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| | Language LearningLanguage learning methods, the best and most effective way to master a foreign language.How to reduce your foreign accent?If you are a new foreigner living in America and English is your second language, you may have already noticed that your foreign accent is really an issue ... people don't understand what you are saying even if you can speak English. And because of your accent, you may lose out job opportunities even if you have good qualifications for the job. I have good news for you! It's possible to reduce or neutralize your accent. It does require some training from you. 10 useful tips to apply in a daily basis:1) When a native speaker talks: - Pay attention to the intonation and the rhythm of his speech. - Pay attention to the movement of his lips. 2) Train yourself by watching the News on TV, quality programs and try to repeat what they say with the same intonation and the same rhythm. Duplicate the sounds. Young children learn a language that way, they just duplicate the sounds that they hear, and they don't need a master degree to speak a language. You may know a word of vocabulary but if you don't say it with the right intonation in your voice, people won't understand you. 3) Train yourself to learn the intonation and the rhythm of a native when he speaks. When you are at this point of your learning curve, don't try to speak fast but be focused to pay attention to your speech and the person speech. Some people may show some signs of impatience ... so what? You can find very patient people who will take time to listen to you and even encourage your efforts. 4) Use a tape recorder to record your voice and evaluate your progress. Read some portion of English books aloud. By reading more, you will improve your fluency. Science has shown that it takes 3 months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles to speak a new language. Your mouth muscles may be painful for a while with all these practices ... keep going! 5) Don't be shy to talk, don't be intimidated to engage conversation with natives. Be self-confident. I know that it's not comfortable to speak in front of people in a language that you don't master YET. It is part of the learning curve and it's not definitive, you have to practice in order to improve your fluency. You are not fluent YET but a day you will be. 6) Take your time to pronounce the endings of the words like "ed", "s" . I know that ESL students have some difficulties to pronounce properly "can't", if it's not pronounced properly, the natives don't seem to hear the difference with "can". I was an ESL student (5 years ago), and it was almost a nightmare for our ESL teacher to help us to pronounce the "can't". When I had to use the "can't" in my conversations with American people I used "I cannot" instead, to avoid the frequently question "what did you say? You can or you can't?” I know how frustrating it is when someone asks you several times to repeat yourself ... I've been there! 7) Write down every word that you have difficulties to pronounce and ask a native speaker to pronounce them for you. 8) Borrow some audio-books from your local library and pay attention to the reading, try to duplicate and record yourself on your tape recorder. Listen to English music and sing some songs. 9) Use a dictionary to look up the pronunciation of the words that you don't know. Reading an English word does not tell you how it is pronounced. I found a FREE online tool that you can use to hear the pronunciation of a word. 10) Be patient. Don't be hard on yourself and don't get discouraged. If you don't see progress, don't beat yourself but keep learning. Learning a new language is progressive, you won't master a new language overnight. Don't be shy to ask for help. There are a lot of natives who will be happy to help you if you ask them so. FREE software to learn English Pronunciation and Words: American English Pronunciation Patterns Pro 3.0 Pronunciation Patterns has over 100 phonics rules and groups 4,000 words by phonetic patterns to help you practice English pronunciation and learn new English words. Now you can just read English words without using IPA. It also has a special designed exercise and online mouth video clips to help you build a strong mouth muscle and learn how to say each sound to help you pronounce English words clearly. What is the best accent reduction program? Anyone know where i can found a site for accent reduction?
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