One of my favorite things about fall in East Ten­nessee is the beau­ti­ful leaves. My back­yard seems aglow with bright yel­lows, oranges, and reds. It leaves me breath­less to look out my win­dow at the sun shin­ing down on those leaves. I feel so blessed to expe­ri­ence such beauty every fall, and I thought you would enjoy a glimpse of it.

Even though I know that as the leaves turn col­ors, they are prepar­ing to fall off of the trees, it doesn’t dimin­ish their beauty to me. It is really a sign of hope, because after the leaves fall off the tree and die, new leaves grow in their place the fol­low­ing spring.

I wanted to share some of that hope with you, and you know that one of the best ways to improve your Amer­i­can pro­nun­ci­a­tion is by lis­ten­ing closely to native speak­ers, right? That’s why I wanted to share with you a recorded short story called The Last Leaf. Take a few min­utes to lis­ten to it, both for the lit­er­ary enjoy­ment and for the clear Amer­i­can pro­nun­ci­a­tion that you will hear.

When you lis­ten to this story, you will not only get lis­ten­ing and pro­nun­ci­a­tion prac­tice, but you will also be encour­aged to hold on to your hopes and dreams.

The Last Leaf

What is your “last leaf” — the thing that will make you hold on and try just a lit­tle bit longer?

If you are frus­trated with your Amer­i­can pro­nun­ci­a­tion and feel like it just might not get any bet­ter, I want you to try some­thing. Let me be like that last leaf for you, cling­ing tena­ciously to life and giv­ing hope when it is most needed.

Here’s what I want you to do. Type in your most frus­trat­ing pro­nun­ci­a­tion prob­lem in the com­ments below. I will do my best to offer a sug­ges­tion for each one listed and I will use your requests to decide what needs to be included in my Christ­mas home study course.

What is the hard­est chal­lenge with Amer­i­can Eng­lish for you — is it a par­tic­u­lar vowel sound, stress pat­terns, into­na­tion, or some­thing else? Tell me about it in the com­ments box and I will hope­fully be like that last leaf, offer­ing you a sug­ges­tion to improve your speech and giv­ing you the assur­ance to keep on trying.

After you leave your com­ment, share this post on Face­book and Twit­ter (click on the share but­ton below). Do you know what your friends strug­gle with the most in their Amer­i­can pro­nun­ci­a­tion? Let’s find out and see if we can address their con­cerns right here.

You could be the last leaf for them. You can give them the hope and encour­age­ment they need to give their pro­nun­ci­a­tion one more try. So, chal­lenge me with your ques­tions and then invite your friends to join us.

I’m look­ing for­ward to chat­ting with each of you!