Two things to listen for if you are self-conscious about your speech

Do you come from another part of the country and are self-conscious about how you sound? Do people ask you where you're from? Is this affecting your work or social life?

If you want to change your speech patterns, you need to listen to others whose speech you admire to find out what they are pronouncing differently than you. For example, they may say a certain vowel differently, or have a different intonation pattern or "lilt" to their speech. Record your speech and listen to it so you can analyze what you want to do differently. Start by saying the new sound in single words. (Use a dictionary to get a list of the words with that sound.)

A great set of speech archives of different dialects of English is at http://accent.gmu.edu/.

Professional Diction and Grammar/Regional Accent Modification is a intensive course offered by Business Speech Improvement. A rare Open Enrollment class will be offered in June, 2010. For details, visit http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes .