Thinking About Speaking E-Book

Christi Barb

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 177

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

This book is a guide to understanding what defines an accent and how to make changes to increase speech clarity. It is for people who speak English with the influence of another language who want to communicate clearly in American English as well as teachers of English to non-native speakers. It includes definitions and descriptions of accents and examples of who chooses to keep making improvements to their speech after they have already learned and use English in their daily lives. This book analyzes why traditional teaching methods don’t take English as a second language (ESL) speakers to the highest level of speaking skills possible. The description of the author’s approach to increasing spoken communication skills goes beyond pronunciation of sounds and involves more cognitive processes than physical behaviors. The method includes techniques to make changes to speech to increase the effectiveness of speaking English as a non-native language.

Leseprobe

Thinking About Speaking

The Adastra Approach to Mastering the American English Accent

Christi Barb, PhD

Copyright ©2025 by Christi Barb

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of a brief quotation embodied in critical reviews and certain toner noncommercial uses permitted by copyright laws.

ISBN 979-8-9901810-3-8

700 Park Offices Drive, Suite 250 Research Triangle, NC 27709

Acknowedgements

Thanks to the people who inspired me. Although there are so many that I’d like to thank, no one has had a more significant influence on my academic journey and perspective than Dr. Hal Edwards. Though he left us too soon to witness the completion of my doctorate and this book, his handwritten notes and underlining in the books I was fortunate to acquire from him have always been there to guide me. Dr. Edwards often credited David Alan Stern’s theoretical foundations in prosody as the inspiration for his approach to accent modification, which he detailed in the textbook he wrote with Dr. Kathy Strattman. I’d like to extend my acknowledgements to both David Alan Stern and Dr. Edwards for paving the way for my own work, which places prosody at its core.

I am thankful for Dr. Anthony DiLollo’s guidance and influence. His research on fluency disorders and counseling notably shaped my theoretical and pedagogical approach, inspiring me to include the psychological and emotional dimensions of speech in my work. In addition, Dr. Barbara Hodson’s influence is evident in the use of cycling through information and increasing the depth of each repetition.

I have spent countless hours alone writing this book, but I have never felt alone in the journey to get it to this point. I’ve shared the highs and lows with family, friends, students, and anyone willing to listen. I celebrated with updates when I reached the milestones of 100, 200, and 300 days of writing and received incredible encouragement every step of the way.

I couldn’t have written this book without the unwavering belief and reassurance from my family. I am so fortunate to have always been encouraged to follow my curiosity, ask questions, and try new things. That belief in me has taught me to believe in myself.

A special thank you goes to the exceptional team at Tilt Publishing. There are many people behind the scenes that I do not know how to thank personally, but I’m grateful for all their work. I’d particularly like to thank Kristen Moxley and Laura Kozak, for their support and patience throughout the entire process. Your guidance has been invaluable.

Finally, to my students and clients from around the globe: your curiosity and insightful questions about speech have continually pushed me to look beyond the mechanics of sound production and explore deeper aspects of communication. This book is dedicated to your enthusiasm for learning and success in mastering American English. Never stop asking the tough questions—they are the key to discovery and growth.

Introduction

Communication is connection. It’s relationship building and a way to bring people together over a common goal. Except when it’s not—miscommunication or failure to communicate well can have dire consequences for all parties involved. This is why communicating well is such an important skill, in all aspects of our lives.

Communicating well in a language that you learned after your first language can be particularly challenging. Sometimes it can even feel like there is a distance between you and the listener, especially when there are misunderstandings in speech. “Accent modification”—what I do and what I teach—includes many different aspects of making changes to spoken communication, but ultimately, it’s about making changes to reduce the feeling of distance between two people and facilitating connection.

Your speech represents more than just the message you are conveying. It represents your life history and your perception of your identity. Making changes to something that powerful can be intimidating and it takes courage and an open mind to try new ways of presenting yourself to the world. My goal for everyone I work with is to teach them to do what I do by hearing what I hear, and analyzing what I analyze, until they can do this for themselves and don’t need me anymore. It’s an odd thing to have a goal of making myself obsolete, but it’s very rewarding to see people have more options in their lives by gaining control of how they speak.

