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Accent reduction courses for English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Analia Newbie Netherlands Joined 5432 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English | Message 1 of 16 03 July 2010 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I have a fairly good command of the English language both verbal and written. However, I have a foreign accent as soon as I start speaking. Normally, I think accent is part of one's identity, and as long as it does not impair comprehension, he or she should not feel the necessity to change it. But in my case, I need to sound like a native-speaker for professional reasons. I am an aspiring English teacher, and I want to work in the Middle East at the tertiary level. When I got in contact with some instituitions there, they told me that they would employ me if I could pass for a native-speaker. When it comes to pronounciation, I am completely fine...but I still need to work on accent.
I don't have any preference over AmE or BrE, though having been education in Europe, I prefer the latter. My first language is Turkish. Next year I will be living in the UK for a year to do my master's in English Language Teacher. In the mean time, I was thinking to partake in certain accent reduction courses. If I can manage financially, I am thinking to work with an accent coach on a one on one basis as well. So my question to you guys; 1-) Do you think I will benefit a lot from an accent reduction course, or private tuition with an accent coach? They are not very cheap, so I need to make sure that it is an efficient way of neutralising my accent. Is there any one here that can recommend me any particular coach or company from his or her own experience? 2-) I am going to live in England for a year. In order to get the most out of this experience, with respect to acquiring a native accent, what would you recommend me? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6235 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 16 04 July 2010 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You may also want to work on grammar - specifically, phrasing and the use of prepositions. It's evident that you're a quite competent but non-native speaker. "I don't have any preference over AmE or BrE", "my master's in English Language Teacher", "I was thinking to partake in", and "recommend me" are phrasings that I don't think a native speaker would ever use. This isn't a problem for communication, but if you plan to teach English, improving your grammar would probably be helpful, both for you and your students. Unless your accent is very heavy, I'd consider this a bigger problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Analia Newbie Netherlands Joined 5432 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English | Message 4 of 16 04 July 2010 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you very much for your comments Volte. If I don't proofread my texts, I make errors due to carelessness sometimes. My master's in English Language Teacher is one of them. I was going to write " English Language Teaching ". But the rest are my mistakes, and I agree with you that I need to work on my grammar. But I don't understand why "I was thinking to partake in" is wrong. Could you please help me there?
My accent is not heavy, but it does not sound like a native-speaker either. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6235 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 16 04 July 2010 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
As do we all.
Well, there are a couple of issues. One is that the word 'partake' sounds odd in everyday speech; it's in too formal/archaic of a register. That said, if you do want to use it, I'd say "I was thinking of partaking of".
Good luck with that. Accent reduction seems to be annoyingly hit-and-miss; I personally still find it quite problematic when I try to reduce my accent in other languages. There's a lot to be said on concentrating on your prosody, as opposed to specific phonemes. If your prosody is really good, you can get away with a surprising amount in exactly how you make each sound. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5465 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 16 04 July 2010 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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You cannot reduce your accent, only change it to another one. Whichever accent you choose, then, you will always have an accent. Whether or not that accent is pleasant depends on the preferences of the listener.
When I moved from the UK to the US I remember thinking "The American accent is so unpleasant that I am surprised children are not taught to eliminate it at school." Of course, I was young and idealistic at the time. Nowadays, I have become less of an accent snob, and realise that my accent probably sounds unpleasant to some people too. So, before aiming to reduce your accent you need a clear understanding of why you wish to eliminate it, and which target accent you are aiming for. At the same time, you need to understand that your new accent will be unpleasant to some people too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| adventurer101 Triglot Newbie United States adventurer101.wordpr Joined 5042 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English, Javanese Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 16 15 July 2010 at 3:09am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi Analia,
I took few accent reduction classes from University Extension here, in the US. I found that the results depend a lot on the teacher. My best one is really good at pointing out phonemes that I could not hear (she's not a native speaker, mind you. Sometimes I think people put too much emphasize on sounding like natives). We speak what we can hear, as you may have known. After recognizing what phonemes we're missing, make sure that you are given some mouth/tongue exercises. Different language requires different movement of our sound apparatus. Since what works for me may not work for you, I would suggest that you get a trial lesson and see which teachers help you the most. As you can hear more and more the different accents, you can mimic better those surround you. Since you will be living in the UK for a year, a good length of time, I would suggest you spend time listening with analytic mind. With the technology that we have, you can record a native reading an article and record yourself reading the same article, then compare them. As taking one on one or group lesson, I think both are useful. I learn a lot from hearing how other people sound. Oh, one trick I learned, is to ask native British speaker to say words/sentences in your language. That way, you can recognize the differences between your accent and their accents more clearly. Hope this helped and good luck with your learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Khublei Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Yugoslavia homestayperu.net Joined 5143 days ago 90 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English*, Irish*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Khasi, French, Albanian | Message 8 of 16 17 July 2010 at 4:19am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Surely it should be 'I was thinking of partaking in', no? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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