Sound British in 7 Days
Curriculum Booklet
31 Tricks · 32 Lessons · 30 Practice Passages
Prepared by Jonathan Onah
Founder · Diction Masters Technology Limited
Abuja, Nigeria
About the Programme
Sound British in 7 Days is the most complete British pronunciation transformation programme ever built specifically for Nigerian speakers of English. It is a structured, cohort-based curriculum delivered through a private Telegram Academy — combining video-based instruction, printed reference material, live practice, and personalised feedback from the Founder within 48 to 72 hours of every submission.
The programme is built on a single premise: fluent English is not the same as sounding British. A Nigerian professional can speak the English language perfectly — grammatically flawless, vocabulary-rich, culturally aware — and still be caught out by rhythm, vowels, endings, and stress patterns that instantly signal a non-British origin. This programme addresses that gap systematically. It teaches thirty-one specific “tricks” — the concrete, teachable patterns of Received Pronunciation (RP) — that transform how a Nigerian speaker sounds without ever asking them to erase their identity.
The name refers to the fastest suggested pace: complete one trick per day, and by day seven, learners have already mastered the foundational rhythm and word-ending patterns that account for the largest share of accent transformation. Full completion at the accelerated pace takes approximately 31 days; at a more measured weekend-only pace, learners typically finish in 8 to 10 weeks. All 32 lessons are permanently accessible.
The programme is offered to individual learners, corporate professionals, media practitioners, educators, and — through Diction Masters’ school partnership programme — to entire year groups within Nigerian secondary schools.
At a Glance
- 31 tricks organised into 9 progressive themes
- 32 structured video lessons (Lesson 1 to Lesson 32, including graduation)
- 30 practice passages — connected prose with target words highlighted
- An accompanying Learner's Guide (~10 pages) and Assignment Booklet (~30 pages)
- A private Telegram Academy with topic threads for every trick
- A separate Discussion Group for voice-note practice submissions
- Personal video, voice, or text-based feedback from Jonathan Onah on every recording
- Optional Certificate of Completion on graduation
- Ongoing access after graduation — the Academy remains open for review
Programme Philosophy
The programme does not teach learners to sound less Nigerian. It teaches them to add a second register — a British register — that they can call on when the professional or creative moment demands it. Nigerian identity is a strength, not a defect. The goal is capability, not conformity.
Most accent-training programmes start with individual vowels and consonants. This is a mistake. British English is fundamentally a stress-timed language: rhythm, not pronunciation of isolated sounds, is what makes speech sound British. That is why the first two tricks in this programme teach rhythm before anything else. Master rhythm, and even imperfect vowels will start to sound closer to native. Master vowels without rhythm, and you still sound Nigerian.
The single most important sound in British English is the schwa /ə/ — the tiny, lazy “uh” that appears in every unstressed syllable. Nigerian speakers, taught to pronounce every syllable clearly and equally, systematically overpronounce these unstressed vowels. Trick 12 — Master the Schwa — is deliberately placed at the heart of the curriculum because it unlocks everything after it.
Videos, slides, and passages are the raw material. What actually transforms a learner’s accent is receiving specific, personalised, corrective feedback on their own voice recordings. That is why every learner posts recordings tagged by trick, and why Jonathan personally reviews each one with a green, amber, or red signal and a written note. The videos teach; the feedback trains.
Learners are graded green, amber, or red — never on a numerical scale. Green means “mastered enough to move on.” Amber means “solid — refine if you want, but you may proceed.” Red means “re-watch the video and try again.” This philosophy prevents the perfectionism paralysis that stalls so many self-taught learners.
Learning Outcomes
- Speak connected English with clear stress-timed rhythm — punching content words and compressing function words automatically
- Land the tonic syllable of a sentence with a clean, natural pitch drop
- Produce all major British RP vowels (/ɔː/, /ʌ/, /eɪ/, /ɜː/, /əʊ/, /ɑː/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /ʊ/, /uː/, /eə/) with reliable accuracy
- Distinguish reliably between close-vowel pairs such as ship/sheep, good/brew, and air/bear
- Produce both voiceless /θ/ and voiced /ð/ TH sounds correctly at all word positions
- Apply British word-stress patterns to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and compound words
- Use rising and falling intonation appropriately across statements, questions, commands, requests, and lists
- Explain the difference between content words and function words
- Identify the schwa /ə/ in any unstressed syllable
- Recognise the three distinct sounds of the -s ending and the four sounds of the -ed ending
- Explain the pattern behind eleven common schwa endings
- Identify silent letters in common English words
- Record and self-evaluate their own voice notes for pronunciation accuracy
- Apply written corrective feedback to a re-recording without requiring re-instruction
- Compare a "BEFORE" recording with an "AFTER" recording and articulate specific improvements
- Read aloud a British-style passage of connected prose with appropriate stress, linking, and intonation
- Speak on camera, on stage, or in a professional meeting with an audibly more British register
- Move fluidly between Nigerian-accented English and British-accented English depending on audience
- Perform a "graduation" reading — a passage packing all 31 tricks — audibly and reliably in RP
Programme Structure & Delivery
The programme is delivered through Telegram — the platform of choice for two reasons: it supports high-quality voice notes (which are essential to pronunciation training), and it supports topic threads (which allow every trick to have its own dedicated space with all associated materials). Learners are added to two Telegram groups on enrolment.
