When conducting TESOL courses and 4S Accelerated English-Learning Programs around South East Asia, the Pacific and other areas, I am constantly asked why it is that I personally speak with an International English accent and NOT like many other Australians.

The fact is that there are ways to internationalize or neutralize one’s personal accent. Over the coming weeks in English Is Power, I will impart some of the ideas from the course that I now conduct particularly for those in the hospitality-tourism and contact call centre industries.

What is an accent?

An accent is the distinguishable differences in the way people of different nationalities, cultures and races pronounce the words of a particular language, e.g. English.

To be able to reduce or neutralize one’s personal accent effectively, one has to know about some of the pronunciation characteristics of the English language.

The most important characteristic to appreciate and then to master is the way English words are stressed, that is, how parts of the words – the syllables – are stressed or emphasized when spoken.

English is a “stressed” language, which means that stress or emphasis is given to particular parts of certain words while other words are spoken evenly and often quickly.

When people speak English, they actually vocally spend more time on specific stressed words in a sentence - while gliding or sliding over other, less important, words more quickly.

In contrast, in most other languages, each syllable is given equal importance. Again, while English is categorized as a “stressed” language, other languages are said to be syllabic because of the equal importance given to all the syllabes in a word when it is being pronounced.

To be a superior English speaker, not just using correct grammar and pronunciation
but also to limit the affect of the Mother Language Accent, a speaker for whom English is an additional language (EAL) needs to know and understand which words and syllables in words are usually stressed and which ones are not.

This is not a difficult task because commonly, primary Englsh speakers stress words that perform the function of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, that is, the main parts of speech. However there are rules in English that teach about the stressing of words. These rules will be covered in a later column.

Knowing the Stressed Words and the Stressed Parts of words is the key to correct pronunciation and neutralizing one’s accent.

Why people speak English with an accent

A speaker’s English accent can be the result of:

a. Pronouncing the sound of vowels in words differently.

Spend time with a friend and see if you can work out the different ways the following words are pronounced because of the vowels – especially if one has an American accent and another person has a British accent.

clerk                   castle              comrade            waffle
romance         advance          command          demand
dance               chance            Mercedes          scenario
semi-trailer     semi-circle        rodeo

b) The way words are broken into different
syllables.
ce/ ment                        cem/ ent
ze/ bra                             zeb/ ra
di/ vert                              div/ ert
di/ rect                             dir/ ect
pri/ va/ cy                      priv/ a/ cy
vi/ tam/ in                    vit/ a/ min
re/ mand                      rem/ and
pre/ mat/ ure            prem/ a/ ture

c) The syllables in words are incorrectly
stressed. (The first one is correct)
con/ trib/ ute         con/ tri/ bute
in/ dus/ try             in/ dus/ try
fac/ ul/ ties            fa/ cul/ ties
stra/ te/ gic            strat/e/gic
com/ ment            com/ ment
in/ter/ pret              in/ ter/ pret

(d) Wrong Syllable Break-Up and Wrong Stress
Lat/ in               La/ tin
Ar/ a/ bic         A/ ra/ bic

e) Use a known sound from his or her Mother Language as a substitute for an unknown sound in English

f) Unable to pronounce the regular sounds made in the English language by certain consonants, vowels and symbol combinations.

g) Incorrect or different intonation.

h) Pronouncing the symbol combinations in words differently.

i) Some English sounds do not exist in the native tongue.

j) The way particular words in a sentence or construction are combined and pronounced.

k) The speaker’s mother tongue is tonal (Chinese) or syllabic and not a “stressed’ language like the English language.

l) Different syllabic pronunciation such as hear in “semi-trailer” – “semeeee-trailer.

Next week I shall continue this series with some proven suggestions. In the meantime, sing simple English songs,listen to an English language radio station and to an English TV news.

To obtain a free copy of Pronouncing Nouns and Verbs Correctly from the 4S-AEP Help Desk send an e-mail to contact@4Sliteracy.com.au