I’ve been teaching people how to refine their English-speaking skills for 25 years. I have specialized in the area of foreign accent modification since I started combining my studies in speech-language pathology with the teaching of English as a second language as well as cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. I was very fortunate to have Dr. Harold Edwards and Dr. Kathy Strattman, who wrote the book, Accent Modification Manual (1996), as advisors and mentors. Their book provided the basis of my dissertation research, my method, and my work. I applied the specifics of speech production and analysis that I learned in speech-language pathology to the classroom and individual instruction of English to speakers of other languages. I applied and honed my skills within academia and with business professionals. Examples given throughout this book are based on real experiences and people’s names and identifying details have been changed to respect their privacy.

There are no “secrets” or “hacks” or one best way to learn and speak English well. There are teachers and coaches who specialize in all different aspects of speaking and communicating, so it’s beneficial to search for more than one person or expert who can help you make the improvements you're aiming for. Teachers and coaches can come from a variety of fields such as linguistics, speech-language pathology, cognitive psychology, theater, and English teaching. What is important is the method, which should be in-depth, researched-based, and systematic in its approach to speaking American English in a way that’s clear, expressive, and engaging.

I started writing this book for my former self, the me in graduate school who could easily find books about how to teach English pronunciation but that never went deeper than surface level examples and practice exercises. When I started teaching English as a second language and noticed that some students could pronounce all the American English sounds perfectly but were still difficult to understand, it was challenging to find anything in the textbooks which addressed it. Why were the students still difficult to understand? Adding instruction on prosody, the overall rhythm of a language, was recommended but that just added to the list of speech features to teach:

14 vowel sounds represented by 6 letters24 consonant sounds represented by 21 lettersword stress (which syllables are stressed and how)connections between sounds within and between wordswhich words are stressed in a sentence (intonation)

Where was the best place to begin? Did it make a difference what order these features were taught in? I discovered that yes, there is a better place to begin, and it does make a difference.

It also occurred to me that, if I was that confused as a teacher, certainly people who were working on their speaking skills on their own were facing similar challenges. There is an overwhelming number of books and videos about accent modification. There are many that have very helpful descriptions, examples, and practice exercises, but which lack the rationale behind the teacher’s approach to help the student truly master the language. Most of these books and teachers do not provide any research or sources that their methods are based on. People are able to pick and choose exactly what they want to work on in any order, which is not the most effective approach to language learning or speech improvement. Readers of this book will realize that the things they’ve tried in the past haven’t worked not because they didn’t practice them well enough, but because those approaches didn’t include the whole speech process. Through this book, these speakers will gain a new understanding of a systematic approach to making changes to speech.

This book is for the teachers of English as an additional language, as well as speakers who have reached a level of success with their speech but want to keep improving. They may have tried other methods to improve their speech and modify their accent but haven’t found what they needed. They may feel that they have been stuck at the same level for a long time now and want to know why they’re not progressing. This book is for the person who asks “why?” when told how to do something.

Every part of this book is written with the understanding that a non-native English speaker could be the reader. The research and theoretical part of the book is written in an approachable form that does not require a special background knowledge of the cognitive psychology, speech-language pathology, or teaching methodology described.

Chapter One provides some brief examples of people who have chosen accent modification and some of their reasons and results. Chapters Two, Three, and Four explain the key concepts of speech, accents, dialects, and identity. Chapter Five is dedicated to exploring the importance of memory and the brain’s capacity for memory for speech production. Chapter Six describes how making progress in every speech feature can be measured by: awareness, control, and analysis. Chapter Seven covers the different methods of measuring progress through the stages of learning, as well as the different kinds of structured practice. Chapter Eight delves into the mental processes and cycles of learning accent modification. Finally, Chapter Nine makes a connection between habit building and making changes to speech. At the end of the book, you’ll find additional resources, including detailed examples and case studies of specific client experiences at every career stage and in a variety of professional areas.

