Tag Archives: accent reduction

Content Stress is Best

As a general rule,

▪ Stressed words in a sentence are considered content words. These include nouns (e.g. kitchen, Peter), (most) main verbs (e.g. visit, construct), adjectives (e.g. beautiful, interesting), and adverbs (e.g. often, carefully).

▪ Non-stressed words are considered function words. These include determiners (e.g.: the, a, an), auxiliary verbs (e.g.: is, am, were), prepositions (e.g.: before, of, in), conjunctions (e.g.: but, and, so), and pronouns (e.g.: they, she, he)

Read the following sentence aloud:
The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Now read this sentence aloud:
He can come on Saturdays as long as he doesn’t have to do any homework in the evening.

Notice that the first sentence actually takes about the same time to speak well! Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence.

Accent Reduction – Top 10 Tips Cont’d

6 – Control your volume, and stress key content words to keep listeners focused. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numbers, and other descriptor words.

7 – Control your rhythm and pace. It is not a race! Use medium speed, and medium volume.

8 – Practice with tongue-twisters, alliteration and poetry. Get control of your speech!

9 – Keep a list of trouble spots (i.e. words, sounds) to practice morning and night in a logbook or diary. Build your own personalized textbook to practice every day.

10 – When in doubt of the correct pronunciation, use a good North American dictionary or British English dictionary, depending on where you are living or studying, to check the phonetic instructions of sounds and syllable stress.

Enjoy learning English, enjoy your new surroundings, and by all means practice accent reduction tips every day until your confidence in communication improves. Then, you will be able to speak with clarity and will find that your accent is no longer holding you back from achieving your goals. Learn to improve your accent, and then learn to speak through your accent!

Accent Reduction Top 10 Tips – Cont’d

3 – Memorize useful North American or British slang, depending on where you are, and current idioms and expressions, etc. to integrate them whenever possible. If you are not sure if an idiom or expression is appropriate, ask a teacher, tutor or coach, or a trusted native English speaking friend.

4 – Buy a pronunciation book. Check for CDs in the back and whether they are British or American English. Adapt to your environment as best as you can with your accent. 

5 – Use a mirror to observe your lips, tongue and teeth positions, and observe others for correct positioning. Practice in the mirror every day. A good time is right after you are finished brushing your teeth.

Accent Reduction – Top 10 Tips

It can be very exciting studying for a year or two in a foreign country, and every year thousands of ESL students travel to English-speaking countries to have an adventure, take a break from rigorous (i.e. difficult) studying at home, and learn some English.

At the same time, immigration is up in some countries, especially Canada, where the government has now incorporated more support, more programs and more funding to ensure that immigrants who arrive here can get employed a lot faster than what is currently the case. However, most students and immigrants will tell you that their perceived lack of English capability and their self-imposed shyness with using it can create a real barrier to not only employment, but all around enjoyment of their new or host country.

I have had the pleasure of teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) students and immigrants accent reduction since 1998, and have come to rely on a few tips to help the learner reduce their accent quickly.  Without further ado (i.e. delay), I give you my top 10 tips for accent reduction. Today will only be #1 and 2. Check my blog tomorrow for the next 2 tips, and so on.

1 – Imitate the desired accent and expressions of the people around you e.g. co-workers, T.V. and film characters, teachers, etc. This is not silly, it is vital (i.e. very important!)

2 – Record yourself and check your progress continuously. This way you can actually see/hear your progress, because it is easy to think that you are not making progress over time.

More to come tomorrow!

Interested in Accent Reduction?

Then watch this clip of Steve Martin in “The Pink Panther” to see how difficult it can be, especially if you want to rush it. Heck even if you are not interested in A/R, just watch this clip now – have a laugh!

I have been coaching accent reduction specifically since 2001. You have to have a sense of humour about it at times, but if you practice regularly and don’t give up, you can indeed reduce your accent and speak more clearly.  Here is the same video link, FYI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlOiYrlvW6g

Toronto Communication Workshop – This Sat. Feb. 24th!

brasiMPACT: Communication Skills Refinement; Impact and Influence

An intensive, hands-on communications training workshop designed to help individuals maximize their potential for team work and leadership. Training includes practical work in the classroom on accent improvement, presentation & public speaking skills, understanding body language, and other applied communication skills.

This is ideal for immigrants working or wanting to work in a professional environment.

BRASI (Business Research And Service Institute) has been running training courses for higher productivity since 1981. You need not be affiliated with BRASI to join this workshop.
Ric Phillips, Communication Coach, will be teaching and running the workshop.

This workshop will be held at the York University Executive Learning Centre (Schulich) from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Lunch will be provided. Free parking as well!

Cost is $185.00.

If interested please visit this link to register:

http://www.brasi.org/english.php

You can contact Aftab Khan directly at 416-388-8556 or Ric Phillips at 416-429-7935.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Thank you.