The course is designed for non-native as well as regional native speakers of English, who wish to soften, modify or reduce their accent towards Standard British English.
Participants must be over 18 with a medium to good level of spoken English.
The Participants are generally employed as tech professionals and with engineering background and gradually require strong communication in their work profile and interaction.
Learn how to…
identify the specific vowels and consonants that reveal you as a non-native or regional speaker and learn how to achieve the native sounds by understanding the differences in the lengths of sounds, tongue positions and shapes of the lips.
improve your self-awareness and ability to imitate. This will help you to identify (hear and feel) differences in pronunciation and make it possible for you to change your own.
increase your understanding of the patterns between the written and spoken word to help you integrate your new skills into live speech.
clarify the words and syllables that you stress mistakenly. Gain an awareness and understanding of weak syllables and weak forms, which will enable you to take on the essential rhythm and melody of Standard British English.
achieve greater ease, confidence and clarity in Standard British English pronunciation.
What will a typical session be like?
Each session involves listening and imitation of the target sounds; repetition; the development of physical, visual and auditory awareness; understanding tongue and lip positions; the learning of patterns; and experiencing how to integrate new habits into live speech.
Accent Neutralization Training level I basic
identify the specific vowels and consonants that reveal you as a non-native or regional speaker and learn to be sensitive to various sound differentials between native and conventional English speakers.
Phonetics, sound isolation and syllable expressions.
Vowel Sounds.
Consonants Sounds.
Word Pronunciation and listening activites.
Syllable and Syllable Stress patterns.
Practice sessions and twisters.
Evaluation and feedback.
Accent Training level II - creating the right meaning
Word stress and capturing the meaning.
Sentence Stress in English.
Thought Groups and Pause.
Program Specific word drill with Sentences.
Articulation Exercises/ Reading Passages.
Overview
The objective of this training program will be to help participants understand and use a neutralEnglish accent that can be easily understood by people from various cultures across the globe. Themethodology will include a combination of presentations, activities, assignments, evaluations,
practice and feedback.
Training Topics
Accent Neutralization:
Identifying and dealing with Mother Tongue Influence (MTI).
Pronunciation.
Vowel Sounds and Consonant Sounds.
Using a neutral accent.
Elements of Spoken Communication:
Inflection.
Pausing.
Reducing rate of speech.
Volume and tone.
Pitch.
Clarity and enunciation.
Practice Exercises:
Reading exercises to practice pronunciation, inflection and enunciation.
Spoken communication exercises (extempore and presentations) to practice elements of rate ofspeech, pausing, inflection and tone of voice.
Individual and group activities that enable participants to practice their learning.
Assignments that help enhance learning beyond the classroom sessions.
Assessments:
Pre-training assessment conducted on spoken communication at the start of the training feedback.
Individual feedback given to the participants on a regular basis during the sessions based onactivities and assessments.
Post-training assessment conducted on the final day of the training program with participantsbeing given feedback and action plans.
The results of the assessment and feedback will be made available to organization / participant.
Accent Neutralization Training:
Training Hours:Our recommendation is for 40 hours of training
Training Methodology:
Practice Exercises.
Role Plays.
Video and audio clips.
PowerPoint Presentation.
Games and Group Activities. Assignments. Voice recordings.
Benefits
Confidence , clarity , effective communication , better customer engagement , improved work and personal relation , self esteem.
However, the native influence on pronunciation has interfered with comprehension ability to a great degree. Accent neutralization training helps to increase this aspect of communication which in turn positively impacts customer service. The accent neutralization, in speech training refers to the module in which the participant is taught how to get rid of his MTI (Mother Tongue Influence). This kind of training is mostly used in businesses where interaction with over-seas customers is a prerequisite. As stated by neutralaccent.com, neutral accent means “an accent the world understands”.
Training in this field of Accent Neutralization has largely been the result of globalization. The rise of globalization has impacted communication to a large extent. It has also created a revolution in entrepreneurship & outsourcing. Outsourcing is generally defined as the transfer of components or large segments of an organization’s internal infrastructure, staff, processes or applications to an external resource. The tendency is towards outsourcing to countries where this work can be done at lower cost to the company. India has enjoyed the benefits of outsourcing because of its wealth of highly educated English speakers. The need for speaking in a neutral accent has grown today as the clients & customers have to interact in a universal language in a globally acceptable style & accent.
The problem that arises is that many customers have difficulties understanding accents other than their own; hence accent neutralization or reduction becomes important for customer satisfaction.
