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, medical or academic fields.

My Accent Reduction Training Course includes:

• Private sessions conducted over Skype video
• Personal learning objectives on your own course page
• The Mastering the American Accent book with 4 audio CDs
• Weekly exercises and practice assignments
• Weekly progress reports
• Written feedback on submitted homework assignments

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

Contact my about my new course for IT professionals!

To read more about my training 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.

If you find that Americans have trouble understanding you when you speak, you are not alone!

Here are three accent reduction techniques that you must learn if you want to American English speakers to understand you.

Accent Reduction Technique 1-Learn to Use Syllable Stress

In English words with two or more syllables, one syllable always receives strong stress or emphasis. Here is a common syllable stress pattern: 90% of two syllable English nouns are stressed on the first syllable. That means that you should pronounce the words TEA-cher and STU-dent with strong emphasis on the first syllable. The second syllable is reduced.

You must learn English syllable stress rules and patterns if you want to improve your American English pronunciation. That is because Americans listen for syllable stress in order to identify words and meaning.

Accent Reduction Strategy 2-Learn to Lengthen the Vowel Sounds in Stressed Syllables

The vowels in stressed syllables take on a special quality in spoken English. These vowels must be lengthened and pronounced with a slightly higher pitch in order to make words easily comprehensible to American listeners.

Lengthening vowel sounds in stressed syllables is vital to the rhythm of spoken English so you must do this if you want to reduce your accent. For example, when you say the word TEA-cher you need to lengthen the EA and say it with a slightly higher pitch.

Accent Reduction Strategy 3-Learn to Use the “schwa” Vowel Sound in Reduced Syllables

In American English the vowels in reduced syllables are NOT pronounced long and clear. Instead these vowels have the “schwa” sound. The schwa is a low pitched “uh” sound. For example, when you say the word STU-dent the e in the second (or reduced) syllable sounds like “uh” and the word sounds like STU-duhnt.

The schwa is sound is the most frequent sound in spoken English but many learners are unaware of it. Learning to use the schwa sound for vowels in reduced syllables is one of the best ways to improve your accent.

I teach you all of these accent reduction techniques in my Accent Reduction Coaching Course.

In my Skype accent reduction coaching course, I teach you to speak American English clearly and understandably using the techniques that I describe here. Your listening comprehension will improve and you will enjoy speaking English with American friends and colleagues!

One group of problematic word final sounds 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”. Here are three rules you can use to help you.

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 clear and effective communication.

In my Skype accent reduction coaching course I always teach my Spanish and Chinese speaking clients how to make these sounds correctly.

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.