Accent Reduction, American Accent Training

 Elimination of your accent requires additional effort on your part: read books/journal articles related to phonology, fast speech, intonation. And train your ears, eyes to hear and observe all subtle differences in pitch, head/neck/mouth movements: you may not find this training from an average accent reduction coach. 

Many business people mention that their confidence is undermined because of their accent and that their lack of American pronunciation is holding them back from advancing in their careers. They are hesitant to talk in meetings or with US colleagues. They talk too fast because they are nervous to make a mistake and afraid to slow their speech in front of an audience. Their colleagues continually ask them to repeat themselves and in some cases were not willing to include them in team meetings because of their speech.

Do you speak English with a foreign accent? If you do, you may have found that native English speakers find it difficult to understand you. Even though your English grammar and writing are excellent, your accent may be preventing you from making progress in your workplace, getting a new job, or even making new friends.

Are you currently racking your brains trying to figure out how you can learn the American Accent? If English isn't your first language and you would like to know how you can improve your speech in English, then you have probably tried quite a number of different ways to acquire the American Accent. Chances are that you might have even enrolled in some American Accent or Accent Reduction programs already. If this is the case, then you might be familiar with quite a few different American Accent drills. Of course, the problem with these drills is that they do get old and tiresome over time which could lessen their overall effectiveness in helping you to improve your accent. For this reason, you might be interested in learning a few new tricks and fun activities that you can try out on your own or with some friends in order to speed up the process of learning the American Accent for you.

People who sign up for accent reduction coaching typically ask me how long it will take them to reduce their accent. Here is my response to that very important question.

Although most people will never sound like a native born American English speaker, everyone is capable of reducing their accent and making their speech more clear and comprehensible.

You can make changes to your current speech that will enable American listeners to understand you more easily. This this will make speaking English much more enjoyable for you and for your listeners!

Perhaps you have heard people say that intonation is the melody or the music of spoken American English. That's because English speakers use different types of intonation or pitch patterns in sentences and phrases.

These intonation patterns are not visible in the written language. However they are extremely important because they convey meaning. If you are not aware of how Americans use these pitch or intonation patterns you could risk confusing or offending your listeners.

In my job teaching the American accent, I advise and coach many people who were born in India but now work in the US.

Thousands of Indian born professionals living in the US have amazing technology, engineering and medical skills. American companies value their professionalism, knowledge and work ethic.

What many Indian born professionals lack though, is the ability to speak standard American English clearly and effectively. This keeps them from communicating clearly in the workplace, making new friends and moving up in their companies.

If you speak English as a second language and want to improve your American English pronunciation and speaking skills, you may be looking for an American accent training course. There are so many courses available on the market today that you may be wondering what kind of instructor to choose and which program is best. Since most of us turn to the internet for just about everything, beginning there for your American accent course is a good place to start.

Is it possible to learn the American Accent through self-study? This is a question that perpetually plagues the minds of many English language learners all over the world. Of course, the actual answer to this question is probably quite urgent for people who actually feel the need to learn the American Accent as soon as possible because their situation requires it. Foreigners who travel to the United States, Canada or other English-speaking countries to find work for example, might feel the urgent need to learn the American Accent as quickly as possible because they need good communication skills in order to give them a competitive edge or at least an even playing field in the job market alongside native speakers.

All of us have an accent, regardless of where or when we learned a language. In Canada, we have a predominant accent which most people are familiar with and find easy to understand. If your accent is very different from the mainstream accent, people will often find it difficult to understand you, even if you have been speaking English all your life. And if it is difficult to understand your pronunciation, people may tend to lose interest, get frustrated, misunderstand and, unfortunately, misjudge you.

Recently, I started working with a computer programmer who is native Chinese. She has lived in the United States for only ten months. She was having difficulty pronouncing final consonants in reference to word endings. She also was struggling with hearing the difference between the words "pool" vs. "pull", also "reach" vs. "rich". She would pronounce these word pairs and they would sound exactly the same. It's very common for non-native speakers to not be able to hear the differences between American English vowel sounds. For example, in the Mandarin dialect there is no final l,t, or b consonants and there are several English sounds not occurring in the language.

Do you have problems communicating when you speak English in work and social situations? Here are three ways that you can improve your American English pronunciation and communicate with confidence.

Learning a new language can be quite a challenge, and learning it well enough to be understood by native speakers is an altogether different experience. As you may have found out for yourself, just knowing the English words may not be enough if your French accent makes it difficult for people to understand you.

When native French speakers are speaking English, they often find that the pronunciation rules that work for French don't work as well in English. Many French speakers have trouble with the groups of English sounds known as affricates and fricatives.

Accent bias is a real problem for foreigners seeking employment in English-speaking countries. For foreigners finding themselves often in an accent bias situation, the solution starts with self-improvement.

English is considered to be a universal language, but not everyone speaks it the same way. One American who married an Asian woman whose second language was English muses that he and his wife both speak English - not American English. The problem with people who have English as a second language lies in effective oral communication. Business letters are relatively the same the world over, but when it comes to the spoken form of English, there are certain barriers that exist between native speakers and people with English as a second language

If you are an English language learner or simply someone who learned English as an adult or a teenager and you did not learn the American Accent together with your over-all understanding of the English, then you might be experiencing some degree of difficulty right now if you are trying to learn the American Accent. The main reason that you might be having some trouble with acquiring the American Accent right now is because you did not learn English in the most optimal condition. Think back to when you were learning your first words in English. Did your English teacher ever teach you about accent? How much emphasis was actually given on sounding good as opposed to proper grammar and sentence construction? In most cases, pronunciation is the only real aspect of accent that is given any emphasis by most English teachers, which is quite sad because a lot of people who learn English as a second language often find that they have to start from zero when they begin learning the American Accent even if their over-all English skill is already at a high or intermediate level.

