How Can Adults Get Rid of Thier Accent?
There are three main reasons why people speak with an accent when speaking English.
1. Some English sounds do not exist in your native language
Many English sounds are absent from other languages, so learners naturally replace them with the closest sound they already know.
For example, the /w/ sound does not exist in French, Russian, and many other languages. As a result, many learners pronounce /v/ instead.
2. Your speech muscles have been trained since childhood
Every speech sound requires specific movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, and other speech organs.
From childhood, your speech muscles become highly trained to produce the sounds of your native language. Learning a new sound means developing new muscle habits.
For example, to pronounce /w/, the lips are rounded and pushed forward. To pronounce /v/, the upper teeth touch the lower lip. It took me six months to strengthen my lip muscles before producing the /w/ sound became automatic.
3. English spelling and pronunciation are often different
Unlike many languages, English spelling is not always phonetic. The same sound can have several different spellings.
For example, the /ʌ/ sound appears in words such as London, bus, and country, where it is spelled with o, u, and ou.
When learners are unsure of the pronunciation, they often pronounce the letters rather than the actual sounds.
The Accent Reduction Process
Improving your pronunciation is a step-by-step process:
Identify which sounds you pronounce incorrectly with a personalised Speech Analysis.
Learn the correct speech organ positions for those sounds through lessons, apps, or books.
Practise the sounds repeatedly until the correct pronunciation becomes an automatic habit.
Transfer your new pronunciation into everyday conversations so it becomes part of your natural speech.
Warmly
Olga Smith