Putting the accent on problems with pronunciation
by Cynthia Lescalleet
When someone speaks with an accent, it can be a charming way to hear information. Or it can be a frustrating exercise in miscommunication for the speaker and listener alike.
Critical information can get garbled by a speaker’s pronunciation, inflection or intonation, which is especially problematic in medical, academic or business settings.
Some international professionals are turning to accent trainers to help them hone how they handle sounds found in the English language rather than their own.
Roberta Stanwood of West University is a speech-language pathologist who began offering accent training a year ago.
“An accent isn’t a disorder,” she said.” It’s a natural occurrence of learning a second language as an adult.”
Improving a speaker’s pronunciation doesn’t eliminate his or her accent, which is a component of identity and personality, she said.
Proper pronunciation is “the icing on the cake” of mastering a new language, she said. “Once you learn a (correct) pronunciation, it becomes a habit.”
English has about two dozen sounds that typically confound, she said. Among them are combinations such as “ng” and “th,” or blended ones using “r” and “l.”
Those who learn English often overlay the rules of their native language, she said.
Similarly, every linguistic background has a set of sounds that might creep into pronunciation, whether it’s using “w” for “v” or “sh” for “ch.”
Stanwood’s client base is well-educated and fluent in English, but also motivated to master a few troublesome sound combinations. Her students have included natives of China , India , South America and the Middle East, many of them from Texas Medical Center institutions.
Former client Guo-Ping Chang, for example, took two semesters of weekly training sessions after coming to this country two years ago.
He knows his speech has improved because his advisor stopped asking him to repeat what he was saying and started asking him about the details of his research.
Chang said he’s a more confident speaker in front of Americans now and a better listener when others speak English with an accent.
Over at the University of Texas Health Science Center system, students, faculty and staff have access to accent training workshops. In-house surveys of these groups revealed their interest in improving communication skills, said Dr. Ronald Johnson, chief academic diversity officer for the system.
The workshops are funded by an education grant, but private lessons with accent coaches like Stanwood are not, he said.
Calling herself a “teacher not a therapist,” Stanwood has been a speech-language pathologist for more than 25 years.
She decided to expand into accent training because she enjoyed teaching English as a second language at her church and realized she could use her clinical background in a new way.
Her company, Accent Training Resources in Rice Village , offers a pronunciation-modification program developed by Dr. Arthur Compton, founder of the Institute of Language and Phonology in San Francisco .
The 13-week program includes an initial assessment ($300) and weekly private or semi-private sessions (fees vary) customized to correct what the client’s assessment uncovers. Clients typically learn two to three sounds a week.
“It’s a motor skill you have to learn,” Stanwood said. “You’re building a new pathway.”
While hearing acuity helps with language tuning, any progress or long-term retention demand practice between sessions, she said, “(as) with any skill you’re learning for the first time.”
Clients who do their part report a 60 percent to 70 percent increase in their ability to pronounce sounds correctly, she said.
Like Chang, they might also find themselves aware of their countrymen making the mistakes they previously did.
For information, call 713-822-7350 or visit www.accenttrainingresources.com
— Examiner intern Neely Brandfield-Harvey also contributed to this story.