Mastering the American Accent

ThiscombinationbookandaudioinstructionalprogramisdesignedtodiminishtheaccentsofmenandwomenwhospeakEnglishastheirsecondlanguage.ItwillhelpthemspeakstandardAmericanEnglishwithclarity,confidence,andaccuracy.Specificexercisesconcentrateonvowelsounds,problematicconsonantssuchasV,W,B,TH,andtheAmericanR,employcorrectsyllablestress,linkwordsforsmootherspeechflow,usecommonwordcontractionssuchaswon'tinsteadofwillnot,andmore.AdditionaltopicsthatoftenconfuseESLstudentsarealsodiscussedandexplained.Theyincludedistinguishingbetweencasualandformalspeech,homophones(forinstance,they'reandthere),recognizingwordswithsilentletters(comb,receipt,andothers),andavoidingembarrassingpronunciationmistakes,suchasmixinguppartyandpotty.StudentsarefamiliarizedwithmanyirregularEnglishspellingrulesandexceptions,andareshownhowsuchirregularitiescancontributetopronunciationerrors.Anativelanguageguidereferencesproblematicaccentissuesof13differentlanguagebackgrounds.Correctlipandtonguepositionsforallsoundsarediscussedindetail.EnclosedwiththebookarefourcompactdiscsthatusemaleandfemalevoicestocoachcorrectAmerican-stylepronunciation.