Many of the adults I work with speak more than one language (and many speak more than two!). When a client’s concerns are centered around the languages that they know, usually the language system (i.e. grammar) and speech sounds that are associated with it are often the areas that are top of mind.
Read MoreMany clients who would prefer to modify their accent often consider speech sounds such as a different production of the sound ‘r’. However, another way to modify an accent is to consider the rhythm of the language. Every language has its own prosody which helps speakers sound more similar to native speakers. This can be an important area to consider when modifying an accent.
Read MoreThere four basic types of word stress that lead to proper intonation in English. These include: Tonic stress, Emphatic stress, Contrastive stress and New information stress.
Read MoreA common question I get from many of my clients of accent modification is, “why does it sound like that?” They are referring to the lack of one-to-one correspondence between sound and symbol. English seems to be a toss salad with five exceptions accompanying each rule.
Read MoreWhile an intersection of a client’s hearing level with their familiarity with English may make effective therapy sessions seem out of reach, as communication experts, we return to the main intention of communication—to understand and be understood.
Read MoreThe International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of symbols standardized to represent sounds (or phonemes) of spoken language. It is the perfect alphabet in which every letter represents one phoneme only, and each phoneme has its appropriate symbol.
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