Accent Modification

Foreign accents and strong regional American accents are interesting and beautiful. They tell us something about people. But some people may feel self-conscious about their accent or that it gets in the way of their work or social skills. An accent is what we hear when people retain the sound system and grammar rules from their native accent, that are often difficult to change. Shira has studied Accent Modification with Arthur Compton and Daniel Dato and uses a variety of other authors with sound-loaded materials including David Alan Stern.


Step 1
The first step is an assessment of a person’s speech and language, and how they typically communicate at work, with friends and when talking in other situations.


Step 2
Next, we use that information to develop goals to improve communication skills for situations that are important to each individual and help each person improve their communication effectiveness. Accent Modification is tailored to each individual’s needs. Individuals are taught sound differences that they may otherwise have trouble hearing, improve muscle movements involved, resonance differences and practice in a hierarchy from drill work, to reading to spontaneous speech, putting on an accent like an actor would. Individuals will be guided as to how to incorporate their practice into their daily routine.