Onsite Programs - For Foreign Born Professionals
Accent Improvement

Description:

People who participate in this accent reduction program gain increased accuracy in pronouncing individual sounds, rhythm, and syllable stress of American English.

Objectives

• Identify the confusing parts of your pronunciation with an Accent Diagnosis
• Pronounce American vowel and consonant sounds accurately (accent reduction)
• Reduce choppiness caused by pronouncing all syllables of equal length
• Pronounce words, names, and phrases accurately
• Gain increased self confidence
• Distinguish sounds and words that may sound alike to you
• Speak slowly enough to articulate the ends of words clearly
• Improve your grammatical accuracy by pronouncing the ends of words

Methodology

Pre-course accent diagnosis and post-course evaluation; group, paired, and individual exercises; daily practice with Accent Improvement audiotapes/CDs.  Enrollment is limited to 6- 12 participants to increase coaching and personal interaction.

Our experienced ESL facilitators have degrees and certificates in English, Linguistics, Speech Pathology, Education, Business and Foreign Languages. They draw from an extensive pool of resources to design effective training that meets your employees' needs.

Scheduling

This 24-hour training program is offered in one of the following formats:

• 1 2-hour session per week for 12 weeks
• 1 2.5-hour session per week for 10 weeks
• 1 3-hour session per week for 8 weeks

What You Learn

General

• Identify your articulation errors
• Practice sound discrimination by listening and speaking
• Learn and practice the correct articulatory positions for accurate sound production
• Learn techniques and rules for on-going practice, self monitoring, and improvement
• Practice correct pronunciation for high frequency words in your work environment
• Identify homonyms (e.g. kernel/colonel), which are pronounced the same, and pairs of words that should be pronounced differently (e.g. card/cards) 

Rhythm and Linking

• Practice the rhythm of American English with vowel lengthening
• Apply rules for linking words to create smoother-sounding statements and questions 

Intonation and Stress

• Identify word, phrase and sentence stress
• Diagram sentence and question intonation pattern
• Learn how intonation changes communicate different messages and attitudes 

Reduction

• Learn how vowels and consonants are reduced in informal speech
• Improve listening comprehension of reduced speech

Target Audience
Non-native speakers of English.

To speak with an LSA Expert and learn about training program customization and delivery options onsite at your company, please contact us.