Reference sheet · the daily routine · prints on two pages
The 10-Minute Pronunciation Routine
Your agreed target: close to native rhythm in rehearsed business sentences — 10 minutes a day, one short video a week, one 60-second recording every week to prove it is working.
The daily 10 minutes
| Min | What you do | Where the material comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 warm-up |
Read the weak-form rows and the linking rows aloud, once each. Then say the marked opener three times: “im CALLing abou-the ZAIRA FURnishing WEBsite”. | Lesson 003 tables, or rows 1–3 of the Native Rhythm sheet |
| 3–6 stress marking |
Take three sentences you will actually say tomorrow (a stand-up question, a client line, one blocker reply). Mark the hits in capitals with a pen. Say each one five times, hitting only the capitals. | Your own workday — sales call, stand-up, developer chat |
| 6–10 shadowing |
Play 30–60 seconds of native audio and speak over it, copying the rhythm exactly — same speed, same hits, same squeezes. Repeat the same clip five times. Do not stop to look up words. | BBC 6 Minute English, or the feature video of the week |
Weekly video — one feature at a time
Five minutes, once a week. Watch it, then do the daily routine using that feature's sentence all week.
| Week | Feature | Video | Sentence for the week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sentence stress + weak forms ✓ | Tim's Workshop — the schwa (ep 6) | I'm calling about the Zaira Furnishing website. |
| 2 | Linking + flap T ✓ | Tim's Workshop — consonant to vowel linking (ep 14) | I'll call you at eight tonight. |
| 3 | Aspiration of p / t / k ✓ (lesson 004) | Tim's Workshop — plosives (ep 17) · elision of /t/ (ep 4) | Push the page to production on Thursday. |
| 4 | /θ/ and /ð/ | Search “Tim's Pronunciation Workshop th” | I think three things are ready this week. |
| 5 | Vowel length | Search “Tim's Pronunciation Workshop ship sheep” | Is the site full, or is there still room? |
| 6 | Intonation + pauses | Any Business English Pod clip of a meeting | That's doable. But it adds two days. |
The benchmark passage — record this every week
Ten lines from your real work, stress marked. Read it once with the audio, then record yourself reading it at your natural speed. A clean read takes 55–65 seconds. Keep it identical every week — that is what makes the comparison honest.
(or tap any line to hear just that line)
Good MORning sir. This is AltaMASH, from the STUdio.
im CALLing abou-the ZAIRA FURnishing WEBsite. Is this a good TIME, or should I call back LATER?
RAVI, what did you FINish YESterday? What are you WORKing on toDAY? ANY blockers?
So just to conFIRM, you want the CURtains SECtion first. RIGHT?
I've FINished the INvoice page, and PUSHED it to STAGing.
I haven't reCEIVED the TEST credENtials yet. I'll ASK the CLIent toDAY.
If you're STUCK for more than THIRty MINutes, COME to me.
Can you give me a reAListic DATE, not an iDEAL one?
You're BLOCKED on the credENtials. MEANwhile, take the DASHboard bug. START after LUNCH, ETA toMORrow EVEning.
That's DOable, but it adds TWO days. Do you want the reVISED TIMEline?
Score your own recording — seven checks, one point each
| ✓ | Check | What a miss sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| ☐ | I hit every word in CAPITALS. | Flat delivery — all words the same weight. |
| ☐ | Function words came out weak (abou-the, fer, t'the, un). | You hear “about THE” and “AND” fully pronounced. |
| ☐ | Consonants joined the next vowel with no gap. | Words arrive one by one, like reading a list. |
| ☐ | thirty and better got the flap (“thirdy”, “bedder”). | A hard, separate “t” in both. |
| ☐ | My rhythm was uneven — long hits, short filler. | Every syllable the same length (syllable-timed). |
| ☐ | I paused at commas and full stops, not mid-phrase. | Breathing in the middle of a phrase, or no pauses at all. |
| ☐ | The whole passage took 55–65 seconds. | Under 50 = rushed; over 75 = every word equal. |
Five or more means the rhythm is landing. Bring your score and your recording to the next session, and we decide together whether to raise the intensity or hold at level (b).
Six-week log
| Week | Date recorded | Score /7 | Week's worst item | One sentence that improved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 | ||||
| 6 |
Where the recordings live, and how to name them: recordings/README.md. Record with Windows Sound Recorder, or a WhatsApp voice note sent to yourself. Same room, same distance, every week.
Lesson 004 — The Customer Meeting, part 1 Lesson 003 — Native Rhythm Native Rhythm & Grammar Terms Customer-meeting sheet Notes
Sources: Pronunciation training and comprehensibility (2014) · Explicit instruction on weak forms (2017) · BBC Tim's Pronunciation Workshop · BBC 6 Minute English · YouGlish