American Accent Training
Shadowing
It is a language learning technique which can be used by learners to improve their intonation and pronunciation. It's quite a simple concept - you listen to a model (i.e. a video or audio of someone speaking) and you repeat what they say in real time.
The whole point is to copy word for word, sound by sound, with no intention of applying any rules. Like the saying goes, "monkey see, monkey do."
Skills like reduction, stress, syllabication and intonation are reaffirmed.
It is obviously necessary that you are already familiar to some extent with the meaning of words, order of words, and usual grammatical awareness. You should select material that is at your level of proficiency to improve your speech at that level.
Vowels vs. Vowel Sounds
Vowels come in the English and Spanish alphabet, and are useful to write words which contain syllables.
However, unlike Spanish, English alphabet vowels have little to nothing to do with vowel sounds.
Vowel sounds are one of the pillars to clear spoken English. Whenever we use the word "vowel" in these pages we do not mean the alphabet letters. We mean a sound that makes stressed syllables possible, although the sound is completely different from what Spanish speakers are used to.