Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Accent modification - the intensive way

Accent modification for strong foreign and regional accents can be done on many schedules. The most frequent one is one lesson a week for an hour, with the hope that learners will practice between sessions.  Some learners do practice as instructed. Others are busy and don't have time for this, or fear that they are practicing incorrectly and soon stop.

Intensive accent modification is done either 8 hours a day, for several days, or at least several hours a session or several sessions a week. There are 3 advantages to this.  Learners have less time to forget, so minimal time is spent in review. Learners make faster progress, because they are getting more lessons and errors are corrected immediately by the instructor if the learner does not catch them. Third, learners are more motivated, because progress is faster.

A follow-up plan of some type needs to be in place, to help the learner maintain his or her new skills. Newly learned skills must be reinforced by the instructor or others who are native speakers until they are habitual.

Intensive accent modification especially appeals to busy professionals who may have tight schedules,
those who need to speak clearly as quickly as possible for upcoming meetings or presentations, and
managers who need their employees to speak clearly as fast as possible.


Business Speech Improvement offers open enrollment small groups for accent modification. Other options are offered as well. Click here for details!

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