The main content group. Organised as topic threads — one thread per trick. Each thread contains: the video lesson, the slide deck excerpt, the drill word lists, and the practice passage for that trick. This is where learners consume the material.
The practice group. This is where learners post their voice recordings, tagged by trick number (e.g., #Trick-1, #Trick-12). Jonathan personally reviews each recording and responds within 48 to 72 hours with a green, amber, or red signal plus a written note.
Every one of the 31 tricks follows the same six-step pattern:
1. Watch the video lesson for the trick (all parts, if the trick has multiple videos)
2. Read the practice passage aloud, three times slowly, focusing on the target words highlighted in red bold underline
3. Record a voice note of the practice passage
4. Post the voice note in the Discussion Group tagged #Trick-N
5. Wait 48 to 72 hours for personal feedback from Jonathan
6. Apply the feedback, re-record if needed, then proceed to the next trick
Feedback Signals
GREEN — MASTERED
The learner has successfully applied the target trick. Move to the next trick.
YELLOW — SOLID, REFINABLE
Getting there. Solid attempt with specific things to refine. Re-record if you want to nail it.
RED — NEEDS REWORK
Needs work. You’ve missed the core mechanic. Re-watch the video, read the passage, and try again.
Suggested Pacing
Recommended for motivated professionals with an hour of dedicated practice time each day.
- Day 1 — Tricks 1-2 (The Rhythm Foundation)
- Day 2 — Tricks 3-4 (Word Endings)
- Day 3 — Tricks 5-7 (The First Vowels)
- Day 4 — Tricks 8-9 (Compound Stress and TH)
- Day 5 — Tricks 10-13 (More Vowels + Schwa Revolution)
- Day 6 — Tricks 14-19 (Stress and Linking)
- Day 7 — Tricks 20-25 (Endings and Confusables)
- Day 8 — Tricks 26-31 (Advanced Vowels and Intonation)
- Day 9-10 — Graduation preparation and BEFORE/AFTER recordings
Recommended for most working adults. 4 to 5 tricks per week, spread across weekdays.
- Week 1 — Tricks 1-8
- Week 2 — Tricks 9-16
- Week 3 — Tricks 17-24
- Week 4 — Tricks 25-31 + Graduation
Recommended for learners with heavy weekday commitments. Three to four tricks per weekend.
- Weekends 1-2 — Tricks 1-8
- Weekends 3-4 — Tricks 9-16
- Weekends 5-6 — Tricks 17-24
- Weekends 7-8 — Tricks 25-31
- Weekends 9-10 — Graduation and celebration
A Day in the Life of a Learner
To make the programme tangible, here is a typical Tuesday for Chidi — a 28-year-old management consultant based in Lagos, working through Trick 12 (Master the Schwa) on the Rhythm track.
Chidi opens the Sound British Academy on his phone. He taps the “Trick 12 — Master the Schwa” thread and watches the 8-minute video lesson while sipping coffee. Jonathan explains the schwa as “the lazy uh” — the sound English uses in every unstressed syllable. Chidi hears examples: “banana” is not “ba-nah-nah” but “buh-NAH-nuh.”
Chidi opens the practice passage for Trick 12. He reads it aloud once, standing in front of the bathroom mirror. He notices where the target words are highlighted in red bold underline. He reads it again, deliberately relaxing the vowel on every underlined word.
Between meetings, Chidi steps out to a quiet stairwell. He opens the Discussion Group and records a voice note of the entire practice passage. He listens to his own recording once — it sounds better than yesterday. He posts it in the Discussion Group with the tag #Trick-12.
Between calls, Chidi checks the Discussion Group. Two other learners have posted their #Trick-12 recordings. He listens to one and reacts with a supportive emoji.
Overnight, Jonathan reviewed Chidi’s recording. Chidi wakes up to a green signal on his voice note and a written comment: “Excellent. Your schwa on ‘banana’ and ‘about’ is now natural. On ‘family’, the middle syllable is still a touch too pronounced — you’re saying FAM-i-lee instead of FAM-ə-lee. Nothing to re-record. Just carry that awareness forward. Green — move to Trick 13.”
Chidi begins Trick 13 (Weak Forms of Function Words). The cycle begins again.
Detailed Curriculum
The complete lesson-by-lesson breakdown of Sound British in 7 Days follows. Each lesson has been engineered to build on the previous one, so learners moving through the sequence in order will find each new trick easier than the last.
Punch the Content Words
To internalise the fundamental rhythm of British English: strong emphasis on content-carrying words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, negatives, wh-question words) and compression of grammatical function words.
- The distinction between content words and function words
- Why English is a stress-timed language, not a syllable-timed one
- The physiological technique of "punching" — jaw drop, breath support, volume shift
- How compressing function words creates the classic British "flow"
- Watch the 3-part video lesson (rules, drill words, sentence practice)
- Read the multi-sentence practice passage aloud with punched content words
- Record and submit a voice note tagged #Trick-1
Learner records a passage containing at least 8 sentences with correctly identified and punched content words. Green requires audible content-word emphasis and function-word compression throughout.
