ABC Perfection for iOS: setting the correct English pronunciation

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Usually, when learning English, more attention is paid to vocabulary and grammar, and the goal is to be able to freely read and understand spoken language. At the same time, such a significant component as pronunciation is completely undeservedly written off from the accounts, and in fact it is important not only in order to give the impression of excellent command of the language, but also for its understanding. Not everyone has time for a tutor, but I think everyone can set aside a few minutes a day for classes on an iPhone or iPad.

The ABC Perfection course is not just an app for learning English in a playful way, but a serious tool with a solid and comprehensive approach. The course consists of three parts, and Pronunciation, in which the correct pronunciation of English sounds and words is practiced, the first of them. The second is devoted to practicing the pronunciation of continuous speech and its understanding, and the third is focused on practicing conversational speech based on guided dialogues.

Using the ABC Perfection course, you will be able to develop the correct pronunciation of English words and bring it to automatism, which will allow you to clearly hear the speech of native speakers and better understand it.

The application is a shell in which you can download thematic lessons and take training, following the detailed instructions attached to them. This part of the course covers the practice of pronunciation of sounds, vowels and consonants, the alphabet. Each category contains four to seven lessons that will give you knowledge and allow you to practice it.

The application interface is simple and intuitive. The main screen contains four thematic categories containing lessons. To get started, you need to select any of them and download the lesson. Classes contain audio recordings in high quality, so they take up a lot of space and are downloaded separately to save it. We select the first free lesson, download and run.

Before us are cards that can be flipped by swiping and turned over by pressing the i button. Above and below there are two panels: the upper one is responsible for navigating to the content of the lesson, settings and extensive help (which contains a detailed description of all functions), the lower one contains the player controls.

Each lesson is divided into four speed modes (A0, A1, A2, A3), allowing you to understand the details of the pronunciation of sounds and words. Having chosen the mode, we begin the lesson, turn on the playback of the recording and carefully listen to the pronunciation of sounds and words. In slow motion, words sound drawn out and a little unusual, but thanks to this, attention is focused on all the nuances of pronunciation of certain sounds.

The player control panel allows you to change the playback speed (an additional panel is called by swiping to the right), to play the entire lesson or only that part of it that is assigned to a certain card. You can also write down your own pronunciation and then compare it with the original by playing the two recordings together. The ABC Perfection settings allow you to choose how the cards are displayed, set the number of repetitions, and turn on test mode when you need to pronounce the words from the lesson yourself.

Each lesson has a detailed description that explains all the subtleties and objectives of the exercise, so for a clear understanding, be sure to read them before moving on to the tutorial. The same applies to the functionality of the application. The main elements are described above, but if at some point you did not understand - take a look at the help, everything is there.

Summing up, one cannot fail to note the high-quality speech therapy component, thanks to which you can hone the perfect pronunciation, as well as an impressive amount of materials (there will be over 3,000 words in three courses) and the versatility of the application (it works equally well on both iPhone and iPad). The disadvantages include a large amount of downloadable lessons, but since it is due to the high quality of audio recordings, it's a sin to blame the developers for this.

In addition to those who have just started learning English, the ABC Perfection - Pronunciation course can be recommended for those who already know the language, but speak it with an accent, as well as those who need perfect pronunciation for work or life among native speakers.

The app is free, but lessons are purchased through internal purchases. There is one free trial lesson, the rest cost from 169 to 279 rubles.