately for about five years now. Because many of my students have wanted to work on improving their American accent, and because I couldn’t find a book that was both amusing and effective that would help them do this, I decided to write and record my own book. This pronunciation exercise book with online audio component is intended for ESL students who are looking for a fun, effective way to improve their American accent.

My book has two sections. The first section of my book, “Stories”, consists of stories, mini-stories, and sentences that give you practice pronouncing a particular sound.

I have written a “Stories” section for each of the sounds in American English. For example, my stories “Woody, Wendy, and the Wishy-Washy Waiter,” and “Whiz Quiz” will give you lots of practice with words containing the sound /W/.

The second section consists of “auditory discrimination” (also known as “minimal pairs”) exercises, which help the student distinguish between two particular sounds. For example, the word pair “rice/lice” contains two words that differ by one sound. Practicing the “Auditory Discrimination between /R/ and /L/” exercise will help ensure that when you visit America, you will never make the mistake of going to a restaurant and ordering steamed lice!