You may be one of the many people learned to read, write and speak English in your native country. Chances are that your reading, writing and grammar are excellent. However, you may find that your spoken English is so accented that American English speakers don’t always understand you when you speak.  Your foreign accent prevents American listeners from understanding you, causing frustration and breakdowns in communication. That’s because your primary language affects the way you pronounce vowel and consonant sounds as well as the way you use stress and intonation.

Accent reduction involves changing or modifying some of the sounds and patterns in your current speech to make you sound more clear and comprehensible to American listeners.  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 feautures that keep Americans from understanding you. Then she can help you learn the sounds and patterns of spoken English that you need to adapt 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 accent reduction sessions begin.

People who take accent reduction courses are usually highly motivated individuals 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 classes or coaching.

Many non-native English speakers have never learned to use thought groups when they speak English. For some people this causes their speech too sound too fast for American listeners to understand. For other people the lack of thought groups causes their speech to sound very choppy to American listeners.

There are no solid rules for dividing longer sentences into thought groups. It really depends on the idea that you are trying to convey. You can learn how to use thought groups in accent reduction classes.

You will learn a lot of pronunciation and accent reduction techniques in your classes. But how should you practice at home or once your class is over? Here are seven ways that you can practice outside of class.

1. Use a checklist

Make a checklist of the pronunciation features that you need to work on. You can use the results of your accent assessment or feedback from your pronunciation teacher to make this list. Each day choose one of the pronunciation features that you need to improve and practice it for 20-30 minutes. You can practice using an audio CD, TV, online videos or you can practice with a friend. After a while you can work on 2 or 3 pronunciation features at time.

2. Find an American English speaker to help you practice

Many American English speakers will help you practice your pronunciation if you ask them. People won’t ask you if you need help, that would be considered impolite, but most people would love to work with you. Tell them what pronunciation feature you are working on so that they can give you specific feedback.

3. Rehearse

Before going into a situation where you know you will be conversing in English predict how the conversation might proceed. Depending on the context you should be able to anticipate many of the words and phrases that you will need to say. Review those words and phrases in your head or even write them down. Rehearse the conversation a few times aloud. Use your checklist to remind yourself of the pronunciation features that you are trying to improve.

4. Practice privately

Memorize short quotes, dialogues and poems as well as words with difficult syllable stress patterns. Practice saying these over and over while exercising, bathing, walking or driving. I often do this in the car when I am driving

5. Mirroring

Watch American television shows to hear authentic examples of American English. Choose a character to imitate and as soon as they start to speak try to say exactly what the he or she is saying. Mirror the character’s spoken English for about 15 seconds at a time. This will really help you feel the way American English speakers use syllable stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns.

6. Record & listen to yourself

Prepare some written text for recording by marking the speech features from your checklist that you are trying to improve on. Then record yourself saying the written text. When you are done recording use your checklist to monitor your accuracy.

7. Practice listening & noticing

Wherever you are, listen carefully to native English speakers. This could be on TV, in stores, at work or with friends. Listen for the pronunciation features that you are learning in class or with your coach. Noticing these pronunciation features in others will heighten your awareness and help you to remember to self monitor these features in your own speech.

Whatever resources you chose, you must practice consistently. Consistent practice will help your mouth and tongue develop the new “muscle memory” that they need for you to articulate American English sounds correctly.

Although most people will never sound like a native American English speaker, everyone is capable of reducing their accent and making their speech more comprehensible. You can make changes to your current speech that will enable Americans to more easily understand you. This this will make speaking English much more enjoyable for you and for your listeners!

How long it takes to improve depends on a few variables. These include:

1. Your understanding of how your native language affects your accent when you speak English

There are some universal pronunciation problems that people from almost all languages have when they are speaking American English. These include  the voiced th sound, consonant clusters and vowel lengthening.