Land the Tonic Syllable
To master the pitch-drop that concludes every English sentence — the “tonic” or “nuclear” stress that lands on the last content word of a thought group.
- The concept of the tonic syllable — where meaning peaks in a sentence
- How rising then falling pitch creates the characteristic British intonation contour
- The default rule and the exceptions (contrast, correction, emphasis)
- Common Nigerian errors: falling pitch too early, or maintaining flat pitch throughout
- Watch the video lesson and drill
- Read the practice passage focusing on clean pitch drops
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-2
Learner records a passage with at least 8 sentences, each concluding with a clean, audible tonic-syllable drop.
Fix -tion, -ed, -ing, and -er Endings
To master the four most common word endings in English — each of which Nigerian speakers commonly mispronounce.
- -tion and -sion endings (pronounced /ʃən/, not /ʃon/ or /tion/)
- The three sounds of -ed: /t/ after voiceless, /d/ after voiced, /ɪd/ after t or d
- -ing endings pronounced as soft /ŋ/, not hard /ng/ or /n/
- -er and -or endings collapsed to a schwa /ə/, not a full /ɜː/
- Watch the 4-part video lesson
- Read six practice passages (one per ending category)
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-3
Learner records six consecutive practice passages. Green requires correct ending pronunciation on all target words in all passages.
The -s Ending (three sounds)
To master the three distinct sounds of the -s plural, possessive, and third-person singular verb ending.
- /s/ after voiceless consonants (cats, cups, hats)
- /z/ after voiced consonants and vowels (dogs, bags, cows)
- /ɪz/ after sibilants — s, z, sh, ch, j (buses, watches, judges)
- How to feel voicing in your throat to predict the correct sound
- Watch the video lesson
- Read three practice passages (one per -s sound)
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-4
Green requires all three -s sounds correctly deployed in appropriate contexts across the three passages.
The Long /ɔː/ Vowel
To produce the long, rounded British /ɔː/ vowel — the sound in “daughter,” “walk,” “talk,” and “more” — with correct lip rounding and length.
- The physical production: lips rounded, jaw slightly dropped, tongue back
- Distinguishing /ɔː/ from the Nigerian tendency toward a shorter /ɒ/ or /o/
- Common spelling patterns: -alk, -ought, -aught, -ore, -our
- Watch the video lesson
- Read the practice passage with underlined target words
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-5
Green requires audibly long and rounded /ɔː/ on all target words in the passage.
The Relaxed /ʌ/ Vowel
To produce the relaxed /ʌ/ vowel across all its spelling patterns — U, O, OU, OO — a sound Nigerian speakers commonly harden or shift.
- The relaxed jaw, open lip, central tongue position
- Spelling patterns: U (bus, cup), O (love, mother, son), OU (young, tough), OO (blood, flood)
- Multi-syllabic drill words to build recognition across all patterns
- Comparison with the /ʊ/ (foot) and /ɑː/ (bath) vowels
- Watch the video lesson
- Complete the 32-word multi-syllabic drill
- Read the practice passage
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-6
Green requires correct /ʌ/ production across all four spelling patterns in the passage.
The /eɪ/ AY Diphthong
To produce the gliding /eɪ/ diphthong — the sound in “day,” “take,” “break,” and “paid” — starting at EH and sliding to IH.
- The concept of a diphthong: a vowel that changes shape mid-production
- The starting position (open EH) and ending position (closer IH)
- Common Nigerian errors: stopping halfway, or producing a monophthong
- Spelling patterns: -ay, -ai, -ei, -ea (great), -ey
- Watch the video lesson
- Read the practice passage
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-7
Green requires audible glide on all /eɪ/ words in the passage.
Compound Stress and Name Stress
To apply the British stress patterns to compound nouns (stress on first element) and to Nigerian-British names (stress on surname).
- The compound-noun rule: stress on first element (BEDroom, POSTman, BUSstop)
- The name-stress rule for formal/British-style address: FirstName SURname (Adebayo THOMPson)
- Distinguishing compound nouns from adjective-noun phrases
- Twelve compound noun drills and six name drills
- Watch the video lesson
- Complete the compound noun drill
- Complete the name stress drill
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-8
Green requires correct first-element stress on all 12 compound nouns and correct surname stress on all 6 names.
The TH Sounds
To produce both the voiceless /θ/ and voiced /ð/ TH sounds correctly, with the tongue between the teeth, distinguishing them clearly from the Nigerian substitutions of /t/ and /d/.
- The physical production: tongue tip against or between the upper and lower teeth
- Voiceless /θ/: three, think, both, path — no vocal cord vibration
- Voiced /ð/: this, that, mother, brother — vocal cords engaged
- Common Nigerian substitutions and how to unlearn them
- Watch the video lesson
- Complete the drill words
- Read the practice passage
- Record and submit tagged #Trick-9
Green requires audible tongue-between-teeth production on all TH words in the passage.
