Accent Modification | Accent Reduction | English Pronunciation

Please note: All lessons take place online via Zoom.

“Can you say that again?”

“I’m sorry – I didn’t get that!”

“What did you say?”

Are you tired of hearing people say these things? Or, worse yet, seeing people smile, pretending to understand what you are saying? You have important things to communicate, your work requires clear, dependable communication, but people so often just don’t understand you. You know the grammar, but your accent gets in the way. You’re so competent, you’re so eager in your work, it’s just terribly unfair that this is holding you back,

You can change this. My accent modification instruction will get you where you need to go: to being understood all the time. Or, if you need or want to sound like someone born and raised in this country, we can get you there, too.

One-on-one lessons start with a skillful assessment of your speech patterns, identifying the primary speech sounds (phonemes) you need to change in order to become understood all the time. Each lesson consists of individualized training, practice guidance tailored to your speech needs. I will guide you every step of the way, from diphthongs to standard American “R”s, from syllable stress to a comfortable melody. I will help you hear the differences in sounds so you can produce those sounds you need to make.

“But why one-on-one? Why not in a class with other students?” People often ask me this question. It’s because accent modification is a highly detailed process, checking and changing so many pieces of speech production: How forward your tongue is, how high your tongue is, where is your tongue in relation to the roof of your mouth, your lower teeth, your upper teeth, the back of your mouth? Oftentimes I can hear exactly where your tongue is, and sometimes I just need to check visually, and then instruct you on adjusting it…sometimes just a few millimeters. That is not at all possible to do in a lesson with even one other student. Having one-on-one lessons allows you to make progress much faster than even in a small class. Also, you are likely to have some “idiosyncrasies” about your speech that need particular attention, which, again, would be hard to attend to in a lesson with other students.

Using the International Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA), I offer one-on-one lessons via Zoom. (Please note: The student does not need to know or learn the IPA to benefit from instruction. I simply refer to it as a learning tool.)

Here are my fees per 1.5-hour lesson:

– $100 for initial assessment and lesson. The first half of this session is assessment, and the second half is a lesson addressing two or three priority speech sounds.

– $100 per 1.5-hour lesson.

For most students, noticeable progress happens, within two months, and lessons continue beyond that for several months to a couple of years, depending on your goals and learning process.

Visit here to see what some of my students say about our work together. And click here and my blog posts to learn more about my approach, perspectives, and experience. I look forward to hearing from you!

Contact me to talk about what we can do together, to help you be understood all the time.

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