The speech patterns that you habitually use from your native language will also contribute to your accent. In order to understand exactly what these are you may want to get an accent assessment. An accent assessment can tell you which sounds and patterns from your native language are contributing to your accent when you speak English. Once you understand what your specific pronunciation errors are you can focus on these. This will help you study more efficiently!

2. Your listening skills

In order to pronounce the sounds and patterns of American English correctly you need to be able to hear them accurately. This is not as easy as it sounds.

As very young children our ability to discriminate a wide variety of sounds is good. However, this skill diminishes very early in our development and as we age we lose the natural ability to discriminate between sounds not found in our native language. Accent reduction classes will teach you how to listen for new sounds using auditory discrimination exercises.  Hearing and prounouncing new sounds and patterns can take time, but with focused practice, you will get it!

3. Time you spend practicing in a focused and efficient way

Once you get an accent assessment and understand what sounds and patterns from your native language are contributing to your accent you need to find resources you can use use to improve these. Resources may include books with CDs, online lessons or accent reduction classes.

Many people choose to work with an accent reduction coach. Working with a coach may cost more than other books or group classes but the personal feedback and attention that you get from an accent reduction coach is very valuable and will probably save you time and money in the long run.

Whatever resources you choose, you must practice five times a week, just like you would if you were training for an athletic event or learning to play the piano.

In order to reduce your accent you must learn to move your mouth, tongue and lips in new ways. This will feel uncomfortable at first but in order to reduce your accent  you need to learn to articulate new (American English) sounds and patterns.

Daily practice will help your mouth and tongue develop the new “muscle memory” they need for you to articulate American English sounds correctly.  You simply must practice a sound  or pattern over and over for it to  become unconscious!

Most people see some progress in 6-8 weeks. But this takes lots of  focused practice and dedication. In my practice I have found that people who take accent reduction classes or coaching sessions are highly motivated and goal oriented and they are willing to practice daily.

Remember, there is nothing inherently wrong with speaking American English with an accent. You accent is part of your identity and it makes you sound unique. However,  if your accent is so strong that it causes listeners to struggle to understand you, this is a problem that you need to address.

Please feel free to use the free accent reduction course and the articles and lessons on this website to learn more about American English pronunciation and accent reduction.

Americans reduce the sounds of function words in a sentence because these words are not key to meaning.

In spoken American English each sentence or phrase contains:
A Focus word-the most important word
Content words-very important for meaning
Function words-not important for meaning

Content Words and Focus Words
The most important words in English sentences are CONTENT words and FOCUS words. Content and focus words are pronounced louder and with a higher pitch than the other words in a sentence.

CONTENT words are usually nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, question words, negatives and numbers.

The FOCUS word is usually the last content word in a phrase or sentence.

In the sentences below notice the CONTENT and FOCUS words. Americans will pronounce these words with more emphasis than the other less important words.

1. SUSAN is HAPPY in her new POSITION.

2. She conducts her MEETINGS in the BOARDROOM.

In longer sentences, there is a focus word in each phrase or thought group.

1. If you PLAN to become a DOCTOR, you need to study ANATOMY.

Function Words
The unstressed words are called function words. Function words are important to the grammatical structure of a sentence but they don’t convey much meaning. Function words are pronounced quickly with a low pitch so when Americans pronounce them they are difficult to hear.

Stressing Function Words
In certain situations, speakers may choose to stress a function word rather than a content or focus word. For example, when someone gives you a choice and you want to choose both items your should stress the structure word.

Mother: Would you like CAKE or ICE CREAM?
Child: I’d like cake AND ice cream!

Using content, focus and function words correctly is important because the emphasis and reductions create a speech rhythm that is familiar to Americans listeners. If you don’t use sentence stress correctly your speech will sound flat and uninteresting.

You will learn how to apply sentence stress using content, focus and function words in my video lesson called INTRODUCTION TO SENTENCE STRESS & INTONATION.

When you are speaking English it is important to recognize the difference between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds.

