Lose Your Accent

Many people want to lose their accent or at least modify it so that they can be more easily understood. This article will give you step-by-step instructions which will tell you how to lose an accent. Remember, no one speaks without an accent, even Queen's English and Oxbridge pronunciations are accents of a sort.

Steps

  1. Practise your vocalic sounds. English has 5 written vowels (a,e,i,o and u), but 12 vocalic sounds (/i:/,/ɪ/,/e/,/æ/,/ɑ:/,/ɒ/,/ɔ:/,/ʊ/,/u:/,/ʌ/,/ɜ:/,/ə/) and about 26 consonantal sounds.
  2. Listen to and repeat examples of words spoken by a native English speaker. You need to identify an example accent that you wish to imitate.
  3. Make sure that you open your mouth widely enough and read out loud for at least thirty minutes daily.
  4. Practise the 'th' sound. 'Th' is pronounced behind the teeth, where most languages pronounce 'd' and 't'. It's not achieved by sticking your tongue between your teeth.
    • The TH sound can be easily made by putting your tongue gently between the top and the bottom teeth and then gently blowing. as in the words THree and THrough. Never ever put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth in order to create the TH sound!
  5. Stress the correct syllable if there is more than one syllable in the word. English is a stress-based language.
  6. Speak slowly. Finish one word before you start the next. Remember to say the final consonant in a word.
  7. Watch English T.V. channels as much as possible and try to listen carefully to every word and then practice them. If you don't have access to English tv channels, try the BBC Radio World Service.
  8. Listen to something in English daily, whether its news, songs, television, a film or an audio book.
  9. Buy a pronunciation dictionary and start working on it.



Tips

  • Losing your accent is really learning to speak using a non-regionally specific dialect.
  • Learn local expressions. Learn what words are used frequently in your area to describe things (e.g. loads vs. lots vs. heaps)
  • A large part of learning a new accent is learning the sounds, rhythm, stress, pitch, intonation and structure of that accent. To do this you need to ‘attune’ your ear to the particular accent.
  • Rhythm is about timing within a phrase or sentence. This mainly equates to where we place the strong or weak stress in a sentence. When learning a new accent it is also important to learn where the stress is placed.
  • Watch English TV with English subtitles but do remember native English speakers often have regional accents. You don't want to loose your own accent only to start sounding like you are from Manchester because you've been watching Coronation Street.
  • Try about 15 minutes of practice every day for a few weeks.
  • In English most of the consonants are paired, i.e., they are made the same way in the mouth. The only difference is that one of the pair is made without switching on the voice in the throat (making sound in the throat), and one is made with voice activated, e.g., /p/ and /b/
  • Do not put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth to make the sound of an R! This makes the sound of an L; in order to make the sound of an L press your flat tongue to the roof of your mouth, not the tip. To make the sound of an R your tongue should be relaxed and on the bottom of your mouth, not involved in the sound process.
  • As a child your ability for the ear to process different frequencies of sound is expanded, enabling you to distinguish and reproduce the sounds of the languages that surrounds you. To effectively learn a new accent you must expand the ability of your ear by listening over and over to examples of the accent.
  • As you expand the ability of the ear, speaking becomes an automatism. When the ear can ‘hear’ a sound the mouth has a better chance of producing it.
  • When learning any accent, listening to and imitating a native speaker is the most important step and fastest way to learn. Remember that when you were young you learned a language by listening and then repeating the words while imitating the accent.

Things You'll Need

  • Examples of a British or American accent to listen to and repeat.
  • A CD player, cassette(tape) player, or MP3 player so you can practice listening and repeating every day.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  • [1] — Elocution lessons in Dorset UK that teach accent reduction.
  • [2] — Examples of regional accents and dialects across the UK.
  • [3] — BBC internet radio channels.
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