This course is designed for professionals who want to reduce their foreign accents and communicate comfortably and effectively with American English speaking clients, colleagues and coworkers.

In each session I teach you specific techniques for communicating more clearly with native English speakers.

Accent reduction coaching is an excellent choice for people who work with American English speakers in technical, financial or academic fields.

My Accent Reduction Training Course includes:

• Private sessions conducted over Skype video
• An personal accent checklist
• The Mastering the American Accent book with 4 audio CDs
• Weekly exercises and practice assignments
• Recording feedback on assignments

I have worked extensively with people working in engineering, IT, accounting, health care and academia.

To read more about this course and to view packages and pricing please visit my current website at Learn American Accent Online.

Find out how private accent reduction training on Skype can help you communicate more clearly and effectively with your clients, colleagues and students.

Complementary 30 minute consultations are available.

Even though your English grammar and writing are excellent, your accent may be preventing you from communicating in your workplace, getting a promotion or even making new friends.

The most effective way reduce your accent and improve the way you speak American English is to work with an accent reduction coach.

That’s because accent coaching is very personal. The lessons are customized to meet your specific needs and goals. When you work with an accent reduction coach, you won’t spend your time addressing other people’s pronunciation problems as you would in a large accent reduction class.

My online accent coaching is convenient and very cost effective. There is no travel time involved, just sit at your home or office computer and work with me.

Working from your home or office allows you to feel comfortable and relaxed.

You will have to practice after each accent coaching session and I  will give you specific exercises to do. I also strongly encourage you to make and submit speech recordings between sessions. That way I can listen to your practice recordings and send you important feedback.

My program includes a book with audio CDs and other materials.

Accent reduction coaching is the best option for serious professionals who really want to improve the way they speak American English.

If you are interested in learning more about  accent reduction coaching  programs  take a look at the information on my current website, Learn American Accent Online

In order to reduce your accent effectively,  it is absolutely critical that you learn to use the schwa vowel sound.  In this post I will explain what the schwa sound is and why using the schwa will improve your accent.

What is the schwa sound?

The schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in North American English. The schwa sounds like “uh”. It is pronounced with the mouth and tongue in a very relaxed position.

The schwa sound can be represented by any vowel. The IPA symbol for schwa is /ə/.

Here’s how the schwa works in words with more than one syllable.

When you are speaking English the vowels in stressed syllables usually have a long clear sound. However, the vowels in unstressed syllables  are reduced. That means that they often have a schwa sound.

In the words below the first syllable is stressed with a long clear vowel. The vowel in the second syllable sounds like a schwa /ə/.

WOmən

BREAKfəst

MARYlənd

MUFfən

The combination of stressed syllables with long clear vowels and reduced syllables with the schwa vowel sound help to create the rhythm of spoken English.

Americans listen for this rhythm when others are speaking. This rhythm helps native speakers to identify words and understand the meaning of a sentence.

The schwa sound is tricky but you must learn to use it in order to reduce your accent. I teach you all you need to know about the schwa vowel sound in my Accent Reduction Coaching Course.

Accent reduction coaching is the best way for serious students and international professionals to reduce their accents and communicate more clearly.

If you are not ready for accent reduction coaching, consider starting with an accent reduction audio course.

Accent reduction takes time and effort. Any course that you take will be worth the investment!

If this is happening to you, you need to learn about intonation patterns.

Intonation helps create 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, which are not visible in the written language, 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 even offending your listeners.

Here are some examples of how American listeners interpret pitch patterns:

• If you use an very high pitch it indicates that you are surprised.
• If you use an very low pitch it may indicate that you are angry.
• If your pitch is too neutral it may indicate that you are bored.

The most common intonation pattern in spoken English is rising falling intonation. In rising falling intonation the pitch rises on the most important word in a sentence and then drops to indicate that you are finished speaking.

Americans use rising falling intonation in declarative sentences, commands and when asking questions that begin with the words who, what, where, when and why.

For example, in the sentence-WHERE is she GOing?-the pitch rises and falls on the word GOing.

Another common intonation pattern is rising intonation. In this pattern the pitch rises and stays high at the end of the sentence. When you use rising intonation it indicates that you are waiting for a reply or an answer.

Americans use rising intonation for questions that they expect to be answered with yes or no, or when they are expressing doubt or surprise.

For example, in the sentence-The PREsident is HERE?!-the pitch rises and stays high at the end of the sentence.

Even if you pronounce all of your American English vowel and consonant sounds clearly you will have a difficult time communicating with American English speakers if you don’t use the correct intonation patterns. Your speech patterns may sound rather dull to American listeners or they may even contribute to misunderstandings!

Try to listen carefully to the way Americans use sentence intonation and copy the patterns in your own speech. This will make your English sound much more natural to American listeners.

Most Chinese speakers, Spanish speakers and Indian language speakers need to learn how to use American English intonation patterns.

The Best Accent Training audio course contains several great lessons on intonation. You can buy these individually and the cost is very reasonable. Choose the lessons called Focus Words,  Jump-up glide down & Jump-up jump down. You will learn a lot!

It is hard to learn intonation on your own, but once you learn the patterns by listening to an audio lesson you will be able to hear these and master them.

Of course I teach you all about American English intonation patterns in my Accent Reduction Coaching Course.

American English speakers link or join words together so that they are easy to say and flow together smoothly. It often sounds like native speakers are saying one long word since they don’t leave spaces between each word.