If you finish this book wanting to know more about exactly what to teach or study and how to do it, that’s great! That means you have a much better understanding of what’s involved in making changes to speech. The most important lesson I’ve learned from the people I have helped is that change is achieved with a belief that there is no final destination. There isn’t an endpoint to making changes to speech. Success is there in many small ways, and you have to pay attention to notice it. Hopefully, by the end of this book you will have a new appreciation for the nuances and skills involved in communications, as well as a greater grasp of what it takes to communicate well and how to keep getting better.

Chapter One

Why Do People Choose Accent Modification?

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step.”

— Lao Tzu

I have always kept this quote in mind for everything that seems big and intimidating, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step” (Lao Tzu). What comes after that first step? Another step, and another, and another. Everything big is accomplished in small steps. The theory of kaizen, a Japanese term, emphasizes the value in making continuous improvement through small steps. As Robert Maurer describes in his book, One Small Step (2004), “Kaizen invites us to see life as an opportunity for continuous improvement, for ever-higher standards and expanding potential.”

When people think of changing the way they speak, they think of it as something as big as learning a whole new language. It doesn't have to be learning a totally new language, though; change can be fine-tuning and improving upon the way you speak the language or languages you already know. You’re building upon a foundation that has already been established by continuing to learn more about it and do more with it. It doesn’t take long to learn the concepts of what to do, but it does take a long time to make those things a habit until they happen automatically in your speech. That can feel so overwhelming that it’s enough to scare people away from trying, so who would choose to pursue speech coaching to reach their English 2.0 level and why?

I’m often asked who accent modification instruction is for. The easy answer is: It’s for anyone who wants to keep improving how they sound in their non-native language. It is not learning English; it is the fine-tuning that happens after someone has already become proficient in English. It’s smoothing the rough edges. It’s always a personal choice. Not everyone who speaks English with the influence of a different language feels the need to do the fine-tuning. The people who do want to continue to sharpen their speaking skills find me when they are ready. There are as many different reasons that people choose to continue improving their speaking skills as there are individuals who do it.

There are recurring themes that come up when people describe their motivation for getting speech coaching:

Feeling that the focus of the listener is on their accent instead of their message (i.e., hearing people say “I love your accent” instead of replying to the conversation topic).They’re tired of talking about where they’re from.They have kids who are native speakers in the second language they have had to learn, and now their kids are pointing out that their parents “aren’t saying it right.”There are certain words that make interactions difficult in stores, restaurants, retail shops. (e.g., “everything bagel,” “medium rare,” “milk”).They feel they are seen in the company they work at based on the work they do but they don’t feel their opinions are being heard or credited.

Sometimes there aren’t specific events that motivate them to seek out continuing instruction; it’s just a nagging feeling or thought they’re experiencing:

They want to know what it is exactly that’s causing people to have to concentrate to understand them.They want to eliminate doubt that the reason they’re not getting hired, promoted, good reviews, etc., is due to their accent. They want to improve every aspect of their speech.They wonder if how they currently sound is as good as it can be, or if they can improve.It’s a good time in their life to continue learning. They now have the time, money, and desire to go back and strengthen their speaking skills.

As you can see, there are many reasons why people choose to continue to improve their English-speaking skills. Here are a few examples from what clients have told me about their own personal motivations:

“To have more control over my speech.”“I know that I'm lacking something in my communication and that I can be better at it.”“To be more easily understood by a variety of listeners (e.g., speaking to people in other parts of the United States, especially in the south).”“To reduce distracting thoughts about my pronunciation while I’m speaking so I can focus on the meaning instead of worrying if they're understanding me okay.”“To have options to help people understand me more easily if I can see they are having difficulty.”“I'm interested in sounds in general, so I'd like to work on that.”“To reduce anxiety when speaking in groups or meetings.”“To identify what exactly is making a difference in my speech.”“To express myself more clearly and easily.”“To be able to deliver a very good presentation.”

Fortunately, the people who find me for speech coaching have already taken the first step, which is deciding that this is something they want to do. I have been so fortunate to work with people who have a mindset of continual growth. I have worked with people of all ages and all stages of their careers, and that’s what they have in common—they don’t see an endpoint to learning. People find me to keep learning and improving themselves without any external reward. This is the difference in goals that Carol Dweck, in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006), describes as performance goals and learning goals. In Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (2011), Pink described it simply as, “Getting an A in French class is a performance goal. Being able to speak French is a learning goal.”

