Exactly.  This program doesn't completely eliminate accents; those are a charming part of the English student's culture.  However, we have some students who are beginners in English and this helps them to be understood by people in the workplace; it reduces their frustrations at not being understood in the grocery store, the doctor's office, and other places they do business in this country.  

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Kropp, Norm V.
Sent: Mon 8/20/2007 12:35 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1683] Re: Accent Reduction - IdeasforSpecialTopics Discussions



I have taught advanced ESL for 7 years and I encourage my students to speak to be understood not to eliminate their accents.  

 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Muro, Andres
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 1:01 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

 

________________________________

Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com <http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000982> .

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 10216 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/attachments/20070820/c88114fe/attachment.bin