Accent Modification
Accent Discrimination
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against national origin. But a survey done in 1990 by the General Accounting Office of the United States found that accented job applicants were treated unfairly 31% more times than unaccented applicants.
Deb Kowalczyk working with a client
In the year 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission awarded a large sum of money to a foreign born employee of a firm in Northern California who was fired because of her unclear speech.
In that same year, a study done at the University of North Texas found that when speech samples of various U.S. speakers were sent to 56 Human Resource Executives, and asked to place them in hypothetical jobs, those with the strongest regional dialects were placed in the lower paying jobs with least customer contact and those using Standard American English were placed higher. The most displeasing were those with a southern drawl and one from New Jersey. This was regardless of education level or experience.
Professional Frustration
Many more variations on the above themes can be quoted. It has yet to be shown whether the chief problem is a lack of understanding or our narrow-mindedness as a society. But whatever the case, the fact that those speaking Standard American English (speaking English with no trace of a regional dialect) are frequently given preferential treatment in a variety of areas.
Accent discrimination continues to cause frustration and embarrassment to many educated and intelligent professionals from the US and abroad. Many foreign-born professionals, working here on H-1B Visas are highly skilled at their craft, but break down when attempting to communicate with customers and co-workers. They have relayed stories ranging from the comical to insulting because of their difficulties communicating.
What is Accent Modification?
Most studies agree that when learning another language or moving to a new location, your chances of totally eliminating your native accent or regional dialect are very minimal after about age 12. But there are ways to help you speak more clearly and distinctly. Accent Modification is exactly what the term implies. By changing certain sounds and melodies in your speech it is modified to make it sound clearer and more understandable to the average American speaker. It is not an attempt to change your cultural heritage or eliminate your accent, but a way to improve your communication. Following the training, you should have more control over your accent, being able to minimize or maximize it as the situation warrants.
How is it done?
We start by assessing and analyzing your individual speaking patterns. By learning to recognize, then change those particular differences in sounds, intonation, and stress, you learn to speak more clearly and effectively. By working with a speaking coach who is specially trained in accent modification, and focusing only on those areas that are problems for you, the training is faster and more cost effective. Individual and group training sessions are available and can be organized to fit your needs.
What are the benefits?
For the employer, the benefits are improved productivity, improved profits, and better customer relationships and employee relationships. Employees have reported all of the above plus improvements in self-confidence, speaking volume, and job performance. Many have even reported promotions based on their work done here.
For the actor
Performing artists who have been successful in their native language find limited opportunities when auditioning while speaking English. Actors, singers, radio announcers and other professional non-native English speakers and English speakers with regional dialects have benefited from this program. The same benefits reported above are true for this profession. It is also possible to acquire a dialect for a particular part. We have found that the above benefits also translate to confidence in performance. See Performing Artists
Dialect Experience
It doesn’t matter where you’re from to successfully train in accent modification. Clearspeak has worked with people having accents from all five continents, including:
| Korean | Ukrainian |
| Chinese | African |
| Japanese | Russian |
| Polish | French |
| Indian | Bulgarian |
| German | Spanish |
| Tagalog | Great Britain |
| Ethiopian | Arabic |
and several American Regional Dialects.