I can tell you didn’t understand that…

by Roberta Stanwood, M.A., CCC/SLP

This is the situation. You speak English fluently and have studied vocabulary and grammar more completely than most Americans would ever dream of doing. You are a bright and successful professional with, in some cases, advanced educational degrees. We could even say that you are gifted linguistically! You speak more than one language fluently and have excelled in highly competitive American schools and universities in which all instruction is in English only. WOW…so what’s the problem here?

Well, it’s certainly NOT that you have some sort of speech disorder. You don’t. This is what has happened: when you learned to speak English you retained the rules of your native tongue; consequently, you use the pronunciation and intonation rules of your first language when you are speaking your second language, namely, English. These rules are valid for your native tongue but they don’t help when you are trying to speak English. They, the borrowed rules, are the essence of your so called “foreign accent.” If your accent is evident and an obstacle to communication then you are not experiencing a language barrier; you are experiencing an accent barrier.

What’s the solution? There are two paths you can take to correct your English pronunciation so you can be better understood. One is a short term approach outlined in this article which involves several steps that you can consciously take to help the problem areas. The other is a long term solution which involves finding a qualified speech-language pathologist who specializes in working with such foreign accents. Speech-language pathologists hold at least a master’s degree in communication disorders and are uniquely qualified to diagnose and address communication difficulties. However, in the short term, here are some things you can do right now to help your listeners understand you better.

FIRST OF ALL…realize that most Americans are not bilingual like you are. Most Americans only speak English. Don’t expect them to understand your native language. Many Americans have never traveled outside of the United States and they have not been exposed to a variety of foreign languages so they have difficulty understanding foreign accents. No one is the bad guy in this situation. Patience is required on both sides. In most cases, your listener is trying to do everything they can to understand you, while at the same time, trying desperately not to offend you. If this is not the case, then I’m sorry, your listener is just plain rude. Hopefully, you have a listener that is truly trying to understand you and given that, here are some things you can do to help them out:

1. Slow down . Absolutely without a doubt, slowing down your rate of speech will help tremendously. How do you do that? By INCREASING YOUR PAUSE TIME BETWEEN WORDS and taking advantage of the natural pauses in your phrases. (Ex: Last night -pause- we went to the movies – pause – and then out to dinner.) Now you may think that you sound very odd and it may feel extremely awkward at first, but giving your listener extra time to process your speech is very, very helpful. You are really giving your listener an opportunity to understand you the first time you say something and isn’t that what you’re striving for? Think of it this way: slowing the rate of your speech is a gift for your listener.

2. Word endings . Possibly the most important thing you can do right now to improve your intelligibility in English is to put the endings on your words . If you are following the first suggestion, namely slowing your rate of speech down, you are now going to have time to put the ending sounds on your spoken words. When you don’t put the endings on your words, you are essentially deleting the final consonants.

In English, many words end in final consonants and if you are omitting them, confusion about what word you said is likely to happen. For example: If you want to say, “I have eigh t dollar s ” but what you actually say is, “I have eigh_ dollar_” (I have a dollar.) Then the listener is confused about how much money you actually have. You left the final ‘t’ sound off in the word “eight” and you left the final ‘s’ sound off in the word “dollars.” By leaving the final ‘t’ sound off in the word “eight” it sounded like you said a entirely different word – “a”. In the case of leaving the final ‘s’ off in “dollars,” that final ‘s’ is a plural marker and is very important. It sounds like you only have one dollar, not eight dollars. Furthermore, when you leave plural markers off words in your sentences it sounds like a grammar problem.

Likewise, leaving the past tense endings off of regular English verbs also sounds like a grammar problem, but it’s not. Again, you’re leaving the endings off your words. You can see now how the listener can become confused when you don’t apply the pronunciation rules of English. Consider this example: You want to say, “Yesterday, I pai d for lunch.” What you actually say is, “Yesterday, I pai_ for lunch.” When you delete the final ‘d’ sound in the word “paid” it sounds like the word “pay.” It also sounds like your usage of English grammar is poor. You can see now how the listener can become confused when you don’t apply the pronunciation rules of English. It appears to your listener that you have a problem with English grammar, which you don’t, in addition to a problem with speaking English. That’s not FAIR! Remember, you have taken more classes in English grammar than most speakers of Standard American English!

I have just one more example of what can go wrong when you don’t put the endings on your words. Think about the number of instances in a day that we talk about the time , (i.e., an appointment time, a meeting time, a lunch date time, a business dinner time, etc.) Imagine that you told your boss you were going to pick him up at 12:15 for lunch. However, your boss thought that you said 12:50 because you did not put the final “n” consonant on the number “fiftee n ” and it sounded like the number “fifty.” Your boss is going to wonder why you are in his office 35 minutes early to pick him up for lunch. These kinds of miscommunications can cause confusion and create difficulties for you at work. These are just a few examples. Imagine if these instances of miscommunication were re-enacted over and over again on a daily basis. Now you have some idea of why it is so critical in English to put the endings on your words.

Dr. Arthur Compton, director of the Institute of Language in San Francisco and developer of the Pronouncing English as a Second Language (P-ESL) program puts it this way: “Complete word production is one of the most effective practice techniques that anyone can do to improve their overall conversational speaking performance.”

