Foreign Accents

I was reading on an anonymous board the other day and saw this "conversation" on accents.  The original question was: "do you look down on people with accents?"  Overall the responders say no, they don't look down on those with accents, regional or foreign. However some did say that they found foreign accent's "frustrating"  and that the grammar mistakes make them "so impatient".

As an ESL speaker do you find other foreign accents in the workplace frustrating?   Do you think two people communicating with different language backgrounds tend to have more difficulty or do you think that there understanding of the challenges of speaking English help them be more patient and therefore better at understanding. other ESL speakers?

Lynn Founder of Accent Master

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We are offering our subscribers a chance to win their own complete Accent Master software download!  The winner will be notified on August 16 via email.  You must subscribe to this blog to win.  The winner will be able to choose from any of  Accent Master's 21 software programs.

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Lynn, founder of Accent Master

Rhythym of Spoken English

Linking

The third feature of rhythm that we teach at Accent Master is linking.  This is how words flow together so that you don’t have a halting sound to your speech.  Many words can be linked together not just making you sound smoother but saving even more time in pronouncing words that are unstressed, an important skill for the ESL speaker

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Let’s get started with our first example of linking:

 When saying: “An easy test” you will actually say

“aneasy test” It may sound like “akneesE test”

We don’t’ say “An   Easy   Test” This can sound stiff and formal.

In this example “It’s like ashes”

Do you hear cashes when you flow the words together?

These are examples of a final consonant sound (not letter) linking to the word following that begins with the vowel.

Say these phrases using smooth linking between the consonants and the vowels

 
Try these:

  The speaker’s attitude
  To check in
   Some other ones 
   Homework assignments
  Writing essays
   One example
   In October

You can also link a final vowel to a word that begins with a vowel. Sometimes this requires that you insert a w or y sound between

Try these:
  As in    
 Go on 
  Carry out
Two algorithms    
Knew about it
 Now it’s over
Three offices

 

Another situation in which linking works is when a word ends with a stop consonant ( stop consonant is one that is made by stopping the airflow and then releasing it as in /p/,/d/, /t/, /k/, /g/, and  /b/) and the next word begins with a stop.  In these cases we stop the airflow and change the place of articulation without releasing the air in between

 For example: “Like music”

Don’t release the air after the /k/ just flow right into music “likmusic”

Try these:
  A hard night
 A good memory 
 The right moment
Stick together
Keep notes
Stop trying
 Pop quiz

 

So the three rules for linking are:

1. Final consonant sound (not letter)  linking to the word following that begins with the vowel

2. Final vowel to a word that begins with a vowel. Sometimes this requires that you insert a w or y sound between

3. A word ending with a stop and the next word begins with a stop. 

It is a lot of rules our Accent Master’s software has great videos, lessons and practice so you can really master this part of the American Accent.

Lynn founder of

Accent Master

Part 2 for Learning the Rhythym of American English

 Trimming

Advanced  ESL students  working on accent reduction or as I prefer to think of it; learning an American accent is rhythm.  This is part two of a 3 part blogging series

Another feature of rhythm is trimming.  This means using standard reductions in your speech.  This does not cause you to sound uneducated or sloppy, but rather fluent and smooth  Trimming also includes some of the third feature of rhythm, linking.  Linking is the running together of two words when speaking.  We will discuss linking  in greater detail in part 2, but we will hear a bit about this in this lesson as well.

Contractions are a good way to trim extra sounds from your speech.  Many ESL speakers do not feel comfortable using contractions but they are necessary in spoken English to keep the flow, often what happens is instead of using these shortcuts, word endings such as –ed or articles such as a or the or dropped to maintain the correct rhythm.  This is not ideal as word endings and articles carry important information for the listener.    

Here is a list of some common contractions, there are many more.  Choose one contraction to incorporate into your speech each day.  Use them to become more comfortable with them. 

