American accent Training: The perils of trusting outdated information
The overall process to reduce your native accent and can be a long and difficult road, especially if proper teaching methods and materials are not employed. American accent training has become increasingly popular due to overseas travel, social media and a general desire to assimilate to foreign cultures. It is easy to think that the methods necessary for clear, professional sounding speech have been fully developed. This is not the case. Many business professionals around the world undergo American accent training featuring methods taught by non native speakers of English and based around outdated information.
American accent training: What are “current” accent reduction materials?
The materials used in some forms of American accent training are not current. Take for instance the tools that are available to Chinese students in American accent training. They use books and audio materials in their lessons but such materials are not current enough to give foreign born business professionals looking to modify their accent a distinct advantage in the workforce. Today’s business professionals must not only be knowledgeable in their field of employment but also have an intricate understanding of American slang for social situations. The ability to code switch between formal business language and casual conversation is vital in the current business environment
Many American accent training books published in China often include CDs with word for word English readings of information presented in certain sections of the textbook. Furthermore, these recordings are relevant in the sense that there are few contextual word usage errors or outright mispronunciations, while the intonation used is also quite smooth. Closer inspection of the information and content, however, reveals how outdated the included information is.
Any printed information about accent reduction not published in 2014 or in an updated edition within the last 10 years should be considered outdated. When searching out materials, you should limit your search to materials published within the last five years.
American Accent Training: Training : Finding Modern Materials that Work
Modern American English material is defined as content that is spoken or written by native English speakers or writers.
Twenty first century American accent training materials are produced by native English speakers and not designed for foreign business professionals learning the language but rather, for foreign English speakers who are striving to sound more American. You can use a wealth of present day sources outside of a clinical setting to improve your accent. These may include, but are not limited to: TV shows, magazines, radio broadcasts and podcasts.
American Accent Training: How to Take The Next Step
This is just one of our many blog articles written to teach more about American accent training If you’re interested in learning more about ways to reduce your foreign accent, you can practice American accent training after starting with a free screening to determine the severity of your foreign accent. Within 48 hours, you will receive results regarding your foreign accent on a severity scale of 1 (very heavy) to 7 (very mild) accent. If you’re looking for more American accent training, we have in office and online starter program options! Within 12 sessions, clients have demonstrated accent reduction of 50% or more.
