Will you really make my accent go away?

Question

Can you make my accent go away? I have lived in the US for several years.

Answer 1

It truly depends on the heaviness of your accent and whether you can practice English everyday. But if you currently don’t like your accent or speaking voice, I will tell you that most of my students are happier with their accent after only a few lessons. And if you speak nasally you should see improvement after one lesson!

Answer 2

Will someone else make your accent go away? Sadly, there are no magic wands. Accent modification takes recognition (what are you doing wrong), articulatory adjustments (how you move your mouth), and practice (lots and lots of practice).

Working with a specialist in accent reduction (not just an ESL teacher) will help you learn how to take the steps towards reducing your accent. Learning grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are certainly part of your accent, but there is more. Where to put your tongue, how to stress a sound, how long to express the air, and so much more. What words to stress; which words get combined; when a word is compressed.

Will someone make your accent go away? No, they can't - but a specialist can help you learn what you need to do to sound more fluent, be more confident, and know communicate better.

Answer 3

I think your question might be more along the lines of, "Is it truly possible to reduce/erase someone's non-American accent when they are speaking American English?"

The answer is: depends! Here are some different thoughts:

1. If you relocate to the US as a child, you should have little to no accent depending on the age you arrive.

2. If you relocate to the US as an adult, you're very likely to have some sort of accent. There's nothing wrong with having an accent, but for different reasons, some people try to reduce or erase theirs. My favorite reason for this is perfectionism--people who absolutely want to speak their target language as 100% naturally as possible.

3. Accent reduction is entirely possible, but it depends on quite a few factors--mainly mental and physical. On one hand, you have to be mentally aware of the pronunciation mistakes you're making. Beyond phonetics, there's also phonology, the study of how sound systems pattern. For example, how would you pronounce these four words?

cats cat's dogs dog's <--only two of these words are pronounced the same way!

On the physical side, depending on your native language background, American English might contain sounds you didn't grow up making. In these cases, it can be necessary to develop new muscles in your tongue (this is especially true for the different [r] and [l] sounds in English).

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But having said all this, if you have the work ethic, you can definitely reduce your accent at least somewhat. I've known ESL speakers who've basically erased their native accent to a very surprising extent, and I also know ESL speakers who are tremendously fluent but retain their accent in a conspicuous way. All versions of this are totally fine and make the world a more interesting place, so I wouldn't be hard on yourself if you view having an accent as a problem.

If it helps, I've never met a *singer* who spoke English as a second language and still had much of an accent. Singing is remarkable for programming your brain to subconsciously pick up phonological processes like stress assignment, syllable boundaries, and intonation. If you're interested, I recommend picking one new song to sing every month, and since it about 10 times a day--you have to really sing it, like hit all the notes and sing it in a normal/loud voice. The best genres for this are gospel and country music, since they tend to tell a story (and are therefore easy to follow), don't have made up nonsense words, and usually have big and loud notes that demand really engaging your mouth and throat. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend songs by the Dixie Chicks, most any gospel singer, Dolly Parton, and then any singer with a very big voice, like Cher or Celine Dion.

Lastly, if you're looking for accent reduction, you'd want someone with both a Phonetics and Phonology background. Someone who is only a "tutor" would not be able to address accent reduction issues in a satisfactory way.

I hope this helps!