Learning American Accent: how to change pronunciation

Do you have some words which you find difficult to say?  Do you know which sounds are different in your accent?  Whatever your pronunciation difficulties, understanding the approaches to changing pronunciation can help you address your goals.

While accented speech is comprised of several elements, pronunciation is one aspect which many speakers and listener can identify as sounding different.  Some sounds in American English are infrequent or nonexistant in other languages and must be learned and practiced in a hierarchy to develop the sound.  Others are easier to say, but hard to use in running speech.  Understanding the levels of practice is an important step to changing your speech.

1.  Sound level (phonemes):  This level is single sounds.  Practicing at this level is usually only necessary when the sound is new to you, but knowing how to say a sound by itself correctly is helpful and can be used as a tool when working at more challenging levels.  Use the recordings below to try some of the American English phonemes which are most frequently mispronounced in accented speech.

Voiced th.  IPA symbol: /ð/  Example words: those, that, breathe.  Tongue between teeth, air flowing, voice on.  Common error patterns:  stopping (sounds like d) or alveolar tongue placement (sounds like z).

Voiceless th.  IPA symbol: /θ/  Example words: thing, this, bath.  Tongue between teeth, air flowing, no voice.  Common error patterns:  stopping (sounds like t) or alveolar tongue placement (sounds like s).

Vowel ɪ.  IPA symbol: /ɪ/  Example words:  it, is, different.  Common error pattern:  use of vowel ee (IPA /i/), the vowel in the words eat and need.

Vowel er. IPA symbol; /ɚ/ or /ɝ/.  Example words:  third, word, her, paper.  Common error patterns:  rolled r, use of vowel schwa (uh sound).

2. Syllable level: This level is target sound plus an additional sound.  If the target is a consonant, the additional sound is a vowel, and vice versa.  While two sounds together can make a word, syllables can also be part of a word or just a nonsense word.  Practice at this level is useful when breaking down difficult words, integrating a difficult target into words, or changing a habitual pattern with the target sound.  The recording below demonstrates how to add various vowels to the challenging target voiceless th (IPA symbol: /θ/).

3. Word level:  This level is the target sound in real words.  The target could be in the beginning, middle or end of the word (initial, medial or final position). Depending on your native language, you may only need to practice one word position.  Sometimes speakers have an accurate phoneme in the initial position, but make errors when the target sound is in word-final position.  For example, you may be able to use your voiceless th sound correctly in the word "think," but have an error pattern on the word "teeth."

You can try some words with  initial, medial and final voiceless th sounds using the recordings below.

4. Phrase or Sentence level:  The next step to changing a pronunciation pattern is to use the target sounds at the phrase or sentence level.  Once you have achieved accurate productions at the word level, you can imitate or create sentences using the same words you practiced at the word level.  This is more challenging because you are having to hold the new target in your mind as you say the sentence.  If needed, you can practice at different levels within this step.  Easiest, imitate a sentence with the target word at the beginning of the sentence.  Next easiest, imitate a sentence with the target word in the middle or end of the sentence. Next, create your own sentence with the target word at the beginning of the sentence, and last, create a sentence with the target word in the middle or the end of the sentence.  Use the recordings below to try the target voiceless th in imitated sentences.  Then make your own sentences with voiceless th words.

5. Conversational level:  This is the goal and the final step in changing pronunciation.  Sometimes transitions between steps 4 and 5 are necessary, such as practice while reading aloud.  There are many techniques to moving from the sentence to the conversational level, including raising awareness of where your targets occur and repeat motor practice to gain automaticity.