Tag Archives: pronunciation

Accent Reduction – Top 10 Tips Cont’d

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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

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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

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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?

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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

Accent Reduction – Top 10 Tips

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1 – Imitate the desired accent and expressions of the people around you e.g. co-workers, T.V. and film characters, teachers, etc.

2 – Record yourself and check your progress continuously.

3 – Memorize useful North American slang, current idioms and expressions, etc. and integrate it whenever possible.

4 – Buy a pronunciation book. Check for CDs in the back and whether they are British or American English.

5 – Use a mirror to observe your lips, tongue and teeth positions.

6 – Control your volume, and stress key content words to keep listeners focused.

7 – Control your rhythm and pace. It is not a race!

8 – Practice with tongue-twisters, alliteration and poetry.

9 – Keep a list of trouble spots (words, sounds) to practice morning and night in a logbook or diary.

10 – When in doubt of the correct pronunciation, use a good dictionary to check the phonetic instructions of sounds and syllable stress.

Accents & Emails

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Did you know that a person’s email style is often as culturally-specific as their accent?

Some times we come to think of English as a standardized tool that everyone is using for business, travel, pleasure etc. and we forget that it is a living, evolving stylized language. We obviously can see this (rather “hear this”) in the different regional accents all over the world.

There really is no such thing as “American” English. Does that mean the New York accent or the Boston one? The Californian or Texan? Did you realize that even in Canada, a country with a relatively small population (almost 35 million) that we have regional accents? Some newcomers take a while to pick up on this. For example there’s the broken, choppy French-Canadian accent, the tight and enunciated Toronto-business accent, the typical relaxed and casual small-town accent, the native Canadian or Inuit accent, the East coast accents…etc.

When we write emails our choice of vocabulary comes out as well as our attitude. With friends and family this is fine but in business there needs to be a professional tone and word choice – without going over the top with vocabulary from the stock exchange every time!  🙂

This brings me to my final note. Please be aware that the Americans and Canadians typically write short, direct emails in business, and expect the same from you. Do not be offended! It is actually viewed as being polite not to waste other people’s precious time. But remember that the British typically are still writing as they speak – longer drawn out “indirect” speech, so their emails are longer. Often they too think that the North Americans are being rude or lazy, but it’s just a difference of culture!

Until next time, consider your recipient before pressing the “send” button!