Has anyone ever tried speech therapy for accent modification? (college, people)

[Dash_E]

I speak English in a heavy foreign accent. It's been like that since middle school. In almost every conversation, people are always asking me to repeat myself a few more times in order for them to get a clear idea of what I said.


I currently work in Finance/Accounting and it has become obvious that I'll have a tough time getting further in my career if I don't address this issue.

I am thinking of doing 1on1 speech therapy for accent modification/reduction. Has anyone ever tried this? It'd be nice to hear from people who were in my situation.

Enrolling in a speech therapy program is costly in my area. I can't afford to do it if it won't produce results. I don't trust online reviews/testimonials since anyone can pay anyone a few bucks to just post them.

[BirdieBelle]

I had a colleague from India who did it for 4 sessions. He also joined a local group called Toastmasters that helps people with public speaking.

He still has a strong accent, but he said it helped him recognize and correct the speech patterns that were most problematic for listeners.

[Izzie1213]

OkIt must help some people. When I was in High School there was an exchange student from Germany. You could hardly tell he had an accent. He did go to a speech therapist, or some such professional. He said it did take a bit of practice and patience, not a over night thing. A lot of exercises working on pronunciaton. Are there therapists who specialize in that particle field? Maybe a actors studio may know someone. I'm amazed when an actor on screen will have no accent then are interviewed and have a heavy English accent.

[Tyler Aiden]

It can help you in accent reduction. Speech professionals can help you out with this problem. You must explain your condition to them. Heavy accent can obviously confuse people and you become unable to express your ideas. Go and get necessary help from speech therapist.

[artillery77]

I had a friend in admissions at a college where Accent Reduction was offered as a course. It was the first to get booked every semester.



If you think of how an actor/actress has to learn to speak with an accent, you can use the same skills to basically acquire an American accent. For example, say something to yourself aloud using the bottom of your throat to enunciate...move your lips very little. Now move that enunciation point further up to the mouth and eventually end on the tips of your tongue and lips. At the end it's much crisper and cleaner....it's easier to sound British whereas the former is easier to sound Southern if you add a drawl aspect in the right places.



At any rate, if you can reduce where you accent, a few sounding items and volume control, you'll be well on your way to reducing your accent.

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by Dash_E

I speak English in a heavy foreign accent. It's been like that since middle school. In almost every conversation, people are always asking me to repeat myself a few more times in order for them to get a clear idea of what I said.


I currently work in Finance/Accounting and it has become obvious that I'll have a tough time getting further in my career if I don't address this issue.

I am thinking of doing 1on1 speech therapy for accent modification/reduction. Has anyone ever tried this? It'd be nice to hear from people who were in my situation.

Enrolling in a speech therapy program is costly in my area. I can't afford to do it if it won't produce results. I don't trust online reviews/testimonials since anyone can pay anyone a few bucks to just post them.

You may not need an actual speech therapist to do this. Actors hire vocal coaches all the time to get rid of accents or to conversely affect accents for certain roles. Have you looked at vocal coaches in your area?