Successful accent reduction is simply a matter of improving your awareness of how you want to make sounds and practicing. Studies demonstrate that anyone can lose their accent. The intensity or origin of your accent, age or level of education is not a factor in changing your speech. All you need is the motivation to do it and the commitment to regular practice to reinforce your newly-learned skills. Anyone and everyone, including you, can eliminate their accent.

Accent Reduction

What is an accent? Simply put, an accent is the combination of pronunciation and intonation. Varying degrees of these two factors result in a variety of different accents.

Pronunciation is the result of such factors as the positioning of the vocal cords, tongue and lips as well as the amount of stress and the duration of sounds while speaking a language. Intonation is the melody, rhythm, and speed of speech. Different languages have different sets of sounds and different melodies of the speech. They also vary by average speed.

Many people think that good pronunciation means pronouncing every word distinctly and clearly but this is not always the case. In spoken English the words within a sentence do not always sound the same as when you say them individually. That's because English speakers link words together in phrases and sentences.

In order to improve your spoken American English you need to link words to each other like native speakers do. Linking helps create a smooth transition between the words in a sentence and makes your speech sound less choppy.

American English speakers will link most words in a sentence or phrase. However, there are some guidelines that I teach my students to follow when they are first learning about linking. In this article I will describe three of these guidelines.

Subject Verb Agreement

This feature of English is much easier than it is in other languages. A person learning Spanish or Russian or German or just about any other language has to learn to change the form of the verb according the "person" of the verb. That means that the verb changes (is pronounced and spelled differently) according to whether the writer describes:

* what he or she is doing (first person),

* what the person that is being spoken to is doing (second person),

* or whether the actions of some other person are being described (third person).

Hello, you can consider this article to be a Spoken English Tutorial, because, honestly, these tips alone will can be utilized as lessons and can contribute to your pursuit of perfect American English accent. If you acquire a good American accent that natives understand - you will get rid of a lot of problems with Spoken English and daily communication with people.

In order to fix accent you need to know what an accent is and what exactly you need to improve in order to fix it, so let's start.

Do you want to master an American accent? If so, continue reading, because you are in the right place. This article is for people who want to improve their accent. I'm going to show you three tips on how to master an American accent. Here they are!

Do you want to improve your American English pronunciation and speaking skills but just don't how to go about it? Here are our "must do" tips to instantly improve your American English.

If you are an OFW, an Overseas Filipino Worker, or a native seeking a job in English, you may be concerned that your English skills are not good enough to compete with your peers. But what can you do? First of all, if you have not done so, you should enroll in ESL classes. These classes are a great way to learn the basics of English grammar and pronunciation. Look online for additional courses and practice opportunities. Speak English at every opportunity and don't be afraid to ask others for help if you're not sure about an English word or expression.

Many students ask how they can improve their spoken English. In my opinion, having taught ESL for over nine years, this is a two--part process that includes reducing your native accent and improving your pronunciation. There is an argument to be made that your native accent is part of your speaking personality. That argument is better left for another article.

Let's talk about reducing your native accent. Is it possible to reduce or neutralize it? It depends on you. Here are some recommendations to help you get started.

If you want to sound like an American speaker, you should learn rules of American English pronunciation. There is a lot of them but learning at least some basic rules will dramatically improve your accent. What are these rules?

Note: some of the rules listed below are not only used in American English. Many foreign speakers make mistakes when it comes to standard English rules so I decided to include these rules too.

Many Indian English speakers working in the US, find that Americans have difficulty understanding their spoken English.

If you are an Indian English speaker you may find yourself wondering, "Why is my English so difficult for Americans to understand?"

In this article, I'll explain one of the main reasons why this happens.

How can I improve my American accent quickly? Are you looking for some tips on how to do it? If so, that's great, because in this article I'm going to help you! Here are three tips that will greatly help you improve your accent quickly.

Corporate success today requires a diverse body of talent to implement new ideas, views, and perspectives. The client base has become multicultural and the need for effective communication demands diversity. In the past White males made up more than 60% of the American workforce. A steady growth pattern created a shortage of qualified personnel resulting in today's multinational workforce and an alteration of the image of the typical American worker.

Yes, I speak with an American accent. Is that the "best" accent or the most common accent? Probably not. But I would argue that the American accent is making gains internationally and could be set to overtake British English when it comes to "proper English pronunciation."

Recently I had the pleasure of seeing the Tony-nominated production of The Crucible. I am a huge fan of director Ivo Van Hove's work and loved his powerful production of A View From the Bridge earlier this season. Needless to say I was really looking forward to this evening at the theater. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. A large part of my disappointment was due to the fact that several of the main players were difficult to hear and understand.

There is a simple and profound lesson in this. If an audience member can't hear you, there is a good chance they cease to care about you. AND if the character is important enough to the plot, one may even stop caring about the entire story. Fortunately, I know The Crucible quite well, having studied it in both high school and college. Even so, I found myself straining to catch certain plot points because I simply couldn't hear some of the actors. And unlike most Broadway shows, these actors were not mic'd.