Accent Reduction

Many people contact us wanting to change their accent. They may have a regional British accent or a strong foreign accent which is hindering their communication and making it harder for them to get a job or be promoted at work. Their aim is to sound as clear and natural as possible. When a client asks for “accent softening” what they usually want to do is to learn Received Pronunciation, or RP for short. The definition of RP is “the accent used by people who speak with an RP accent.” It is the accent of the educated middle class. It is the most neutral British accent. A very strong RP accent sounds too “posh” – the Queen has an RP accent but it is very strong and most of our clients would not want to end up talking like that. It is a non-regional accent – people from all over the UK, and indeed all over the world, can have an RP accent.

These sessions can be delivered face to face at our own premises or via Skype from anywhere in the world.

With all clients we look at each accent individually and start with the sounds which are causing the greatest problems rather than working through a standard list in a set order. Each person’s specific needs are dealt with in order to produce an accent which is natural, fluent, clear and pleasant to listen to. Each foreign language brings different problems for the speaker when they are trying to learn English. The most frequent areas needing work are the consonants, especially putting all the /t/,/d/, /h/ and /-ing/ sounds on words. Many non standard and non native accents miss off the endings of the words and it is important to start with the clarity of the speech. The first thing we do is to make sure that clients are following the “golden rules” that you will find on the “Elocution” page. Following these rules will help to make the speech crisp and clear.

We then look at the other consonants. There are often problems with /th/ and /r/ sounds, especially the rhotic /r/ which is not said in all positions in RP English. Since all languages impose the rules of their own accent onto the pronunciation of English we look at what is happening with your particular case. For Example, Spanish speakers typically have a problem distinguishing /b/ and /v/; Asian accents have difficulties with /v/ and /w/ and Chinese speakers often cannot distinguish /l/ and /r/. We would look at how to form the sounds, where to put them, practice exercises and conversation. You then go away and practice the exercises and texts which you are given. We also work on the sounds in the flow of speech by using conversation practice where we talk and I correct your mistakes.

We then look at the vowel sounds. English has 24 spoken vowel sounds, so as you can imagine, that can take a long time, although it is unusual for a client to need to change them all. There are some common denominators, however. Many foreign accents have difficulty making the distinction between, among other things, “ship” and “sheep”.

Learning both vowels and consonants involves listening to the sound and learning where to put your tongue, jaw and lips in relation to your teeth and palate.

You also have to look at the tune of the voice. Different accents have different intonation patterns and clients have to learn to change not only the individual sounds but also the tune that they play over the whole phrase and sentence. English is a stress-timed language, so learning which syllables to stress will help you to sound much more like a native RP speaker. The stress on a part of the word will change its pronunciation and often its meaning. It is often the area of speech which most puzzles foreign speakers. They either make a word incomprehensible or change its meaning entirely. There are examples of this in the “Latest News” section of the website.

Finally, the quality of the sound produced also varies from one accent to another. Some accents place the voice high up in the head whilst others tighten the throat leading to a more strangled sound. Learning to relax the throat and breathe correctly in order to support the voice is often a vital aspect of accent work. You can read more about this on the “Voice Production” page of the website.

The work in between sessions is about listening as much as speaking. Perceiving the sounds that we are working on and being able to notice and correct them in your own speech. You have to learn a new skill and break an old habit, both of which are equally hard. In fact, learning the skill can be easier than breaking the habit. That is why it is imperative to record the session in order to give you the chance to practice in between sessions and to train your ear as quickly as possible.

Accents also generally involve a certain amount of non-standard grammar. The grammar that we are looking for is called “Standard English”. It is independent of accent but if you want to speak RP you have to use it with Standard English.

Acting students often want to learn an accent other than RP and this, too, can be accommodated. This is generally not such a difficult process because it is being learnt for a script and can be done parrot fashion.

Recording the sessions gives you the opportunity to hear the correct pronunciation as you practice at home. This means that you do not have to spend time taking notes, you do not have to remember everything and, most importantly, you start to really listen to the sound of your own voice. Gradually you begin to learn to be objective about your voice and speech and hear the changes that are taking place. You can listen to the recording and have your lesson over and over again, making it even more valuable.