One of the questions that I get asked a lot, as an accent dialect coach, is “how can I quickly improve” or “get rid of my accent” for an upcoming presentation, interview, or other project? Are there any shortcuts? This is usually followed by such questions as- Do I really have to practice every day? How much do I need to practice? The short answer is something like “yeah but”. Yes, there are some quick strategies which can enable one to communicate extremely well for a short term project, but there are long term accent improvement goals to consider as well.
Last spring and fall, I worked with two students who were applying to medical school, and I also met with a professional in San Diego who had several job interviews that were not followed up with offers. The San Diego client became discouraged, so she asked her recruiter for feedback. It turned out that at least one company had a concern about her accent being difficult to understand. She decided to enroll in an online accent improvement program with me. The short term goals were to diminish the most noticeable aspects of her accent, to learn to clearly pronounce technical words and phrases in her profession, and to rehearse answers to job interview questions. The larger purpose was to be hired before the end of the year. The two medical student applicants worked on improving their pronunciation, keeping answers succinct, and improving their written essays. All three clients had a short term goal to fairly rapidly improve their speech and oral communication for upcoming interviews.
Over the years, I have been hired by companies to work intensively with employees who had important presentations, interviews, sales calls, speaking engagements, or even weddings to toast. Some clients waited until a few days before their presentation or speech to contact me (not usually ideal). They essentially needed a cram session of four or five hours for several days, in order to achieve a satisfactory comfort level with their projects. In one case, it became clear that there were certain longer words that the client was not going to be able to consistently pronounce in a day or two, so we identified the semantic culprits and substituted them with easier words to pronounce. The short term goal was to get through the presentation with as few distractions as possible. It may be more effective to delay working on a difficult sound combination, and address it later as part of a longer term accent training program.
Another short term strategy to improve an interview or presentation, is to address the rate and rhythm of speech. It can be helpful to focus on specific vowels and consonants that make up accented speech, but clear communication also includes other important elements. One of my corporate accent clients in Atlanta had a habit of speaking extremely fast, both in his native Spanish and in English. He had been told by family members and some colleagues, to simply “slow down.” The problem, at first, was that he was speaking so rapidly that words were slurred and syllable and sound endings were dropped. The temporary solution he came up with before he and I worked together, was to go the opposite route. He got into a habit of speaking very slowly when presenting his weekly sales reports. He carefully enunciated each sound in every word, but it was ultimately more distracting. We were able to implement a strategy of speaking in short phrases, adding more pauses, and increasing the emphasis on intonation, rather than a sound by sound or word by word analysis.
An accent is usually comprised of a set of vowels and consonants that deviate from the standard pronunciation of those sounds. Accented sounds are often misarticulated, substituted, or omitted. An example would be saying “dis” for a word like “this”, or “lust” for “lost”. Some of these substitutions can be humorous, though not always for the speaker! A story is told of a manager from Boston, who got up from a meeting on the West coast, and informed the group that he looked forward to seeing them all at the “potty” that evening. Of course, he meant to say “party.”
An accent coach might choose one or two particularly distracting vowels or consonants to work on in the short term, but it is likely that they will need to be incorporated into a more comprehensive accent program of several weeks or months. Certain words or technical terms may occur frequently in a presentation, and can be rehearsed more carefully as well. A speaker can also turn the focus towards an audience, and ask questions of them, or of the interviewer in a job interview. Some of the most successful interviews and presentations are conducted with more of a balance among speaking, listening and questioning, rather than the interviewee doing all of the talking or answering. Effective communication is a give and take experience.
Short term strategies can help the accented speaker, or any speaker, to successfully deliver a presentation, interview, or speak at a social engagement. However, once an individual has achieved the short term goal of completing an interview or talk, it is likely going to require ongoing effort and time, to achieve a high level of precision across a variety of speaking situations. Most clients have a long term goal to be able to speak English clearly, naturally, and with less conscious effort. This is where practice and further training are worth considering.
Repetition and practice is needed, in order to transfer newly acquired speech patterns to conversational fluency. However, I never liked the expression “practice makes perfect.” Perfection is not really an attainable goal, even for native speakers.The goal may be better stated as to “perfectly commit to practicing.” Another popular expression is “use it or lose it.” I sometimes tell my clients “lose it and use it.” One does not “get rid of” or lose an accent, but a speaker can significantly diminish the potentially distracting elements of an accent, and then learn to use clear standard American speech on a consistent basis.
It can be exciting to be offered a job or to be accepted into a university program, but it may be wise to consider long term goals as well. After all, one wants to not only start the new job or school, but continue towards a path of fulfillment, promotion, and longer term career success. So what ever happened to my two students who applied to medical school last year? As it happens, both of them were accepted into the first medical schools they interviewed with. One is currently attending medical school in Georgia and the other will begin medical school in September in Ohio. As for my client in San Diego, after five weeks of accent training and helping her work on her interview skills, and of course practicing diligently, she interviewed with a midsize company and was hired. She is currently working with that same company, and she continues to meet twice a month with me online.