Can You Change Your Accent?

What is an Accent?

Everybody has an accent. When people learn to speak a foreign language, they transfer some of the sounds and patterns of speech from their native language to the new language. When native speakers of the new language hear these different patterns, it’s perceived as a foreign accent. There are also regional accents, which refer to differences in the way that people from the same country sound (in the U.S., the difference between someone from New York vs. someone from Georgia, for example). There is no one “good accent” and they are not disorders in any way; however, at times an accent can interfere with the message someone is trying to communicate.

Can I Lose My Native Accent?

Those who feel that their native accent gets in the way of their communication may wish they could completely eliminate their accent. While this feeling is understandable, it’s not a very realistic goal. Even adults who spend many years in a different country still have at least some traces of their native accent when they speak their new language.

While it may seem that actors completely lose their own accent and take on a different accent for a role, they are learning and practicing a new accent for a very specific set of words and sentences (their script). If they were to try to speak spontaneously with the new accent, you would likely hear more errors than you did in the movie. However, it is very possible to learn strategies and techniques that shape your speech to sound closer to that of native speakers. Accent modification is a service that helps teach these strategies.

Can I Speak English with an American Accent?

Learning a new accent takes a lot of effort and practice, but it can be done! Here are just a few tips for speaking with an American accent:

1. Stress Patterns

Misunderstandings often come because a word is produced with an emphasis or stress pattern that is different from what the listener expects to hear. Although there are always exceptions, there are some general rules that exist within English. For example, if a word functions as both a noun and a verb, such as “record,” the stress will fall on the first syllable for the noun form (REcord) and on the second syllable for the verb (reCORD). In general, English is a stress-timed language, which means that some syllables receive stress within a word while others are unstressed. Unstressed syllables take slightly less time to produce. Other languages, such as Spanish and French, are syllable-timed, which means that each syllable in a word receives approximately the same stress.

2. Voiced vs Unvoiced Sounds

In English, some sounds differ only in their voicing. For example, the “s” and “z” sounds are produced the exact same way; they differ only in that “z” is a voiced sound (involves vocal fold vibration) and “s” is an unvoiced sound (no vibration). Although it may not seem common, the “z” sound is actually quite important in English as it’s the sound needed for many third person present tense verbs (“she goes” “he runs”), as well as some possessive nouns (“John’s,” “Fran’s”). The “s” sound is also extremely common, as it is also the ending for third person verbs (“she jumps” “he eats”) and possessive nouns (“Ruth’s” “Jack’s”). When these sounds get switched with each other, it can suggest deficits in the speaker’s language skills whereas, in reality, it may only be a matter of an error in voicing (pronunciation) only.

3. Contractions

Some people may avoid using contractions because they seem informal but, in reality, contractions are used very frequently in nearly all speaking situations, formal or informal. Because the use of contractions is so common, the omission of them (“cannot” instead of “can’t”) may actually make your speech sound less natural than a native speaker’s.

4. American English Vowels

When learning the English alphabet, we learn there are only five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). However, in reality, there are 15 different vowel sounds (this includes the sound at the end of the word “father” and the unstressed, neutral sound at the beginning of “again”). Mispronouncing the vowel in a word can sometimes significantly alter the meaning, sometimes in an embarrassing way (switching a short “i” for the long “i” in the word “beach,” for example).

5. Different Versions of “T”

Depending on where the sound falls within a word or phrase, “t” can be produced in different ways. At the beginning or end of words (“take,” “cat”) it will sound like a typical “t” sound. In other words, such as “water” and “butter,” it will be produced closer to a “d” sound. This is known as an alveolar tap. Surrounding sounds will alter the production of “t” as well, such as the phrase “at a glance,” where the end of “at” blends into the article “a.” Learning these variations will contribute to more natural-sounding speech.

Are You Ready for the Next Step?

If you feel like your accent is hindering your communication, contact us at Speech Leader. One of our coaches would love to talk with you about your goals and whether accent modification services might be helpful for you.