ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute OBJECTIVES You will understand: 1. Accent reduction techniques to use with your students You will be able to: 1. Implement the accent reduction techniques in your pronunciation classes

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute ACCENT REDUCTION Accent reduction, also known as accent modification, accent neutralization or elocution, is a systematic approach to changing an accent, through the application of phonological principals. Everyone speaks any language with an accent. If it is your first language, you speak the language with the accent of the dialect of that language that you first learned. If it is your second, or third language, most probably you speak the language with an accent characteristic of those who have the same first language background.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Previously, there were different values associated with different accents; accents reflected status, socio-economic class, geographical area of origin and first language background and there were corresponding values associated with all of these. Today, there is less ‘snobbery’ associated with accent, however, there is still a place and a need for accent reduction. With the removal of a value and status system associated with accent, the emphasis of accent reduction is now on comprehensibility. Speaking with an accent is fine, as long as the speech is comprehensible. If the speech is not comprehensible, then accent reduction work is in order.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute There are two approaches to accent reduction: accent reduction to help people say a specific scripted speech with a clear and comprehensible accent, and accent reduction to help people make original, creative utterances comprehensibly. Obviously the latter approach is the more challenging one. It is quite easy to simply memorize the sounds of a script, without even knowing what it means. Actors use this methodology all the time when learning phrases in another language. However, producing consistently clear, original speech takes a lot more than memorization.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute ACCENT REDUCTION GUIDELINES Accent reduction experts offer the following simple guidelines for accent reduction: 1. Speak more slowly than you normally would. Accent reduction requires conscious effort. When we speak we like to speak fluently and therefore rapidly, but this is counterproductive to a clear accent. 2. Open your mouth more than you normally would when speaking your first language. Feel like you are exaggerating the mouth movements for articulating the sounds. Carefully form the vowels and consonants. 3. Practice sounds in context rather than individually. Practice combinations of sounds, consonant clusters and strings of words. 4. Listen to and imitate the melody and rhythm of the language, not just the phonemes. Humming is a good activity to do in order to capture the musicality of a language. 5. Pay attention to word and sentence stress. And just as importantly, pay attention to ‘unstress’, the syllables and words that do not get stressed in a word or sentence. Don’t forget that the schwa is the most frequently occurring vowel sound in the English language.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute ACCENT REDUCTION ACTIVITIES Traditionally, teachers have taught accent reduction by making reference to the phonemic alphabet and by providing students with descriptions of the articulatory system. Traditional exercises have included: Sound recognition and discrimination tasks Sound approximation drills Minimal pair drills to both comprehend and produce two close sounds Reading texts, scripts or dialogues out loud Saying tongue twisters

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Here are some additional activities. With the proliferation of electronic gadgets for listening and recording, any type of listen and record activity is now easy and cost effective for most students. The teacher can provide a model for students to listen to. Students listen and repeat after the model. Once they are satisfied with their imitation, they can record it and submit it to the teacher for feedback. One of the main challenges with accent reduction is simply getting students to slow down and speak carefully. Any activity that forces students to do this will be effective. An example is putting students in groups of three. Two students have a conversation on an assigned topic. The third student serves as the accent coach; this student stops the other students when their pronunciation is not clear and gets them to repeat their utterance until it is clear.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Any use of drama activities can help with accent reduction, be it the use of improve situations or scripted scenes. Popular props to use when teaching accent reduction include kazoos for illustrating intonation patterns, lighters or matches to demonstrate aspiration (the fire goes out if the sound is aspirated) and mirrors for helping students become aware of the positions and movements of their speech organs.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Jazz Chants were created by Carolyn Grahahm as a way to get students to hear, ‘feel’ and reproduce the musical feel of the English language. They are simple verses of adapted English that exploit the natural rhythms of English. Jazz chants are most effective when the teacher starts off by modeling the rhythm and beat of the chant, either by reading it aloud or playing a recording of it. After the students hear the chant, they repeat it chorally all the while snapping or clapping to emphasize the beat. Once the students can confidently repeat the chant, they can be divided into two groups. The teacher can encourage a spirit of competition or assign other variables to enliven the task.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute There has been a proliferation in software and online activities for accent reduction. While the technology is effective for making native speaker models available to students for imitation, the technology is still not effective in taking the place of a teacher for the provision of feedback. So the technology is good for the ‘listening’ part, but not for the production and feedback parts of accent reduction. Some technology creates visual representations of utterances which are then matched against visual representations of native speaker utterances. While this technology looks good, in fact it is not accurate; it is possible to produce the sound differently (ie have a different visual representation of the sound waves) while still producing clear pronunciation. In other words, there is no one ‘correct’ visual representation of sound.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute The bottom line on accent reduction from a phonological perspective is that there is no ‘magic wand’ with which either teachers or students or computer programmers can create the perfect ‘native’ accent. Accent reduction takes time, effort, focus, patience and persistence.

ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Complete Question 1, 2, or 3 in your Task Journal. Task Journals can be submitted via to (preferred) or printed and handed in.