What’s the Best English Accent to Learn?

The answer may surprise you!

When new students join EF English Live, they often come with an idea about what correct English sounds like, even if they’re just beginners. In most countries around the world, it’s common to hear spoken English on television or in the cinema. For this reason, students may aspire to speak a sort of ‘Hollywood English’. Others may consider the formality of British English, the ‘Queen’s English’, the best English accent to learn.

The reality is, English is spoken in innumerable accents around the globe—not only in regional variations by native speakers, but also by international speakers. If you plan to travel or work in a global industry, there is real value in training your ear to understand a much wider range of accents speaking English. It’s not at all uncommon to come across an Indian accent speaking English in London, or the CEO of a company speaking English with a strong French accent.

At EF English Live, we want you to learn to speak English clearly, confidently and correctly, whatever your accent. However, we’ve also designed our school to hone your listening comprehension so you can better understand the best English accent to learn: a global English accent.

Here are the top features in our school that help you to learn a global English accent:

EF English Live Teachers

Our certified, specially-trained online English teachers come from all over the globe. They’re all native speakers of English or fluent bilingual. That means that you can benefit from practising one to one with a teacher from the USA, Ireland, Canada, Australia or any other part of the English-speaking world, as well as learn from a Brazilian, Japanese or German teacher. All of our teachers are experts in the English language, and their broad range of accents and expertise will truly improve your fluency in global English.

Group Conversation Classes

Not only will you have the opportunity to practice speaking and listening to a range of accents from our teachers, you’ll also benefit from learning with other students from all over the world in our Group Conversation Classes. These dynamic classes will help you to better understand English as you’re likely to hear it spoken on your travels and in your career.

Video-based lessons and listening activities

EF English Live’s self-study lessons also reinforce the importance of learning global English. Our video-based lessons feature speakers from a wide range of backgrounds—all speaking clear and correct English, but in a range of common, real-world accents. Listening activities within your course test your skills and help you improve your listening comprehension of different accents.

The Pronunciation Lab

Of course, many of our online students are still eager to mimic British or American accents in their own speech. To help you perfect your pronunciation of either of these two common forms of English, our Pronunciation Lab is a great supplementary tool. Here you can listen and repeat as speakers pronounce vowel sounds, consonants, words and phrases in standard British and American English.

Ready to practice? Take a trial of EF English Live’s online English school today and test your fluency in real-world English.

Good luck mastering your global English accent! Is there any English accent you find particularly difficult to understand? Tell us in the comments below.