Chinese speakers don’t usually use linking effectively when they speak American English. This makes their speech sound choppy and difficult to understand.

Here are 2 common types of linking that we use in spoken American English.

Consonant to vowel linking

When words that end in a consonant sound are adjacent to words that begin with a vowel sound, we hold the consonant sound of the first word until we say the vowel sound of the second word.

Here are some examples:
1. likes it = likes-sit
2. laughed at = laught-tat
3. explain it = explain-nit
4. wake up = wak-kup

In each of the phrases above the final consonant in the first word links to the vowel sound in the next word.

Vowel to vowel linking

When words that end in a vowel sound are located next to words that begin with a vowel sound we add a /y/ or /w/ sound to link the words together.

Here are some examples:
1. too + early = toowearly
2. who + is + it = whowizit
3. I + am = Iyam
4. do + it =dowit

Many Chinese speakers pause between words instead of linking or blending the sounds together. This creates speech that sounds very choppy and accented to American listeners.

If you can use linking when you are speaking with Americans your accent will improve and people will understand you more easily!

In my accent reduction coaching program, I work with many Chinese professionals. You can contact me to find out more.

One problem that arises are the sounds of the past tense “ed”.

In American English the past tense “ed” has three different sounds.

These sounds are: /d/ as in the word “loved”, /ed/ as in the word “wanted” and /t/ as in the word “stopped”.

Rule 1

The past tense “ed” is pronounced as /ed/ in words ending with the sounds /t/ and /d/.

For example: wait/ed/ and decid/ed/. This /ed/ adds an extra syllable to the word so it is easy to hear.

Rule 2

The past tense “ed” is pronounced as /t/ in words ending with the sounds /k/,/s/, /f/, /p/, /sh/, and /ch/.

For example: kiss/t/, stopp/t/ and push/t/. The /t/ sound is made by touching the tip of  your tongue to the gum ridge behind your front teeth.

Rule 3

The past tense “ed” is pronounced as /d/ after all other sounds. The /d/ sound is also made by touching the tip of  your tongue to the gum ridge behind your front teeth. Your vocal chords should vibrate when you say the /d/ sound.

In American English the correct pronunciation of grammatical endings is extremely important for effective communication.

In my Skype accent reduction coaching course I always teach my clients how to make these sounds correctly.That’s because when you pronounce the “ed” incorrectly your speech will be accented. It may even mark you as uneducated!

That’s why many professionals are looking for the best way to reduce their accents.

You may be one of the many highly educated professionals who learned to read, write and speak English in your native country. Chances are that your reading, writing and grammar are excellent! However, you may have found that your spoken English is so accented that American English speakers don’t always understand you when you speak.

Speaking American English with a strong foreign causes frustration and breakdowns in communication. When people fail to understand you, conversations and negotiations fall apart.  Even routine tasks such as answering the phone or giving directions can become painful to complete.

By learning to recognize and change the sounds and patterns that you unconsciously transfer from your own language to English, you can learn to speak in a way that will allow American listeners to understand you more easily.

An accent reduction coach can identify the pronunciation features that stop Americans from understanding what you are saying.  An accent coach will help you learn the sounds and patterns of spoken English that you need  in order to sound more American.

After your accent reduction sessions you must practice daily for about 20-30 minutes, more if you can. This will help the new sounds and patterns to become unconscious and natural to you. Most people actually begin to hear and speak English differently once their first accent reduction session begins.

People who take accent reduction courses are usually highly motivated professionals who are looking for better job opportunities or promotions. increased social opportunities and better cultural understanding. If this sounds like you, it may be time for you to investigate accent reduction coaching.

Remember that accent reduction involves changing or modifying only some of the sounds and patterns you use in your current speech.

That’s because in spoken English, one syllable in a word always pronounced with more emphasis than the other syllables. The vowel in the stressed syllable is lengthened and articulated with a slightly high and clear sound.

Pronunciation and accent reduction teachers call this emphasis syllable stress. Learning to use syllable stress is one of the very best ways to improve your English pronunciation and reduce your accent.

There are a series of rules or patterns you can use to decide which syllable to stress in an English word. Here are four of these patterns:

1. The first part of a a compound noun is typically stressed.
For example: NOTEbook, HAIRcut, AIRport, BATHroom.

2. Stress is usually placed on the syllable that contains the ROOT or BASE word. That means that word prefixes are usually not stressed.

Here are a few examples: unPAID, inCLUDE, preDICT, reMIND (these are verbs)

3. Word suffixes are usually not stressed.
Here are a few examples: SLOWly, FASTer, SPEAKing, CAREful

4. Exceptions to the suffix rule are words of French origin such as millionAIRE, volunTEER and picturESQUE.

If you haven’t noticed the way Americans use syllable stress you absolutely must start to listen for it.

I teach you everything you need to know about American English syllable stress in my accent reduction coaching program.

Once you can recognize and use this KEY feature of spoken American English the rhythm of your speech will improve and people will be able to understand you much more easily!

Most accent reduction and American English pronunciation books do not spend enough time on this KEY topic. The best book that I’ve found for learning syllable stress rules is Accurate English: A Complete Course in Pronunciation.

I teach you how to pronounce the tapped ‘t’ in numbers such as thirty, forty and fifty. I also show you how to pronounce the voiceless ‘th’ sounds in numbers such as hundredth and thousandth.  

I will show you how to use syllable stress to pronounce numbers the way Americans do. That will help others to understand you more clearly!

You will get lots of practice listening and pronouncing both numbers in sentences and dialogs.