More and more Turkish people are learning English mainly to improve their career prospects. In Istanbul, for example, there are many English language schools with new ones opening all the time.

Students attending the schools will normally work through a coursebook unit by unit in a class of perhaps 10 or 12 students. It is mostly an effective way to improve the basic skills.

Pronunciation, however, is often overlooked with perhaps just a quick 5 minute practice during a day at the school. Yet pronunciation is a vital part of speaking English. You can have perfect grammar, a wide vocabulary and write excellently but if when you are speaking English, face to face or on the telephone, the listener cannot understand what you are saying then all your hard work could have been for nothing.

This is where a private English teacher who is a native English speaker can really help. Choose one with  good clear English rather than a difficult regional accent, sometimes this is called BBC English. In quite a short time it will be possible to really improve your pronunciation.

The main problems Turkish people have when pronouncing English are as follows:

Vowels

/?:/ vs /??/ for example call:coal

/i:/ vs /i/ for example seat:sit

/æ/  vs /e/ for example bad:bed

Consonants

In final word position

/b/ vs /p/  for example rib:rip

/d/ vs /t/  for example had:that

/ð/ vs /d/  for example thirty:dirty

There are others and no doubt your native speaking teacher will help you with them all. For more Information please visit www.english-teacher-istanbul.com