A voiced sound causes your vocal chords to vibrate.

A voiceless sound does not cause your vocal chords to vibrate.

All of the American English vowel sounds are voiced.

American English has about 15 voiced consonant sounds and 9 voiceless consonant sounds. These sounds are often presented in voiced/voiceless pairs. Here are some examples;

The /b/  & /p/ sounds are articulated in the same place in your mouth but the /b/ is voiced and the /p/ is voiceless.

The /d/ & /t/ sounds are articulated in the same place in your mouth but the /d/ is voiced and the /t/ is voiceless.

The /z/ & /s/ sounds are articulated in the same place in your mouth but the /z/ is voiced and the /s/ is voiceless.

Try this so you can see what I mean.

Put your fingers lightly on your throat and say “zoo”. You should feel a vibrationwhen you say the /z/.

Keep your fingers on your throat and say “Sue”. You should not feel a vibration when you say the /s/.

One reason why it is important to know the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is because the letter “s” at the end of a word can have a voiced sound or a voiceless sound.

• /s/ a voiceless sound
• /z/ a voiced sound
• /ez/ a voiced sound that adds an extra syllable

When a word ends in a voiceless consonant the added “s” is pronounced as /s/. Here is an example:

• sock/s/ -since the /k/ in the word socks is a voiceless sound, the plural “s” is also voiceless

If a word ends in a voiced sound the “s” ending is voiced. Here is an example:

• love/z/-since the /v/ in the verb loves is voiced, the “s” ending is voiced

Words that end in the three sibilant sounds take the /ez/ plural ending.

• /∫/ pushes
• /t∫/ watches
• /dgz/ judges

This /ez/ sound is voiced and it adds a syllable to the word.

It is very important to recognize the difference between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in American English. If you say these sounds incorrectly it will both mark your grammar as incorrect and contribute to your foreign accent.

I teach you all about voiced and voiceless sounds in my video lesson called American English Consonant Sounds.

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 in order to link these words together.

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 these phrases it sounds like the consonant is the last sound of the first word and the first sound in the adjacent word.

Vowel to vowel linking

When words that end in a vowel sound are adjacent 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 non-native English speakers tend to stop 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!

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 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.

To learn more about how to reduce your accent using American English intonation patterns sign up for my Accent Reduction Essentials Course.

That’s because in English words one syllable always pronounced with more emphasis than the other syllables. The vowel in the stressed syllable is lengthened and clear.

Pronunciation 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 word is usually 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.

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 I want you to start to listen for it. Once you can recognize and use this important feature of spoken American English the rhythm of your speech will improve and people will be able to understand you much more easily!

I teach you everything you need to know about American English syllable stress in my Accent Reduction Intensive Course.

One written letter that is frequently omitted in the spoken English is the T.

When you listen to Americans talk in everyday conversations you may notice that the /t/ sound is often dropped after the /n/ sound. This is a very natural component of spoken English because it helps speakers to pronounce clusters of consonants more easily.

Here are some examples of words in which many Americans drop the /t/ sound.

1. winter = It’s too cold here in the winner!

2. painting = Her painings are at the gallery.

3. twenty = Thomas’ job pays tweny dollars an hour.

4. plenty = Sally has pleny of money in the bank.

5. gigantic = That pizza is giganic!

6. Toronto=Torono is a great place to visit.

Many American English speakers also drop the /t/ sound between words. Here are some examples of this type of reduced speech:

7. want to = I wanna go shopping this afternoon.

8. going to = I’m gonna make chicken tonight.

9. don’t know = I dunno her email address.

Americans will understand you if you say the /t/ in the words above. However, if you want to reduce your accent and sound more American you should drop the /t/ sound in the above situations.

Whether you choose to make the /t/ sound or not, knowing these pronunciation patterns will allow you to understand Americans when they are speaking quickly or informally.

You will learn more about the many sounds of  the American English T in my Accent Reduction Essentials Course.