Survey on Accents!

As a speech therapist, and the owner of Accent Master, watching the VP debates last week I kept thinking where did the g in Palin’s –ing go? Palin dropped everyone of those garsh – darn g’s. I knew I was on to something when Tina Fey drew attention to it in her recent SNL spoof of Palin.

To find out if this was something others had noticed, I surveyed 3,145 people to find out just that. What did they think of Palin’s accent? And not to pick on Sara Palin alone, what did they think of all of the candidates accents, and while I am at it, what do they think of accents overall?

Of the 62% that feel that Governor Palin has an accent the comments include that she “sounds uneducated” and “she sounds harsh”. Barak Obama comes in second with 34% reporting hearing an accent. Comments on Obama’s speech include “east coast educated” “adopted Chicago accent” and “inner city Chicago”. McCain comes in third with 19% of the voters  reporting that he sounds “southern” and that his accent is “more distracting”

According to this survey over 80% feel that accents definitely affect image. The comments imply that this can be good or bad for one’s image. If you have an accent that is in vogue at the time, then you may benefit. Certain regional accent such as a Bronx accents was deemed as “low class” while the southerners could be classified with such diverse comments as “friendly”,” open”, “slow” and “lazy”.

Foreign accents forced you according to the comments, to carry the entire image of your country with you, or at least the listener’s best guess as to which country you are from.
Some felt that foreign accents were interesting and gave them clout for being better traveled. Some respondents felt that if you were clear and could communicate well a slight accent made no difference. One commenter felt that “uniformity in presentation will cross hurdles of being pre-judged.”

In the end we are constantly making judgments about others, though it now is considered in poor taste to pre-judge someone on their appearance or speech, the truth is judging people by outward signs has historically been a way to keep ourselves safe. Obviously you want to keep an open mind, but instinctively we judge.

Lynn founder of Accent Master

What is the Most Common Vowel in English?

The Schwa. This tiny, reduced vowel is most commonly heard in English. And guess what, there is no written symbol for it in the English alphabet. It can be represented by any vowel.

Look at these three words
cabbage.......cotton........sentence

In these 2 syllable words the same vowel is used twice. However, the pronunciation of each vowel is quite different.

That is because one syllable is stressed and one is not. The vowel that is in the stressed syllable receives its "full" pronunciation. It is longer and louder then the vowel in the unstressed syllable. In fact the vowel from the unstressed syllable is reduced to the schwa sound.

So in those examples the schwa sound is represented by an a, o, and an e.

Listen to the podcast as I read the following list of words see if you can hear the schwa.

atlas
palace
illness
purpose
minute
canoe
machine
offend
contains
suggest
support.

This is one of the reasons why spelling in English is so tough. It is hard to know what letter the schwa sound is being represented by. Also as a note it is perfectly acceptable and in fact  standard to reduce the vowel in the unstressed syllable to the schwa. It is not considered sloppy and will make you more intelligible to the native English listener.

Accent Master's software has a great interactive section to help you learn this important aspect of accent reduction. 

Lynn founder of Accent Master

Don't slow down, just pause!

How many times have you heard the advice "slow down". It is said in a helpful tone, or an impatient tone and sometimes in a condescending tone. No matter what the tone it is still relatively unhelpful. Slowing down by itself will do nothing for you. People do not want to hear Hi.....my.......name......is.......Jared. Speaking one word at a time drives the listener crazy, reduces your intonation, and completely rids your sentence of any emotion.

Better advice is to use pauses between thoughts. Pausing helps on two levels. It gives your listener a chance to "catch up" to what you are saying, and it gives you a chance to begin a new intonation curve.

Pause wherever there would be a period or a comma. The more complex your subject and the less familiar the listener is with you or with the content matter, the more pausing you want to do. You will pause more of less depending on the speaking situation, your personality, and audience.

You will sometimes hear people referred to comedians as having "good timing", this means that they pause just the right amount of time to hook the audience into the joke. For your needs you want to consider how to use pausing in a way that is the most helpful to your audience's comprehension.

Pausing is not the same as hesitating and will in fact reflect confidence on your part. People who are rushed or mumbled tend to give a subtle undertone of insecurity. Those that make sure they are understood come across as confident and able.

For practice take a look at a written paragraph. Make a slash where there are commas or periods, then look at the paragraph again. Where else would be a natural place for a pause? Connecting words like, and, but, however or often used to connect two ideas and maybe a good place to pause.

So don't just slow down, think in word groups, chunking, or pausing to give your speech a natural flow while allowing your listening audience a chance to keep pace or ask for clarification if needed.

Lynn founder of Accent Master

5 Bad Habits to Shake, When You Want to Improve Your English Pronunciation

1. Mumbling: People will mumble when they are unsure either about the word they are using or how to pronounce the word. So they say it too quietly or quickly or without moving their mouth a lot. This contributes to your listener's challenge in hearing and understanding what you are saying. In the the end the strategy does not work because you will either be dismissed, misunderstood or forced to say it again.

