British Council – Sounds Right Application

A Smarter Way to Learn English Pronunciation

The British Council has always worked to make English learning easier for students around the world. To help learners and teachers with pronunciation, they launched the Sounds Right mobile app. This British English pronunciation app is simple, fun, and interactive. It gives users a clear way to practice sounds, improve fluency, and gain confidence in speaking English.

About the Organisation

The British Council is a global leader in English language education and cultural exchange. It has a presence in more than 100 countries and supports millions of learners and teachers every year.

The organisation is known for high-quality training programs and helpful resources. Over time, it has also added digital tools to its methods of teaching.

The British Council realised that pronunciation is often the hardest part of learning English. Many learners feel nervous or confused when they try to speak. To solve this problem, they we planned to build a mobile-first application. The goal was to make learning phonetics easy through phonetics app for everyone — school students, college learners, and even professional trainers.

Industry

Edtech

Services

Mobile App, Cloud, E-Learning

Business Type

Enterprise

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The Challenge at Hand

Learning how to say English words correctly is not always simple. It’s not just about knowing the words, but also about understanding the sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a tool that shows how sounds are made. But most learners find the IPA difficult to read.

Teachers also struggle because they don’t always have simple tools to demonstrate sounds in classrooms. The British Council wanted to remove these barriers.

Looking at the challenges, they decided to create a free mobile app that is easy to use for both students and teachers.

Main Hurdles

Making phonetics sounds in English simple for learners at different levels.
Showing the IPA chart in a way that works well on mobile screens.
Giving smooth audio playback so users could listen to sounds clearly.
Building an app that is easy to use but also scientifically correct.

Crafting the Solution

The British Council partnered with InnovationM to design and develop the Sounds Right app. The goal was to create a tool that is practical, intuitive, and accessible for anyone learning English.

Phonetic Chart Made Simple

The core of the app is an IPA-based chart. This chart is arranged by mouth shape, voicing, and tongue position. It helps users see how each sound is made.

The chart is designed for mobile screens, making the sound rights app clear, scrollable, and mobile-friendly on any device.

One Tap to Hear the Sound

The app has a tap-to-hear feature. Users can tap a symbol on the chart and instantly hear the correct sound. The sounds are recorded by native English speakers. This gives learners an accurate model to follow.

With daily practice, learners can improve both their listening and speaking skills. Repeating the sounds again and again helps build fluency and confidence.

Designed for Everyone

The app is built for both learners and teachers. It has a clean and simple interface that requires no training.

Learners can practice on their own, anytime and anywhere.
Teachers can use it in classrooms to demonstrate sounds or recommend it to students for extra practice.

This dual-purpose design makes Sounds Right useful for self-learning as well as formal teaching.

Learning Sounds Through Real Words

To make learning practical, the app also shows example words. When learners tap a dropdown arrow, they see words that contain the chosen sound. This helps them understand how sounds appear in real vocabulary.

It also makes it easier to connect the phonetic sounds in English with everyday speech.

Outcomes and Achievements

The Sounds Right app quickly became popular and effective. It is now used by learners and educators across the globe.

Positive Feedback

Users gave great reviews. Students liked the easy design, clear sounds, and the simple phonetic chart. Teachers found it helpful as a classroom tool and encouraged their students to use it at home.

Visible Improvement

Daily use of the app has helped learners improve their pronunciation, fluency, and speaking confidence. Many reported that they were able to identify their own mistakes and correct them.

This progress has been most helpful for non-native speakers, ESL students, and beginners who earlier found phonetic charts too difficult.

Global Reach

The app is now used worldwide by students, teachers, and language trainers. It works well in classroom teaching and also in self-paced learning. Its adoption across countries shows that it is a trusted and effective resource.

Lasting Impact

The launch of Sounds Right shows the British Council’s commitment to modern, mobile-first learning. By turning a tough subject like phonetics into a simple and interactive experience, the Council has helped learners everywhere speak English more clearly.

InnovationM is proud to have worked on this project. Together with the British Council, they showed how good design and technology can make education more powerful.

The project shows how AI-driven interactivity and mobile-first design can change the way we learn languages in the future.

Today, Sounds Right continues to support learners and teachers. Alongside this app, many learners also explore other tools, such as a learn English grammar app, to strengthen their language skills further. It makes pronunciation practice simple, engaging, and effective. With tools like this, English learning is no longer intimidating but enjoyable and practical.