To reduce the influence of their native accent on their spoken English in order to eliminate faulty speech and distraction resulting in misunderstandings among customers and co-workers, time-consuming repetitions and mistaken messages.

The ultimate goal is to get the non-native speaker to attain a neutral and comprehensible accent in minimum time for effective communication.

Participants learn to identify their pronunciation difficulties and increase their accuracy in speaking the Target language with the appropriate rhythm, pronunciation, inflection, intonation and liaison – elements critical to listener comprehension – for oral fluency and speech intelligibility.

Precisely adjusted to the trainee's level of pronunciation skills, this course prioritizes and helps eliminate the trainee's most significant pronunciation problems.

Course focus is typically on job-specific, prioritized English vocabulary and phrases that the trainee needs to master so as to function more effectively and easily at work. Training may then be expanded to strategies that help the trainee intuitively and correctly pronounce a broader range of English in a wider variety of spontaneous situations.

An assessment of the individual's speech patterns is conducted during the first session to identify articulation errors. In a one-hour individual session, the evaluator elicits speech in a variety of contexts: conversation, passage reading, and single word pronunciation. Responses are recorded on tape for later analysis of speech sound substitutions, omissions, and additions. Intonational and rate patterns are also analyzed.

A programme specific to the needs of the participant is then designed and delivered. Participants are also given home assignments for self-directed practice. Proficiency demonstration is done through oral/aural testing, short answer quizzes, speech production to demonstrate accent reduction and oral presentation.

Prior to the training, participants are given a list of words and a text to read, which is tape-recorded. The tapes are analyzed and a program focusing on the skills that need to be addressed is then designed and delivered. In a classroom setting, participants can offer feedback on mock phone calls, and through constructive criticism, they can learn to detect their own mistakes.

Custom-designed training materials (text, audio cassettes, CDs, training manuals and computer software designed by leaders in the accent and speech industry). Audio cassette recorder.

• 16 hours [Ongoing: 8 sessions of 2h each]



• Intensive: 2 sessions of 4h [each for 2 consecutive weekends]