Accent Reduction Program
Non-native English Speakers, Individuals with Regional Accents, Actors, Singers, and Business Professionals.
A comprehensive evaluation of your speech and communication skills.
Education, exercises, and strategies to neutralize or eliminate accent and improve overall speech clarity and delivery.
Accent Reduction Program
Accents are differences in spoken language that differ in their articulation and phonology (sounds), rate, patterns of stress within words and sentences, intonation/inflection, and fluency, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
Accent Modification Therapy
People choose to take accent modification or reduction classes to reduce or neutralize an accent to enhance their speech clarity and communicative efficacy, be more confident while speaking, and be better understood by family, friends, and colleagues. They may feel others will have an easier time understanding what they are saying or simply want to “blend in” better with colleagues or friends.
Reducing or modifying your accent will increase communicative confidence when addressing groups of people in professional settings. Accent modification is also common in business settings for individuals who have client-facing positions or for actors and actresses who are preparing for a specific role.
How to Get Rid of Your Accent
At Open Lines®, our accent modification program utilizes multisensory approaches to help you achieve your treatment goals. You will begin with an in-depth and comprehensive evaluation by a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP) who will assess your ability to perceive differences in speech sound production and articulate the sounds of Standard American English. Speech rate, stress, and intonation patterns that characterize your individual speaking abilities will also be examined.
During the assessment, your clinician will determine how you produce the sounds of Standard American English and whether you are bringing the intonation or stress patterns from your native language(s) into English production. Information from the evaluation helps your specialist develop an individualized plan of action which incorporates your personal goals and speaking demands and uses tailored exercises, which target correctly and naturally modifying your accent.
In sessions, your SLP will help you target your ability to hear and discriminate subtle differences in speech sound production. Your SLP will also show you how to produce English with less of an accent by using standard stress and intonation patterns of standard American English.
You will progress from working on individual sounds in isolation to producing sounds at word, sentence, paragraph, and conversational levels. Your SLP will also guide you through techniques to shift your pacing, intonation, and stress at the word and sentence levels to be better understood.
Speech Therapy for Accent Reduction
Our staff is trained in using multisensory cues and prompts, models, and other techniques to teach articulatory placement and manner of airflow for accurate sound production. In other words, they will teach you how to position your lips, mouth, teeth, and tongue and use airflow and voice to create certain sounds. Your SLP will also use techniques, such as practicing conversation in different communicative contexts, to build your confidence and skills in functional, personally relevant settings.
Contact Open Lines® today by phone at 212-430-6800, by email at [email protected], or through our contact form. If you are ready to take the next steps in modifying or reducing your accent, request an appointment to discuss your goals and review our service options.
Get in Touch With Open Lines®