Pursuit of Mastery

Many of the people I work with are already successful in their careers. That can make other people wonder why they want to bother to improve their English-speaking skills at this point if it hasn’t been an obstacle for them so far. For many of these people, the motivation is not about using speaking skills as a way to achieve a specific goal; rather, it’s a drive to keep learning and improving themselves. They share the qualities Daniel Pink (2011) describes when he talks about internal motivation: “The most successful people, the evidence shows, often aren’t directly pursuing conventional notions of success. They’re working hard and persisting through difficulties because of their internal desire to control their lives, learn about their world, and accomplish something that endures. They are doing it to deepen their knowledge and pursue mastery, not for a quick reward.”

I have observed that these people often apply the same desire and behaviors to continually improve themselves to their speaking skills as they do with their professional careers. They come to the sessions prepared to focus, they ask lots of questions, they take notes in multiple languages and formats (often with visual drawings), and immediately after our sessions they try every new speech feature we have been practicing without needing any prompting.

Just as there’s a difference between learners, there is also a difference between teachers. People need different kinds of teachers at different stages in their learning process. At the beginning, teachers who can dedicate lots of attention to their students and who can emotionally support and encourage their students with praise help students develop a skill. Once a skill has been learned, in order to keep making progress, students need to be challenged to move out of their comfort zone and increase performance. This is where coaches come in. A coach has specialized in a specific area and can evaluate a student’s current level and identify what they need to do to get to the next level. People who look for coaches want specific feedback that will help them sharpen their own analysis of their performance. The goal is to be independently aware of your performance and have the knowledge of how to keep improving it. I work with people to help them improve their speaking skills, but often the same person who has found me for this also has coaches in other areas of their life, including for physical fitness (personal trainers) and leadership (career and executive coaches).

What Kind of Results Can I Expect?

Since everyone has different reasons for choosing accent modification, people choose to focus on different results. Here are a few examples of results my clients have experienced after working to improve their speaking skills:

“I feel much more confident than I did before.”“I never knew about intonation and how important it is.”“I became more confident and enthusiastic about modifying my accent.”“I now can decide which voice I’m going to use and what’s the pace and what’s the impression that I want to give. I know how to do that.”“My English accent has dramatically improved and now I have almost no problem with my accent and intonation at work.”“Now I know where I should put my tongue to pronounce sounds correctly and how to connect words to sound natural.”“After the first class, my friend noticed my self-correction. It is a very good feeling to know how to speak clearly and confidently.”“I developed a more professional-sounding speech and improved my public speaking skills significantly.”

At the end of this book, I’ve included examples of people I have worked with, along with details of what each speaker wanted to improve about their speaking skills and how we approached our work together. Hopefully this will inspire and encourage you to take the next steps.

Chapter Two

What Is Speech?

You speak, I hear it and understand it, then I speak, and you hear it and understand it. Repeat, repeat, repeat. That’s basically the speech cycle, or “loop.” However, there are many links in that process that leave room for misunderstanding.

For one thing, we use all our senses to communicate, not just our mouths for talking and our ears for listening. And we are constantly modifying how we speak based on what we perceive with our eyes as we view the expression on the listener’s face and how we interpret the tone of the speaker’s voice.

We can also monitor our own speech by focusing awareness on how the production of speech feels physically. For example, once the specifics of speech (such as airflow, voicing, and the placement of the tongue and jaw) are learned, a person can be aware of how they’re using them and how to consciously control them.

Everything is processed through the brain to give meaning to what is said and for interpretation of all the signals that aren’t said but also give meaning, such as facial and body movement, volume, and proximity. All of this is encapsulated within your body and experience, which includes sensing emotional and psychological states of mind.

None of this is as simple as “You speak, I listen / I speak, you listen.”

Source: https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/courses/plin0065/week1.php(Image by W. Murphey and A. Yeung)

This amazing process of communicating through speech encounters problems between native speakers of the same language and culture all the time. Add in extra variables such as different contexts, cultures, and native languages, and the probability for miscommunication is increased immensely.