Andres, I completely agree with you. I love the diversity that is conveyed
through a person’s accent. From my experience accent reduction is most often
used in cases in which it is very difficult to understand that person. These
people tend to understand everything that is said to them and can respond
quite fluently, however their accent is very thick and that makes it hard to
communicate effectively. 

 

Luciana

 

_________________________________________________________

Luciana Tiberio
Program Coordinator
Workforce Language Services, LLC
Office: 773.292.5500 | Fax: 312.896.9281
HYPERLINK
"http://www.workforcelanguageservices.com/"www.workforcelanguageservices.com

*Bridging Language & Culture in the Workplace*

   _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Muro, Andres
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 12:01 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1681] Re: Accent Reduction - Ideas
forSpecialTopics Discussions

 

Why would you want to reduce accent? Accent is good. It reflects differences
in culture, background etc. Why would anyone want all English speakers to
sound like people of Mexican ancestry?  I understand that pretty soon, the
majority of Americans will be of Hispanic origin. However, we should still
preserve the Midwest accent, the New York/New Jersey accent, the Bostonian
accent, the Southern accent and all other accents. As long as people can
understand each other, it is good. If some cannot understand accents beyond
a very restricted region, we should work on training them to understand a
multitude of accents as well as other languages. 

 

Andres

 

   _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Cross, Patricia J.
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 9:24 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: RE: [EnglishLanguage 1664] Re: Accent Reduction - Ideas for
SpecialTopics Discussions

 

At Even Start, we use a DVD named "Breaking the Accent Barrier"  by Dr.
David Alan Stern.  It is very good when trying to adopt intonation and
rhythm patterns of American speech.

 

Pat Cross

Oklahoma City Even Start

 

   _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of JBaker3439 at aol.com
Sent: Mon 8/13/2007 10:25 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1664] Re: Accent Reduction - Ideas for
SpecialTopics Discussions

 

I'm doing work in a large hospital where there are employees who speak
English, but are very hard to understand, due to their heavy accents. 

 

I have decided to work with one employee who interacts with visitors and
patients entering the hospital. He's a very bright man from Argentina who
would like to move up the career ladder, but feels that this thick accent is
holding him back. It is very difficult to understand him, even though he
understands English perfectly.  

 

I told this employee that I wouldn't want him to fully lose his accent, but
am willing to help him with certain sounds that will help him be more
clearly understood.

 

During my years in adult and workplace education, I have helped many with
accent reduction on an informal basis.  However, I've never had any formal
training in accent reduction and would appreciate hearing what others have
done in terms of working with students and training trainers.

 

Julie

  

Julie N. Baker
Workforce Skills Development
13805 Shaker Blvd., Suite #4A
Cleveland, Ohio 44120
216-561-1629
jbaker3439 at aol.com

 

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