Is          becomes      "s

He's/she's

it's

there's

that's 

have      becomes   've

I've
we've
you've
they've

Had    becomes   'd
I'd
we'd
you'd
they'd

not    becomes   'n't

Didn’t 

isn't 

wasn't 

weren't 

doesn't 

didn't 

wouldn't 

couldn't 

don't  

Now in American English using reductions when combing words is a familiar way of speaking.  In most professional fields using these reductions is accepted and expected.  Speaking in an overly enunciated way can feel stuffy or stand offish to the listener.  Having a friendly and casual demeanor in speech is attractive and puts people at ease. 

This list will show you how some common phrases are produced.  This helps with the alternation of stress as these words are of low content or meaning, but are needed to glue the sentence together.

got to                                                gotta

have to                                              haveta

has to                                                hasta

want to                                             wanna

going to                                            gonna

don't know                                       dunno

should have                                      shoulda

would have                                      woulda

could have                                       coulda

may have                                         mayave

might have                                      mighta

used to                                             useda

shouldn't have                                 shoudn't've

wouldn't have                                  wouldn't/ve

The second list is an approximation of how the words sound in connected speech.  If possible you should record yourself (many computers have recording capabilities if you have a microphone) using both the separated words in a sentence and the connected words.  This should help you maintain the alternating stress pattern in your speech as you will "save time" by reducing these low content words and use that time to stress the high content words. 

Remember knowing what to differently is very important, but using what you know is key.  Good luck and look for part 3!

Lynn Founder of:
Accent Master

Part 1: Learning the American Speech Rythym

One of the issues I find when working with ESL clients learning accent reduction at Accent Master is the tendency to bring in the rhythm of their first language when speaking American English.  Changing the rhythm is challenging but not impossible.  So follow this 3 part series on rhythym in American English.

Rhythm the beat or prosody of speech.  The way you sound when you imitate an American's speech in your own language.  Each language has there own sound or rhythm.  To speak with the American rhythm their are 3 features to consider:

 

1.      Alternation 
2.      Linking
3.     Trimming

Here we will look at alternation of stress in sentences.  

Alternation

Alternation simply means to alternate between stressed and unstressed words or syllables. Heavier stress occurs at approximately regular intervals of time.  With the weaker words syllables squeezed in between.  It important to realize that one vowel carries the stress for the word, so the whole word is not longer and louder but the stressed vowel or syllable does.  For more information word stress please go to that post: word stress video.

 Words that will carry more stress will be longer, louder and with a fully produced vowel sound.  The stress in a message unit is generally found on content words or loud function words.

Content words include

• ·         Nouns
• ·         Verbs
• ·         Adjectives
• ·         Adverbs

Loud function words are words that carry important grammatical meaning such as

•    Question words

Who, what when where why

• ·         Demonstrative pronouns: demonstrate thing or things  this, those, that
• ·         And negatives: no, not

While our soft function words that do not receive stress are

• ·         Is, are
• ·         Pronouns: he , she, they, them etc..
• ·         Articles a, the
• ·         Prepositions: in, on, under etc
• ·         Conjunctions and, but , also,

Not that they can be left off!  Just because they are not stressed does not mean that they do not serve a great informational purpose.

Say the following sentences stress the words bolded:

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise

Hope of gain  lessons pain

In the following sentences I put  first just the stressed words then added soft function words.  Adding on the soft function words barely changes the amount of time it takes to say the sentences.

   Friends             need              help

My friends have needed help

My friends have been needing some help

2.      Proposals due Friday

Our proposal’s due Friday

Our proposal’s due on Friday

Our proposal should have been due Friday

 Here I put the stress mark as close to the stressed vowel of the stressed words as possible.  Try to copy the pattern.  American English does have an up and down flow to it.

Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change
throughout much of the history of the United States.. In 2006 the United States accepted more legal   
immigrants as permanent residents than all other countries in the world combined. After ethnic quotas
on immigration were removed in 1965 the number of actual (first-generation) immigrants living in  
the United States quadrupled, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. Over one million
people were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2008. The leading countries of origin of immigrants to
the United States were Mexico, India, the Philippines, and China. Nearly 14 million immigrants
entered the United States from 2000 to 2010.

^{It is challenging to alternate the stress.  The benefits though are real.  The American ear is trained to hear this pattern so when English is produced with an accented rhythm it does cause a delay in understanding what is being said. Important information maybe missed.} 


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