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| TELL US YOUR STORYFeatured Article
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If you are a foreign born professional, we would like to hear from you. We are very interested in the story of how you have created a successful and prosperous life in the United States.
We would be happy to feature your story in a future issue.
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OUR PROGRAMS
Transforming
accents from
communication
barriers to
charming
cultural flavors!
Individuals-Groups
Basic Level:
Compton P-ESL: 2008 Revision!
Specialized:
Medically Speaking
Regional Dialects:
Speak Standard, Too!
Idioms:
MIAE (Mastering the Idioms of American English)
Advanced:
MEEC (Mastering Effective English Communication)
RULES for Medically Speaking (Rules for Using Linguistic Elements of Speech)
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We are passionate about helping our clients speak English clearly and with confidence! YOU CAN improve the fluency and accuracy of your spoken English, even if you consider your accent to be "mild."
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Go to our Archive Home Page to read more fascinating newsletters.
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We at Triangle Speech Services are licensed speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who specialize in foreign accent and regional dialect modification.
Speaking to a business group recently, I asked members of the audience if any had been to Sea World or on a whale watch. I asked them to share their memories of their experiences. Then I asked them to think of the element which was absolutely necessary for these experiences to have taken place. Only one correctly guessed,"The water!" Ideally, speech should be like the water fish swim in: the message should be memorable but the speech should be "invisible."
This month's "My Story" was contributed by a client who presented with a mild accent and who could be understood most of the time in predictable, casual conversation. However he was concerned and self-conscious about his lack of fluency and ease in speaking, especially at work. His speech had a hesitant and halting quality and he used the rhythms of his native language, Mandarin, and frequently inserted "uh" to smooth the transition between consonants i.e. "managedUHto," "BergUHman." Linking between words was absent and final /n/ was omitted so that, for example, "in a" sounded like "ih uh" with a hard glottal attack on the "a." His speech patterns definitely distracted the attention of listeners from the content of his message. This was especially problematic in his work because of its highly technical vocabulary.
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My Story
[LX Ph.D. is a scientist from China, a culture which encourages striving for excellence. After completing the 7-week version of the P-ESL, he is continuing with the MEEC Program to improve his intonation and other subtle features of linking and sound sequencing.]
When I was still in school, my accented English was never a big concern. Well, I know I had an accent, but who in my circle didn't? Since my English was already the best among my Chinese friends, I always thought that I should put more emphasis on other important areas.
Ever since I started working in a consulting company, I have had many more opportunities to communicate with customers and the more conversations I had, the more frustrated I became about my spoken English. When I had to repeat or rephrase the sentence, I knew there was something wrong. However the most discouraging thing was that I didn't know how to change the situation. A friend recommended Triangle Speech Services, and I decided to give it a try with the hope of helping my career.
As expected, my evaluation showed that I had a mild accent. However, I was still surprised to see that I had so many pronunciation issues to work on. As we all know, it takes practice to improve speech patterns. In the beginning, I felt discouraged and frustrated since the written evaluation told me what the problems were in great detail, but I couldn't correct them when I spoke. With more and more practice, I started being able to apply the knowledge and speaking techniques. I sometimes still need to repeat myself, but I now know how to make myself more understandable and am regaining my confidence in my English.
As I advanced in the P-ESL program, Ms. Bergman gave me feedback after I read a paragraph or spoke about my work and added training on linking and intonation, which was a whole new world to me because my previous teachers always focused on individual word pronunciations and I had been trying very hard to speak each word clearly in order to make myself understood.
As I move on to the advanced MEEC program I can feel my excitement and desire to learn to speak English with even greater fluency. I fully understand that I have to keep practicing and there is a lot to work on, but I don't feel discouraged any more since I know I will get there some day.
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Reaching Towards
Perfection: Transforming Mild Accents
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 We are working with a few clients whose speech has relatively few but very persistent accented features. These usually include many incorrect intonation patterns with accompanying vowel distortions as well as the absence of linking and other subtle features that native American English speakers use unconsciously (like the syllable reduction in "laboratory," the four variations on the American "t" and the three different pronunciations for past tense "ed"). Most of these features are rule-based and can be taught and practiced systematically and all depend on the speaker having accurate auditory images of words. Spelling definitely does NOT equal pronunciation. For example consider "ough" in "rough," "through," "although" and "bought" as well as "oo" in "boot" vs. "foot."
The MEEC (Mastering Effective English Communication) Program from LDS Associates provides very intensive, advanced and systematic training in the areas of Intonation, Vowels and Consonants using three manuals and a total of 13 audio CDs.
We also always incorporate "short topics" in which clients practice actual work-related speaking tasks which we record and then critique. Typically, clients are not aware of their mispronunciation of key words, linking or grammatical errors and instructor feedback is critical. As they say in Weight Watchers, "If you could have accomplished this all by yourself, you would have done so by now."
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We invite you to click on Triangle Speech Services to visit our informative website. If you are a corporate manager or HR specialist we hope you will thoughtfully consider the value of investing in accent modification and speaking skills training for professional employees who are team leaders and managers. Complaints from customers or other staff about trouble understanding the speech of a
highly paid, professional employee should be taken very seriously. Clear communication is efficient and cost-effective, saving time (which is money) and preventing misunderstanding and frustration. Again, we recommend this article from HR Compliance Law Bulletin, "How to address concerns over employees' accents." We hope this month's newsletter has informed and inspired you. We encourage you to contact us at 919-489-5464 if you have questions about how to recommend accent modification to an employee tactfully and sensitively.
Sincerely,
Judith L. Bergman M.A. CCC-SLP, Founder & Director
Triangle Speech Services |
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