Before you initiate a conversation with someone, think about using some of Dr. Compton’s suggestions regarding complete word production:

drop your jaw,
open your mouth more,
pronounce all the sounds in the words, especially the ending sounds and
feel more movement of your mouth.

You can start by practicing this just 10 times a day for 30-60 seconds until you get into the habit of doing it regularly. Just try it. Your listeners will be amazed and wonder what you have done to improve your speech.

3. Articles – Remember to put in those small but essential little words called articles. “A” and “an” are indefinite articles and “the” is a definite article. “A” comes before a singular noun beginning with a consonant, ex: a boy. “An” comes before a singular noun beginning with a vowel or a vowel sound, ex: an elephant, an hour. “The” also comes before nouns and signals that the noun is definite or that it refers to a particular thing. Ex: the dog ( that specific dog), the program ( that particular program) etc. Leaving out the articles can cause your speech to sound choppy and gives the listener the impression, once again, that your English grammar is poor. (Ex: I like dog. I would like to go to movie. I work for hospital.) It just doesn’t sound professional and you don’t want to leave that impression.

4. Turn up the volume . Some people are just very soft spoken and that in and of itself may not pose a problem but combine it with a noticeable foreign accent and it can spell trouble. The answer may be to increase the volume of your speech . It’s not about yelling or talking too loud. Think of it as being similar to turning up the volume on the T.V. or the radio. It’s about projecting your voice to reach your listener. Imagine that your voice is a “laser beam” or an “arrow” that is directed toward the intended listener; did it hit the mark, did it hit the target? While you’re sending your voice like a laser beam to your listener, it is also a very good idea to look your communication partner in the eye. Americans look each other in the eyes when they are speaking as a way of showing that they are sincere. It is not disrespectful in American culture. Maintaining eye contact during a conversation is a basic must on our list of good English communication skills.

5. Your name . Unless you have a very common American name (i.e. John Smith) just expect that no one is going to understand you. Say your name slowly and spell it, always.

6. Smile . Smiling is universal. Your smile is heard in any language. Use it early and often, no matter who you are talking to!

7. Acknowledge when communication breakdowns happen . This is something that you can do that is extremely generous and helpful on your part. You should recognize and acknowledge when your listener appears to be having trouble following you. Chances are, if you have been talking too fast and not putting the endings on your words, your listener is lost. They may be too embarrassed to admit they didn’t understand (remember they are not the ones who are linguistically gifted, you are!) and they would never ask you to repeat something. Do them a favor, if you see that familiar puzzled look on their face, simply say, “Was that clear?” or “Am I being clear?” At this point, you can give your listener permission to give you more complete feedback. What part of your message was not understood by the listener? Repeat what you said and use the tools that you have been given, namely, slow down and put the endings on your words, turn up the volume, and maintain good eye contact. In addition to that, you may decide to use different words instead of the word or phrase that was not understood.

Ex: if you said that you were the “director of your department” and they didn’t understand, then you might make it simpler and say that you are “the head of your department” or “the head of your area.”

I had a client from Egypt who once told me a story about ordering a steak in a restaurant. He was trying to tell the waiter that he wanted his steak “rare.” He had difficulty with the final “r” sound. After trying to repeat the word “rare” several times, with no results, he finally asked his friend at the table to say it for him. What my client could have done was to describe how he wanted his steak cooked. Ex: “I want it lightly cooked on both sides” or “I want it cooked with red on the inside.” By then, the waiter would have gotten the message that he wanted it rare and everyone would have been smiling.

Another repair you can make, if your listener seems totally lost, is to start the conversation over and go into greater detail about the context of your message. You can set the context of the situation, for example, by saying something like this, “OK, let’s start over. I was talking about the topic of my research paper,” or, “I was talking about my presentation at the meeting yesterday.” This helps the listener understand the topic of conversation and they have a better chance of anticipating what you might say. If all else fails and you’ve figured out that it’s just one word that they aren’t getting, then by all means SPELL IT or WRITE IT. Don’t forget the end goal here. You want to diminish miscommunications and confusion. You have some tools to do just that, so take advantage of them.

Last but not least, remember, it’s not essential that you totally lose your accent in order to be understood. It’s not necessary and it’s not practical. Your accent is an important part of your personality and an important part of who you are. You can speak English with a “charming” foreign accent and be clearly understood and that is what you should strive for. If your plans are to stay in the United States and acculturate into American society, it will be easier if you speak with an accent that is an asset to you, not a hindrance. You want to have every advantage to be successful in your career and to advance to the level that you are striving for. The primary way you can do that is through developing good communication skills which are the foundations for successful professional and personal relationships. Try thinking of your difficult speaking situations as opportunities to learn to communicate better and to perfect your spoken English. Work with your listeners and deal with your difficulties in pronunciation of English in a “matter of fact” manner. In other words, don’t “stress out” about it. You will be perceived as being more relaxed, more accessible and patient. Your listeners will stop seeing you as someone that they can’t understand and start seeing you as someone who is approachable and who is willing to stick with it until they “get it.”

Roberta Stanwood, M.A., CCC/SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
Director – Accent Training Resources, LLC
“Changing your Accent from Challenging to Charming!”
Houston , Texas