2.Not Pausing: This is sometimes a nervous habit, like mumbling or a language flow difference. In either case, incorporating pauses into your verbal communication will increase others ability to understand you dramatically.

3.Not engaging native English speakers in conversation: Okay it is intimidating, however it is necessary. Ask for information, especially when you don't need it! This will take the nervousness out of your listening. For example you know where your bank is, but ask someone anyway. You know where the towels are located in the store but ask a sales assistant for additional practice

4. Not Reading!! Read anything you can in English. It is the best way to build vocabulary and strengthen you grammar skills. Reading aloud gets you the bonus of working on pronunciation.

5. Not Watching movies in English: Your tired and you want to relax. Try using the subtitles while listening to the movie in English. You will be exposed to the rhythm and flow of American English.

Stress in Special Situations

In this post we will look at stress in some special circumstances such as in compound nouns and in abbreviations. This post will go along with the podcast I posted on the right side bar. It is called Stress in Special Circumstances.

Compound Nouns; always stress the first word in the compound noun. Say the following words stressing the first word, and then create sentences for each one.


Workplace........boardroom.............mailroom

Workshop.........textbook..............downsize

Showroom.........business trip.........overtime

Team leader......outcome................chairman

Network..........paycheck...............timeline

Copy machine.... fiscal year............small talk

Wholesale........weekday................parking lot

Full-time........workday................carpool

Sick leave.......executive board........salesman

Time clock.......high-tech..............office supplies

Bar graph........timesheet..............sick days


Abbreviations: Stress generally falls on the last letter.
Acronyms: Pronounce as one word

LLC................ DBA
ATM................ MBO
IRA................ SEP (acronym)
CD................ PER
IRS................ FRB
FDIC................ NYAW
SEC................ TIN
EIN................ PIN (acronym)
EPS................ ROI
EBIT (acronym................) EVA
IT................ IPO


Sentences:

2. Is the program on ABC or HBO?
3. He received his B.A and M.S from UCLA.
4. RSVP to the party and remember it’s BYOB
5. The conference was filled with RN’s and LPN’s.
6. The CEO and CFO are on the Executive Board of that organization.
7. Please reply to the memo from HR ASAP
8. The VIPs waited in the greenroom before their appearance on NBC.
9. Insert the CD in your PC or laptop.

Numbers: When counting stress the first syllable in ‘teen’ numbers and the second number above 20.
When stating numbers for time, money or amounts then you stress the last part of the teen numbers.
When referring to the ‘ten’ numbers like twenty or thirty stress the first syllable, when stressing numbers other than the ‘round’ numbers stress the last part like 1:54.

Sentences
1. The train going to Boston leaves at 10:22.
2. He will arrive at 2:30.
3. I scheduled your meeting for 11:15.
4. The reservations are for 7:30.
5. He lives at 25 217th street.
6. The zip code is 11361
7. Is there fourteen or fifteen people in the group?
8. He called 15 times this morning!
9. I always shop on 5th avenue.
10. I have twenty more minutes.

Improve your American English Pronunciation Today!

What will you do today that will move you closer to speaking English like a native? Read this article? Listen to the podcast? These are great beginnings but you and I both know you need to "step it up a notch" (Try a little harder) to start pronouncing English like a native.

Even if all you have is the lessons from this blog, it is a good place to start. For starters you can go back over this post and read it aloud. Reading aloud gives you more practice in verbalizing English, and takes away the burden of needing to create sentences and recall vocabulary at the same time, as you need to do in conversations.

Another thing is to make a schematic. Write down or print out a paragraph, hopefully something related to what you may talk about in your regular day. Then you take a pen or a pencil and mark up the paragraph.

For example circle the /r/'s, place a stress marker over the stressed syllables and underline the voiced consonants. Mark anything else that is challenging for you. Use different colored pens if it helps.

Now read the paragraph aloud. This is dedicated practice and will help you as you incorporate new pronunciation skills into your speech. It is best to record yourself reading aloud if you have that capability on your computer. If you `can record I suggest that you first record yourself reading the paragraph without the marks and then again after. You will be surprised to see the marked difference in the flow and intelligibility of your speech.

Don't stress over word stress!

Word stress in English can be challenging. This is because American English incorporates words from many language backgrounds including, Indian both American Indian and from India, french, Latin, German, polish and every other language. As immigrants continue to influence our language we and they as new American create there own twist to these words, most frequently changing the stress pattern.

It is also true that we don't stick to one pattern, as in French where stress nearly always falls on the final syllable. And we don't mark the stress in our writing like in Spanish.

We do however have clues in our writing to the stress pattern. Specific word endings denote a specific stress pattern. Of course because we are talking about American English there is always to be exceptions to the rule.

One easy rule to remember is that when a word ends in -tion or -sion as in description and confusion, the stress will fall on the syllable right before the ending: description, confusion.

We stress the syllable by making it longer, louder and with a change in the tone.
I have created a podcast and posted it on the right, of the following words. Listen for the stressed syllable.

pediatrician, discussion, obligation, explanation, creation, application, section, relation, fusion, conversation, musician, observation, ration, attention, presentation, obsession, realization.