Monday, April 8, 2013

The Importance of your Accent When Speaking a Foreign Language

Listening to the graduation speeches these days has made me think about lots of aspects related to oral production in a foreign language and I couldn´t agree more with the message in the following video - which is part of a longer one called "Expert Advice on Accent Reduction from Paddy Kennedy."

Paddy Kennedy, the Principal of Kennedy Communication Studio, is a communication coach who describes her job like this: I teach people to say what they mean and mean what they say. I teach people to speak to be heard and to write to be read. 


Her speech can be summarized in these four points:

1. Your accent is not the problem
2. Language has rhythm
3. We speak in "sound units"
4. Homework is important: listen, imitate, exaggerate, say tongue twisters, practice

You can watch this video with captions in English




I first watched this video in the blog "Labor English Zone," so thank you, Álvaro!

Click here and here if you want to hear some amazing people imitating lots of different accents


2 comments:

  1. Anonymous31 May, 2013

    I also think that my Australian accent is not a big problem for the residents of the States or the UK. Nevertheless recommend Getting Rid of Accent

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...