When clients make an appointment for a speech consultation, they have reached a point where they feel that their speech is interfering with their ability to communicate successfully and comfortably. Sometimes, addressing their speech problems is a New Year’s resolution. For others, it is in reaction to negative comments made by family, friends, or co-workers about an individual’s difficulty being understood. The reason is not as important as the motivation to take action; following through on the resolve to finally do something about their speech.
During a speech consultation, clients readily share their speech frustrations, difficulties, and goals. Having finally decided to be pro-active, they are excited to get started on their speech improvement journey and motivated to improve upon their communication skills. Reasonably, people ask, “How long will it take until I start to sound better?” Although this is a perfectly legitimate question, the answer is somewhat complicated.
Why Individual Accent Modification Sessions?
Everybody who begins accent reduction and speech improvement sessions does so with a different skill set. The reason that I offer individual sessions is so that I can work with each client at their level and provide the techniques that they need to improve their speech. Some clients just need somebody to tell them how to correctly articulate difficult sounds, and they are able to imitate and maintain the correct pronunciation. They are given drill sheets that focus on a specific sound in words and in sentences so that they can perfect the pronunciation of that sound. These clients often come in with a list of words that they have heard pronounced in a variety of different ways, seeking clarification as to how the words should be pronounced. Particularly for my clients who live in New York City, it is not unusual to hear the same word pronounced in many different ways depending on where the speaker was born. Once I have clarified the pronunciation for them and told them how a word should be pronounced, they are able to clearly articulate a word. For others, the process takes a bit more modeling, ear training, and there is a need for frequent and immediate correction. They need to imitate my production of the words and sentences on the drill sheets; recording the session so that they can reproduce the correct sounds when they are practicing at home.
The important point is that all types of non-native speakers can improve their speech. However, the amount of time it takes to do so varies for each person, and to a large degree, is dependent upon his or her practice habits.
Practice Will Help You Become a Better Speaker
It is always obvious which of my clients is practicing because they come in each week with improved speech. Client’s who practice see change with every single accent reduction session. For those who do not practice, the same mistakes are made over and over again. I cannot emphasize enough how important practice is in order to become a better speaker. Accent reduction is somewhat like learning a foreign language. The more you practice, the better you get at it. As you articulate newly learned sounds aloud, you are creating new muscle memory that has to be exercised and reinforced on a daily basis. You need to focus on speech, listening to others and practicing your newly learned sounds in conversational speech. Daily practice is extremely important to becoming a better speaker; one who has a reduced accent and a smoother, clearer style of speech.
Are You Willing To Practice Daily To Reduce Your Accent?
If you are willing to commit to daily practice, you will do well in reducing your accent. It is important, though, that you have realistic expectations and recognize that practice is crucial to the accent reduction process.
Start now and book your first remote Skype accent reduction class!
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